War Overview · Sino-French War (1883–85)

To preserve Vietnam, its most important tributary, the Qing dynasty fought the French Third Republic for eighteen months in the mountains of northern Vietnam and on the waters off Fujian and Taiwan: the land front was won in the end, the cabinet in Paris fell, and the treaty still left China the loser.

Engagement Data

Belligerents (War Level)

Historical Setting

World: The 1880s were the high tide of the powers' partition of Africa and Asia. Britain had taken Egypt; France was reaching into Tunisia, Madagascar, and the Congo, while in the Far East its gaze fell on Indochina. From the 1860s onward, France gnawed away at Vietnam: the 1862 Treaty of Saigon ceded three provinces in Cochinchina, the 1874 treaty opened the Red River, and the 1883 Treaty of Huế turned Vietnam into a protectorate. The blade was moving step by step toward the Qing dynasty's outer fence.

China: The Self-Strengthening Movement was in its ascendant phase. The Tongwen Guan, Jiangnan Arsenal, and Fujian Shipyard had been operating for nearly twenty years, and new-style fleets were taking shape. This was the first time the Qing dynasty fought a foreign war with ships it had built itself and officers trained in its own schools. But the military system, finances, and command structure remained those of the old order: front-line memorials were embellished, the center wavered between war and peace, and provincial armies each acted on their own. The Battle of Fuzhou sank in one morning more than ten years of shipyard achievements. The strained coexistence of "Self-Strengthening results and the old system" is the Chinese main line of this war.

France: In the early Third Republic, republicans treated colonial expansion as a "civilizing mission" and a vessel of national prestige, with Jules Ferry as the standard-bearer. Parliamentary opponents saw the Far Eastern expedition as an adventure that burned money for nothing and delayed "revenge" against Germany. Funding bills and bad news from Tonkin were domestic political explosives waiting to go off. Later, they did.

Why It Was Fought

France's resolve was approved item by item in the chambers of parliament in Paris. In 1883.5, Henri Rivière was killed at Paper Bridge, and the Ferry cabinet immediately asked parliament for reinforcements to Tonkin and additional military funding. For the next two years, every step forward required the votes of deputies to release the money (vote counts and dates for each funding bill unverified). The cabinet's calculation was to make the protectorate created by the Treaty of Huế real, open the Red River, and bring "Tonkin" down from paper onto the ground. From the first day, this calculation had opponents at home: radicals in parliament denounced the Far Eastern expedition as a waste of money that harmed the country and delayed revenge against Germany; each funding bill passed, and each left resentment behind (original wording of opposition speeches unverified). Opposition did not stop the dispatch of troops, but it set the terms of dispatch: not many troops could be sent, and the war could not be dragged out. French strength in northern Vietnam always peaked at only 10,000 to 20,000 men, and every transport had to come from ten thousand li away.

On the Qing court's side, resolve was split from beginning to end. Prince Gong Yixin presided over the Grand Council and avoided war all along: Zeng Jize argued in Paris, Li Hongzhang negotiated in Tianjin, and the Guangxi and Yunnan armies at the front moved into northern Vietnam under the constraint that "provocation must not be opened by us" (original restraining edict unverified). At the end of 1883 Sơn Tây was lost; in spring 1884 Bắc Ninh collapsed. When news of defeat reached Beijing, Cixi used the moment to dismiss Prince Gong's entire Grand Council, and the voices of the war-favoring Qingliu faction entered the inner halls. But changing the Grand Council changed people, not the problem: no funds had been budgeted for this war, grain transport over the mountain roads of northern Vietnam was failing, and losses to disease often exceeded battle losses. The three fleets each acted on their own; Li Hongzhang regarded the newly founded Beiyang Fleet as the capital of self-strengthening and would not lightly commit it to the southern theater (details of memorials and replies on Beiyang's avoidance of battle unverified). The war-peace dispute ran throughout: Li Hongzhang repeatedly memorialized that China should not lightly fight a European power, and he favored peace to the end; the Qingliu faction favored war to the end. Both roads had people walking them; neither road was walked to its end. The Li-Fournier Convention sought peace in 1884.5; the Bắc Lệ (Guanyinqiao) clash shattered it in 1884.6; the defeat at Fuzhou came in 1884.8; only then did the declaration of war arrive late. Every act of resolve was made after the opponent had already acted.

