The Textual Research On The Guangdong Coastal Defense Batteries Before The Opium War

As a coastal defense for Haiphong military project,which makes a difference in guarding strategic points,preventing the enemy from landing,defending the important towns inland,protecting territorial seas and so on.The construction of Chinese coastal defense batteries took its origin from Ming dynasty when Chinese defended Japanese pirates.Qing dynasty inherited the coastal defense system basically,what's more,the Qing armies formed a fortress fort,fort optimized design structure and gradually formed a complete system.A large number of coastal fort batteries were built along the coast.These batteries were regarded as “The Great Wall on the Sea”,which had been built for hundreds of years,which spread everywhere on China's coastline,which was a costly tough task.The coastal defense batteries played an important part in the struggle against foreign aggression in modern China,the role of coastal fort batteries was much highlighted.The capital of Guangdong province is Guangzhou,which was an important harbor in the Qing dynasty,exchanged with the west.The coastal defense batteries lied in south of “The Great Wall on the Sea” and responsibility of guarding the security of Haiphong.So the coastal defense batteries in Guangdong province became the model throughout the country,that came up to the climax,which were built earliest and typically.Viewing from the research direction of scholars,most of them focused their study on the system of Humen coastal defense batteries,but seldom study the coastal defense batteries in Guangdong totally,especially before the Opium War.Because of the time,the administration adjustment and the geography change,the examine and correct the coastal defense batteries in Guangdong become more and more difficult.The aim of this thesis is to introduce the situation of Chinese coastal fort batteries in early Qing dynasty by research the coastal batteries in Guangdong area.The paper is divided into five parts: the first part introduces the coastal defense geography of Guangdong,status in the coast defense in the early period.The second introduces the situation of The East Route coastal batteries in Guangdong province.The third introduces The middle Route coastal defense batteries.The fourth introduces the situation of The West Route coastal defense batteries in this area.The fifth summarizes the functions of the coastal fort in the internal and external war.Through the study of the coastal fort batteries in Guangdong area,the general characteristics of Chinese coastal batteries in early Qing dynasty could be revealed.