The Battle of Tamsui, Danshui, or Hobe (2–8 October 1884) was a significant
French
French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to France
** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents
** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...
defeat by the
Qing dynasty
The Qing dynasty ( ), officially the Great Qing,, was a Manchu-led imperial dynasty of China and the last orthodox dynasty in Chinese history. It emerged from the Later Jin dynasty founded by the Jianzhou Jurchens, a Tungusic-speak ...
at
Tamsui
Tamsui District (Hokkien POJ: ''Tām-chúi''; Hokkien Tâi-lô: ''Tām-tsuí''; Mandarin Pinyin: ''Dànshuǐ'') is a seaside district in New Taipei, Taiwan. It is named after the Tamsui River; the name means "fresh water". The town is popula ...
on
Taiwan
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
during the
Keelung Campaign of the
Sino-French War
The Sino-French War (, french: Guerre franco-chinoise, vi, Chiến tranh Pháp-Thanh), also known as the Tonkin War and Tonquin War, was a limited conflict fought from August 1884 to April 1885. There was no declaration of war. The Chinese arm ...
.
Background
The battle of Tamsui was part of the
Keelung Campaign (August 1884–April 1885). Following the outbreak of the
Sino-French War
The Sino-French War (, french: Guerre franco-chinoise, vi, Chiến tranh Pháp-Thanh), also known as the Tonkin War and Tonquin War, was a limited conflict fought from August 1884 to April 1885. There was no declaration of war. The Chinese arm ...
on 23 August 1884, the French decided to put pressure on China by landing an expeditionary corps in northern Formosa to seize
Keelung
Keelung () or Jilong () (; Hokkien POJ: '), officially known as Keelung City, is a major port city situated in the northeastern part of Taiwan. The city is a part of the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan area, along with its neighbors, New Taipe ...
and
Tamsui
Tamsui District (Hokkien POJ: ''Tām-chúi''; Hokkien Tâi-lô: ''Tām-tsuí''; Mandarin Pinyin: ''Dànshuǐ'') is a seaside district in New Taipei, Taiwan. It is named after the Tamsui River; the name means "fresh water". The town is popula ...
. On 1 October Lieutenant-Colonel Bertaux-Levillain landed at Keelung with a force of 1,800 marine infantry, forcing the Chinese to withdraw to strong defensive positions which had been prepared in the surrounding hills. Meanwhile, a second French force under the command of Rear Admiral
Sébastien Lespès
Sébastien-Nicolas-Joachim Lespès (13 March 1828 – 24 August 1897) was a French admiral who played an important role in naval operations during the Sino-French War (August 1884–April 1885), as second-in-command of Admiral Amédée Courbet's ...
prepared to attack Tamsui.
Liu Mingchuan
Liu Ming-chuan (1836–1896), courtesy name Xingsan, lived in the late Qing dynasty. He was born in Hefei, Anhui. Liu became involved in the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion at an early age, and worked closely with Zeng Guofan and Li Hongz ...
took measures to reinforce Tamsui, in the river nine torpedo mines were planted and the entrance was blocked with ballast boats filled with stone which were sunk on September 3,
matchlock
A matchlock or firelock is a historical type of firearm wherein the gunpowder is ignited by a burning piece of rope that is touched to the gunpowder by a mechanism that the musketeer activates by pulling a lever or trigger with his finger. Before ...
armed "
Hakka hill people" were used to reinforce the mainland Chinese battalion, and around the British Consulate and Customs House at the Red Fort hilltop, Shanghai Arsenal manufactured
Krupp gun
The Krupp gun is a family of artillery pieces that was used by several world armies from the nineteenth century onwards.
History
In 1811, Friedrich Krupp founded his cast-steel factory ''Gusstahlfabrik'', but it was his son, Alfred Krupp, who atta ...
s were used to form an additional battery.
Bombardment on 2 October
On 1 October 1884, while the Formosa expeditionary corps went ashore at Keelung, Lespès lay off Tamsui with the ironclads ''
La Galissonnière'' and ''
Triomphante'', the cruiser ''d'Estaing'' and the gunboat ''Vipère''. His orders from Courbet were to bombard the Chinese forts at Tamsui, destroy the barrage across the Tamsui River and seize Tamsui itself.
