TONKIN WAR - ROCHE, James F., & L. L. Cowen.

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The French at Foochow. First edition of this eyewitness account of clashes between French and Chinese naval forces following the collapse of the Li-Fournier Agreement. Two tables show detail each side's ships and their specifications, as well as the damage they sustained.The Tonkin War developed out of a tussle between France and China for influence in Vietnam. Following a number of engagements, diplomatic exchanges between Li Hongzhang and Captain Ernest François Fournier produced a tentative agreement that China would withdraw from Tonkin and legally recognize a French protectorate. Negotiations, however, eventually broke down and the French launched an attack on Fuzhou on 23 August 1884.Foreign military observers, including the two American authors of this report, saw the engagement as a chance to evaluate the success of recent Chinese attempts to modernize the imperial navy. For the Qing empire, the Battle of Fuzhou was a disaster, the French fleet eight ships outgunning its eleven vessels, all of which were eventually sunk. The defeat "paved the way for the dynasty's downfall" (Po, p. 206).The eight plates are after sketches made during the battle and show several Chinese ships before and after they were sunk. The final sketch is of a dog which drowned while trying to escape from the Yangwoo, the Chinese flagship.

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