Once the destruction of the Fuzhou Shipyard during the Sino-French War160 demonstrated the vulnerability of the Jiangnan Arsenal and other factories and fleets
158 Prosper Giguel, edited by Steven A. Leibo, A Journal of the Chinese Civil War 1864, USA:
Honolulu, University of Hawaii Press, 1985.
159 Benjamin A. Elman, Naval Warfare and the Refraction of China's Self-Strengthening Reforms into Scientific and Technological Failure, 1865-1895, Cambridge University Press ,Modern Asian Studies Vol 38, Issue 2, 2004, pp. 283-326.
160 Sino-French War (1883–85) perpetrated by France against China for control of Vietnam. It revealed the inadequacy of China's modernization efforts and aroused nationalistic sentiment in southern China. In 1880, when France began to extend its presence in Vietnam northward from the three southern provinces it controlled, China sent in troops and engaged in limited battles. The governor-general, Li Hongzhang, negotiated an agreement whereby northern Vietnam would be a joint protectorate, but a hard-line government faction in China rejected it. The French defeated Chinese reinforcements in 1883, and the new settlement was more strongly in France's favour. This, too, was rejected in China; after further hostilities, the new Chinese fleet of 11 steamers was destroyed, as was a large shipyard at Fuzhou. In 1885 China signed a peace treaty accepting the settlement of 1883. Lack of an expenditure of 7.5 million taels of silver on defense before the war cost China 600 million taels of silver after the war. This is one of the most important historical lessons of the First Sino-Japanese War.
Monetary loss alone was 80 times the amount that would have been wisely spent on the military before the war. In addition, China had to give away Taiwan to Japan and suffered from various kinds of
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on the China coast to foreign naval blockade, Zhang Zhi Dong (1837-1909), then governor-general in Hubei and Hunan provinces in the middle Yangzi region, recognized the need for the Hanyang Ironworks (1890) and Hanyang Arsenal (1892) as protected inland industrial sites. Not funded until 1891-95, however, and then subject to competing interests of Li Hong Zhang‟s Northern Fleet and the military threat from the Japanese in Korea, the Hanyang Arsenal found that its funds were inadequate for simultaneous development of the ironworks and the arsenal. This problem led to a slowdown in the arsenal, which failed to produce weapons or ordinance in time for Sino-Japanese War.161
Other delays in plant building and a damaging fire in summer 1894 kept the Hanyang project from achieving success in the late nineteenth century. Zhang wrestled with the twin goals of strategic industrialization and modern military production in the midst of the emergency diversion of imperial funds and resources to deal with the Russian and Japanese threats. He chose to fund the ironworks for general development rather than the arsenal for military arms. Hence, the Hanyang Ironworks became the hub of China‟s iron and steel industry during the first half of the twentieth century, although it failed to contribute to the Sino-Japanese War.
economic and non-economic losses as a result of the persistent internal instability and foreign wars. For more information please read: Eastman, L, Throne and Mandarins: China’s Search for a Policy during the Sino-French Controversy, USA: California, Stanford, 1984.Chere, L. M., The Diplomacy of the Sino-French War (1883–1885): Global Complications of an Undeclared War, USA: Indiana, University of Notre Dame Press, Notre Dame, 1988.
161 Benjamin A. Elman, Naval Warfare and the Refraction of China's Self-Strengthening Reforms into Scientific and Technological Failure, 1865-1895, Cambridge University Press, Modern Asian Studies Volume 8, Issue 2, 2004, pp. 283-326.
95 3.5.1 Establishment of Hanyang Arsenal
Hanyang arsenal originally known as the Hubei Arsenal, it was founded in 1891 by one of the Qing officials, Zhang Zhi Dong. He diverted some funds from the Nanyang Fleet in Guangdong to build the arsenal. The construction of the arsenal was completed on 23 April 1894. Hanyang arsenal had some 40 acres area for its facilities and could start production of small-caliber cannons.162
On 14 June 1894, an industrial accident started a fire in the arsenal that destroyed all the equipment and most of the structures in the arsenal. In July of the same year rebuilding began, and in August 1895, all was back to normal and the arsenal started production of German M 1888 Commission rifles. At the same time, ammunition for the rifles was being produced at a rate of 13,000 rounds per month.
During the devastating Boxer Uprising of 1900, the arsenal supplied the Boxers with more than 3,000 rifles and 1 million rounds of ammunition.163
In 1904, the arsenal made several modifications to their design of the Type 88, and, at the same time, production capacity was expanded to 50 rifles and 12,000 rounds of ammunition per day. For a time in 1910, the arsenal switched to producing the Type 68 rifle, at a speed of 38 per day. The quality of the firearms produced in this period was generally low, because the local steel foundries were often ill-equipped
162 Hanyang city‟s web site gives many information about Hanyang‟s History, web site is in Chinese please see: http://www.hanyang.gov.cn/
163 A reference book about Boxer uprising please see; Mark Bryant, Knocking Out the Boxers, UK:
History Today Volume: 58 Issue: 12, December 2008. Besides this book the author of this study recommends; Harrington Peter, China 1900: The Eyewitnesses Speak: The Boxer Rebellion as Described by Participants in Letters, Diaries, and Photos, London: Libri Press, 2006.
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and badly managed. Because of its proximity to Wuchang, the revolutionaries, during the Wuchang Uprising of Xinhai Revolution largely equipped themselves with foreign and locally made weapons stored at this arsenal - some 7,000 rifles, 5 million rounds, 150 pack guns and 2,000 shells. The arsenal, in support of the revolution, switched into full gear and began producing weapons and ammo day and night.
The Republic of China expanded the arsenal numerous times, and production soared. Quality, however, remained low. In 1917, a training school was established alongside the arsenal. In 1921, production began on copies of the Browning M1917 and the Mauser M1932 “Broomhandle” pistol.
In 1930, the design of the Type 88 was once again modified, extending the bayonet. In 1935, a version of the Maxim gun was being produced, based on blueprints from the German M08. As the Imperial Japanese Army approached Hanyang and Wuhan in 1938, the arsenal was forced to move to Hunan with parts of its assets transferred to various other arsenals across the country. At Hunan, it continued production of the Type 88 rifle and carbine, and also the Type Zhongzheng rifle with the Allies‟ victory in 1945, orders to the arsenal gradually stopped, and, on 1 July 1947, the arsenal was shut down.164
Fire Arms Produced in Hanyang Arsenal
Type 88 rifle
Type 68 rifle
Type Zhongzheng rifle
Type 24 HMG
Mauser C96 7.63 mm pistol
164 A. Elman Benjamin, Naval Warfare and the Refraction of China’s Self-Strengthening Reforms into Scientific and Technological Failure, 1860–1895, History of Science Program at the University of Chicago, May 1–12, 2002.
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M1917 Browning machine gun