Korea
Overview
Statewide Dual Credit Modern World History: Unit 10, Lesson 3
A discussion of how Korea transitioned from a tributary state of China to being under the influence of Japan between 1700 and 1900.
The period between 1700 and 1900 was one of tremendous change for Korea. Since the second century BCE, China militarily, economically and culturally dominated Korea, forcing Korean monarchs to pay tribute to Beijing. In 1392, Yi Seong-gye (1335-1408) overthrew the ruling Goryeo family to create the Joseon Dynasty. His descendant Sejong (the Great, 1397- 1458) reformed the Korean government, civil service and legal system along Confucian lines. He also used Chinese characters to create the first written Korean alphabet, “hangul.”
After enduring invasions by both Japanese and Chinese forces in the early 17th century, Koreans followed a policy of strict isolation, earning the nickname of the “Hermit Kingdom.” Despite its isolation, Korea continued trade with China, importing goods as well as Buddhist, Confucian, and Western texts on religion, science, and history. Many of these works were Chinese translations of books introduced by Catholic Priest Matteo Ricci (1552-1610) into China in the mid- 1500s. In the early 1700s, King Yeongio (1694-1776) and his grandson, King Jeongio (1752-1800), initiated a period of reform that streamlined the tax system, modernized the military and promoted the creation of schools, universities and a national library. The advent of movable type printing presses helped create a flourishing print culture in Korea. During this period, the leaders of the Silhak movement demanded that schools begin to teach Western science instead of Confucian classics. Influenced by Catholic missionaries, many Silhak leaders also became attracted to the egalitarian aspects of Christianity. Starting in 1784 diplomat, Yi Sung-hun (1756-1801) established a grassroots Catholic movement focused on conversion and especially baptism throughout Korea.
External Pressures
From 1839-1842 China and Great Britain fought the First Opium War. Japanese and Korean leaders watched in horror as British forces defeated China’s woefully antiquated military. Western diplomats then forced the Qing government to sign a series of unequal treaties which opened Chinese ports to Western trade. Worried by the growing popularity of Christianity among working-class Koreans and the Chinese defeats in the Second Opium War (1856-1860), aristocrat and scholar Choe Je-u (1824-1865) created a new religious belief system known as “Donghak” (or Eastern Learning) that drew from native Korean, Confucian, Buddhist and even Christian beliefs. Although Donghak proved very popular among the Korean masses, the royal government began to see it as a threat. In 1864, government officials executed Choe on charges of misleading the Korean people and promoting social chaos.
When Prince Gojong (1852-1919) became Korean Emperor at the age of 12 in 1864, his father, Heungseon Daewongun (1820-1898) became acting regent. He strengthened the central government’s power, implemented a series of merit-based civil servant exams and levied taxes against Confucian-run schools. During this time, Gojong’s military forces beat back French (1866) and American (1871) expeditions that sought to open Korea by force. In 1873 Gojong’s consort Queen Min (1851-1895) forced him into exile. Crowned Empress Myeongsong, Min continued to build up Korea’s imperial government and military.
In 1882, Korea’s government signed a treaty with the U.S. granting American merchants trading rights in Korea, granting American citizens in Korea the right of extraterritoriality, guaranteeing the rights of American missionaries to proselytize, and pledging mutual support for one another in the case of attack. American missionaries migrated to Korea in large numbers, founding schools and opposing traditional Korean practices such as polygamy and having concubines.
In 1894, Koreans who opposed the intrusion of Westerners into traditional Korean society launched the Donghak Rebellion (also called the Nongmin Jeonjaeng or Peasant War). Taking advantage of the confusion, Japan invaded Korea, causing China to intervene to defend its tributary state. The conflict ended in a Japanese victory known later as the First Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). The war, and subsequent peace treaty, resulted in Korea being opened up to Japanese trade and influence.
The Empress Myeongseong responded to growing Japanese influence by cultivating closer ties to Czarist Russia. The Japanese responded by attacking the royal palace and killing the empress in 1895. King Gojong fled to the protection of the Russian embassy in Seoul. In 1897 he proclaimed the creation of the Korean Empire with himself as emperor. Korea thus began the period as a tributary state to China and ended it under the influence of Japan. In 1910, Japan officially annexed Korea.