About 3,000 Chinese troops still remained in Korea, and could be supplied only by sea; on 25 July, the Japanese Navy won the Battle of Pungdo and sank the steamer Kowshing, which was carrying 1,200 Qing reinforcements.

[citation needed] Furthermore, Japan's economic infrastructure saw significant improvements, including the development of railways, telegraph lines, and modern factories, which led to rapid industrial growth and enhanced the country's military capabilities.

As a result, by the time of the First Sino-Japanese War, China remained a largely agrarian society with a relatively weak military, unable to match the rapidly modernising Japanese forces.

[8] Therefore, he attempted to prevent any possible threat to his rule by selecting as a new queen for his son an orphaned girl from among the Yŏhŭng Min clan, which lacked powerful political connections.

[9] In October 1873, when the Confucian scholar Choe Ik-hyeon submitted a memorial to King Gojong urging him to rule in his own right, Queen Min seized the opportunity to force her father-in-law's retirement as regent.

[12] The Korean government, immediately after opening the country to the outside world, pursued a policy of enlightenment aimed at achieving national prosperity and military strength through the doctrine of tongdo sŏgi (Eastern ways and Western machines).

Additionally, as part of their plan to modernise the country, the Koreans had invited the Japanese military attaché Lieutenant Horimoto Reizō to serve as an adviser in creating a modern army.

Subsequently, the Meiji government adopted a passive policy, encouraging the Korean court to follow the Japanese model but offering little concrete assistance except for the dispatch of the small military mission headed by Lieutenant Horimoto Reizo to train the Pyŏlgigun.

[19] The survivors carrying the wounded then boarded a small boat and headed for the open sea where three days later they were rescued by a British survey ship, HMS Flying Fish,[25] which took them to Nagasaki.

[31] In October, the two countries signed a treaty stipulating that Korea was dependent on China and granted Chinese merchants the right to conduct overland and maritime business freely within its borders.

Kim Ok-gyun and his comrades approached King Gojong falsely stating that Chinese troops had created a disturbance and escorted him to the small Gyoengu Palace, where they placed him in the custody of Japanese legation guards.

The radical 14-point reform proposal stated that the following conditions be met: an end to Korea's tributary relationship with China; the abolition of ruling-class privilege and the establishment of equal rights for all; the reorganisation of the government as virtually a constitutional monarchy; the revision of land tax laws; cancellation of the grain loan system; the unification of all internal fiscal administrations under the jurisdiction of the Ho-jo; the suppression of privileged merchants and the development of free commerce and trade, the creation of a modern police system including police patrols and royal guards; and severe punishment of corrupt officials.

Consequently, within three days, even before the reform measures were made public, the coup was suppressed by Chinese troops who attacked and defeated the Japanese forces and restored power to the pro-Chinese Sadaedang faction.

Prime Minister Itō Hirobumi, to overcome Japan's disadvantageous position in Korea followed by the abortive coup, visited China to discuss the matter with his Chinese counterpart, Li Hongzhang.

Although the rebellion was not as serious as it had initially seemed and so the Chinese forces were not necessary, the decision was made to send 2,500 men under the command of General Ye Zhichao to the harbour of Asan, about 70 km (43 mi) from Seoul.

[54] Japan did not yet have the resources to acquire battleships and so planned to employ the Jeune École doctrine, which favoured small, fast warships, especially cruisers and torpedo boats, with the offensive capability to destroy larger craft.

The Japanese naval leadership, on the eve of hostilities, was generally cautious and even apprehensive,[55] as the navy had not yet received the warships ordered in February 1893, particularly the battleships Fuji and Yashima and the protected cruiser Akashi.

[57] The country was divided into six military districts (headquarters Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya, Sendai, Hiroshima and Kumamoto), with each being a recruitment area for a square infantry division consisting of two brigades of two regiments.

Hired labour (coolies) often performed transportation duties and rudimentary engineering tasks, supply was organised by the province where the soldiers were fighting and left to civilian officials assigned as quartermasters and a few doctors were attached to the army at the rear.

Those units that did have firearms were equipped with a heterogeneity of weapons, from a variety of modern rifles to old-fashioned muskets; this lack of standardisation led to a major problem with the proper supply of ammunition.

[82] The total strength of the entire Imperial Chinese navy was:[84] While the Qing was fighting the First Sino-Japanese War, it was also simultaneously engaging rebels in the Dungan Revolt in northwestern China, where thousands lost their lives.

Lastly, if the Combined Fleet was defeated and consequently lost command of the sea, the bulk of the army would remain in Japan and prepare to repel a Chinese invasion, while the Fifth Division in Korea would be ordered to hang on and fight a rearguard action.

The use of the term 'Yi' (夷) by Chinese Imperial officials had in fact been considered so provocative by the Treaty Powers that the collective bundle of accords known as the Treaty of Tientsin negotiated in 1858 to end the Second Opium War explicitly proscribed the Chinese Imperial Court from using the term 'Yi' to refer to officials, subjects, or citizens of the belligerent powers, the signatories seemingly feeling it necessary to extract this specific demand from the Xianfeng Emperor's representatives.

After the initial fighting further to the south in July 1894, the Chinese ground forces focused on holding Pyongyang, beyond which there were no other defensible positions until the Yalu River, the border between Korea and China.

[113] After the Japanese established control over the border region, they planned on moving south along the coast to take Port Arthur and other towns in the area (including Jinzhou and Dalian), so they could land more troops.

[121] In late February the Qing government appointed Li Hongzhang as ambassador extraordinary to open peace talks with Japan, and the Japanese accepted this on 4 March, because he was seen as the leading Chinese statesman.

[123] On 6 March, a Japanese expeditionary force consisting of a reinforced infantry regiment with 2,800 troops and an artillery battery were embarked on five transports, and sailed from Ujina to Sasebo, arriving there three days later.

The barrage went unanswered until nightfall, as the Chinese had destroyed all the guns at Magong before they retreated, and Japanese warships feared entering the strait between the Penghu and Xiyu Islands due to the potential threat posed by mines.

The result was to drive from their homes thousands of industrious and peaceful peasants, who, long after the main resistance had been completely crushed, continued to wage a vendetta war, and to generate feelings of hatred which the succeeding years of conciliation and good government have not wholly eradicated."

[134] Japan had achieved what it had set out to accomplish and ended Chinese influence over Korea, but it had been forced to relinquish the Liaodong Peninsula (Port Arthur) in exchange for an increased financial indemnity.