The Importance of the Battle of the Yalu

The Battle of the Yalu on September 17, 1894, set the conditions for Japanese victory in the First Sino-Japanese War (1894–1895). The region — if not the world — has been dealing with the ramifications ever since. Strategically, Japanese success guaranteed sea control for an expeditionary assault on Korea and China. Geopolitically, the battle upset assumptions about hierarchies of prestige in East Asia and, more tangibly, led to the Japanese annexation of Taiwan. Technologically speaking, the battle offered a real-world test for novel and largely untried weapons: armored battleships, protected cruisers, and “quick-firing guns.” A globally contested war of words followed, as officials across Europe and the United States attempted to derive useful “lessons” from this natural experiment in modern war.