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112-588: In the 1860s, an attempt was made to establish a modern navy via the British-built Osborn or "Vampire" Fleet to combat the Taiping rebels ' US-built gunboats. The so-called "Vampire Fleet", fitted out by the Chinese government for the suppression of piracy on the coast of China, was scrapped owing to the non-fulfilment of the condition that British commander Sherard Osborn should receive orders from

224-741: A river-based fleet in Hubei . In 1909, the remnants of the Beiyang, Nanyang, Guangdong, and Fujian Fleets, together with the Hubei fleet, were merged, and re-organised as the Sea Fleet and the River Fleet. There were also plans to re-develop the fleet, with a budget of 7-8 million taels per year, including a small amount of loan from the United States of America. In 1911, Sa Zhenbing became

336-465: A brief pause for breath at Đồng Sông, the expeditionary corps pressed on towards Lạng Sơn, fighting further actions at Quao Pass (9 February), and Vy village (11 February). On 12 February, in a costly but successful battle, the Turcos and marine infantry of Colonel Laurent Giovanninelli's 1st Brigade stormed the main Chinese defences at Bắc Việt, several kilometres to the south of Lạng Sơn. On 13 February,

448-426: A column of just under 7,200 troops, accompanied by 4,500 coolies. In ten days the column advanced to the outskirts of Lang Son. The troops were burdened with the weight of their provisions and equipment, and had to march through extremely difficult country. They also had to fight fierce actions to overrun stoutly defended Chinese positions, at Tây Hòa (4 February), Hạ Hòa (5 February) and Đồng Sông (6 February). After

560-483: A decisive defeat on either Chinese army separately. Meanwhile, the French government was pressuring Brière de l'Isle to send the 2nd Brigade across the border into Guangxi province, in the hope that a threat to Chinese territory would force China to sue for peace. Brière de l'Isle and de Négrier examined the possibility of a campaign to capture the major Chinese military depot at Longzhou (Lung-chou, 龍州), 60 kilometres beyond

672-632: A force of 520 French soldiers under his personal command. During his absence at Nam Định, the Black Flags and Vietnamese made an attack on Hanoi, but Chef de Bataillon Berthe de Villers repulsed them in the Battle of Gia Cuc (Gia Quất) on 28 March. Rivière jubilantly reacted: 'This will force them to take forward their Tonkin Question!' Rivière had perfect timing. He had expected to be cashiered for his capture of Nam Định ; instead he found himself

784-582: A number of articles on naval and Chinese topics to Blackwood's Magazine , and wrote The Career, Last Voyage and Fate of Sir John Franklin (1860). In 1861, he commanded HMS  Donegal in the Gulf of Mexico during the Second French intervention in Mexico , and in 1862, undertook the command of a squadron fitted out by the Chinese government for the suppression of piracy on the coast of China. Owing to

896-432: A preliminary demonstration of what would follow if the Chinese were recalcitrant, Rear Admiral Sébastien Lespès destroyed three Chinese shore batteries in the port of Keelung in northern Formosa ( Taiwan ) by naval bombardment on 5 August. The French put a landing force ashore to occupy Keelung and the nearby coal mines at Pei-tao (Pa-tou), as a 'pledge' ( gage ) to be bargained against a Chinese withdrawal from Tonkin, but

1008-580: A quick victory in Tonkin would force the Chinese to accept a fait accompli . Command of the Tonkin Campaign was entrusted to Courbet, who attacked Sơn Tây in December 1883. The Sơn Tây Campaign was the fiercest campaign the French had yet fought in Tonkin. Although the Chinese and Vietnamese contingents at Son Tay played little part in the defence, Liu Yongfu's Black Flags fought ferociously to hold

1120-663: A shipment in made 1620 by John Saris ) which he published initially in the Once a Week periodical which Osborn acquired in Edo in 1859. As captain of HMS  Furious , he took a prominent part in the operations of the Second Opium War , and performed a piece of difficult and intricate navigation in taking his ship up the Yangtse to Hankow in 1858. He returned to England in broken health in 1859, and at this time contributed

1232-419: A small column from Hưng Hóa under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel de Maussion, found the route to Tuyên Quang blocked by a strong Chinese defensive position at Hòa Mộc . On 2 March 1885 Giovanninelli attacked the left flank of the Chinese defensive line. The Battle of Hòa Mộc was the most fiercely fought action of the war. Two French assaults were decisively repulsed, and although the French eventually stormed

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1344-606: A substantial detachment of the Guangxi Army that had concentrated around the nearby village of Núi Bop to try to disrupt the French preparations. De Nègrier's victory at Núi Bop , won at odds of just under one to ten, was regarded by his fellow-officers as the most spectacular professional triumph of his career. It took the French a month to complete their preparations for the Lạng Sơn Campaign . Finally, on 3 February 1885, Brière de l'Isle began his advance from Chũ with

1456-591: A summer voyage for the purpose of testing the conditions of ice-navigation with the aid of steam. The result of this summer voyage was the British Arctic Expedition , under Sir George Nares . Osborn became a member of the expedition committee. Osborn died in London on 6 May 1875, a few days after the expedition had sailed. His body was interred at Highgate Cemetery on 10 May 1875 with the funeral attended by many of those who had served with him in

1568-454: A terrible toll of the Black Flags, and in the opinion of some observers broke them once and for all as a serious fighting force. Liu Yongfu felt that he had been deliberately left to bear the brunt of the fighting by his Chinese and Vietnamese allies, and determined never again to expose his troops so openly. In March 1884, the French renewed their offensive under the command of General Charles-Théodore Millot , who took over responsibility for

