this volume to enter at length upon a consideration of the results of the war. It will be sufficient here to state that it dispelled the idea that China might be counted upon in the near future as a military power. It brought to the attention of the world a new factor not only in the Far East, but in the policy of the Western nations. Japan had demonstrated not only that its people were patriotic and warlike, but that its generals possessed a knowledge of strategy, that it had a well-equipped system of sea transportation, and an advanced knowledge of the methods of supplying and moving large armies, and that it contained within itself the financial resources to maintain a great and expensive war.[1] There will be occasion in a later chapter to chronicle the influence of this conflict in bringing about the release of Japan from the shackles with which she had been bound by the Western nations.
The war swept away the last vestige of the vassalage of Korea to China. But in its stead was substituted a new danger to its autonomy. Japan had completely dominated the government of that country during the hostilities, and at their termination was prepared to reap the benefits of its success in increased commercial privileges, and in its control of the administration of the king. But in the execution of its plans it had to
- ↑ The overwhelming success of the Japanese army in the Chinese war, while unexpected to the world at large, was not a surprise to well-informed military observers. General U. S. Grant, after his visit to China and Japan in 1879, expressed the opinion that "a well-appointed body of ten thousand Japanese troops could make their way through the length and breadth of China, against all odds that could be brought to confront them." Atlantic Monthly, Dec. 1887, p. 725.
