Appunti Storia della Corea 2

Nineteenth century unrest

1811-12 Hong Gyeongnae rebellion in Pyeongan province

1862 uprisings in southern Korea, beginning in Jinju

1864 Execution of Choe Jeu, founder of Donghak

1866 Final mass persecution of Catholics

General Sherman 1866 Destruction of the merchant ship

1866 Attack by a French expedition on Ganghwa Island

1871 Invasion by American marines on Ganghwa Island

1876 Signing of the Treaty of Ganghwa

First in a series of organisational reforms in the Korean 1880 government

19th Century —> internal uprisings & imperialism

Politics

Death of King Jeongjo in 1800. Succeeded by 4 kings too young to exert their own authority. Court network of corruption dominated by royal family members —> —> eruptions of rebellious violence:

• Hong Gyeongnae Rebellion in 1811-12, against corruption of local government authorities;
• Uprisings in southern Korea, starting from Jinju in 1862. Bak Gyusu — the Pyongyang governor — was sent there to investigate and recommended several systemic reforms in the taxation system to address people's needs, but was ignored by the central government.

Donghak

Consequential rise of ("Eastern Learning"), armed by the assassination of Choe Jeu, founder of this religion and martyr.

While Catholicism was considered "a curious religion" by King Jeongjo, after his death in 1800 central elites started to express a strong disliking to it. The first state persecution of Catholics in 1801 killed several hundred converts, then continued to mass execute them until the final anti-Catholic campaign in 1866.

Imperialism: anti-foreign resistance policies

NB. The Prince Regent had- In the summer of 1866, American officers on board of the General Sherman set off from China to Korea in order to force open trade relations. Arrived near the mouth of the Daedong River in Pyongyang, the Korean government asked the ship to leave. Americans ignored the warning and sailed further up the river, only to find themselves stuck. Negotiations started, but when the Americans held a government representative hostage, hostilities broke out. After a few days of battle, the Koreans set the ship on fire.

A month later, a French armada raided villages and fortresses on Ganghwa Island, establishing a temporary base. They made their way up leading to Seoul, but the Korean defences successfully beat them after a few days.

1871, Ganghwa Island, punitive expedition carried out by American marines in response to the General Sherman’s destruction. They did not reach the capital before retreating.

First sight of openness was seen in Bak Gyusu. After a diplomatic mission to Qing China, he returned with a resolve to change the Korean court’s policy of fierce resistance to engagement. He was intrigued by the possibilities to learn from the outside world (other than China).

This shift in thought materialised in 1875, when King Gojong permitted the exploration of formal trade relations with Japan. In 1876 the Treaty of Ganghwa was signed. What followed was a series of study missions sent by the Korean government to Meiji Japan and Qing China to absorb the basics of modern statecraft and technology. These participants then returned and helped implement major changes in government organisations and direction in the early 1880s.

Ganghwa Treaty —> extraterritorial issue, no commercial treaty, open ports as traditional outposts.

1894, a fateful year

Soldier’s uprising in Seoul

1882 Establishment of diplomatic relations with the US

Failed overthrow ("Gapsin Coup") of Korean government in 1884 by radicals

1894 April The Donghak Uprising

1894 July Japanese occupation of royal palace

1894 July Establishment of the Deliberative Assembly

1894 August Start of Chinese-Japanese War

1895 April End of Chinese-Japanese War

1895 October Assassination of Queen Min

1896 January Flight of Korean king to Russian legation

Soldier’s uprising in Seoul

In the 1880s Korea became entangled in the growing feud between China and Japan over dominance in northeast Asia. In 1882, a group of Korean soldiers rose up in revolt against the Korean government’s growing ties to foreign influence, taking Taewongun as inspiration. Chinese military put down the rebellion.

Gapsin Coup

In 1884 a group of young radicals, impatient with the slow pace of change, killed conservative high ministers and took over key government buildings. This coup ended through the intervention of Chinese soldiers. The coup plotters had to flee to Japan.

China established preeminent influence over the Korean government for the following decade. Qing China played a central role in the establishment of the first Korean telegraph lines, the Korean Customs Service and even formal diplomatic relations with Western governments.

