World War I in East Asia: Transnational Aspects of the Qingdao Campaign (August 23–November 7, 1914)

On September 2, 1914, Japanese forces together with a small Indo-British contingent, started the siege of Qingdao, a German-held territory on the Shandong peninsula, China. After weeks of heavy artillery fire, the exhausted and outgunned German garrison surrendered on November 7, 1914. A few weeks later, the Japanese forces occupied the entire territory of Shandong province and seized all the German economic concessions, including the Shandong railroad and German-owned coal mines. Although the battle of Qingdao had no direct influence on the course of the war in Europe, it had greatly contributed to the geopolitical changes in East Asia. Despite the limited scale of the campaign in China, all the Allied powers paid close attention to different aspects of the warfare in Qingdao. The French and British military attachés produced numerous reports describing in detail not only the military operations, but also the everyday interactions between different troops. By analyzing these reports as well as several witness accounts conserved at the National Archives, UK, and at the Service Historique de la Défense, France, this chapter highlights the transnational dimensions of the Qingdao battle and examines its unforeseen consequences for the balance of power in China. The chapter also considers the colonial aspect of the campaign by reviewing the contribution of the Chinese workers and Indian soldiers to the war effort of the main belligerents.