Donghak uprising

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Korean spelling
Korean alphabet : 동학 (농민) 봉기
Hanja : 東 學 (農民) 蜂起
Revised Romanization : Donghak (nongmin) bonggi
McCune-Reischauer : Tonghak (nongmin) ponggi

The Donghak uprising of 1894, called 동학 봉기 (donghak bonggi) or 농민 봉기 (nongmin bonggi, peasant uprising) in Korean , was a rebellion of the peasants in Joseon ( 조선 ) (Korea) who opposed their corrupt government, against members of the Yangban class ( 양반 ) and against foreigners, especially from Japan and the West. The uprising also triggered the First Sino-Japanese War , in which China and Japan fought for supremacy over the then politically and militarily weak Joseon, which was located on the Korean Peninsula .

The movement that gave rise to the rebellion was religiously and politically motivated, with the intention of bringing about social reforms and expelling foreigners from the country. Many Koreans despised the foreign influence on their country and were tired of the corrupt and tyrannical rule of the Joseon Dynasty ( 조선 왕조 ). The Donghak Uprising was also one of the series of events that contributed to Joseon's decline.

prehistory

The peasants of Joseon were disappointed with the country's upper class, the Yangban class, and increasingly turned against them before foreign influences and the opening of Korea had taken place. During the 19th century droughts and floods alternated in Joseon, some of which caused great famine. The situation was made worse by the increase in taxes on crop yields imposed by the rulers of the Joseon Dynasty. The taxes were so high that many farmers were forced to sell their land to the rich landowners who could get more land so cheaply.

Peasant dissatisfaction increased in popular uprisings, and in most cases fallen members of the Yangban class took the lead. This was also the case in 1811, when Hong Gyeong-nae ( 홍경 내 ) from the Pyeongan-do province ( 평안도 ) led a rebellion that quickly brought almost the entire region north of the Cheongcheon River ( 청천 ) under their control, and only after a few months and massive attacks by government troops had to give up the city ​​they held Chongju ( 정주 ). The uprising ended with the death of Hong Gyeong-nae.

Another major uprising took place in Jinju ( 진주 ) in 1862 . Even the suppression of this rebellion could not deter the peasants from continuing to force their demands for an end to exploitation and discrimination if necessary.

The birth of the Donghak movement

In the 1860s, Choe Je-u ( kor. 최제우 , 崔 濟 愚 ) published the Donghak ideology ("Eastern Teaching" or "Eastern Knowledge") with the intention of helping the poor and unrest farmers and the political and social Position to stabilize.

The Donghak ideology was a mixture of elements of Confucianism , Buddhism and Songyo (teaching by Sillas Hwarang ) as well as modern-humanistic class struggle theories, which today could perhaps be viewed as Marxist . They showed traits of both a religion and a political ideology. Phrases of exclusion theories against foreign influence and early forms of nationalism were also present.

The Donghak teachings were put into music so that illiterate farmers could understand them and accept them more readily. In doing so, they were rewritten in a systematic way as a message of salvation for farmers in need. The ideas quickly received approval from the peasantry.

Like many Koreans, Choe was concerned about the invasion of the Christian faith and the Anglo-French occupation of Beijing during the Second Opium War . He believed that the best way to counteract foreign influence in Korea was to introduce democratic and human rights reforms.

Nationalism and a lack of social reforms were well received by the peasants, and the teaching of Donghak spread throughout Korea. Over time, revolutionaries organized the peasants into a cohesive structure. The resistance manifested itself in guerrilla actions.

Foreign intervention

The Joseon Dynasty Korea had been an autonomous , tributary vassal state of Qing Dynasty China since the Second Manchurian Invasion of Korea in 1637 . Apart from that, Korea operated a policy of isolation and was suspicious of foreign influences. After several incidents involving Russia, France (French campaign against Korea in 1866) and the USA ( American expedition to Korea ), Korea was opened to Japan with the Treaty of Ganghwado as a result of the Ganghwa incident . China thereby lost its exclusive influence over Korea; foreign embassies came to Seoul and western ideas and customs were introduced in Korea.

The Donghak Revolution

In 1892 the small Donghak movements united to form a single peasant guerrilla army, which armed itself and raided government offices. They also attacked wealthy landowners, traders and foreigners, confiscated the property of their victims and distributed it to the poor.

The founder of the Donghak, Chose Je-u, was executed as a criminal by the government. Choe Si-hyeong took over the leadership .