By early 1885, the front had not yet produced a final military result, but the center had already opened a back door: Robert Hart, Inspector-General of the Imperial Maritime Customs, made the connection, and James Duncan Campbell, the Customs official in London, held secret talks with the French Foreign Ministry. A preliminary truce agreement was signed in Paris on 4.4, while the victory report from Zhennan Pass was still on its way north (date when the victory report reached Beijing unverified). The French side was also doing its sums: the northern Vietnam army was exhausted and short of funds, the cabinet was tottering, and holding Penghu as security was enough to let it stop. Two governments, one afraid of breaking its finances and the other afraid of breaking its cabinet: from this point, victory or defeat at the front was uncoupled from success or failure in the treaty.

Course of the Engagement

Prehistory: the Black Flag Army resisted France in the earlier phase. Liu Yongfu's force was originally a remnant of the Tiandihui; during the Tongzhi reign it entered Vietnam, accepted Vietnamese office, and was stationed at Bảo Thắng. In 1873.12, outside Hanoi, it killed the French leader Francis Garnier; on 1883.5.19, in the Battle of Paper Bridge, it again killed the expedition commander Henri Rivière. French court and public were shaken, and reinforcements were sent to Tonkin. From there, the war escalated step by step.

A comparison within the same ten-day period: News of the French retreat below Lạng Sơn on 3.28–29 returned to Paris, and exaggerated reports of defeat (the so-called "Tonkin Affair" telegram) detonated the Chamber of Deputies. On 3.30, the Ferry cabinet's funding bill was rejected by 306 votes to 149, and the cabinet fell. Victory at the front and the fall of the enemy cabinet occurred within the same ten-day period. But the secret negotiating table in Paris had already settled the matter: what fell was the cabinet in Paris; what was signed was still the treaty in Tianjin.

Treaty Details (1885.6.9, Tianjin)

The Sino-French Treaty of Tientsin, commonly called the "New Sino-French Treaty," was signed by Li Hongzhang and the French minister to China Jules Patenôtre:

• The Qing dynasty recognized France's protectorate over Vietnam, accepting by default the order established by the two Franco-Vietnamese Treaties of Huế of 1883–84. The suzerain-tributary relationship ended here.
• Two overland trading posts were to be designated on China's southwestern border (later set as Mengzi and Longzhou; delimitation details unverified), and France could station consuls there; import and export duties were reduced.
• If China later built railways in the southwestern provinces, it had to "consult and arrange with Frenchmen": the railway-rights clause entered through this door.
• The two sides were to delimit the Sino-Vietnamese border; French forces withdrew from Keelung and Penghu and lifted the blockade of Taiwan.
• No indemnity, no cession of territory: among the series of late-Qing treaties after defeat, this was the "lightest" in its terms. The price was that what was given up was all of Vietnam.

"France won without victory; China lost without defeat" is the most widely circulated judgment (attribution unverified; often attached to Zuo Zongtang's name, with no confirmed original source seen).