The town of
Tamsui
Tamsui District (Hokkien POJ: ''Tām-chúi''; Hokkien Tâi-lô: ''Tām-tsuí''; Mandarin Pinyin: ''Dànshuǐ'') is a seaside district in New Taipei, Taiwan. It is named after the Tamsui River; the name means "fresh water". The town is popula ...
or Hobe had a population of around 6,000 at this period, including a small European colony. Tamsui was defended by two major forts, both to the west of the town. The 'White Fort',. The fort was also known in Chinese as Fort Zhonglun. so called by the French to distinguish it from
Fort San Domingo
Fort Santo Domingo is a historical fortress in Tamsui District, New Taipei City, Taiwan. It was originally a wooden fort built in 1628 by the Spanish Empire, who named it "Fort Santo Domingo". However, the fort was then destroyed by the Spani ...
, the seventeenth-century Spanish 'Red Fort', but known in Chinese as the "Redheads' Fort". that had become the premises of the British consulate in Tamsui, was a shore battery that commanded the entrance to the Tamsui River. To the northeast, defending the town against a landing, was a fort still under construction, the 'New Fort' (''Fort Neuf''). Although the New Fort was only partly armed, it had an excellent all-round field of fire. Other important fortification works had been built on all the neighbouring ridges.
![Red Fort, Tamsui](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/02/Red_Fort%2C_Tamsui.jpg)
The arrival of the French flotilla was the signal for feverish activity ashore, as the Chinese worked throughout the afternoon and evening to arm the New Fort and deployed their troops to repel any attempt to land by the French. The European residents of Tamsui, many of whom were British, hastily hung out
Union Jack
The Union Jack, or Union Flag, is the ''de facto'' national flag of the United Kingdom. Although no law has been passed making the Union Flag the official national flag of the United Kingdom, it has effectively become such through precedent. ...
s from their houses to signal their neutrality to the French ships.
As the French warships were unable to enter the Tamsui River, Lespès decided to bombard the White Fort and the New Fort on the morning of 2 October. In fact hostilities were begun by the Chinese, who began firing at sunrise on 2 October with three cannon which they had placed in the barbette of the New Fort the previous evening. The French flotilla immediately replied, delivering a heavy bombardment which lasted for several hours, eventually destroying the three Chinese guns and putting both the New Fort and the White Fort out of action.
More than 2,000 shells were fired against the two forts. Many failed to explode on impact, and remained dangerous for days afterwards. Others missed their targets, because the bombardment was delivered from long range, and damaged many buildings in Tamsui itself, including all the European residences.
The Canadian Presbyterian missionary
George Mackay remained in his house in Tamsui during the French bombardment, refusing to take shelter aboard the British gunboat HMS ''Cockchafer'' anchored off Tamsui, because he could not take his
Formosa
Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is an island country located in East Asia. The main island of Taiwan, formerly known in the Western political circles, press and literature as Formosa, makes up 99% of the land area of the territorie ...
n
converts
Religious conversion is the adoption of a set of beliefs identified with one particular religious denomination to the exclusion of others. Thus "religious conversion" would describe the abandoning of adherence to one denomination and affiliatin ...
with him. He left a vivid description of the attack:
Mackay said later, in a conversation recorded by the Anglican missionary
William Campbell, that the French marksmanship had been very inaccurate and had recklessly endangered the lives of innocent civilians.
French preparations on 2–7 October
Realising that his naval bombardment had failed to achieve its objective and as he had only a small landing force at his disposal, Admiral Lespès sent ''d'Estaing'' back to Keelung on the evening of 2 October to request reinforcements of a battalion of marine infantry to enable him to make a landing to the north of the river, seize the forts, then destroy the command post from which the mines could be detonated. The French could then clear the pass by exploding a large powder charge, and the ships could enter the river. Meanwhile, he attempted to neutralise the mines himself. On the evening of 2 October the gunboat ''Vipère'' scouted the pass and located the buoys of the mines. On the following night the launches tried to drag the electric wires. They failed, and one of them was almost destroyed when the Chinese exploded one of the mines at a distance.
