Slightly-known episode of French army adventures within the nineteenth century, the Franco-Chinese language Conflict of 1884-1885, was once marked through a number of battles, as evidenced specifically through the French army cemetery in Keelung, in northern Taiwan. The island, which was once handiest in part invaded through French troops, is now beneath danger of invasion through the Other folks’s Republic of China. Even supposing the approach used would after all now not be the similar, the clashes in Kilungu stay bearers of strategic courses that are meant to now not be unnoticed.
Because the legislation of 28 February 2012, St Martin’s Day – historically the day of commemoration of the Armistice of 1918 and victory within the First Global Conflict – has been venerated to all who “died for France”, irrespective of position and struggle, together with those that fell in international operations. Virtually 10,000 kilometers from the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier dealing with the Champs-Élysées (Paris), at the moment has a different which means on the French Keelung Cemetery, at the north coast of the island of Taiwan. This website online, in large part unknown to most people, incorporates the graves of French infantrymen who fell throughout the Franco-Chinese language Conflict of 1884-1885, a struggle that pitted French 3rd Republic forces in opposition to China’s Qing Empire.
A poignant remnant of a perilous struggle that claimed the lives of a minimum of 700 French infantrymen and several other thousand Chinese language combatants, this cemetery embodies the painful reminiscence of France’s brutal colonial struggle in Asia in its quest to dominate Indochina. 100 and 40 years after the tip of the struggle, those graves are a reminder of the fee paid through those other folks, some distance from their native land, in a struggle whose historical past is little realized.
Each and every November 11, the French place of business in Taipei organizes a discreet however solemn rite to honor those “deaths for France” and revive the reminiscence of a little-known web page of Franco-Chinese language and Franco-Taiwanese historical past.
Originally of Indochina, the Franco-Chinese language Conflict
Even though later than different Eu powers equivalent to Portugal, the Netherlands or the UK, the French colonial endeavor in Asia, begun beneath Louis XIV, was in style within the nineteenth century. It all started in mainland China, with the purpose of acquiring business benefits equivalent to these granted to the UK through the Treaty of Nanking in 1842. This was once completed in 1844, with the signing of the Treaty of Huangpu.
In 1856, the 2d Opium Conflict broke out. France actively participated in it, justifying its intervention through killing a French missionary. In December 1857, French-British troops captured town of Canton, which they occupied for 4 years. The Treaty of Tianjin, signed in 1858, opened 11 further ports to international powers, licensed the established order of embassies in Peking, the proper to navigate the Yangtze River, and the unfastened motion of foreigners during China. In October 1860, Allied troops marched on Beijing, and the Summer season Palace was once looted. This primary struggle opened a length of competition between France and China that might closing till the autumn of Dien Bien Phu in 1953 – a veritable “Hundred Years’ War,” consistent with Professor François Jouault.
However on the identical time, any other theater is crystallizing tensions: Indochina. France, which pursues an energetic coverage at the Mekong, based the colony of Cochinchina in 1862. French ambitions in Tonkin, a area traditionally beneath Chinese language rule, exacerbated tensions. The “Black Flags”, former Taiping rebels who were expelled through the Qing dynasty, joined forces with their former executioners to assault French pursuits. The French reaction results in a brand new struggle.
Kilung and the extension of the struggle to the island of Formosa
Even though the Treaty of Hue, signed in 1884, positioned Annam and Tonkin beneath a French protectorate, China refused to pay the struggle indemnity and attacked the French column at Bac Le.
The struggle is intensifying and taking up a maritime measurement. Admiral Courbet takes command of the Some distance East Squadron. In August 1884, the Fujian fleet and the Fuzhou Arsenal – constructed through Frenchman Prosper Guicel – have been destroyed in thirty mins.
The destruction of the Foochov arsenal and the Chinese language fleet through the French squadron beneath Admiral Courbet, par Joseph Nash le jeune. Representation for The Graphic mag, October 18, 1884. Wikimedia
Towards the recommendation of Courbet, who sought after to pay attention efforts on northern China (particularly Port Arthur), Gilles Ferry ordered operations to proceed in opposition to the island of Formosa (Taiwan) with a purpose to take territorial pledges with the purpose of forcing China into negotiations.
First driven into Keelung in overdue August, French forces succeeded in shooting town in early October, however did not seize Tamsui. Therefore, after the failure of the blockade of the island through Courbet’s squadron and the impossibility of coming into the inner, reinforcements from Africa enabled a brand new offensive in January 1885 at the Keelung Heights. Regardless of the conquest of Pescador in overdue March, French troops have been decimated through cholera and typhus epidemics. Confronted with a tactical blockade of French forces in Formosa and the beginning of negotiations for a Franco-Chinese language armistice, hostilities ceased in mid-April.
