The germination and lag of the concept of sea power in the late Qing Dynasty

The germination and lag of the concept of sea power in the late Qing Dynasty

In the late Opium War, Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan successively put forward long-term coastal defense plans.

In the seventh year of Tongzhi, Ding Richang, the governor of Jiangsu Province, drafted the Regulations on Marine Navy, and made a preliminary plan for establishing the coastal defense of modern navy in China.

In the 13th year of Tongzhi, the Qing court made the first big review of China's modern coastal defense. Coastal defense in the east and defense in the west. Are the two biased? This concept was adopted by the Qing government. Since then, Li Hongzhang and Shen Baozhen were responsible for the defense of Beiyang and Nanyang respectively, and began to plan to build modern sailors.

In the 11th year of Guangxu, the Qing court conducted a second major review of coastal defense and reached a conclusion. At present, the essence of sailors is the top priority? Conclusion, the resolution is established? Prime minister sailor business yamen? .

In the 15th year of Guangxu, an American statement said that China sailors ranked 9th in the world, which also became an excuse for the Qing government not to make progress.

Guangxu twenty years, in Li Hongzhang? Protect the ship, protect the enemy from war, protect the ship? Under this strategic thinking, the Sino-Japanese War ended in beiyang fleet's fiasco.

Facing the ocean is a problem that modern international powers need to seriously consider, but the awakening of modern China's marine knowledge has gone through a long process.

China is one of the countries with the longest international coastline, and the ocean is also a necessary factor for the growth and development of Chinese civilization. The Chinese nation has made great achievements in shipbuilding and navigation. West? It can be described as an unprecedented feat in the history of international navigation. However, since ancient times, China has been based on agriculture, which has basically been adopted by all dynasties? Emphasis on agriculture and suppression of business? Policy, commodity economy has been artificially prevented; Plus the promotion of Ming and Qing dynasties? Sea ban? As a result, the tendency of closing the country to the outside world and attaching importance to the land and neglecting the sea has occupied a dominant position, and thus it has not been able to constitute an understanding of sea power. It was not until the Opium War in the middle of19th century that generate began to have the concept of modern coastal defense in the face of the force of western powers.

The birth of coastal defense knowledge

At the end of the Opium War (1840 1842), Lin Zexu and Wei Yuan successively put forward long-term coastal defense plans. Lin Zexu stressed? Is it necessary for the ship, gun and water army to break off diplomatic relations? ,? There are ships and guns, and the water army is the main one. Going back and forth in the sea, chasing the north, if he can go, can I go? ; Wei Yuan made it clear? Learn from foreigners to control foreigners? We should learn from the leading naval guns in the west and build a new type of sailor. Set in Tianjin, in order to build China Millennium Navy? .

? Self-improvement new deal? After inflation, the new knowledge of modern coastal defense has been further developed. Li Hongzhang appealed: Why does China stand on its own feet when foreign countries are rampant and there is no urgent need for prosperity? ? After five years of tongzhi (1866), Zuo was more lenient to the Qing court, which shows the importance of strengthening coastal defense. He said:? Since the use of force at sea, European and American steamboats and warships have reached Tianjin directly, but the barrier is useless and full of stars, which is not enough. If we want to prevent the harm of the sea, we must rectify the navy. To rectify the navy, it is necessary to set up a bureau to supervise the construction of ships. ? Zuo believes that China can't be complacent and indifferent when western powers compete for maritime hegemony and seize the right to control the sea. For example, he vividly said: we all benefit from the sea, and we all carry something, which has nothing to do with me. For example, if you cross the river, people will operate the boat and I will make a raft; For example, horses are like horses, and people ride donkeys, but? ? He now knows that building a modern sailor is not only the need to strengthen coastal defense and resist foreign aggression, but also? Protect yourself from the ocean and benefit from it? Demand, this is undoubtedly a new breakthrough for modern China people to gradually establish marine knowledge. Although left was right at that time? The benefits of the ocean? The inner understanding is still relatively shallow, but it should be said that the sea power that has begun now knows.

In the seventh year of Tongzhi (1868), Ding Richang, the governor of Jiangsu Province, drafted the Regulations on Marine Navy (it was six years before it was submitted to the imperial court), proposing the establishment of three new naval divisions: Beiyang, Dongyang and Nanyang. There are six private boats and ten gunboats in each ocean? And each has its own prefect governance, which echoes each other and becomes one. Sanyo has three production plants each. Navy and production both inside and outside? . The article "Chen", for the first time, planned the plan to establish the coastal defense of modern sailors in China.

/kloc-in the decade of 0/9, the theories about coastal defense construction in Europe and America were introduced to China. In the 13th year of Tongzhi (1874), A New Theory of Preventing the Sea published in London in 1968 by Hiliha, Germany, was translated into Chinese by Jiangnan Production Bureau. This is a theoretical work that summarizes the success or failure of the American Civil War militarily. The main idea of this book is to replace the traditional coastal defense with active maritime protection. The translation of this book immediately had an important influence in China's political circles and became the primary theoretical source of China's coastal defense construction. At that time, the Japanese invaded Taiwan Province Province, and an eastern island country that had just begun to learn from the West dared to come to you, which shocked the Qing government. The Prime Minister's yamen thinks it is necessary to actively raise funds for coastal defense, and puts forward six contingency measures, such as training, simplifying equipment, shipbuilding, raising salary, employing people and lasting. The Qing court ordered the governors and generals of Binhai and Jiang Yan to hold discussions, which was the first major coastal defense review of China in modern times. In the comments, five governors directly quoted the basic idea of "new theory of preventing the sea", especially Li Hongzhang, minister of Beiyang trade and governor of Zhili, who always focused on offshore protection. Therefore, he greatly appreciates Hiliha's offshore protection theory. He absorbed a lot of Hiliha's opinions in the Coastal Defence Folding Plan, and thought that Hiliha was about? Assemble elites to protect several important places, and then stick to it. Theory? Extremely meticulous? . Li Hongzhang advocated the defensive strategy of fortification, that is, directly accepting the influence of the new theory of preventing the sea.