''D'Estaing'' reached Keelung on the afternoon of 3 October. By then the French had already secured the hills to the west of the town and the Chinese had retreated, but Courbet was reluctant to release one of his three battalions of marine infantry. It was probably the correct decision, though it would later be criticised. Although the Chinese had momentarily fallen back, they might launch a counterattack at any moment and, if they did, the French would need every man to hold the extensive defence perimeter they had just established at Keelung.
Courbet nevertheless did what he could to give Lespès a respectable landing force. He sent him three more ships (''Tarn'', ''Châteaurenault'' and ''Duguay-Trouin''), which arrived off Tamsui on the evening of 5 October. They carried their own landing companies and also the landing company from ''Bayard'', giving Lespès a total of 600 men available for shore operations. Lespès thereupon began making preparations for a landing to assault the defences of Tamsui and clear the mines from the mouth of the Tamsui River.
He organised the 600 sailors available for a landing into a battalion of five companies under the command of ''capitaine de frégate'' Martin of ''La Galissonnière'', who had commanded the landing force at Keelung on 5 August with distinction. The ironclads ''Bayard'', ''La Galissonnière'' and ''Triomphante'' each supplied one company. The smaller vessels ''d'Estaing'' and ''Châteaurenault'' provided a fourth company, and ''Tarn'' and ''Duguay-Trouin'' a fifth.
Chinese preparations on 2–7 October
The Chinese defence was commanded by General
Sun Kaihua
Sun Kaihua (died 1893) was a military student of Hunan, who joined Bao Chao's army and fought against the Taiping and Nien rebels, during which time he was wounded. He was rapidly promoted until he became a Brigade General at Zhangzhou in Fujian ...
, who had been responsible for building the New Fort in 1876. He was assisted by General
Zhang Gaoyuan and Brigadier-General
Liu Chaoyou,
Liu Mingchuan
Liu Ming-chuan (1836–1896), courtesy name Xingsan, lived in the late Qing dynasty. He was born in Hefei, Anhui. Liu became involved in the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion at an early age, and worked closely with Zeng Guofan and Li Hongz ...
's great-nephew. According to Liu Mingchuan's official report of the battle, the Chinese force included the Cho-Sheng Regiment, whose commanders included
Gong Zhan'ao (right wing),
Li Dingming (centre division) and
Fan Huiyi (rear division). Two other regular battalions from different regiments were also present, under the direct command of Zhang Gaoyuan and Liu Chaoyou. A battalion of Formosan hillmen, recently enrolled by
Li Tong'en, also fought in a skirmishing role, under the command of
Tio Li-xieng. The Chinese force seems to have numbered around 1,000 infantry in total.
General Sun deployed the Cho-Sheng Regiment in the front line. He entrenched one line of infantry in front of Fort San Domingo facing northwest, the direction from which a French assault was expected, and placed a second line of infantry in wooded terrain on the right flank, almost at a right angle to the main Chinese trenches, where it could enfilade the French advance before it reached the main defences. According to
Liu Mingchuan
Liu Ming-chuan (1836–1896), courtesy name Xingsan, lived in the late Qing dynasty. He was born in Hefei, Anhui. Liu became involved in the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion at an early age, and worked closely with Zeng Guofan and Li Hongz ...
's report, Gong's division was posted at a spot known as 'the false creek' (''Chia-chiang''), and Li's division lay in ambush at Yu-ch'e-k'ou. Neither locality can now be identified. Sun commanded the regiment's defence in person.
Behind Fort San Domingo, General Zhang and Brigadier-General Liu lay in reserve with two battalions of regulars, each from a different regiment, ready to counterattack when the moment was ripe. Tio Li-xieng's hillmen were posted close to the shore in the hills to the north of the main Chinese positions, enabling them to skirmish against the left flank of the advancing French. These were intelligent dispositions, well-chosen to repulse a frontal attack.