1680-433: A third of their strength (50 dead and 224 wounded) sustaining a heroic defence against overwhelming odds. By mid-February it was clear that Tuyên Quang would fall unless it was relieved immediately. Leaving de Négrier at Lang Son with the 2nd Brigade, Brière de l'Isle personally led Giovanninelli's 1st Brigade back to Hanoi, and then upriver to the relief of Tuyên Quang. The brigade, reinforced at Phủ Doãn, on 24 February by

1792-651: A threatened attack by the Black Flags on Hanoi was averted, and the military situation was stabilised. On 20 August 1883 Admiral Amédée Courbet , who had recently been appointed to the command of the newly formed Tonkin Coasts Naval Division, stormed the forts which guarded the approaches to the Vietnamese capital Huế in the Battle of Thuận An , and forced the Vietnamese government to sign the Treaty of Huế , placing Tonkin under French protection . At

1904-477: A threatened attempt by part of the Chinese Nanyang Fleet (Southern Seas fleet) to break the French blockade of Formosa. On 11 February Courbet's task force met the cruisers Kaiji , Nanchen and Nanrui , three of the most modern ships in the Chinese fleet, near Shipu Bay, accompanied by the frigate Yuyuan and the composite sloop Chengqing . The Chinese scattered at the French approach, and while

2016-455: A victory for China and William Lang, who was a British advisor to the Chinese military, praised Chinese training, ships, guns, and fortifications, stating that "in the end, there is no doubt that Japan must be utterly crushed". However, after Cixi went into retirement, all naval and military development came to a drastic halt. The military defeats suffered by China has been attributed to the factionalism of regional military governors. For instance,

2128-408: A western offensive, he ordered de Négrier to hold his positions at Lang Son. On 23 and 24 March the 2nd Brigade, only 1,500 men strong, fought a fierce action with over 25,000 troops of the Guangxi Army entrenched near Zhennanguan on the Chinese border. The Battle of Bang Bo (named by the French from the Vietnamese pronunciation of Hengpo, a village in the centre of the Chinese position where

2240-613: The Battle of Yu-Oc , a column making for Tuyên Quang under the command of Duchesne was ambushed in the Yu-Oc gorge by the Black Flags but was able to fight its way through to the beleaguered post. The French also sealed off the eastern Delta from raids by Chinese guerillas based in Guangdong by occupying Tiên Yên, Đông Triều and other strategic points, and by blockading the Cantonese port of Beihai (Pak-Hoi). They also conducted sweeps along

2352-468: The Battle of Đồng Đăng on 23 February 1885 and cleared it from Tonkinese territory. For good measure, the French crossed briefly into Guangxi province and blew up the 'Gate of China', an elaborate Chinese customs building on the Tonkin-Guangxi border. They were not strong enough to exploit this victory, however, and the 2nd Brigade returned to Lạng Sơn at the end of February. By early March, in

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2464-510: The Kép Campaign , (2 to 15 October 1884), three French columns under the overall command of General de Négrier fell upon the separated detachments of the Guangxi Army and successively defeated them in engagements at Lam Cốt (6 October), Kép (8 October) and Chũ (10 October). The second of these battles was marked by bitter close-quarter fighting between French and Chinese troops, and de Négrier's soldiers suffered heavy casualties storming

2576-567: The Meiji Restoration . The Nanyang Fleet was also established in 1875, and grew with mostly domestically built warships and a small number of acquisitions from Britain and Germany. The admiralty or naval board ( haijun yamen ) was established in 1885. The Nanyang Fleet fought in the Sino-French War , performing somewhat poorly against the French in all engagements. The separate Fujian and Guangdong fleets became part of

2688-614: The Taiwan Strait and the South China Sea . The Beiyang Fleet, with a remit to defend the section of coastline closest to the capital Beijing , was prioritised. A series of warships were ordered from Britain and Germany in the late 1870s, and naval bases were built at Port Arthur and Weihaiwei . The first British-built ships were delivered in 1881, and the Beiyang Fleet was formally established in 1888. In 1894,

2800-464: The protectorates of Tonkin and Annam . Both sides ratified the Treaty of Tientsin and no diplomatic gain was reaped by either nation. On another note, the war strengthened the dominance of Empress Dowager Cixi over the Chinese government but France securing its strategic objective did not prevent the collapse of French Prime Minister Jules Ferry 's government for whom the Tonkin Affair

2912-730: The "Lay-Osborn" flotilla, also known as the Osborn or "Vampire" Fleet, with seven steam cruisers and a supply ship left England, arriving in China in September 1863. Upon reaching China, Osborn refused to take any orders from local Chinese officers, stating that his agreement with Lay stipulated that any Chinese orders must come directly from the Tongzhi Emperor, as transmitted via Lay. The Imperial court refused to ratify this, and Osborn resigned in pique on 9   November 1863, disbanded

3024-677: The Beiyang Fleet refused to participate in the Sino-French War in 1884, with the Nanyang Fleet retaliating by refusing to deploy during the Sino-Japanese War of 1895. Li Hongzhang wanted to personally maintain control of this fleet, many top vessels among its number, by keeping it in northern China and not letting it slip into the control of southern factions. China did not have a single admiralty in charge of all

3136-676: The Beiyang Fleet was, on paper, the strongest navy in Asia at the time. However, it was largely lost during the First Sino-Japanese War in the Battle of the Yalu River . Although the Zhenyuan and Dingyuan modern battleships were impervious to Japanese fire, they were unable to sink a single ship and all eight cruisers were lost. The battle displayed once again that the modernisation efforts of China were far inferior to