Elite sailors strengthen coastal defense

First time? Coastal defense discussion? China, left? Coastal defense in the east and defense in the west. Are the two biased? This concept was adopted by the Qing government, and then the important criterion of equality of land, sea and air was established in the national defense strategy, which also made coastal defense occupy its due position in the national defense policy. From then on, the Qing court decided that Li Hongzhang and Shen Baozhen were responsible for the defense of Beiyang and Nanyang respectively, and began to plan to build modern sailors. Tongzhi 13th year to Guangxu 10th year (1874? 1884), the planning of four sailors in Beiyang, Nanyang, Fujian and Guangdong has begun to take shape.

? Coastal defense discussion? 10 years later, although the sailors in the late Qing dynasty began to develop, they still lagged far behind the western powers, which was reflected in the Sino-French War (1883? 1884). At that time, the French fleet was rampant in the southeast waters, and the Fujian Navy was blocked in Mawei Port, and the whole army was wiped out; The sailors of Nanyang and Beiyang are helpless, and even the Taiwan Province Strait is difficult to cross.

After the Sino-French War, the Qing court learned from a painful experience and rushed to catch up. In the 11th year of Guangxu (1885), an imperial edict was issued in June, saying that this matter was settled, with minor punishments and major precepts, and the main task was to rectify the navy? And ordered the coastal governors to express what they saw. Is this the second time? Coastal defense discussion? . Did you get the second evaluation of coastal defense construction? At present, the essence of sailors is the top priority? Conclusion. How to establish the resolution? Prime minister sailor business yamen? Strengthening the overall construction of coastal defense with the unified command of sailors. In short, the resolution focuses on the use of the coastal defense fund, which is not generous. It's hard to succeed if you don't drive too far. Why not practice one first and advocate it? . It is against this background that in September of the 14th year of Guangxu (1888), the Regulations on Beiyang Sailors was promulgated, and Beiyang Sailors officially became an army. * * * has 25 ships with a total displacement of about 40,000 tons, plus three sailors from Nanyang, Fujian and Guangdong. By the end of the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, China sailors owned 78 ships with a total tonnage of over 80,000 tons.

If you don't make progress, you will have to pay for it.

The enhancement of China sailors' strength naturally attracts international attention. In the 15th year of Guangxu (1889), Benjamin, American boatswain? Franklin? In an annual statement, Tracy said: China ranks ninth in the world, behind Britain, France, Russia, Germany, the Netherlands, Spain, Italy and Turkey, and before the United States and Japan. Unexpectedly, this achievement of sailors' construction not only did not become the driving force to continue to strengthen coastal defense construction, but became an excuse for the Qing government not to make progress. Fourteen years after Guangxu, Beiyang sailors did not get new warships. In the seventeenth year (189 1), the Ministry of Housing decided to suspend the purchase of Beiyang weapons within two years, and the coastal defense construction was at a standstill, and the dominant position of Beiyang sailors in the Far East was gradually offset by the agile rise of Japanese sailors. After more than 20 years of painstaking efforts, before the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, Japanese sailors had 32 medium-sized warships with a total displacement of 5. More than 90,000 tons, but also in terms of operational mobility and maritime offensive ability has been greatly improved, and its strength has surpassed that of China and beiyang fleet. The short-sightedness and blindness of the Qing government in coastal defense construction eventually took its toll.

19 what was the national defense strategy of the late Qing dynasty in the mid-1970s? Special defense against the mainland? Where to? Haikou protection? Change. Although this idea of Haikou defense points has certain practical value, it is suppressed and reserved from the perspective of sea power control. Until the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, what was Li Hongzhang's sailor strategy? Protect the ship, protect the enemy from war, protect the ship? This naturally limited the planning and development direction of sailors' construction in the late Qing Dynasty.

In the west, since the18th century, with the transition of sailors from the Middle Ages to modern times, the military strategy of attaching importance to sea control has now come out. By the end of 19, American ocean theorist Mahan proposed? Sea power determines the rise and fall of a country's national fortune? Thinking, in turn, directly contributed to the rise of German, Japanese and American sailors. In the 16th year of Guangxu (1890), Mahan published his book "The Influence of Sea Power on the Pre-history, 1660 1783", which clearly stated that in order to ensure the interests of commercial shipping, freedom of navigation must be obtained, so it is necessary to master sea power.

Mahan's exposition on the issue of sea power has attracted the close attention of Japan, which is actively expanding outward. Japan listed the book as a textbook for military academies and naval academies, and each naval officer had one. On the contrary, in China, Mahan's sea power theory has been ignored until 17 (1928) after the demise of the Qing Dynasty, when The Sea Power Theory (written by Lin Zizhen) came out, more than 30 years have passed since the Sino-Japanese War.

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With regard to the concept of sea power, China people in the late Qing Dynasty failed to wake up, and they were completely ignorant of the competition for marine territory, marine resources, maritime traffic lines and maritime transactions, and had no desire at all. The indifferent concept of the sea and the neglect of maritime rights and interests led to the misguided formulation of the national defense strategy of the Qing court, which had a long-term and depressing impact on China's work of safeguarding maritime rights and interests. This is a lesson from the past.