Battle on 8 October
Rough seas on 6 October and 7 October prevented a landing, but on 8 October the sea was finally calm enough for a landing to take place, and Admiral Lespès landed his 600 ''fusiliers-marins'' opposite the New Fort early in the morning. Captain Martin of ''La Galissonnière'', the officer originally scheduled to command the attack, was ill, and command of the attack was transferred at the last moment to ''capitaine de frégate'' Boulineau of ''Châteaurenault''. The squadron was deployed in line ahead off the harbour entrance to support the attack, facing north. The line was headed by ''Châteaurenault'', followed by ''d'Estaing'', ''Tarn'', ''Triomphante'', ''Duguay-Trouin'' and ''La Galissonnière'', with ''Vipère'' bringing up the rear.
Many of the town's European residents, excited by the prospect of a battle, formed picnic parties and flocked to vantage points on the nearby hills to obtain a good view of events. They were confident that the French would win, and expected Tamsui to be in French hands by nightfall.
Boulineau deployed his five companies into two lines, with a strong guard out to the left where the danger of a flanking attack by the Chinese was strongest. His first line consisted of the landing companies of ''La Galissonnière'' and ''Triomphante'', each of 120 men, under the respective command of ''lieutenants de vaisseau'' Fontaine and Dehorter. Dehorter's company held the right of the line. The second line, behind the first, consisted of the two mixed companies from the smaller ships, each of 130 men. The company from ''Tarn'' and ''Duguay-Trouin'', under the command of ''enseigne de vaisseau'' Deman, was on the right, behind Dehorter's company. ''Bayards landing company, 100 men strong, was posted on the left flank of the main body. The deployment, which was completed by 10:00 am was protected by naval gunfire from the French flotilla, which swept the ground between the beach and the forts.
At 10 am, Boulineau led his small force forward at a smart pace over the sand dunes. Things immediately began to go wrong. The dunes had hidden the ground beyond from the sight of the French squadron. The French had been expecting to find an open terrain of rice paddies and small clumps of trees. Instead, they discovered that the approaches to the forts were thickly wooded. The battlefield was dotted with small cultivated fields surrounded by tall hedges and spiny plants. The ground was also broken by ditches, and covered with tall bushy trees. This broken terrain provided perfect cover for the Chinese, and made control by the French commanders almost impossible.
The companies and sections lost sight of one another as soon as they entered the scrub. They also began to drift off the line of advance prescribed by Admiral Lespès. Boulineau realised that there was nothing he could do to regain control, and decided he would have to rely on the initiative of his company commanders. The New Fort was still visible in the distance, so the four companies of his main body could at least see the direction in which they were supposed to be heading.
Around 11:30 am, the sailors from ''Triomphante'', on the right of the first line, made contact with Sun Kaihua's troops, concealed in the bushes and trenches between the White Fort and the New Fort. A firefight began at this point, which quickly spread along the French front line and drew in the landing company of ''La Galissonnière''. The French front line was now under heavy fire from both the Chinese trenches to its front and from the concealed enemy positions in the woods and hedges on its left. The two reserve companies, which had fallen into disorder while picking their way across the broken ground, came up to the front line shortly afterwards. The landing company from ''D'Estaing'' and ''Châteaurenault'' entered the line between Fontaine and Dehorter's companies, while Deman's company joined the left of the line.
Meanwhile, the Chinese had begun to put pressure on the French left. Despite the supporting fire provided by the French ships, Zhang Gaoyuan's troops were able to force back the French flankguard from ''Bayard'', pushing it back on the French main body. ''Bayards sailors were able to link up with Deman's company, but the French landing force was now deployed in a single line around long. It no longer had any reserves. The firefight extended along the entire French front.
![Lieutenant Dehorter](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a2/Lieutenant_Dehorter.jpg)
The Chinese and French were separated by a distance of about . The situation called for regular, controlled volleys by the French, but the excited sailors were firing individually into the bushes, as fast as they could. Boulineau realised that they were simply wasting their ammunition. He repeatedly yelled orders to his men to cease fire, but only a small part of his command could hear him. No bugle signals could be sent, as Boulineau's bugler had been shot dead shortly after the start of the action. The French line continued to waste its ammunition on an elusive target.
