Korea+Chapter+6

Derek Crowley:

The Choson banned any open seas relations that were not defined by the sadae kyorin doctrine which meant trade was limited to China and Japan through official channels. This did not change until the mid ninteenth century that the traditional east asian order began to change when the Chinese last the opium war with Britian and Japan was forced to open its ports. Korea was not as familiar with western trade and had a harder time with western traditions. Catholicism was first introuced to korea from book written in Chinese brought into Korea. Korea thought of it as western learning and not as religion during that time. It was not brought to Korea by missionaries like what normally happened. Yi Sunghun was the first Korea Catholic and was baptized in 1784. The court condemned catholicism and banned all catholic books. Persecution isolated the choson kingdom which started an uprise again th throne.

Taewon'gun was educated in Neo-Confucianism and was against the corruption under the rule of the Patriarch clique. He wanted to improved the goverment and get rid of the old corruption. He treated foreigners with hospitality and returned them to China without harming them. When an American ship armed with Canons tried to get into Korea te Koreas attacked them and killed the crew and Taewon'gun did not realize the benefit that trade with the west could offer. Taewon'gun suppressed catholicism again and executed 8,000 Korea Catholics and 8 french priests. Napoleon III decided to attack Korea because of the executions and invaded Korea. They could not defeat and Koreans and left without an diplomatic progress which made Taewon'gun feel confident that he could suppress all of the west. In 1871 the US wanted to force Korea to open its ports but they failed much like the French.

In 1874 Japan also wanted to force Korea to open its doors for trade but King Kojong did not want to. Even though he knew Japan and China were promoting themselves as stronger because of their open trade he did not want to open Korea's doors to western influence. King Kojong also wanted to know what was going on in the outside world.. Meiji Japan decided to attack Korea and sent the Unyokan to go to Kanghwa island and attack. It resulted in the Kanghwa treaty which Korea was forced to sign.