Treaty of Shimonoseki, (April 17, 1895), agreement that concluded the first Sino-Japanese War (1894–95), which ended inChina’s defeat. By the terms of thetreaty, China wasobliged to recognize the independence ofKorea, over which it had traditionally held suzerainty; to cedeTaiwan, the Pescadores Islands, and the Liaodong (south Manchurian) Peninsula toJapan; to pay an indemnity of 200,000,000 taels to Japan; and to open the ports of Shashi,Chongqing,Suzhou, andHangzhou to Japanese trade.The Triple Intervention (1895), secured by Russia, France, and Germany, subsequently requiredJapan to retrocede theLiaodong Peninsula to China in return for an additional indemnity of 30,000,000 taels.