A Research Paper on Beiyang Navy
There was always a debate between coast defense and frontier defense in the late King Dynasty, so navy is a good point of penetration to study the actual situation of the late King Dynasty. In order to complete this project, we are going to search and analyze the specific statistics about this fleet in different aspects compared to Japanese Combined F-let. Meanwhile, the purpose of this project is to study the equipment and power of Obeying Fleet, and to do a comparison of the navy power between China and Japan in 1888 and 1894 respectively.
Since we know that the First Sino-Japanese War that China lost laced a position of significance in the history of Sing’s Navy, especially of Obeying Fleet, this project will discuss the complicated reasons for the failure of the First Sino-Japanese War , and also discuss the picture of the evolution of Chinese navy in the early years. At the last, our group will draw an independent conclusion of this project after a series of bibliographies are referenced. 2. The Background of the Self-Strengthening Movement in the Late King Dynasty and the Beijing Fleet 2. Self-Strengthening Movement In the year Of 1861 to 1895, the King court started a series of institutional forms and industrial reforms. This movement was called as the Self- Strengthening There are many reasons for this movement, but mostly it was because the King dynasty suffered a lot of defeats and humiliation when the King court fought with foreign powers like the Great Britain and the France. Moreover, after these failures, the weakness of the King court were first time showed in front of the world and its own people.
These factors forced the King court to its existing military and institutional structure, and considered the necessity of the reform. The guiding ideology of the the Self-Strengthening Movement was called Learning technology to the barbarians” so we can see from that the top aim of the Self-strengthening Movement was to become westernizes and industrialized but mainly focus on the technological aspect. This movement can be roughly divided into three phases. The First Phase was from 1861 to 1872. The Second Phase was from 1872 to 1885.
The Third phase was from 1885 to 1895. 1 In order to make the reform to promote better, and to deal with foreign affairs. The main ruler of The King court, Empress Xii, authorized her ministers formed a new institution called Zoning in central government to coordinate all kinds of affairs. The leaders of Zoning Yemen were Prince Gong , Went Axing ( ) and Sheen Guffawing ( ) . Meanwhile, at the local level, the movement was supported by a lot of powerful people, so called “Westernizes like Zen Guffaw, Lie Hanging , Zoo Constant and so on. The first phase of the Self-Strengthening Movement was mainly focused on military modernization, building a maritime custom service and establishing the superintendents of trade. Among these reform measures, the most important and significant one is the military modernization. This is the most critical problem which the King court mostly unconcerned. Thus, these military industries were largely sponsored by the government. And during this period, a number of constructions of military factories, shipbuilding dockyards had been built like the Pooch Arsenal, the Ghanaian Machinery Manufacturing Bureau and so on.
Therefore, these factories and shipbuilding dockyards became a foundation of the establishment of the Obeying Fleet. 3 2. 2 The Establishment of the Obeying Fleet In 1 870, King court published a series of decrees, which authorized all affairs like trading and coast defense around Chili() to the Viceroy of ), Lie Hanging. If we give a glance to the map of China in King dynasty, we can find out that the Province of Chili is a very important strategic place which is the portal of the capital, Beijing. Under this kind of circumstance, the defense of the Chili province became a crucial problem to King court.
Thus, Lie Hanging began to set up the Obeying Fleet in 1875. Unlike the other Chinese navies, battleships in the Obeying Navy were mainly ordered from shipyards in the Germany and the Britain. And there were also some light vessels were order from domestic shipyards like the Pooch Arsenal. In edition, in Lie Hangings letters to the King court, the imaginary enemy of the Obeying Fleet was the Japanese Combined Fleet. 4 Within the establishing procedure of the Obeying Fleet, a series of related facilities were also deployed.
