Volta
Politics27 March and 4 April 1879

Ryukyu Disposition

Also called: Annexation of Ryukyu, Ryūkyū shobun

Japan abolished the Ryukyu Kingdom, which had owed allegiance to both Qing China and Satsuma, and made it Okinawa Prefecture — a sign that the China-centred tributary order was beginning to crumble.

Shuri Castle seen from the east; the red circle marks the camp of the Japanese garrison (Kumamoto garrison, Okinawa detachment) stationed there from 1876 — from Watanabe Shigetsuna’s Ryūkyū manroku, 1879
Shuri Castle seen from the east; the red circle marks the camp of the Japanese garrison (Kumamoto garrison, Okinawa detachment) stationed there from 1876 — from Watanabe Shigetsuna’s Ryūkyū manroku, 1879

渡辺重綱 著『琉球漫録』(1879年) · Public domain · Source

Since Satsuma’s invasion in 1609 the Ryukyu Kingdom had paid tribute to China (Ming, then Qing) while being controlled by Satsuma. The Meiji government made Ryukyu a domain in 1872 and, after the Taiwan expedition, forbade its tribute missions to China. In March 1879 Matsuda Michiyuki arrived with troops and police and took over Shuri Castle; on 4 April Okinawa Prefecture was established and King Shō Tai was removed to Tokyo. China protested but could not stop it. Alarmed, the Qing sought to have Korea open relations with the West to check Japan and Russia — the setting for Huang Zunxian’s Strategy for Korea.

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States and rulers at the time
Japan · annexing power — Emperor Meiji
Ryukyu · annexed
Qing — Guangxu Emperor

Before and after

Earlier
1877 Satsuma Rebellion
Later
1880 Second Envoy Mission and A Strategy for Korea

Themes that include this event

  • The Opening of East Asia1839 – 1901

    From the Opium War to the Boxer Protocol — sixty years in which China, Japan and Korea, forced open by Western gunboats, each tried to reform and went separate ways