3248-676: The Black Flags in the Battle of Paper Bridge , and the French suffered a disastrous defeat. Rivière's small force (around 450 men) attacked a strong Black Flag defensive position near the village of Cầu Giấy, a few miles to the west of Hanoi, known to the French as Paper Bridge (Pont de Papier). After initial successes the French were eventually enveloped on both wings; only with difficulty could they regroup and fall back to Hanoi. Rivière, Berthe de Villers and several other senior officers were killed in this action. Rivière's death produced an angry reaction in France. Reinforcements were rushed to Tonkin,

3360-540: The British authorities to protect the dock workers against harassment resulted in serious rioting on 3 October, during which at least one rioter was shot dead and several Sikh constables were injured. The British suspected, with good reason, that the disturbances had been fomented by the Chinese authorities in Guangdong province. Meanwhile, the French decided to put pressure on China by landing an expeditionary corps in northern Formosa to seize Keelung and Tamsui , redeeming

3472-536: The British colony of Hong Kong . In September 1884 dock workers in Hong Kong refused to repair the French ironclad La Galissonnière , which had suffered shell damage in the August naval engagements. The strike collapsed at the end of September, but the dock workers were prevented from resuming their business by other groups of Chinese workers, including longshoremen, sedan chair carriers and rickshawmen. An attempt by

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3584-540: The British for help, who agreed to provide assistance in order to bring stability to their commerce in China. The Chinese Emperor, exiled to Jehol , agreed to a proposal presented by British ambassador Sir Frederic Bruce in July 1861 to purchase British gunboats . Robert Hart , interpreter of the Imperial Maritime Customs Service is given credit for creating the proposal. Prince Gong ,

3696-622: The Bắc Lệ Ambush. In a two-hour engagement watched with professional interest by neutral British and American vessels (the battle was one of the first occasions on which the spar torpedo was successfully deployed), Courbet's Far East Squadron annihilated China's outclassed Fujian fleet and severely damaged the Foochow Navy Yard (which, ironically, had been built under the direction of the French administrator Prosper Giquel ). Nine Chinese ships were sunk in less than an hour, including

3808-507: The Chinese defences at Tamsui with 600 sailors from his squadron's landing companies on 8 October, but was decisively repulsed by forces under the command of the Fujianese general Sun Kaihua (孫開華). As a result, French control over Formosa was limited to the town of Keelung, far short of what had been hoped for. Towards the end of 1884 the French were able to enforce a limited blockade of the northern Formosan ports of Keelung and Tamsui and

3920-592: The Chinese encirclement, but suffered a number of casualties and had to abandon their dead on the battlefield. De Négrier immediately brought up reinforcements and pursued the Chinese, but the raiders made good their retreat to Đồng Sông. Shortly after the October engagements against the Guangxi Army, Brière de l'Isle took steps to resupply the western outposts of Hưng Hóa , Thái Nguyên and Tuyên Quang , which were coming under increasing threat from Liu Yongfu's Black Flags and Tang Jingsong's Yunnan Army. On 19 November, in

4032-499: The Chinese fell back to Bắc Lệ and Đồng Sông, and de Négrier established important forward positions at Kép and Chũ, which threatened the Guangxi Army's base at Lạng Sơn. Chũ was only a few miles southwest of the Guangxi Army's advanced posts at Đồng Sông, and on 16 December a strong Chinese raiding detachment ambushed two companies of the Foreign Legion just to the east of Chũ, at Hà Hồ . The legionnaires fought their way out of

4144-686: The Chinese government and temporarily discredited the extremist 'Purist' party led by Zhang Zhidong , which was agitating for a full-scale war against France. Further French successes in the spring of 1884, including the Capture of Hưng Hóa and Thái Nguyên , convinced the Empress Dowager Cixi that China should come to terms, and an accord was reached between France and China in May. The negotiations took place in Tianjin (Tientsin). Li Hongzhang,

4256-555: The Chinese navies before 1885. The northern and southern Chinese navies did not cooperate, and therefore, enemy navies needed only to fight a segment of China's navy. Pre-19th-century ships were wood and of various sizes. Following the First Opium War , the Qing improved their naval fleet with modern ships from Europe : Battleships: Coastal Defense Ships: Cruisers: Corvettes: Flags shown are for

4368-416: The Chinese positions, they suffered very high casualties (76 dead and 408 wounded). Nevertheless, their costly victory cleared the way to Tuyên Quang. The Yunnan Army and the Black Flags raised the siege and drew off to the west, and the relieving force entered the beleaguered post on 3 March. Brière de l'Isle praised the courage of the hard-pressed garrison in a widely quoted order of the day. 'Today, you enjoy

4480-483: The Chinese troops in Tonkin to hold their positions. Li Hongzhang hinted to the French that there might be difficulties in enforcing the accord, but nothing specific was said. The French assumed that the Chinese troops would leave Tonkin as agreed, and made preparations for occupying the border towns of Lạng Sơn , Cao Bằng and Thất Khê. In early June 1884 a French column under the command of Lieutenant-Colonel Alphonse Dugenne advanced to occupy Lạng Sơn. On 23 June, near

4592-527: The Chinese, but Herbinger set an unnecessarily punishing pace and abandoned considerable quantities of food, ammunition and equipment. When the 2nd Brigade eventually rallied at Chũ, its soldiers were exhausted and demoralised. Meanwhile, the Chinese general Pan Dingxin (潘鼎新), informed by sympathisers in Lạng Sơn that the French were in full retreat, promptly turned his battered army around and reoccupied Lạng Sơn on 30 March. The Chinese were in no condition to pursue