The initiative now passed decisively to the Chinese. General Zhang's troops kept up their pressure on the French left, working their way around the flank of ''Bayards company. General Sun's regulars also began to lap around the company from ''Triomphante'' on the French right flank, issuing out of the White Fort in large numbers. To deal with the threat to the French left, Deman took part of his company out of the front line and brought it up in support of Fontaine's men. On the right the sailors from ''Triomphante'' made a series of charges to hold back Sun's troops.
The pressure on the French line now began to tell. The French had been engaged for an hour, and had used up two-thirds of their ammunition. As the number of wounded rose, men had to be detailed to take them back to the beach. The French line also began to drift backwards. Any hope of stemming the retreat disappeared when several French officers fell in close succession. ''Lieutenant de vaisseau'' Fontaine of ''La Galissonnière'' was wounded in the foot close to the Chinese positions on the left of the French line, where the enemy fire from both front and flank was heaviest, and fell not far from the Chinese lines. Two sailors tried to bring him in, but all three men were captured by the Chinese and immediately beheaded. ''Enseigne de vaisseau'' Deman was wounded close by, and on the French right flank ''lieutenant de vaisseau'' Dehorter of ''Triomphante'' was also mortally wounded.
Fontaine and Dehorter's fall was decisive. Both French flanks gave way. The landing company from ''Triomphante'' was now almost out of ammunition, and could no longer resist the pressure from Sun Kaihua's troops. On the left ''Bayards company was at one point cut off from the rest of the French line by Zhang Gaoyuan's men and had to charge to disengage itself.
![Hotchkiss canon revolver before 1923](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Hotchkiss_canon_revolver_before_1923.jpg)
At midday Boulineau gave the order for retreat. The landing companies fell back to the shore, bringing their wounded and some of their dead with them. Nearly one man in every ten had been wounded, and the retreat was necessarily slow. It was covered by the landing companies of ''La Galissonnière'' and ''Triomphante'', which fell back slowly, in good order, firing measured volleys to keep the Chinese at a distance. The French had to leave several of their dead behind during the retreat, including the bodies of Lieutenant Fontaine and his two helpers.
The re-embarkation began shortly afterwards. The sea had become very rough, and the boats were unable to ground. The sailors on the beach had to wade out in water up to their necks to embark. As the sailors crowded together in the choppy water, the landing force was at the mercy of a well-timed Chinese attack. Fortunately for the French, the Chinese came up slowly and did little to hinder the evacuation. During the confusion, as the French sailors struggled to clamber aboard the boats, one of the launches capsized, tipping all its occupants into the sea. The Hotchkiss ''canon-revolver'' mounted at its bow also fell overboard. The launch was soon righted but the French had to abandon the Hotchkiss, which was later recovered by the Chinese and displayed as a trophy of victory.
''Lieutenant de vaisseau''
Augustin Boué de Lapeyrère
Augustin Manuel Hubert Gaston Boué de Lapeyrère (18 January 1852 – 17 February 1924) was a French admiral during World War I. He was a strong proponent of naval reform, and is comparable to Admiral Jackie Fisher of the British Royal Navy.
...
of ''Vipère'' realised the potential danger of a Chinese counter-attack, and was given permission by Lespès to move his small gunboat to a position close inshore to cover the French withdrawal. From there it fired shells to keep the Chinese at a distance.
At half past midday the first boats put out from the shore and steered towards the French ships. By 1:10 pm, they had all left the beach. ''Vipère'' followed them slowly, firing at increasingly long range at the Chinese troops on the shore. At 1:30 pm the boats reached the ships. The sea was now very rough, and the wounded cried out in pain as their comrades helped them up the ladders onto the ships' decks.
Aftermath
The failure of the attack was an embarrassing setback to the French. Captain Garnot later blamed the defeat on the small size of the landing force, and on the use of naval landing companies rather than trained infantry:
The French defeat left them stuck on the northern part, unable to advance or capture more land.
Casualties
French casualties at Tamsui were 17 dead and 49 wounded. The French wounded were evacuated to Keelung aboard ''Tarn'' on 9 October and were then taken to Saigon aboard the state transport ''Nive''. Lieutenant Dehorter, mortally wounded, was brought back to the French ships and evacuated with the other wounded. He died aboard ''Nive'' on 12 October while the transport was still at sea, and his remains were buried in Saigon.
