Léonce Verny (December 2, 1837-May 2, 1908)

He was a French officer and naval engineer who directed the construction of the Yokosuka Naval Arsenal in Japan. He is a very important figure in Japan‟s modern history. Léonce Verny did many modernization contributions to Japan. His teachings and leadership led the Japan have the understanding of western technology and Japan has used this advantage against to China in Sino-Japanese War. He helped

188 For a reference article about Foreign Training in China please see: SMITH, Richard J. “Foreign Training and China’s Self-Strengthening: The Case Of Feng-huang shan 1864–1873”, Modern Asia Studies, Volume: 10, No: 2, Printed in Great Britain. 1976, pp. 195–223.

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the Japanese to build the Yokosuka Arsenal.¹⁸⁹ Léonce Verny experienced numerous problems during his tenure in Japan, as the expectations of the Japanese government and military were very high, but funding was very limited, and Verny had to create much of the necessary infrastructure from scratch. When visited by the French construction director of the Chinese Fuzhou Arsenal in 1871, Verny noted that the Chinese budget was three times larger than his¹⁹⁰. He also led many modern infrastructure projects from 1865 to 1876, thus helping jump-start Japan's modernization. He studied at Lyon and entered the Institute for Applied Maritime Science at Cherbourg in 1858, where he became a Naval Engineer. He worked for the French state in the arsenals of Brest and Toulon.

Léonce Verny was sent to Ningbo and Shanghai in China from 1862-1864¹⁹¹, to supervise the construction of four gunboats for the Chinese Navy, as well as a new shipyard. During that time, he was also French Vice-Consul in Ningbo. He promoted the French technology in China. Léonce Verny is remembered in Japan as a symbol of modernization and of friendship with France. A park has been built in his name on the seafront next to the naval base of Yokosuka.

189 The author used the French web site for this part for more information please refer to;

http://www.medarus.org/Ardeche/07celebr/07celTex/verny_leonce.htm

190 Elman, A., Cultural History of Modern Science in China, Harvard University Press, October 1, 2006, pp. 215–216.

191 Elman, Benjamin A., On Their Own Terms: Science in China, 1550-1900, Harvard University Press, April 30, 2005, p. 370.

115 3.8.1.2 Prosper Giquel (1835-1886)

Prosper Marie Giquel, was a French naval officer and he has played an important role in the modernization of 19th century China. Prosper Giquel first arrived in China in 1857 as part of the allied assault forces of the Arrow War. He took the opportunity of that service in the Canton occupation force allowed. He also began the study of Chinese language and in a couple of years he managed to have a good Chinese ability. In late 1861 he joined the Imperial Maritime Customs Service under Robert Hart, as the director of the Ningbo office and remained there until the city was captured by the forces of the Taiping Rebellion in December 1861¹⁹².

After spending the following spring working in the coordinated French and English campaign to drive the rebels from Shanghai, he returned to Ningbo to organize the force which eventually became the Ever-Triumphant Army, also known as the “Franco-Chinese force”. The force numbered between 2,000 and 3,000 men. In 15 March 1863, the force, under the command of Ensign Paul d'Aiguebelle captured the city of Shaoxing from the Taiping rebels. Prosper Giquel took command of the

“Franco-Chinese force” when Paul d'Aiguebelle returned to France, but the force was soon dissolved in October 1864, in agreement with Zuo Zong Tang¹⁹³.

Prosper Giquel supervised the establishment of the Fuzhou Arsenal. In 1866 Giquel became very deeply involved in the organization and planning for the Fuzhou Dockyard project envisioned by Zuo Zong Tang. From 1867 to 1874 he served as European director of the project which Shen Bao Zhen, as the imperial commissioner,

192 Coble Parks M, Smith, Richard J., Fairbank John King, Robert Hart and China’s Early Modernization: His Journals, 1863–1866, Harvard University Asia Center Press, June 1, 1991, p.219.

193 Fairbank, John King, Twitchett, Denis Crispin, The Cambridge History of China, June 30, 2009, p.

433.

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headed. The objective of the dockyard was to create a modern Chinese fleet of warships and transports, and to educated technicians in Western sciences. These efforts contributed to China‟s Self-Strengthening Movement of acquiring Western knowledge (similarly the Nanjing Arsenal was put under the responsibility of the Englishman Halliday Macartney)¹⁹⁴.

Having completed his direct administration of the project by 1874, Giquel continued to serve the dockyard by working as a consultant, purchasing agent, and co-director of the European Educational Mission in 1877. The educational mission's goal was to provide developed technical training to complement the dockyard's instructional program.

In the middle of 1870‟s and 1880‟s Giquel became increasingly involved in international diplomacy. His first challenging international deal was being an adviser during the Taiwan crisis; a diplomatic clash between Japan and China in 1874.

In 1881, he helped ¹⁹⁵Zeng Ji Ze¹⁹⁶ peacefully conclude the “IIi crisis¹⁹⁷” between China and Russia. Giquel spent his last years, 1883-1885, struggling to help

194 I. Hsu, The Rise of Modern China, Oxford University, Press, 1975, pp. 282–283.

195 For more information about Zeng Ji Ze and Sino-French War please read Eastman, L., Throne and Mandarins: China's Search for a Policy during the Sino-French Controversy, USA: California, Stanford, 1984.

196 Zeng Jize, one of China‟s earliest ministers to London, Paris and Saint Petersburg, he played an important role in the diplomacy that preceded and accompanied the Sino-French War in1884–1885. He was the eldest son of Zeng Guo Fan.

197 Ili crisis: (1871–81) Ili Crisis was a dispute over Ili, a territory bordering on Russian Turkistan that is now in the Uygur Autonomous Region of Xinjiang. Using the excuse of a Muslim rebellion in the area, the Russian forces occupied Ili, but, when confronted with Chinese military force, they signed the Treaty of St. Petersburg (Feb. 24, 1881), under which they returned a portion of the area to China.

Encouraged by this success, the Qingliu party insisted that a similar militancy be employed against the French, who were encroaching on what is now Vietnam, at the time China‟s largest tributary state in the south. Efforts to appease France were abandoned, and China became embroiled in the Sino-French War (1883–85), but the resulting military setbacks caused the Qingliu to fall from power. The only

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end the Sino-French war which had broken out due to conflicting Sino-French claims to Indochina. Among the traumatic events of that period, certainly for Prosper Giquel, was the August 1884 destruction by the French navy of the Fuzhou Dockyard, the principal accomplishment of his entire career in China, in the Battle of Fuzhou¹⁹⁸.