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4704-496: The Chinese. The French torpedo launches escaped almost without loss. Courbet followed up this success on 1 March by locating Kaiji , Nanchen and Nanrui , which had taken refuge with four other Chinese warships in Zhenhai Bay, near the port of Ningbo . Courbet considered forcing the Chinese defences, but after testing its defenses finally decided to guard the entrance to the bay to keep the enemy vessels bottled up there for

4816-613: The Far East to French warships. The French government retaliated by ordering Courbet to implement a 'rice blockade' of the Yangzi River, hoping to bring the Qing court to terms by provoking serious rice shortages in northern China. The rice blockade severely disrupted the transport of rice by sea from Shanghai and forced the Chinese to carry it overland, but the war ended before the blockade seriously affected China's economy. Meanwhile,

4928-400: The French army in Tonkin was also putting severe pressure on the Chinese forces and their Black Flag allies. General Millot, whose health was failing, resigned as general-in-chief of the Tonkin expeditionary corps in early September 1884 and was replaced by General Brière de l'Isle, the senior of his two brigade commanders. Brière de l'Isle's first task was to beat off a major Chinese invasion of

5040-560: The French captured a number of minor Chinese positions to the southeast of Keelung at the end of January 1885, but were forced to halt offensive operations in February due to incessant rain. The blockade succeeded in part because the northern Beiyang Fleet, commanded by Li Hongzhang, denied help to the southern Nanyang Fleet . No Beiyang ships were sent to battle the French. This led the Navy to fail. The most advanced ships were reserved for

5152-549: The French column entered Lạng Sơn which the Chinese abandoned after fighting a token rearguard action at the nearby village of Kỳ Lừa. The capture of Lang Son allowed substantial French forces to be diverted further west to relieve the small and isolated French garrison in Tuyên Quang, which had been placed under siege in November 1884 by Liu Yongfu's Black Flag Army and Tang Jingsong's Yunnan Army. The Siege of Tuyên Quang

5264-467: The French foreign minister Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour met a number of times in the summer and autumn of 1883 with Marquis Zeng in Paris, but these parallel diplomatic discussions also proved abortive. The Chinese stood firm, and refused to withdraw substantial garrisons of Chinese regular troops from Sơn Tây, Bắc Ninh and Lạng Sơn, despite the likelihood that they would be shortly engaged in battle against

5376-576: The French should consolidate their hold on the Delta. His opponents urged an all-out offensive to throw the Chinese out of northern Tonkin. The debate culminated in Campenon's resignation and his replacement as army minister by the hawkish General Jules Louis Lewal , who immediately ordered Brière de l'Isle to capture Lạng Sơn. The campaign would be launched from the French forward base at Chũ, and on 3 and 4 January 1885 General de Négrier attacked and defeated

5488-515: The French successfully held their positions and inflicted crippling casualties on the Guangxi Army. French casualties at Kỳ Lừa were 7 men killed and 38 wounded. The Chinese left 1,200 corpses on the battlefield, and a further 6,000 Chinese soldiers may have been wounded. Towards the end of the battle de Négrier was seriously wounded in the chest while scouting the Chinese positions. He was forced to hand over command to his senior regimental commander, Lieutenant-Colonel Paul-Gustave Herbinger. Herbinger

5600-447: The French to Chũ, and contented themselves with a limited advance to Đồng Sông. The retreat was seen as a Chinese victory. There was also bad news for the French from the western front. On 23 March, in the Battle of Phu Lam Tao , a force of Chinese regulars and Black Flags surprised and routed a French zouave battalion that had been ordered to scout positions around Hưng Hóa in preparation for Giovanninelli's projected offensive against

5712-540: The French. As war with China seemed increasingly likely, the French persuaded the German government to delay the release of Dingyuan and Zhenyuan , two modern battleships then being constructed in German shipyards for China's Beiyang Fleet . Meanwhile, the French consolidated their hold on the Delta by establishing posts at Quảng Yên , Hưng Yên and Ninh Bình . The growing tension between France and China gave rise to anti-foreign demonstrations inside China during

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5824-653: The Imperial Chinese Navy during the period 1909 to 1911: Notes:The Commodore was not a substantive rank but rather, a captain commanding a squadron. Sherard Osborn Sherard Osborn CB FRS (25 April 1822 – 6 May 1875) was a Royal Navy admiral and Arctic explorer . Born in Madras , he was the son of an Indian army officer. Osborn entered the navy as a first-class volunteer in 1837, serving until 1844 on HMS  Hyacinth , HMS  Clio , and HMS  Volage . In 1838, he

5936-647: The Imperial navy after 1875. The Fujian Fleet was almost annihilated during the Sino-French War, and was only able to acquire two new ships thereafter. By 1891, due to budget cuts, the Fujian Fleet was barely a viable fleet. The Guangdong Fleet was established in the late 1860s and was based at Whampoa , in Canton (now Guangzhou ). After the First Sino-Japanese War, Zhang Zhidong established

6048-749: The Minister of Navy of the Great Qing. One of the new ships delivered after the war with Japan, the cruiser Hai Chi , in 1911 became the first vessel flying the Yellow Dragon Flag to arrive in American waters, visiting New York City as part of a tour. After the 1911 Revolution and the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, the Imperial Chinese Navy was replaced by the Republic of China Navy . The People's Liberation Army Navy

6160-606: The Red River Delta. In late September 1884, large detachments of the Guangxi Army advanced from Langson and probed into the Lục Nam valley, announcing their presence by ambushing the French gunboats Hache and Massue on 2 October. Brière de l'Isle responded immediately, transporting nearly 3,000 French soldiers to the Lục Nam valley aboard a flotilla of gunboats and attacking the Chinese detachments before they could concentrate. In

