Japanese-Korean friendship treaty

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Japanese-Korean friendship treaty
The signing of the Ganghwa Treaty
Japanese name
Kanji 日 朝 修好 条規
Rōmaji after Hepburn Nitchō Shūkō Jōki
translation Japanese-Korean friendship agreement
Korean name
Hangeul 조일수 호 조약
Hanja 朝日 修好 條約
Revised Romanization Joil Suho Joyak
McCune-Reischauer Choil Suho Choyak
translation Korean-Japanese friendship treaty

The Japan-Korean Friendship Treaty was an unequal treaty signed between the Japanese Empire and the Korea of the Joseon Dynasty on February 26, 1876. The agreement, which preceded the Ganghwa incident and which was based on the model of Japan's Unequal Treaties with the United States of 1853, recognized Korea's independence and guaranteed Japan the right to extraterritoriality for its citizens and the opening of three treaty ports in Korea .

history

Korea looked back on centuries of existence as a formally sovereign but closely tied to China and tributary state to the Empire. The relationship with Japan was regulated by a trade agreement concluded in 1609, which gave Japan a limited basis for commercial transactions at Pusan . The Japanese government decided to open up the Korean market and provoked a military incident with Korea by crossing the border of a boat near Gangwah Island. After consulting with envoys from the Qing Dynasty , King Gojong decided not to risk war with Japan, as he considered his country to be militarily inferior.

The contract was signed on February 22, 1876. Additional negotiations on trade issues took place six months later. The opening of the country to Japanese traders and the opening of three contract ports led to the market being flooded with Japanese goods. Also, the increased rice prices felt by imports to Japan. The wording of the treaty emphasized the sovereignty of Korea independent of China and represented Japan's rejection of the previous Confucian state system. The imperial court in China was unable to intervene in the conflict due to continued pressure from the Western powers and internal rebellion and secession efforts and as a result experienced a loss of prestige in foreign policy. The port of Busan was opened in the year the contract was signed, Chemulpo in 1881 and Wŏnsan in 1880.

The treaty is in the larger context of the efforts of the Meiji government to include Japan in the international network of relationships established by Western nations in order to achieve the goal of revising the Unequal Treaties.

Name of the contract

The Japanese-Korean Friendship Treaty is also known by other names. It is also called the Treaty of Ganghwado ( Japanese 江華 条約 , Kōka Jōyaku ; Kor. 강화도 조약 , Ganghwado Joyak ). The name refers to the island of Ganghwado , where the treaty was signed.

It is also known in Japanese as the "Heishi friendship contract" ( 丙子 修 交 条約 , Heishi Shūkō Jōyaku ) or in Korean as the "Byeongja friendship contract" ( 병자 수호 조약 , 丙子 修好 條約 , Byeongja Suho Joyak ). The term “Heishi” or “Byeongja” (Japanese 丙子 ; Kor. 병자 ) have their names from the Chinese calendar , in which each of its 60 cycles has its own name. The name corresponds to the 13th year of the 60-year cycle of this calendar in which the contract was signed.

Furthermore, there is the spelling 한일 수호 조약 or 韓日 修好 條約 in South Korea , which also translates as “Korean-Japanese friendship treaty”.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Christian Schmidt-Häuer: Asiens history: The Korean tragedy . In: Zeit Online . August 20, 2010, accessed October 6, 2010 .
  2. ^ A b Sarah CM Paine: The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. Reprinted Edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2006, ISBN 978-0-521-81714-1 , pp. 41-46.
  3. ^ Sarah CM Paine: The Sino-Japanese War of 1894–1895. Reprinted Edition. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge et al. 2006, ISBN 978-0-521-81714-1 , p. 93.
  4. Peter Duus: The Abacus and the Sword. The Japanese Penetration of Korea, 1895-1910 (= Twentieth-century Japan. 4). University of California Press, Berkeley CA et al. 1995, ISBN 0-520-08614-7 , pp. 48 f.