The French dead also included ''lieutenant de vaisseau'' Fontaine of ''La Galissonnière''. The French were unable to recover Fontaine's body nor those of two French sailors killed nearby. The bodies of the three dead Frenchmen, abandoned on the battlefield, were beheaded by the Chinese, and the severed heads were paraded through Tamsui on the evening of 8 October by the victorious Chinese army. Captain Boteler of HMS ''Cockchafer'' and the British consul Frater complained strongly to
Sun Kaihua
Sun Kaihua (died 1893) was a military student of Hunan, who joined Bao Chao's army and fought against the Taiping and Nien rebels, during which time he was wounded. He was rapidly promoted until he became a Brigade General at Zhangzhou in Fujian ...
about the lack of respect shown to the French dead, and the three severed heads were handed over to them for Christian burial. The Chinese took prisoner and beheaded 11 French marines who were injured in addition to ''La Gailissonniere''
's captain, Fontaine, and used bamboo poles to display the heads in public. To incite anti-French feelings in China, pictures of the decapitation of the Frenchmen were published in the ''Tien-shih-tsai Pictorial Journal'' in Shanghai.
Chinese casualties, according to European employees of the Tamsui customs, were 80 dead and around 200 wounded.
The New Zealand ''Wanganui Chronicle'' reported that the Chinese beheaded and killed around 20 Frenchmen.
Accounts of the beheadings of French troops
Commemoration
![Fu-you kung, Tamsui](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/5f/Fu-you_kung%2C_Tamsui.jpg)
The French defeat at Tamsui on 8 October 1884 was widely publicised in China, and had a far greater effect on national morale than the simultaneous French victories in Tonkin during the
Kép Campaign (6–10 October 1884). A detailed account of the battle by
Liu Mingchuan
Liu Ming-chuan (1836–1896), courtesy name Xingsan, lived in the late Qing dynasty. He was born in Hefei, Anhui. Liu became involved in the suppression of the Taiping Rebellion at an early age, and worked closely with Zeng Guofan and Li Hongz ...
, which absurdly multiplied French casualties, was published in the ''Peking Gazette'' in November 1884. In this report, Liu claimed that 300 French troops had been killed:
The Chinese victory is still commemorated in Tamsui. Sun Kaihua owed his victory to the intervention of the
Chinese
Chinese can refer to:
* Something related to China
* Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity
**''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation
** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...
sea goddess
A water deity is a deity in mythology associated with water or various bodies of water. Water deities are common in mythology and were usually more important among civilizations in which the sea or ocean, or a great river was more important. Anoth ...
Mazu
Mazu or Matsu is a Chinese sea goddess also known by several other names and titles. She is the deified form of the legendary figure Lin Mo or Lin Moniang, a Fujianese shamaness whose life span is traditionally dated from 960 to 987. Re ...
, the
deified form of the medieval
Fujian
Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...
ese
shamaness
Shamanism is a religious practice that involves a practitioner (shaman) interacting with what they believe to be a spirit world through altered states of consciousness, such as trance. The goal of this is usually to direct spirits or spiritu ...
Lin Moniang, revered by the seafaring Chinese and their descendants in Taiwan. On receiving Liu Mingchuan's report of the victory, the
Guangxu Emperor
The Guangxu Emperor (14 August 1871 – 14 November 1908), personal name Zaitian, was the tenth Emperor of the Qing dynasty, and the ninth Qing emperor to rule over China proper. His reign lasted from 1875 to 1908, but in practice he ruled, wi ...
observed with satisfaction, "The goddess has been kind to my people and kind to myself". A wooden commemorative tablet in the
Fuyou Temple
The ''Shuffle!'' light novel and anime series features an extensive cast of characters designed by Aoi Nishimata and Hiro Suzuhira. The series takes place in a fictional universe where humans live in harmony with gods, and devils. The protagonis ...