6272-804: The Royal Navy. A cable ship was named for him and the SS Sherard Osborn was launched in 1878, for the Eastern Extension, Australasia and China Telegraph Company. Sino-French War Vietnam Taiwan The Sino-French War , also known as the Tonkin War , was a limited conflict fought from August 1884 to April 1885 between the French Third Republic and Qing China for influence in Vietnam . There

6384-429: The Vietnamese lacked the means of resisting the French effectively, the Chinese civil Mandarin Tang Jingsong (唐景崧) persuaded Liu Yongfu to take the field against Rivière with the Black Flag Army. This resulted in a year of Liu Yongfu's forces fighting an unconventional war. On 10 May 1883 Liu Yongfu challenged the French to battle in a taunting message widely placarded on the walls of Hanoi. On 19 May Rivière confronted

6496-483: The Yunnan border. In 1873, a small French force commanded by Lieutenant de Vaisseau Francis Garnier , exceeding his instructions, attacked northern Vietnam. Following a series of French victories against the Vietnamese, the Vietnamese government called on Liu Yongfu's Black Flags, who defeated Garnier's force beneath the walls of Hanoi . Garnier was killed in this battle, and the French government later disavowed his expedition. In 1881, French Commandant Henri Rivière

6608-411: The admiration of the men who have relieved you at such heavy cost. Tomorrow, all France will applaud you!' Before his departure for Tuyên Quang, Brière de l'Isle ordered de Négrier to press on from Lạng Sơn towards the Chinese border and expel the battered remnants of the Guangxi Army from Tonkinese soil. After resupplying the 2nd Brigade with food and ammunition, de Négrier defeated the Guangxi Army at

6720-421: The advancing French, precipitating a two-day battle in which Dugenne's column was encircled and seriously mauled. Dugenne eventually fought his way out of the Chinese encirclement and extricated his small force. When news of the Bắc Lệ ambush reached Paris, there was fury at what was perceived as blatant Chinese treachery. Ferry's government demanded an apology, an indemnity, and the immediate implementation of

6832-408: The arrival of a large Chinese army under the command of the imperial commissioner Liu Mingchuan forced it to re-embark on 6 August. Negotiations between France and China broke down in mid-August, and on 22 August Courbet was ordered to attack the Chinese fleet at Fuzhou. In the Battle of Fuzhou (also known as the Battle of the Pagoda Anchorage) on 23 August 1884, the French took their revenge for

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6944-522: The attack was thoroughly prepared by artillery, and delivered only after the defenders had been worn down. At 5 p.m. a Foreign Legion battalion and a battalion of marine fusiliers captured the western gate of Sơn Tây and fought their way into the town. Liu Yongfu's garrison withdrew to the citadel, and evacuated Sơn Tây under cover of darkness several hours later. Courbet had achieved his objective, but at considerable cost. French casualties at Sơn Tây were 83 dead and 320 wounded. The fighting at Sơn Tây also took

7056-440: The autumn of 1883. The most serious incidents took place in Guangdong province, where Europeans were most prominent. Attacks were made on the property of European merchants in Guangzhou and on Shamian island . Several European powers, including France, sent gunboats to Guangzhou to protect their nationals. The French accepted that an attack on Liu Yongfu would probably result in an undeclared war with China, but calculated that

7168-465: The border, but on 17 March Brière de l'Isle advised the army ministry in Paris that such an operation was beyond his strength. Substantial French reinforcements reached Tonkin in the middle of March, giving Brière de l'Isle a brief opportunity to break the stalemate. He moved the bulk of the reinforcements to Hưng Hóa to reinforce the 1st Brigade, intending to attack the Yunnan Army and drive it back beyond Yen Bay. While he and Giovanninelli drew up plans for

7280-447: The charismatic young Foreign Legion general François de Négrier , who had recently quelled a serious Arab rebellion in Algeria . The French target was Bắc Ninh , garrisoned by a strong force of regular Chinese troops of the Guangxi Army. The Bắc Ninh Campaign was a walkover for the French. Morale in the Chinese army was low, and Liu Yongfu was careful to keep his experienced Black Flags out of danger. Millot bypassed Chinese defences to

7392-403: The city. On 14 December the French assaulted the outer defences of Sơn Tây at Phù Sa, but were thrown back with heavy casualties. Hoping to exploit Courbet's defeat, Liu Yongfu attacked the French lines the same night, but the Black Flag attack also failed disastrously. After resting his troops on 15 December, Courbet again assaulted the defences of Sơn Tây on the afternoon of 16 December. This time

7504-472: The colony of Cochinchina . French explorers followed the course of the Red River through northern Vietnam to its source in Yunnan , arousing hopes for a profitable trade route with China that could bypass the treaty ports of the Chinese coastal provinces. The main obstacle to this idea, the Black Flag Army – a well-organized private army led by the formidable Liu Yongfu – was levying exorbitant "taxes" on Red River trade between Sơn Tây and Lào Cai on

7616-469: The corvette Yangwu , the flagship of the Fujian fleet. Chinese losses may have amounted to 3,000 dead, while French losses were minimal. Courbet then successfully withdrew down the Min River to the open sea, destroying several Chinese shore batteries from behind as he took the French squadron through the Min'an and Jinpai passes. The French attack at Fuzhou effectively ended diplomatic contacts between France and China. Although neither country declared war,

7728-413: The defeated French regrouped after the battle. As the brigade's morale was precarious and ammunition was running short, de Négrier decided to fall back to Lạng Sơn. The coolies abandoned the French who were already suffering supply issues. The Chinese advanced slowly in pursuit, and on 28 March de Négrier fought a battle at Kỳ Lừa in defence of Lạng Sơn. Rested, recovered and fighting behind breastworks,

