Beiyang Fleet
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The Beiyang Fleet (Traditional Chinese: 北洋艦隊; Simplified Chinese: 北洋舰队; pinyin: Běiyáng Jiànduì) was one of the four modernised Chinese navies in the late Qing Dynasty. The navies were heavily sponsored by Li Hongzhang, who was the Viceroy of Zhili. The Beiyang Fleet soon became the dominant navy in East Asia before the onset of First Sino-Japanese War in 1894 - 1895. The Beiyang Fleet was said to be the "Best in Asia" and "The 8th best in the world" during the late 1880s.
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[edit] Creation
The creation of the Beiyang Fleet dated back to 1871, when four ships from the southern provinces were shifted north to patrol the northern waters. In the beginning, this navy was considered to be the weakest when compared to the other three Chinese navies. This soon changed when Li Hongzhang allotted the majority of naval funds to the Beiyang Fleet. Unlike the other Chinese fleets, the Beiyang Fleet consisted mostly of battleships imported from Germany and Britain. When the flagships Dingyuan and Zhenyuan were purchased from Germany, the superiority in strength of the Beiyang Fleet became evident, as Germany was the emerging world power, rivalling Britain (which dominated the ocean) in new naval construction.
The Qing Chinese navy at its peak consisted of 78 ships, with a total tonnage of 83,900 tons. However, construction of new ships almost completely stopped in 1888 due to high expenditures in other fields by the Qing Dynasty and the supposed naval expenditures were used to repair and build palaces by the Empress Dowager Cixi after she lost of interest in naval construction. Due to missing expenditures, the training of the fleet and personals were basicly stopped and led to the defeat of the Battle of the Yalu River.
[edit] First Sino-Japanese War
Claiming her responsibilities on Choson affairs, the Imperial Japanese Navy launched the First Sino-Japanese War in 1894 against China. In the Battle of Yalu River (1894), the Beiyang Fleet suffered heavy losses because of the surprise attack of the Japanese and the inferiority of its equipment (due to lack of government funding), and was eventually annihilated in Weihaiwei.
Minor attempts to rebuild the fleet were made after the war, but the Beiyang Navy was never to reattain its former significance.
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
- Travel Guide on the Ting Yuen
- (Chinese) Beiyang.org
- (Chinese) Beiyang Navy
