The Battle of the Taku Forts in the Late Qing Dynasty from the Perspective of Engineering History

Abstract

During the westernization movement, the Taku Forts formed a modern coastal defense fortress system with a coastal defense battery, the Haikou fleet as the support, telegraph communication as the engineering communication method, and railway transportation as the carrier. In this paper, the Taku Forts’ management, construction, weapons, and army are described from the perspective of engineering history. Before the battle of the Taku Forts between China and the West, North China had formed a defensive system with the newly formed Wuwei Army as its guerrilla division, Huai Army and Lian Army as the defensive forces, and the old Eight Banners and Green Battalion as the local security forces. The invaders first occupied Tanggu Fort, captured the North fort,crossed the Hai river, and then attacked the South Fort. However, the rebuilt Beiyang Navy’s existing ships and torpedo boats abandoned it at the time of the fort’s death, leading to its helplessness and eventual dismantling.During the crisis in China, the Qing armies’ ship and gun technology was the smallest gap between China and the western armies in all modern wars. The reasons for the failure of those wars were as follows: the disadvantage of the national system and defense strategy and the mingling of other social reasons with it.