The Struggle of Formosa ends with a go back to the established order ante bellum. In Tonkin, in spite of the disasters of Bang Bo and Lang Son – which brought about the downfall of Gilles Ferry’s executive – French forces in the long run won the higher hand. The Treaty of Tianjin, signed in June 1885, ended the struggle: China renounced all sovereign claims over Annam and Tonkin, whilst France deserted Formosa and returned the Pescadores.
Two years later, in 1887, the Indochinese Union was once formally created, bringing in combination Cochinchina, Annam, Tonkin and Cambodia. Laos will probably be built-in into it in 1899. It’s the place to begin of French Indochina, the long run pearl of the empire, which is able to mark the presence of France in Southeast Asia for a number of many years.
Keelung Cemetery, a turbulent historical past
Keelung Cemetery Timeline. P. Milhiet, C. Doridant, Equipped through the writer
Formally, just about 700 French infantrymen misplaced their lives in Keelung. Amongst them, 120 fell in combat, 150 succumbed to wounds, and the remaining died of illness. Initially, the our bodies of the French infantrymen have been disbursed between two cemeteries: one in Keelung and the opposite in Makung, within the Pescadores archipelago.
First beneath the safety of China, the cemetery was once nearly utterly destroyed after which relocated after the Jap invasion of Formosa in 1895. A number of agreements have been signed between the French and Jap government to verify the upkeep of the brand new cemetery. On the other hand, after Global Conflict II, the website online was once steadily deserted and fell into disrepair. In 1947, the French Consulate Normal in Shanghai undertook the renovation of the cemetery. Then, in 1954, the rest tombstones and our bodies from Makung Cemetery have been moved to Keelung.
With the sluggish recovery of unofficial members of the family between France and Taiwan, the website online got here beneath the jurisdiction of the Normal Secretariat of the French Institute in Taipei. In 1997 Keelung The town Corridor took over control. Town labeled it as a historic monument in 2001, and now the cemetery is built-in into an city park. Annually, the French Place of business in Taipei and the French Affiliation of Remembrance arrange commemorative ceremonies there on November 11, in honor of the warriors who died for France.
Right through the Ghost Pageant, which is widely known at the fifteenth day of the 7th lunar month consistent with Buddhist and Taoist traditions, locals additionally pay their respects to the deceased on the cemetery.
What geopolitical courses for the twenty first century?
Whilst many analysts discuss of Beijing’s ambition to retake the island through drive, the historic courses of the Struggle of Formosa supply a treasured tactical and strategic legacy for higher working out the complexities of such an endeavor. Lately, an editorial through the American suppose tank RAND Company was once even dedicated to it.
In 1885, Taiwan was once for sure just a secondary goal for France, which sought above all to weaken Imperial China as a part of its conquest of Indochina. Moreover, the Qing Dynasty was once in whole decline and within the twilight of its reign. On the other hand, in spite of transparent technological superiority, French forces have been not able to determine an enduring presence at the island, highlighting native resilience and the boundaries of army energy within the face of the island atmosphere in stark reduction.
The French expedition was once additionally carefully watched through any other then-rising regional participant who additionally coveted the island: Japan. Thus Admiral Togo Heihachiro, the long run Commander-in-Leader of the Imperial Jap Military, even visited Keelung throughout the French profession and was once reportedly knowledgeable through Marshal Joffe (then Captain).
If making plans for the invasion of Taiwan through the US in 1944 and up to date struggle video games appreciated landings within the south of the island, the protection of the north stays central to Taiwan’s technique as of late. That is evidenced through the once a year Taiwanese army workout Han Kuang. Right through the most recent version in July 2025, the Taiwan Military’s 99th Brigade was once specifically educated to all of a sudden deploy from the south to the north of the island and simulated a reaction to an tried penetration of Other folks’s Liberation Military forces into Taipei around the Tamsui River, the similar maneuver that Admiral Coverbett had up to now performed 100 years previous.
The Struggle of Formosa is subsequently a tactical-strategic lesson that has retained all its relevance even as of late, carved into the tombstones of the French cemetery that also overlooks the harbor, a silent witness to thwarted ambitions and human disasters in this disputed island.
This newsletter was once written in collaboration with Colin Doridant, an analyst of members of the family between France and Asia.
