ABSTRACT
The British and Japanese governments salvaged themselves from the diplomatic isolation which had resulted from the Kapsin and Komundo incidents by acknowledging that China had become the most influential country in the region. The environment after the East Asian crises certainly discouraged Japanese and British decision-makers from making rash military manoeuvres as they had done in December 1884 and April 1885 respectively; it reaffirmed that the Russian government had to be more cautious towards Korea, if it was not already before. Two chapters on the East Asian crises have stressed the importance of seeing the events in sequence, and have argued that what happened after the signing of the Tianjin Convention contributed immensely to the emergence of an international order based upon recognition of Qing superiority. As a result of the East Asian crises of 1884–7, both the British and the Japanese governments started to adopt a ‘Qing first’ approach towards East Asian affairs by the early autumn of 1885.