Casualties and Losses

• Qing side: there is no authoritative total for casualties across the whole war; the cumulative total across the engagements should have been above 10,000 (bases vary, figure disputed). In the Battle of Fuzhou about more than 700 were killed (Qing basis; number enshrined at the Mawei Zhaozhong Shrine unverified); the Fujian Fleet was annihilated, and the shipyard and school were shelled. On the northern Vietnam front, deaths from illness and deaths in battle together left many units broken.
• French side: combat deaths across the whole war were about 2,000 (French basis, unverified); deaths from disease were several times that. The true bulk of losses in the Tonkin Expeditionary Corps came from cholera, dysentery, and fevers. For French deaths in the Battle of Fuzhou, Qing statistics give five or six men, while French statistics say only wounded (two bases placed side by side, unverified). Fleet commander Courbet died of illness on 1885.6.11 aboard his flagship in Magong harbor, Penghu, and did not see the treaty signed.
• Zhennan Pass comparison of bases: Chinese battle reports claimed nearly 1,000 or even more than 1,000 French killed and wounded; French battle reports admitted 74 killed and about 190 to 210 wounded (figures differ slightly among sources, disputed). The two sets of figures coexist.
• Civilians: towns and villages in northern Vietnam repeatedly changed hands, and there are no statistics for civilian deaths and displacement. The Keelung mining district and urban streets were repeatedly shelled; Taiwan's blockade of nearly eight months left supplies on the island strained. After the war, the Black Flag Army was ordered disbanded and moved inland, and the situation of Vietnamese civilians accompanying the army goes unrecorded.
• Finance: total Qing war expenses unverified; for France, the additional military funding bill was the 200 million-franc appropriation that brought down the Ferry cabinet.

Aftermath

• Vietnam left the suzerain-tributary system. In 1887, France combined northern and southern Vietnam with Cambodia into the "French Indochinese Union" (year unverified): a key link in the collapse of the suzerain-tributary system, with Korea next in line.
• On 1885.10.12 the Qing court approved the establishment of Taiwan as a province, with Liu Mingchuan as its first governor (the formal establishment was not completed until 1887; details unverified): an awakening to coastal defense purchased by eight years of French blockade.
• In 1885.10, the Office for the Administration of Naval Affairs was established, with Prince Chun Yixuan as administrator; edicts to "greatly govern the navy" followed one after another. In 1888 the Beiyang Navy was formed: the tuition of Fuzhou was first paid into the Beiyang account.
• The Black Flag Army was disbanded, and Liu Yongfu led the remnants inland and was granted the rank of zongbing (details unverified); after the Jiashen replacement of the Grand Council, the war-favoring Qingliu faction scattered, and Zhang Peilun was sent to frontier exile.
• France gained Vietnam and trading and railway rights in southwestern China, but at home the "Tonkin War" left behind a bad name, and Ferry bore the nickname "the Tonkinese" for life.

How Each Side Records It

• Chinese side: in modern historical narrative, this is the typical case of "winning the battlefield and losing the negotiation." The great victory at Zhennan Pass entered textbooks, the destruction at Fuzhou entered the starting point of naval history, and both ends are remembered. Taiwan has another layer of memory: the victory at Huwei and Liu Mingchuan's administration of Taiwan are narrated separately in the history of the island and on the far side of the strait (differences in basis unverified).
• French side: called the "Tonkin War" (la guerre du Tonkin), it was submerged in the sequence of colonial wars by Tunisia, Madagascar, and later great wars, and remains a marginal memory. What chiefly remains in French political history is the fall of Ferry.
• Vietnamese side: most of the battlefield lay on Vietnamese soil, and what was being contested was Vietnam's suzerainty. In Vietnamese historical perspective, this war occupies a complex place: the Huế court was pressed from both sides; in 1885 Emperor Hàm Nghi fled, and the Cần Vương movement followed. In anti-French narratives, the Qing dynasty is both reinforcement and another suzerain. Vietnamese materials accessible here are limited.

Disputes and Sensitivities

• "Stop once victory is gained": the victory report from Zhennan Pass and the truce edict fell almost within the same ten-day period, and the resentment of "losing without defeat" has not dispersed in more than a century. But historical research points out that the Paris secret talks had already been settled in early 1885, and that the victory at Zhennan Pass did not enter the bargaining chips (details of the Hart-Campbell channel unverified). When the front was winning, the outcome had in fact already been fixed. Which layer of narrative to adopt must be a conscious decision.
• Declaration of war: the 8.26 declaration-of-war edict was a rare formal posture of declaring war against a foreign power in the modern period. But Fuzhou had been attacked first and the declaration came afterward, eight months after fighting began. The respective advantages and disadvantages of "declaring" and "not declaring" were already the dispute between the Qingliu faction and the Grand Council at the time.
• The name "great victory" at Zhennan Pass: by the French basis, the French force directly facing the Qing army numbered only a little more than 2,000, with 74 killed; by the Chinese basis, this was a victory that reversed morale across the whole line. The scale of the result and the meaning of the battle are two different things.
• Responsibility for Fuzhou: under the constraint of "if they do not move, we do not move," the command responsibility of Zhang Peilun and He Ruzhang, trapped and unable to act, was pursued relentlessly by Qing public criticism at the time and remains sensitive in naval-history narratives today.
• There is no authoritative basis for either total casualties or total war expenses, and source differences are clear.