7840-467: The demarcation of its disputed border with Vietnam. On 6 June the French followed up their accord with China by concluding a fresh Treaty of Huế with the Vietnamese, which established a French protectorate over both Annam and Tonkin and allowed the French to station troops at strategic points in Vietnamese territory and to install residents in the main towns. The signature of the treaty was accompanied by an important symbolic gesture. The seal presented by

7952-411: The dispute would now be settled on the battlefield. The news of the destruction of the Fujian fleet was greeted by an outbreak of patriotic fervour in China, marred by attacks on foreigners and foreign property. There was considerable sympathy for China in Europe, and the Chinese were able to hire a number of British, German and American army and navy officers as advisers. Patriotic indignation spread to

8064-461: The duration of hostilities. A brief and inconclusive skirmish between the French cruiser Nielly and the Chinese shore batteries on 1 March enabled the Chinese general Ouyang Lijian (歐陽利見), charged with the defence of Ningbo, to claim the so-called ' Battle of Zhenhai ' as a defensive victory. In February 1885, under diplomatic pressure from China, Britain invoked the provisions of the 1870 Foreign Enlistment Act and closed Hong Kong and other ports in

8176-524: The emperor of China several decades earlier to the Vietnamese emperor Gia Long was melted down in the presence of the French and Vietnamese plenipotentiaries, betokening the renunciation by Vietnam of its traditional links with China. Fournier was not a professional diplomat, and the Tientsin Accord contained several loose ends. Crucially, it failed to explicitly state a deadline for the Chinese troop withdrawal from Tonkin. The French asserted that

8288-459: The evidence that the Chinese had been decisively defeated and were streaming back in disarray towards the Chinese frontier, he convinced himself that they were preparing to encircle Lạng Sơn and cut his supply line. Disregarding the appalled protests of some of his officers, he ordered the 2nd Brigade to abandon Lạng Sơn on the evening of 28 March and retreat to Chũ. The retreat from Lạng Sơn was conducted without loss and with little interference from

8400-535: The failure of 6 August and finally winning the 'pledge' they sought. On 1 October Lieutenant-Colonel Bertaux-Levillain landed at Keelung with a force of 1,800 marine infantry, forcing the Chinese to withdraw to strong defensive positions which had been prepared in the surrounding hills. The French force was too small to advance beyond Keelung, and the Pei-tao coal mines remained in Chinese hands. Meanwhile, after an ineffective naval bombardment on 2 October, Lespès attacked

8512-517: The fighting was fiercest), is normally known as the Battle of Zhennan Pass in China. The French took a number of outworks on 23 March, but failed to take the main Chinese positions on 24 March and were fiercely counterattacked in their turn. Although the French made a fighting withdrawal and prevented the Chinese from piercing their line, casualties in the 2nd Brigade were relatively heavy (70 dead and 188 wounded) and there were ominous scenes of disorder as

8624-535: The flotilla, and sent the ships back to England without them having fired a shot. Lay was fired that same year by the Chinese government and replaced with Sir Robert Hart . In 1864, he was appointed to the command of HMS  Royal Sovereign , the first British turret-armed battleship, in order to test the turret system of shipbuilding. In 1865, he became agent to the Great Indian Peninsula Railway Company , and two years later

8736-473: The fortified village of Kép. The exasperated victors shot or bayoneted scores of wounded Chinese soldiers after the battle, and reports of French atrocities at Kép shocked public opinion in Europe. In fact, prisoners were rarely taken by either side during the Sino-French War, and the French were equally shocked by the Chinese habit of paying a bounty for severed French heads. In the wake of these French victories

8848-547: The head of the Zongli Yamen , appointed Horatio Nelson Lay as Inspector General of the new flotilla. Lay left China for England on 14   March 1862 with written instructions from Prince Gong. Queen Victoria agreed to the proposal on 2   September 1862 and gave permission to equip the vessels and hire crews. Lay appointed Captain Sherard Osborn as commander of the flotilla. On 13   February 1863

8960-450: The help of Liu Yongfu, whose well-trained and seasoned Black Flag soldiers would prove a thorn in the side of the French. The Vietnamese also sought for Chinese support. Vietnam had long been a tributary state of China, and China agreed to arm and support the Black Flags, and to covertly oppose French operations in Tonkin. The Qing court also sent a strong signal to the French that China would not allow Tonkin to fall under French control. In

9072-481: The hero of the hour. There had recently been a change of government in France, and the new administration of Jules Ferry strongly favoured colonial expansion. It therefore decided to back Rivière. Ferry and Foreign Minister Paul-Armand Challemel-Lacour denounced Bourée's agreement with Li Hongzhang and recalled the hapless French minister. They also made it clear to the Chinese that they were determined to place Tonkin under French protection. In April 1883, realising that

9184-778: The imperial government only. In 1865, the Jiangnan Shipyard was established. In 1874, a Japanese incursion into Taiwan exposed the vulnerability of China at sea. A proposal was made to establish three modern coastal fleets: the Northern Sea or Beiyang Fleet, to defend the Yellow Sea , the Southern Sea or Nanyang Fleet, to defend the East China Sea , and the Canton Sea or Yueyang Fleet, to defend

9296-544: The land campaign from Courbet after the fall of Sơn Tây. Reinforcements from France and the African colonies had now raised the strength of the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps to over 10,000 men, and Millot organised this force into two brigades. The 1st Brigade was commanded by General Louis Brière de l'Isle , who had earlier made his reputation as governor of Senegal , and the 2nd Brigade was commanded by

9408-588: The leader of the Chinese moderates, represented China; and Captain François-Ernest Fournier , commander of the French cruiser Volta , represented France. The Tientsin Accord , concluded on 11 May 1884, provided for Chinese recognition of the French protectorate over Annam and Tonkin and withdrawal of Chinese troops from Tonkin, in return for a comprehensive treaty that would settle details of trade and commerce between France and China and provide for

