As a result of the Shimonoseki Treaty, which was signed in April of 1895, Japan and China recognized the independence of Korea. (The effect of the articles meant that China recognized the "full and complete independence and autonomy" of Joseon [the kingdom of Korea] and formally renounced China's traditional claims of imperial overlordship.) Japan also received Taiwan, the Pescadores Islands, and the Liaodong Peninsula "in perpetuity." The Japanese were also permitted to conduct trade on the Yangtze River.

The Qing Empire was humiliated. They had to pay 13,600 tons of silver in war reparations, and the Chinese inhabitants in Korea were forced to leave. Chinese settlers in Taiwan and the Taiwanese fought a guerilla-style rebellion against the Japanese. Many were slaughtered. Women were raped, and peasants were thrown off their lands unless they stayed on as tenant farmers. China embarked on an effort to modernize, the Self-Strengthening Policy, following its defeat in the First Opium War of 1839-1842 and the Second Opium War of 1856-1860.