1885 —> signing of a treaty by the Chinese and Japanese, acknowledging each other’s interests in Korea. This treaty called for the notification of the other side if ever there was a cause for dispatching troops in Korea.

Donghak Uprising

The exploitation practiced by the magistrate of Gobu county in Jeolla province (debilitating special taxes) sparked the first uprisings. Donghak villagers, led by their local religious leader Jeon Bongjun, swiftly ransacked the Gobu county office and redistributed the ill-gotten grain to the people. The rebellion then spread like wildfire through the southwest. The battles against government troops, now supplemented by Chinese reinforcements, declined in the early summer of 1894 through a settlement, only to revive in the fall in protest against the Japanese occupation of Seoul. The confrontation between Donghak followers and joint Japanese-Korean force ended the rebellion in the winter.

Chinese-Japanese War

Following what the 1885 treaty said, when Chinese troops entered Korea to help put down the Donghak, Japanese soldiers filled the streets of Seoul — under the pretext of protecting the Japanese consulate and other possessions. When these troops chased away the conservative pro-Chinese government leaders, the Japanese orchestrated the creation of the Deliberative Assembly (Gunguk gimucheo), which would henceforth act as the highest governing body.

Japan declared war on China on August 1, 1894. The Japanese won decisively. They sought supremacy in East Asia by provoking a direct confrontation with China in Korea. 1895 —> Shimonoseki Peace Treaty.

Deliberative Assembly and Gabo Reforms

Reform program: new dating system based on the founding of the Joseon dynasty (1392), new kind of diplomatic relations with China, end to hereditary social status and slavery, cessation of contract marriages of adolescents along with a lifting of the prohibition on widow remarriage, opening of the path to government service by commoners. In short, it kick-started the Gabo Reforms of 1894-95. The Gabo Reforms are a series of sweeping reforms suggested to the Korean government in response to the Donghak Uprising, they were probably largely influenced by the Japanese.

Assassination of Queen Min

Fall of 1895 —> assassination by the hands of Japanese soldiers and Korean accomplices of Queen Min. Anti-Japanese elements close to the monarch spirited away the Korean king to the safe haven of the Russian consulate —> change in Korean politics, pro-American and pro-Russian cabinet.

The Great Korean Empire

The founding of the Independence Club and 1896 April Independent newspaper

1896 Revision of the household registration system

1897 Proclamation of the Great Korean Empire

1898 Start of the nationwide land survey

Government shutdown of the Independence Club and 1898-99 newspaper

1899 May Operation of the first streetcars in Seoul

1899 September Opening of the Seoul-Incheon Rail Line

1904 Opening of the Seoul-Busan Rail Line

1904 Outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War

After the Gabo government, the Korean monarch and government advisors pursued autonomy not only from China but from all the powers that surrounded the country. In 1897 the Joseon state officially became an Empire (Great Korean Empire, shortened to Daehan jeguk hanguk) and the coronation of its monarch as emperor. Royal absolutism —> the emperor had total control over many realms of governance. Emperor-centred state legitimacy.

The Independence Club

The Independence Club was a civic group founded in 1896 by Seo Jaepil, a plotter of the Gapsin Coup that fled to the USA and came back to Korea in 1895. The club’s program was articulated in The Independent newspaper (dongnip sinmun), first issued in April 1896 and written in Korean vernacular with a page in English. The club and the newspaper maintained the spirit of the Gabo Reforms, constantly pressing the Korean government, monarch and people toward modern change. The club was shut down in 1898 by the monarchical government and the newspaper followed a year later.

The railroad ultimately served in 1904-5 to facilitate Japan’s prosecution of its war with Russia over supremacy in northeast Asia. To the Japanese, Korea fell far short in its degree of civilisational advancement and this justified a foreign power’s efforts to take control of the country. Japanese and even many Korean elites argued that Japan had not only an interest but a duty in shaping Korea’s future, for Korea was too weak to withstand the pressures of western imperialism.