9520-581: The lower course of the Red River to dislodge Annamese guerilla bands from bases close to Hanoi. These operations enabled Brière de l'Isle to concentrate the bulk of the Tonkin expeditionary corps around Chũ and Kép at the end of 1884, to advance on Lạng Sơn as soon as the word was given. French strategy in Tonkin was the subject of a bitter debate in the Chamber of Deputies in late December 1884. The army minister General Jean-Baptiste-Marie Campenon argued that

9632-552: The navy after the merger of the fleets in 1909 were: When it was first developed by Empress Dowager Cixi , the Beiyang Fleet was said to be the strongest navy in East Asia. Before her adopted son, Emperor Guangxu , took over the throne in 1889, Cixi wrote out explicit orders that the navy should continue to develop and expand gradually. On the eve of the First Sino-Japanese War, the German General Staff predicted

9744-751: The new expedition of 1852–1854 under Sir Edward Belcher he again took part as commander of Pioneer . In 1856, he published the journals of Captain Robert McClure , giving a narrative of the discovery of the Northwest Passage . Early in 1855, he was called to active service in the Crimean War as the captain of HMS Vesuvius (1839). After seeing considerable action in the Black Sea he was promoted to post-rank in August ;1855, and

9856-566: The non-fulfilment of the condition that he should receive orders from the imperial government only, he quit the appointment. During the Taiping Rebellion the Chinese government wished to regain control over Nanjing , which had been captured by the rebel forces in 1853 and declared their capital, but lacked the necessary ships to bring troops down the Yangtze River and to provide fire support. The Chinese government turned to

9968-428: The northern Chinese fleet by Li Hongzhang, he did not even "consider" using this well equipped fleet to attack the French, since he wanted to make sure it was always under his command. China's north and south had rivalries and the government was split into different parties. China did not have a single admiralty in command of the navy and the northern and southern fleets refused to cooperate, guaranteeing French control of

10080-400: The parties to these negotiations consulted the Vietnamese. Rivière, disgusted at the deal cut by Bourée, decided early in 1883 to force the issue. He had recently been sent a battalion of marine infantry from France, giving him just enough men to venture beyond Hanoi. On 27 March 1883, to secure his line of communications from Hanoi to the coast, Rivière captured the citadel of Nam Định with

10192-589: The prefectural capital Taiwan (now Tainan ) and the southern port Takow ( Kaohsiung ). In early January 1885 the Formosa expeditionary corps, now under the command of Colonel Jacques Duchesne , was substantially reinforced with two battalions of infantry, bringing its total strength to around 4,000 men. Meanwhile, drafts from the Hunan Army and Anhui Army had brought the strength of Liu Mingchuan's defending army to around 25,000 men. Although severely outnumbered,

10304-583: The same time the new commander of the Tonkin expeditionary corps, General Bouët, attacked the Black Flag positions on the Day River. Although the French mauled the Black Flag Army in the Battle of Phủ Hoài (15 August) and the Battle of Palan (1 September), they were unable to capture all of Liu Yongfu's positions, and in the eyes of the world the battles were tantamount to French defeats. Bouët

10416-584: The seas during the war. Tianjin 's northern naval academy also drained southern China of potential sailors, since they enlisted in northern China instead. Although the Formosa expeditionary corps remained confined in Keelung, the French scored important successes elsewhere in the spring of 1885. Courbet's squadron had been reinforced substantially since the start of the war, and he now had considerably more ships at his disposal than in October 1884. In early February 1885 part of his squadron left Keelung to head off

10528-436: The small town of Bắc Lệ , the French encountered a strong detachment of the Guangxi Army ensconced in a defensive position behind Thương River. In view of the diplomatic significance of this discovery, Dugenne should have reported the presence of the Chinese force to Hanoi and waited for further instructions. Instead, he gave the Chinese an ultimatum, and on their refusal to withdraw resumed his advance. The Chinese opened fire on

10640-399: The southwest of Bắc Ninh, and assaulted the city on 12 March from the southeast, with complete success. The Guangxi Army put up a feeble resistance, and the French took the city with ease, capturing large quantities of ammunition and a number of brand new Krupp cannon. The defeat at Bắc Ninh, coming close on the heels of the fall of Sơn Tây, strengthened the hand of the moderate element in

10752-497: The summer of 1882, troops of the Chinese Yunnan Army and Guangxi Army crossed the border into Tonkin, occupying Lạng Sơn, Bắc Ninh, Hưng Hóa and other towns. The French minister to China, Frédéric Bourée, was so alarmed by the prospect of war with China that in November and December he negotiated a deal with the Chinese statesman Li Hongzhang to divide Tonkin into French and Chinese spheres of influence. Neither of

10864-466: The support of the other European powers for the projected offensive. However, negotiations in Shanghai in July 1883 between the French minister Arthur Tricou and Li Hongzhang were terminated by the Qing government on receipt of a naively optimistic assessment by Marquis Zeng Jize , the Chinese minister to Paris, that the French government had no stomach for a full-scale war with China. Jules Ferry and

10976-553: The terms of the Tianjin Accord. The Chinese government agreed to negotiate, but refused to apologise or pay any indemnity. The mood in France was against compromise, and although negotiations continued throughout July, Courbet was ordered to take his squadron to Fuzhou (Foochow). He was instructed to prepare to attack the Chinese Fujian Fleet in the harbour and to destroy the Foochow Navy Yard . Meanwhile, as

