Government expenditures greatly increased, largely because of appropriations for machinery imports and government reorganization, and the difficult financial situation was aggravated by obligations to pay reparations to Japan. Heavier tax levies were imposed on rural communities, who provided the bulk of government revenue. The import of such necessities as cotton textiles upset the traditional self-sufficiency of the farming community. Furthermore, usurious loans by Japanese rice dealers contributed to reducing the community to abject poverty. Frustrated villagers turned increasingly to Cheondogyo (Donghak).

Despite ruthless government persecution, Cheondogyo took deep root in the rural populace. Its followers staged large-scale demonstrations calling for an end to injustice. A negative official response precipitated the Donghak Uprising (1894), in which the Cheondogyo followers and the rural communities formed a united front to demand reform. Government troops armed with Western weapons suffered ignominious defeats in the southern provinces, weakening the government’s military grip on the country. Foreign intervention seemed the last resort open to the rulers, and Chinese troops soon moved in at the request of the government. Simultaneously, Japan, without invitation, dispatched a large military contingent, and the two foreign powers were in sharp and sudden confrontation.

The rebels laid down their arms voluntarily to defuse the threat, but the Sino-Japanese War broke out in July 1894. Japan emerged victorious, and the two belligerents signed the Treaty of Shimonoseki in April 1895, which recognized Japanese hegemony in Korea.

At the instigation of the Japanese, the Korean government initiated a wide range of reforms during the war. It set up a Council of Deliberations to undertake reforms, issued pertinent decrees, and formed Western-style institutions and a cabinet. Civil service examinations were discontinued, and such social practices as class discrimination were abolished. Public reaction to the reforms was unfavorable. The government realized that old customs and institutions would die hard and that reform would take more than mere decrees and imitation of things Western.

The international power struggle and Korea’s resistance

Japan’s supremacy in Korea and its subsequent acquisition of the Liaodong Peninsula in Manchuria were more than Russia, with its long-cherished dream of southward expansion in East Asia, could tolerate. With German and French support, Russia pressured Japan to return the peninsula to China. At the same time, encouraged by Russia, the Korean government began to take an anti-Japanese course. The Japanese thereupon engineered the assassination of Queen Min (October 1895), the suspected mastermind behind the anti-Japanese stance. Fearing for his own life, King Gojong took refuge in the Russian legation, where he granted such concessions as mining and lumbering franchises to Russia and other powers.

A popular movement for the restoration of Korean sovereignty arose under the leadership of such figures as Seo Jae-Pil (Philip Jaisohn). Returning from many years of exile, Seo organized in 1896 a political organization called the Independence Club (Dongnip Hyeophoe). He also published a daily newspaper named Tongnip sinmun (“The Independent”) as a medium for awakening the populace to the importance of sovereignty and civil rights. On the urging of the Dongnip Hyeophoe, the king returned to his palace and declared himself emperor and his kingdom the Great Korean (Dae Han) Empire.

The Boxer Rebellion in China (1900) led to a Russian invasion of Manchuria and to the Russo-Japanese War (1904–05). The Korean government at first declared neutrality, but under Japanese pressure it signed an agreement allowing Japan to use much of its territory for military operations against the Russians.

Japan was the victor, and the resulting Treaty of Portsmouth (September 1905), signed through the mediation of the United States, granted Japan undisputed supremacy in Korea. Its hand thus strengthened, Japan forced the Korean emperor into signing a treaty that made Korea a Japanese protectorate (November 1905).

Subsequently, the Korean emperor secretly dispatched an emissary to the international peace conference held at The Hague in 1907 to urge the great powers to intercede with Japan on behalf of Korea. The mission failed, however, and served only to infuriate Japan. Under Japanese coercion, Emperor Gojong then abdicated in favor of his son, Emperor Sunjong. The Korean army was disbanded, and in 1910 Japan annexed Korea.

A section of the Korean army led by deposed officials and Confucian scholars took up arms against the Japanese in the southern provinces following the 1905 treaty. For five years anti-Japanese guerrilla units, called the “righteous armies,” effectively harassed the Japanese occupation forces, especially in 1908–09. With the annexation, however, they were driven into Manchuria. Large numbers of Koreans immigrated to Manchuria, Siberia, and Hawaii before and after 1910.