April 4
1879 Japan incorporated the Ryukyu Islands as Okinawa prefecture.
1885 Japanese chief minister Ito Hirobumi began negotiations with China's Li Hongzhang over Korea. Korea remained a flash point between the East Asian powers and nine years later Japan and China went to war, in part over which would dominate the peninsula. Japan defeated China and in addition to receiving an indemnity also took control of Taiwan.
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edited by Clayton Dube.
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© 2001 UCLA Center for East Asian Studies