Contents

越北陆战（山西·北宁·宣光·临洮，1883–85）1883.12中法两国还没宣战，仗已经在别人的国土上打了将近一年半——滇桂军与黑旗军先在山西、北宁连败，再在宣光围一座城四个月打不下来，最后在临洮扳回一捷，东西两线的败与胜拼出了这场战争的陆上全貌。台澎战事（基隆 · 淡水 · 澎湖）1884.08法国远东舰队想拿台湾当议和的筹码，先打基隆、再犯淡水、后占澎湖，拖了十个月——淡水一仗被赶下海，基隆城拿在手里却始终出不了城，最后舰队司令孤拔病死在他自己占下的澎湖。马江海战1884.08两支舰队在同一个港里同泊对峙了一个多月，1884 年 8 月 23 日午后退潮一转，法舰先开火，福建水师十一舰半小时沉毁九——福建船政十余年造舰的家底，在自己港里一战尽失。镇南关与谅山1885.021885 年 3 月，年近七旬的冯子材在镇南关前一道长墙上挡住了法军东京远征军第 2 旅，随后乘胜追击收复文渊、谅山，法国内阁因此倒台——而清廷旋即停战议和，"乘胜即收"的争论由此吵了一百多年。镇海之战（1885）1885.02南洋水师五舰援闽，半路上先折了两艘沉在石浦湾，剩下的三艘躲进镇海口——就凭炮台、水雷和一位亲自操炮的老守备，把法国远东舰队挡在门外对峙到停战，成了中法战争里中方唯一一次守住的海口。

Sources and Open Questions

Main sources: Zhongguo Shixuehui, ed., Sino-French War (Modern Chinese History Source Series; the first reference for the whole war); National Palace Museum, ed., Historical Materials on Sino-French Negotiations in the Guangxu Reign of the Qing; Luo Dunrong, Zhongfa Bingshi Benmo; Memorials of Liu Zhuangsu (Liu Mingchuan); Hart-Campbell correspondence (selected in China's Customs Confidential Archives); the French-side Garnot, The French Expedition to Formosa (L'expédition française de Formose, 1894; Chinese title unverified), and archives of the French navy and army on the Tonkin expedition.

Open questions:

• Peak strength of the French Tonkin Expeditionary Corps, and itemized figures for French combat deaths and illness deaths across the whole war
• Total Qing casualties and war expenses across the whole war
• Reliable basis for the combined strength of Qing forces on the northern Vietnam front
• Number enshrined at the Mawei Zhaozhong Shrine after the Battle of Fuzhou, and the two original sources for French casualties
• Differences among sources for French casualties at Zhennan Pass (74 killed / 188–213 wounded) to be checked
• Details of the Battle of Lâm Thao
• Process for delimiting the trading posts under the New Sino-French Treaty (the determination of Mengzi and Longzhou)
• The date basis for completion of Taiwan's formal provincial establishment and Liu Mingchuan's actual appointment as governor
• Year when the French Indochinese Union was established
• Original source of the judgment "France won without victory; China lost without defeat," and whether it was said by Zuo Zongtang
• Courbet's cause of death and details of his death from illness in Penghu
• Timeline of the Hart-Campbell secret talks and the Qing court's chain of authorization
• Vote counts and dates of France's successive Tonkin funding bills
• Original wording of French parliamentary opposition speeches against the Tonkin expedition
• Original wording of restraining edicts of the type "provocation must not be opened by us"
• Details of memorials and replies in which Li Hongzhang kept the Beiyang Fleet out of battle
• Date when the Zhennan Pass victory report reached Beijing