, a Matsu temple in Tamsui completed in 1796, bears the inscription "Bright
Heaven
Heaven or the heavens, is a common religious cosmological or transcendent supernatural place where beings such as deities, angels, souls, saints, or venerated ancestors are said to originate, be enthroned, or reside. According to the belie ...
's Blessing" in allusion to the emperor's words.
Significance
The French defeat at Tamsui was of considerable political significance. China's war party had been placed on the defensive after the loss of China's
Fujian fleet
The Fujian Fleet ( or ) founded in 1678 as the Fujian Marine Fleet was one of China's four regional fleets during the closing decades of the nineteenth century. The fleet was almost annihilated on 23 August 1884 by Admiral Amédée Courbet's Fa ...
in the
Battle of Fuzhou
The Battle of Fuzhou, or Battle of Foochow, also known as the Battle of the Pagoda Anchorage (French: Combat naval de Fou-Tchéou, Chinese: , 馬江之役 or 馬尾海戰, literally Battle of Mawei), was the opening engagement of the 16-month ...
on 23 August 1884, but the unexpected Chinese victory at Tamsui six weeks later bolstered the position of the hardliners in the Qing court. A court conference convened by the
Empress Dowager Cixi
Empress Dowager Cixi ( ; mnc, Tsysi taiheo; formerly Romanization of Chinese, romanised as Empress Dowager T'zu-hsi; 29 November 1835 – 15 November 1908), of the Manchu people, Manchu Nara (clan)#Yehe Nara, Yehe Nara clan, was a Chinese nob ...
on 28 October decided to continue the war against France until the French withdrew their demand for the payment of an indemnity for the
Bắc Lệ ambush
The Bắc Lệ ambush (french: guet-apens de Bac-Lé, Vietnamese: ''trận Bắc Lệ'' or ''trận cầu Quan Âm'') was a clash during the Tonkin Campaign in June 1884 between Chinese troops of the Guangxi Army and a French column sent to occu ...
. On 5 November the Qing court offered the French peace terms so extreme that they had no chance whatever of being accepted. They included demands for the cancellation of the
Tientsin Accord
The Tientsin Accord or Li–Fournier Convention, concluded on 11 May 1884, was intended to settle an undeclared war between France and China over the sovereignty of Tonkin (northern Vietnam). The convention, negotiated by Li Hongzhang for China an ...
, the abandonment by France of its protectorate over Annam and Tonkin, and the continuing occupation of Lào Cai, Cao Bằng and Lạng Sơn by Chinese troops. The British foreign secretary
Lord Granville
Earl Granville is a title that has been created twice, once in the Peerage of Great Britain and once in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It is now held by members of the Leveson-Gower family.
First creation
The first creation came in the Pee ...
, who was seeking to mediate the dispute between France and China, described the Chinese terms as 'those from a victor to the vanquished' and refused to transmit them to the French. The intransigence of the Qing court ensured that the Sino-French War would continue for several more months, with increasing losses and expenditure on both sides.
[; ]
Notes
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Further reading
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External links
Te Aroha News - Cablegrams European滬尾之戰at the Tamsui Wiki
{{DEFAULTSORT:Battle Of Tamsui
Tamsui
Tamsui District (Hokkien POJ: ''Tām-chúi''; Hokkien Tâi-lô: ''Tām-tsuí''; Mandarin Pinyin: ''Dànshuǐ'') is a seaside district in New Taipei, Taiwan. It is named after the Tamsui River; the name means "fresh water". The town is popula ...
Tamsui
Tamsui District (Hokkien POJ: ''Tām-chúi''; Hokkien Tâi-lô: ''Tām-tsuí''; Mandarin Pinyin: ''Dànshuǐ'') is a seaside district in New Taipei, Taiwan. It is named after the Tamsui River; the name means "fresh water". The town is popula ...
1884 in France
1884 in Taiwan
Tamsui
Tamsui District (Hokkien POJ: ''Tām-chúi''; Hokkien Tâi-lô: ''Tām-tsuí''; Mandarin Pinyin: ''Dànshuǐ'') is a seaside district in New Taipei, Taiwan. It is named after the Tamsui River; the name means "fresh water". The town is popula ...
October 1884 events