Changes

==Aftermath==

==Aftermath==

In October 1874, a treaty was signed in which China admitted less than total sovereign control over certain areas of southern Taiwan (i.e. areas dominated by aboriginal control), recognized the Ryukyuan peoples as Japanese subjects, and agreed to pay an indemnity to Japan.

In October 1874, a treaty was signed in which China admitted less than total sovereign control over certain areas of southern Taiwan (i.e. areas dominated by aboriginal control), recognized the Ryukyuan peoples as Japanese subjects, and agreed to pay an indemnity to Japan.<ref>There remains some debate as to whether the Chinese officials intended to recognize the Ryukyuans as Japanese subjects in this agreement, or whether their willingness to pay indemnities for the damages suffered by Japanese subjects refers only to a group of four sailors from Oda prefecture killed by aborigines in [[1873]]. While some Chinese historians today continue to advocate for this view, the Japanese officials at the time, most likely along with the British mediator [[Thomas Wade]], saw the indemnities paid for the suffering of Japanese subjects as including the Ryukyuans killed in 1871 as well. The latter seems to be the dominant view in scholarship today. Walker, 217n23.</ref>

The issue of Chinese and Japanese claims to Taiwan and Ryûkyû was not entirely settled, however, and would almost lead to outright war in [[1879]]. That year, [[Ulysses S. Grant]] brokered a peace, though China ultimately did not sign the formal document, and Japan fully [[Ryukyu shobun|abolished]] the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]], annexing its territory as [[Okinawa Prefecture]], over Chinese objections. War between China and Japan eventually broke out less than 20 years later, in [[1894]]. Japan defeated China and took Taiwan as a formal colony, though whether or not this can be considered to have "settled" the matter remains a matter of interpretation or debate.

The issue of Chinese and Japanese claims to Taiwan and Ryûkyû was not entirely settled, however, and would almost lead to outright war in [[1879]]. That year, [[Ulysses S. Grant]] brokered a peace, though China ultimately did not sign the formal document, and Japan fully [[Ryukyu shobun|abolished]] the [[Ryukyu Kingdom|Ryûkyû Kingdom]], annexing its territory as [[Okinawa Prefecture]], over Chinese objections. War between China and Japan eventually broke out less than 20 years later, in [[1894]]. Japan defeated China and took Taiwan as a formal colony, though whether or not this can be considered to have "settled" the matter remains a matter of interpretation or debate.