Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1874)
The Japanese punitive expedition to Taiwan in 1874, referred to in Japan as the Taiwan Expedition (Japanese: 台湾出兵, Hepburn: Taiwan Shuppei) and in Taiwan and Mainland China as the Mudan incident (Chinese: 牡丹社事件), was a punitive expedition launched by the Japanese ostensibly in retaliation for the murder of 54 Ryukyuan sailors by Paiwan aborigines near the southwestern tip of Taiwan in December 1871. In May 1874, the Imperial Japanese Army and Imperial Japanese Navy attacked the indigenous Taiwanese peoples in southern Taiwan and retreated in December after the Qing dynasty agreed to pay an indemnity of 500,000 taels, with Japan conceding that China had sovereignty over Taiwan. Some ambiguous wording in the agreed terms were later argued by Japan to be confirmation of Chinese renunciation of suzerainty over the Ryukyu Islands, paving the way for de facto Japanese incorporation of the Ryukyu in 1879.
| Taiwan Expedition of 1874 | |||||||||
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| Part of the Formosa Conflict | |||||||||
Commander-in-chief Saigo (sitting at the center) pictured with leaders of the Seqalu tribe. The Assault at Sekimon (石門進撃), May 22, 1874. | |||||||||
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| Belligerents | |||||||||
| Japan | Botan | ||||||||
| Commanders and leaders | |||||||||
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Saigō Tsugumichi Sakuma Samata Douglas Cassel Noriyoshi Akamatsu | Unknown (DOW) | ||||||||
| Strength | |||||||||
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Land: 3,600 Sea: 6 warships | Unknown | ||||||||
| Casualties and losses | |||||||||
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12 killed ~30 wounded 561 died from disease |
89 killed Many wounded | ||||||||
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