Between Two Empires — The Sino-Japanese and Russo-Japanese Wars

The Korean Peninsula, once opened, had not become free. If anything, by opening its gate it became, more clearly than ever, a place where the forces of great powers collided. To the north was the Qing, which wished to keep the peninsula beneath the roof of suzerainty. To the east was Japan, which wished to strengthen its influence over the peninsula. And from the north came the shadow of Russia, pressing southward in search of an ice-free port. The calculations of three great powers crossed over this small peninsula. In the 1890s, that tension at last erupted into the form of war, sparked by an uprising raised by a single peasant leader. This is the story of a decade that greatly moved the peninsula’s fate.

A Peasant Uprising Became the Trigger of War

In 1894, in Jeolla Province in the southwest of the peninsula, peasants rose up. People who had suffered under heavy taxes and the corruption of officials rose in revolt, with believers of the folk religion of Donghak at their core. Under Jeon Bong-jun, said to be one of their leaders, the peasant army spread across the land while defeating government forces, and is said to have shown such momentum that it briefly occupied the key town of Jeonju. This was the event later called the Donghak Peasant Revolution, or the Donghak Peasant Movement.

At its wits’ end, the Joseon government sought reinforcements from the Qing. But if the Qing sent troops, Japan too would send troops under the pretext of protecting its residents and the like — between the two countries there is said to have been an arrangement holding that if one party dispatched troops, the other could do the same. In the blink of an eye, the peninsula became a place where the armies of two empires faced one another.

Ironically, the peasant army and the government soon reached a provisional reconciliation. Yet the Qing and Japanese forces that had once entered the peninsula did not withdraw at once. Negotiations over withdrawal broke down, and in 1894 the two countries at last opened hostilities. This was the First Sino-Japanese War. The spark was the uprising of the peninsula’s peasants, but what caught fire was a contest for initiative between great powers. And the principal stage made of that struggle was none other than the peninsula itself.

The Qing Withdraws, and Russia Appears

The war ended in Japan’s victory, and in 1895 the two countries concluded the Treaty of Shimonoseki. By this treaty the Qing is said to have recognized that Korea was an independent state. On the surface, these were words that released the peninsula from the old order of suzerainty. The continental roof that had stood over the peninsula for five centuries was now removed.

But a peninsula with its roof removed did not thereby become free. Into the space from which the weight of the Qing had been lifted, another great power at once moved in. This was Russia. Over the continental territory Japan had gained in the Treaty of Shimonoseki, Russia, together with France and Germany, applied pressure on Japan and pressed it to return that territory. This was the so-called Triple Intervention. When Japan yielded to it, movements seeking to rely on Russia’s power are said to have grown stronger in the peninsular court.

The peninsula after the Qing withdrew now became a stage on which Japan and Russia glared at one another. If one strengthened its influence over the court, the other sought to push it back. The politics of the peninsula went on swaying within the pendulum of foreign power. In this period a grievous incident is said to have occurred around the court as well, testifying to how inseparably the peninsula’s internal affairs were bound up with the rivalry of great powers. The sense of liberation at the removal of the northern roof was fleeting. The peninsula had merely moved from the shadow of one great power into the space between two.

The Dream of the Korean Empire, and the Reality of the Russo-Japanese War

Amid all this, the peninsula sought to show, by its own hand, that it was an independent state. In 1897, King Gojong is said to have proclaimed himself emperor and renamed the country the Korean Empire. To set the era name as Gwangmu and declare, at home and abroad, a status equal to that of the continental emperor — this was a modest yet desperate attempt by a peninsula that had stood under suzerainty to rise as a self-reliant, independent modern nation. Reforms for modernization were also advanced, and the peninsula sought to walk on its own feet.

Yet to permit that dream, the disparity of forces surrounding the peninsula was far too great. The conflict between Japan and Russia at last headed toward war. In 1904, the two countries opened hostilities. This was the Russo-Japanese War. The object of the contest was initiative over the peninsula and the Manchuria to its north. Here too, the peninsula was made the stage for a decisive battle between great powers, at a place apart from its own will.

The war proceeded with Japan in the ascendant, and in 1905 the Treaty of Portsmouth was concluded. In this peace, Russia is said to have recognized that Japan held a preeminent position on the peninsula. The long tug-of-war among the three great powers — Qing, Japan, and Russia — over initiative on the peninsula now tilted greatly, for the time being, toward Japan’s side. And this tilt would rapidly fade the banner of self-reliant independence that the Korean Empire had at last raised.

The attempt of the Korean Empire — to proclaim an emperor and to rise as a modern nation — struck a great wall within only a few years. Through the Russo-Japanese War, Japan’s standing on the peninsula became unshakable. And what the peninsula would lose next was neither a part of its territory nor initiative within the court. It was the right to conduct diplomacy — the very power, as a state, to face the outside world. The peninsula was about to enter a new stage, in which its sovereignty would be peeled away one layer at a time.