Treaty of Ganghwa
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| Treaty of Ganghwa | |
|---|---|
| Hangul: |
강화도조약
|
| Hanja: |
江華島條約
|
| Revised Romanization: | Ganghwado Joyak |
| McCune-Reischauer: | Kanghwado Choyak |
The Treaty of Ganghwa, also called Korea-Japanese Treaty of Amity, signed in 1876, was written by Kuroda Kiyotaka, Governor of Hokkaido, and designed to open up Korea to Japanese trade. It ended Korea's status as a tributary state of China, at least in the eyes of Korea and Japan, if not China, and opened three ports to Japanese trade. The Treaty also granted Japanese many of the same rights in Korea that Westerners enjoyed in Japan, such as extraterritoriality (Japanese in Korea would be subject to Japanese, not Korean, law).
After the Industrial Revolution in 18th century, European nations, along with the U.S., began to colonize many other weaker nations in Africa and Asia, the political ideology called Imperialism. Almost all of Africa was colonized by European Powers; most of Central, South and Southeast Asia including India was taken over by various European nations and America. East Asia also was invaded by foreign powers, beginning with the Opium Wars in China by Britain and other foreign powers; China's vast, magnificent empire was reduced to a half-colonized territory. Meanwhile, the American fleet under the leadership of Matthew C. Perry forced Japan to open its ports to the western world in 1854.
Humiliated by unequal treaties with imperialistic powers, both China and Japan, which were at this time still medieval cultures, tried to develop technologically into industrialized nations. Japan succeeded first -- by putting an end to the Tokugawa regime and becoming imperialist itself under the leadership of Emperor Meiji, while China still struggled to industrialize itself.
In Korea, the strong dictatorship of Daewongun was overthrown by Empress Myeongseong, who instituted a policy of closing doors to European powers. France and United States had already made several unsuccessful attempts to begin commerce with the Joseon Dynasty, all of them happening during Daewon-gun's era. However, after he was removed from power, many new officials who supported the idea of opening commerce with foreigners took power. While there was political instability in Korea, Japan developed a plan to colonize Korea as a previous step before annexing China. In 1875, their plan was put into action: the Unyo, a small Japanese warship under the command of Inoue Yoshika, was dispatched to survey coastal waters without Korean permission.
On September 20 the ship reached Ganghwa Island, which had been a site of violent confrontations between Korean forces and foreign intruders in the previous decade. In 1866, the island was briefly occupied by the French, and in 1871 it was subjected to US attack. The memories of those confrontations were very fresh, and there was little question that the Korean garrison would shoot at any approaching foreign ship. Nonetheless, Commander Inoue ordered a small boat launched – allegedly in search of drinkable water. The Korean forts opened fire. The Unyo brought its superior firepower to bear and silenced the Korean guns. Then it attacked another Korean port and withdrew back to Japan. The following year saw a Japanese fleet coming over to Korea, demanding an apology from Joseon government and an intercommerce treaty between the two nations. The Korean government decided to accept the demand, in hope of importing some technologies to defend the country from the imperial invasions of European powers.
However, the treaty came out to be the first unequal treaty signed by Korea; it gave extraterritorial rights to Japanese citizens in Korea, made Korea independent from tribute to China so Japan could take Korea without intervention from the Qing Dynasty, forced Korean government to open 3 ports to Japan, specifically Busan, Incheon and Wonsan. With the signing of its first unequal treaty, Korea became another easy hunt for many imperialistic powers; and later the treaty led Korea to be annexed by Japan, who defeated Russia as rival nation in annexing Korea in Russo-Japanese War.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- McDougall, Walter (1993). "Let the Sea Make a Noise: Four Hundred Years of Cataclysm, Conquest, War and Folly in the North Pacific." New York: Avon Books.
