Sino-Japanese War
The Sino-Japanese War was the first full-out international war fought by the Meiji state. Like the Russo-Japanese War of ten years later, it was fought chiefly in Korea, and over which countries would be the chief power with political & economic influence in Korea.
The Japanese victory over China in this war is often cited as indicating, or representing, Japan's success in modernizing its military, and conversely, the failure of Qing Dynasty China to modernize sufficiently. Japan's acquisition of Taiwan as a colony as part of the treaty agreement ending the war is similarly often cited as marking the beginning of Japan's imperialist/colonialist Empire.
Background
War
Aftermath
References
- Conrad Schirokauer, David Lurie, and Suzanne Gay, A Brief History of Japanese Civilization, Wadsworth Cengage (2013), 193-195.