Ershawan Battery (), or better known as Tenable Gate of the Sea () is a battery emplacements camp in

Zhongzheng District Zhongzheng District (also Jhongjheng District) is a district in Taipei. It is home to most of the national government buildings of the Republic of China (Taiwan), including the Presidential Office, the Executive Yuan, the Control Yuan, the ...

Keelung Keelung () or Jilong () (; Hokkien Pe̍h-ōe-jī, POJ: '), officially known as Keelung City, is a major port Provincial city (Taiwan), city situated in the northeastern part of Taiwan. The city is a part of the Taipei–Keelung metropolitan a ...

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 no ...

. It was built during Taiwan's Qing era, and was the site of combat between the French and Chinese forces during 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 ...

. It was the command post of

Liu Ming-chuan 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 Ho ...

, who was later appointed by Qing court as the first governor of Taiwan, when he was charged with the defense of Keelung during the war. It lost its military value under Japanese rule, and is currently listed as a class one national historical monument.

History

The battery was first constructed in 1840 by Yao Ying (), disciplinary officer of the Qing garrison in

. It was originally located by the sea, and was used by the garrison to fend off British assaults during the

Opium War The First Opium War (), also known as the Opium War or the Anglo-Sino War was a series of military engagements fought between Britain and the Qing dynasty of China between 1839 and 1842. The immediate issue was the Chinese enforcement of th ...

. It was part of the Taiwan Seventeen Fortification Plan (), which Yao composed and presented to the Qing court.海門天險
The fortification that exists today, however, is not at the seaside. When the

broke out in 1884,

, who was in charge of defense of

, constructed a battery at the present day location with materials cannibalized from the older fortification, and used it as a major strong point in his defense plan. The battery was put out of action on 5 August 1884 during a bombardment of the Keelung forts by three French warships, and was occupied by the French during the subsequent Keelung Campaign (October 1884 to April 1885). During the French occupation of Keelung it was renamed Fort La Galissonnière by the invaders, after the French ironclad which had bombarded it in August 1884. The French built a cemetery nearby in which around 500 dead French soldiers and sailors who died during the campaign were buried (most of them victims of cholera and other diseases rather than battle casualties). The cemetery was moved from its original location in the early years of the twentieth century, and in its new location still exists today. The battery briefly saw action during the Japanese invasion of Taiwan in 1895. Along with the other coastal fortifications of Keelung, it was bombarded by five Japanese warships during the Battle of Keelung on 3 June 1895, and was captured by the Japanese Imperial Guards Division with little difficulty. After Taiwan was ceded to Japan in 1895, the battery lost its significance as a military base, and fell into disrepair. It was later classified as a class one national historical monument by the

Republic of China 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 northeas ...

government, who took control of Taiwan at the conclusion of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the World War II by country, vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great power ...

References

{{Forts in Taiwan 1840 establishments in Taiwan Artillery batteries Forts in Keelung Military installations established in 1840 National monuments of Taiwan

History

See also

References