The first uprising

In the Donghak peasant uprising, also known as the Peasant War of 1894 (“Nongmin Jeonjaeng”), large numbers of poor peasants were persuaded to rebel against the landowners and the ruling class. The farmers demanded a new distribution of land, tax cuts, democracy and human rights. The taxes were so high that most of the farmers were forced to sell their ancestral homesteads to rich landowners at cheap prices. The landowners sold rice to Japan so that their children could study there. As a result, strong feelings against the Japanese and the Yangban developed within the peasant class. Progressive Yangbans, scholars and nationalists also joined the movement.

The rebellion eventually flared up against Jo Byong-gap , a government official whose rule was seen as tyrannical and corrupt. On January 11, 1894, the rebels, led by Jeon Bong-jun ( 전봉준 , 全 琫 準 ), defeated the government troops at the Battle of Go-bu , and divided the property of Jos among the peasants.

The uprising spread rapidly until March 13, 1894. On that day the revolutionary army was finally defeated by government forces. These were led by Yi Yong-tae , who caught or killed the peasant guerrillas, burned villages and confiscated the peasant property in Go-bu.

However, the peasant army regrouped and started a new rebellion, as the news of the government action in Go-bu helped them to gain more support within the peasantry. The leading people this time were Jeon Bong-jun , Kim Gae-nam and Son Hwa-jung .

With renewed motivation, the peasant army defeated one government garrison after another and thus came closer to Seoul. Their goals were uniform land reform, social reforms, the overthrow of the Joseon dynasty (or at least the dismissal of corrupt officials) and the exclusion of foreign influence in Korea.

The order for the marching peasant troops was as follows:

  • "Do not kill and do not take the property of the peasants!"
  • "Protect the rights of the farmers!"
  • "Expel Japanese and Western people and cleanse our holy land!"
  • "March to Seoul and purge the government!"

In early May the peasant army occupied a palace in Jeonju . The Joseon government sought help from the Chinese government to end the revolt. The Qing Dynasty , after informing the Japanese government under the Treaty of Tientsin , sent 3,000 Chinese soldiers to Korea. Initially, the Chinese did not want a war with Japan, but had secretly decided to restore their old influence over Korea. They had lost this in previous state treaties. Japan saw China's actions as a threat to its national security and in turn sent troops to Korea. This was legal because the Treaty of Tientsin stipulated that if China or Japan acted militarily (or in any other significant way) in Korea, the latter had to inform the other and possibly allow them to send a comparable number of units into the respective area.

In the presence of Chinese troops, the government negotiated a ceasefire with the rebels. With the end of the rebellion, tensions between China and Japan increased, as neither was ready to withdraw his troops from Korea before the other. The resulting tensions eventually led to the First Sino-Japanese War .

The second uprising

As the hostilities between China and Japan began, a second revolt arose in rural Korea against a new pro-Japanese government established in Seoul.

At the end of June 1894, the pro-Japanese forces in Korea planned to neutralize the peasant army once and for all. The Japanese armed forces, which were stationed in Incheon and Seoul , were planned for this. On October 16, the rebels moved towards Gongju for a final battle , which was designed as a trap for them. The Japanese and pro-Japanese troops were already waiting for them in Gongjus.

The Donghak Army was defeated at the Battle of Ugeumchi . This is also because the Japanese brought cannons and other modern weapons with them, while the Korean peasants went into battle armed only with bows and arrows, spears, swords and a few muskets.

The main phase of the battle took place between October 22nd and November 10th, 1894. Due to their poor armament, the peasants suffered heavy losses when attacking the well-entrenched Japanese. The survivors fled to various bases. These were persecuted by the triumphant Japanese and finally overthrown. Donghak leader Jeon Bong-jun was caught in March 1895. In 1898 Choe Si-jyeong was executed.

Effects

Although the rebellion failed, the Gabo reforms addressed many peasant grievances. It thus made a decisive contribution to the modernization of Korea, where the peasants' demands for democracy and exclusion from foreign influence went hand in hand with an end to feudalism .

See also

literature

  • Hiyoul Kim : Korean History . In: Heinrich P. Kelz (Hrsg.): Languages ​​and language learning . tape 204 . Asgard-Verlag, St. Augustin 2004, ISBN 3-537-82040-2 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Catherine Wessinger : The Oxford Handbook of Millennialism . Oxford University Press , Oxford 2011, ISBN 978-0-19-530105-2 , pp.  332 .
  2. ^ A b The Tonghak peasant revolution . Association for Asian Research ( AFAR ), January 2, 2004, accessed May 3, 2015 .
  3. ↑ a b Hiyoul Kim : Korean History . 2004, p.  181 .
  4. ↑ Hiyoul Kim : Korean History . 2004, p.  178 .
  5. ^ Demetrius Charles Boulger : China . Kessinger Publishing , Whitefish, Montana 2004, ISBN 978-1-4179-1627-6 , The War With Japan And Subsequent Events .