Game of empires and its legacy

Some 10 years ago I published a column which then led to some controversy. I stated that, contrary to the oft-repeated cliche widely believed by Koreans themselves, the history of Korea prior to the mid-19th century was not a history of never-ending foreign invasions and ever-present external threat. To the contrary, if compared to other countries outside East Asia, until the mid-19th century Korea had an unusually peaceful and non-violent history. Indeed, in no European or Middle Eastern country of comparable size one can find centuries-long periods of completely unbroken peace.

If so, where does this perception of “eternal victimhood,” nearly universal in Korea, come from? One of the sources seems to be a sour experience of the last 150 years when Korea indeed was an area where imperialist ambitions of collided empires. The traumatic period of 1860-1910, as well as following periods of colonial modernization and national division, produced a huge impact on the Korean psyche.

Who was fighting over Korea between 1860 and 1910? To start with, in the 1860s Korea was the only East Asian country which continued with the policy of self-isolation. The policy once was once common for entire region, but China was pressed into abandoning it by the British invasion of 1839-1840 and Japan gave in under U.S. threats in 1853-54. By 1860 it was clear that the forced opening of Korea by some imperialist power was merely a matter of time.

For a while, the French Empire looked best positioned to press Korea into openness (and then, perhaps, make it into a colony). Around that time it took over Indochina, and in 1866 staged a naval expedition to Korea, using bloody persecutions of the local Catholics as a morally sound excuse. France, however, soon dropped out of the competition, being undermined by a domestic crisis.

Korea was finally “opened” in 1876 by Japan. It was an unlikely candidate: Japan herself was just beginning to create modern economy and westernize itself. However, in those days being “modern” also meant to be imperialistic, and Japanese strategists saw Korea as a natural springboard for their future expansion in Asia.

For the following two decades Japanese ambitions were checked by China. Korean was a Chinese vassal for centuries, but this did not mean much: dependency was largely symbolic. However, in the 1880s Chinese government was not satisfied by the symbolic dependency and tried to replace it with more conventional forms of control. In 1884 the Chinese troops were called by the local conservatives to suppress a reformist coup. They succeeded and since then for over a decade the Chinese (in the person of young Yuan Shi-kai, a future president of the Chinese Republic) were running the country. Chinese businesses enjoyed numerous privileges, and no important political decision could be made without prior consultation with Yuan Shi-kai.

However, 1894 a war between China and Japan erupted, provoked by the clash of their interests in Korea. The Japanese won a swift and spectacular victory. In Seoul they installed a pro-Japanese puppet regime which, however, introduced much needed reforms (including the abolition of slavery). The conservatives tried to resist and intrigue, but the Japanese suppressed them with great brutality. The conservative-minded Queen Min, King Gojong’s consort, was killed by Japanese agents who stormed into the palace for this purpose.

The king, however, soon escaped to the Russian Legation, creating a unique situation: for a year he ran the country from a foreign mission, being protected by the international laws of extraterritoriality (well, the presence of Russian marines did not hurt either). Gojong had to return to the palace eventually, only to find Korea being torn by the rivalry of Russia and Japan. Their uneasy balance lasted until 1904.

The Russo-Japanese rivalry led to a military clash. The Russo-Japanese war of 1904-05 was fought largely in China and Korea, and ended, to almost everybody’s surprise, by Japan’s spectacular victory, the first victory of an Asian state in a modern war against a European government. Japan’s triumph was widely applauded across Asia, but not in Korea: the Russian presence helped keep Japan in check. After Russia’s withdrawal, Japan proceeded to the full annexation of Korea which took place in 1910. The independent Korea state ceased to exist, not to be reborn until 1948 — only to found itself once again in the middle of great powers competition.

So does it comes as no surprise that Koreans see the outside world as a dangerous place?