Beiyang Fleet
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Beiyang Fleet (Traditional Chinese: 北洋艦隊, Simplified Chinese: 北洋舰队, Pinyin: Bêiyáng Jiàndùi) was one of the four modernised Chinese navy in the late Qing Dynasty. The navy was heavily sponsored by Li Hongzhang, who was the Viceroy of Zhili. Beiyang Fleet soon become the most dominant navy in East Asia before the onset of First Sino-Japanese War in 1894 - 1895.
Creation
Creation of the Beiyang Navy goes back to 1871, when four ships from southern province were shifted north to patrol the northern waters. At beginning, this navy was considered to be the weakest comparing to the other three Chinese navies. This soonly changed when Li Hongzhong alloted majority of the naval funds into Beiyang Fleet. Unlike other fleets in China, Beiyang Fleet consisted mostly battleships imported from Germany and Britain. When flagships Dinyuan and Zenyuan were purchased back from Germany, superiority in strength of the Beiyan Fleet was evident.
The Chinese navies at its peak consisted 78 ships, with total tonnage at 83,900 tons. However, construction of new ships almost completely stopped in 1888 due to vast amount of expenditures in other fields by the Qing Dynasty.
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, the Beiyang Fleet suffered heavy losses against the Japanese and was eventually annihilated in Wei-Hai-Wei.
Minor attempts to rebuild the fleet were made after the war, but the Beiyang Navy will never reattain its significance.
See Also
External Links
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