11088-472: The three cruisers successfully made their escape, the French succeeded in trapping Yuyuan and Chengqing in Shipu Bay. On the night of 14 February, in the Battle of Shipu , the French attacked the Chinese vessels with two torpedo launches. During a brief engagement inside the bay, Yuyuan was seriously damaged by torpedoes and Chengqing was hit by Yuyuan' s fire. Both ships were subsequently scuttled by

11200-518: The troop withdrawal was to take place immediately, while the Chinese argued that the withdrawal was contingent upon the conclusion of the comprehensive treaty. In fact, the Chinese stance was an ex post facto rationalisation, designed to justify their unwillingness or inability to put the terms of the accord into effect. The accord was extremely unpopular in China, and provoked an immediate backlash. The war party called for Li Hongzhang's impeachment, and his political opponents intrigued to have orders sent to

11312-502: The wake of the French victories at Hoà Mộc and Đồng Đăng, the military situation in Tonkin had reached a temporary stalemate. Giovanninelli's 1st Brigade faced Tang Qingsong's Yunnan Army around Hưng Hóa and Tuyên Quang, while de Négrier's 2nd Brigade at Lạng Sơn faced Pan Dingxin's Guangxi Army. Neither Chinese army had any realistic prospect of launching an offensive for several weeks, while the two French brigades that had jointly captured Lạng Sơn in February were not strong enough to inflict

11424-502: Was a noted military theoretician who had won a respectable battlefield reputation during the Franco-Prussian War , but was quite out of his depth as a field commander in Tonkin. Several French officers had already commented scathingly on his performance during the Lạng Sơn campaign and at Bang Bo, where he had badly bungled an attack on the Chinese positions. Upon assuming command of the brigade, Herbinger panicked. Despite

11536-831: Was appointed to HMS  Medusa , in which he commanded the Sea of Azov squadron until the end of the war. For these services he was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath , awarded the Legion of Honour , and the Turkish Order of the Medjidie . In 1859 he published the work A cruise in Japanese waters, The fight on the Peiho and some of the first Japanese illustrations (since

11648-459: Was appointed to the command of the steam-tender HMS Pioneer (1850) in the Arctic expedition under Horatio Thomas Austin , in the course of which he performed a remarkable sledge-journey to the western extremity of Prince of Wales Island . He published an account of this voyage, entitled Stray Leaves from an Arctic Journal (1852), and was promoted to the rank of commander shortly afterwards. In

11760-555: Was entrusted with the command of a gunboat at the attack on Kedah in the Malay Peninsula , and was present at the Battle of Canton in 1841, and at the Battle of Woosung in 1842. From 1844 until 1848, he was gunnery mate and lieutenant on HMS  Collingwood , the flagship of Sir George Seymour in the Pacific . He took a prominent part in 1849 in advocating a new search expedition for Sir John Franklin , and in 1850

11872-624: Was established in early 1949 by the Chinese Communist Party , and after the establishment of the People's Republic of China later that year, became the main navy of China. In 1885, after the Sino-French War , the Qing court set up a Navy Office to oversee the navy. In 1910, as part of the reform of the Qing government structure, the Navy Office was replaced by a Navy Ministry, headed by a Navy Secretary. The highest ranks of

11984-534: Was ignominious. French interest in northern Vietnam dated from the late 18th century, when the political Catholic priest Pigneau de Behaine recruited French volunteers to fight for Nguyễn Ánh and help begin the Nguyễn dynasty , in an attempt to gain privileges for France and for the Roman Catholic Church . France began its colonial campaign in 1858, annexing several southern provinces in 1862 to form

12096-692: Was made managing director of the Telegraph Construction and Maintenance Company, a post that he held until 1874. From 1869 he was a Director of the International Mid-Channel Telegraph Co. Ltd. In 1871, he was appointed as captain of HMS  Hercules in the Channel Fleet. On 12 June 1873, he was appointed rear admiral. His interest in Arctic exploration had never ceased, and in 1873, he induced Commander Albert Hastings Markham to undertake

12208-650: Was no declaration of war . The Chinese armies performed better than in their other nineteenth-century wars . Although French forces emerged victorious from most engagements, the Chinese scored noteworthy successes on land, notably forcing the French to hastily withdraw from occupied Lạng Sơn in the late stages of the war, thus regaining control of the town and its surroundings. However, a lack of foreign support, French naval supremacy, and northern threats posed by Russia and Japan forced China to enter negotiations. China ceded to France its sphere of influence over Northern and Central Vietnam , which respectively became

12320-535: Was sent with a small military force to Hanoi to investigate Vietnamese complaints about the activities of French merchants. In defiance of the instructions of his superiors, Rivière stormed the citadel of Hanoi on 25 April 1882. Although Rivière subsequently returned the citadel to Vietnamese control, his recourse to force provoked alarm both in Vietnam and in China. The Vietnamese government, unable to confront Rivière with its own ramshackle army, once again enlisted

12432-513: Was the most evocative confrontation of the Sino-French War . The Chinese and Black Flags sapped methodically up to the French positions, and in January and February 1885 breached the outer defences with mines and delivered seven separate assaults on the breach. The Tuyên Quang garrison, 400 legionnaires and 200 Tonkinese auxiliaries under the command of chef de bataillon Marc-Edmond Dominé, beat off all attempts to storm their positions, but lost over

12544-440: Was widely held to have failed in his mission, and resigned in September 1883. In the event, severe flooding eventually forced Liu Yongfu to abandon the line of the Day River and fall back to the fortified city of Sơn Tây, several miles to the west. The French prepared for a major offensive at the end of the year to annihilate the Black Flags, and tried to persuade China to withdraw its support for Liu Yongfu, while attempting to win

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