The Japanese takeover

Outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War. 1904 February Signing of the Korea-Japan agreement

Signing of a treaty allowing Japanese intervention in 1904 August Korean government affairs

Treaty of Portsmouth ending the Russo-Japanese War, 1905 September recognising Japanese supremacy in Korea

Protectorate treaty establishing Japanese Residency 1905 November General in Korea

Arrival of secret Korean emissaries in The Hague for the 1907 June World Peace Conference

Forced abdication of Emperor Kojong. 1907 July Signing of a treaty giving Japan veto and appointment power in the Korean government

Disbandment of Korean army. 1907 August Swelling of ranks of righteous armies

1909 October Assassination of first Resident General Ito Hirobumi

Signing of the annexation treaty. 1910 August Commencement of Government-General of Korea

1910-1918 Colonial land survey

The Japanese conquest of Korea led to an experience of colonial rule that lasted until 1945. The most decisive factor was Japanese imperialism, and the series of events that led to Korea’s loss of political autonomy began with the Russo-Japanese War -> eruption of hostilities in early 1904 off the west coast of Korea gave the Japanese the justification for taking control of the peninsula. Koreans not only challenged and resisted this effort, but in many ways also aided it, both willingly and not.

1904 Treaty —> allow Japanese soldiers to be stationed on Korean soil. August 1904 Treaty —> strong role for Japanese advisors in the financial, military and diplomatic sectors of the Korean government. November 1905 Protectorate Treaty —> after a peace agreement between the warring sides, brokered by the USA, that recognised Japan’s preeminent interests on the peninsula —> signed by the Korean ministers under coercion —> establishment of the Residency-General, the Japanese protectorate government. It controlled Korean’s government foreign and financial affairs and implanted regional consulates around the country. The first Resident-General was Ito Hirobumi.

Initially the Resident-General did not want to apply a complete takeover of Korea, but in the Summer of 1907, as soon as he heard of the secret mission to The Hague things changed. Emperor Kojong was forced to abdicate the throne over to his son. Another treaty was signed, one that allowed Japanese a total control over the Korean government by allowing the foreigners to veto major policies and determine appointments to the highest posts. The disbandment of the Korean army followed, along with the serving of the combined Japanese-Korean military police force under Japanese control. October 26 1909 —> assassination of Ito Hirobumi signing of the annexation treaty.

August 1910 —> First decade —> "military rule" —> institutionalising a new bureaucratic order, legitimise the Japanese takeover, ferret out and pacify the remaining sources of armed resistance, strife any plots seeking restoration of Korean autonomy; changes in household registration, public health, penal and legal system, reorganisation of the cabinet, shift in appointment power to the Residency-General.

The most consequential change to state organisation was the creation of an agency to carry out the comprehensive colonial land survey beginning in 1910 until 1918. It standardised the ownership of all plots of land and real estate, consolidated the large holdings of public and private owners and employed a legion of new officials.

Upon annexation the royal family and prominent elites were eased into submission through lavish monetary sums, nobility titles and sinecures. The top Korean appointees after 1907 were the same people that fled Korea after the collapse of the Gabo Reform government in 1896.

Measures that were aimed first and foremost at easing the implementation of Japanese rule —> changes to the financial and banking sectors, government investments in communications and transportation infrastructure, construction of schools and technical training centres, the establishment of hospitals and other mechanism to improve health care and sanitation.

The Hague

In the spring of 1907 Emperor Kojong sent three advisors to the Second World Peace Conference in The Hague, after Russia denied them the assistance they needed against Japan. They went to The Netherlands and, while they were denied a formal audience, the three emissaries did manage to create a scene of protest that caught the attention of the press, which sympathised with them —> resolve of the Japanese officials to take more decisive action.

The long 1920s

1919 March The March First Independence uprisings

Convening of the Korean Provisional Government in 1919 April Shanghai

Commencement of the "Cultural Rule" policy by colonial 1919 September government

Inaugural publication of the first two Korean newspapers 1920 of the colonial era

1921 Special exhibition of Na Hyeseok’s paintings in Seoul

New Woman 1925 First issue of the journal, 1927 Beginning of Na Hyeseok’s extended visit to Europe 1929 Return of Na Hyeseok to Korea, divorce from husband

Korean students who went to study...