Ganghwa Treaty (1876): Japan Forces Korea Open to Trade

The Ganghwa Treaty of 26 February 1876, also known as the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1876, was the agreement through which Meiji Japan forced the Joseon kingdom of Korea to open its ports. Signed on Ganghwa Island after a naval clash the year before, it was Korea’s first modern treaty and an unequal one. It began a chain of events that ended with Japan’s annexation of Korea in 1910.

Background

For centuries Joseon Korea had conducted its foreign relations within the Chinese tributary system and kept contact with Japan limited to trade at a Japanese post in Busan, managed through the Tsushima domain. In the 1860s the regent Heungseon Daewongun, father of the young King Gojong, followed a strict policy of isolation. Korean forces repulsed a French expedition in 1866 and an American one in 1871.

After the Meiji Restoration, Japan sent letters announcing its new government. Korea refused to accept them, partly because they used terms for the Japanese emperor that implied a rank equal to China’s emperor. The insult fuelled calls in Japan to punish Korea, and in 1873 a plan to send Saigo Takamori there was blocked only after the Iwakura Mission returned. In late 1873 the Daewongun lost power and the court, influenced by Queen Min’s relatives, became more open to contact.

The Unyo incident

On 20 September 1875 the Japanese gunboat Un’yo arrived off Ganghwa Island, which guards the approaches to the Han River and Seoul. When a boat from the ship approached the shore, the Korean forts opened fire. The Japanese bombarded the forts and the next days landed troops on nearby Yeongjong Island, destroying a fort and killing around 35 Korean defenders.

Many historians see the voyage as a deliberate provocation, modelled on the gunboat diplomacy Japan itself had experienced during the Perry Expedition. Tokyo now demanded an apology and a treaty.

Negotiation and signing

In early 1876 Japan sent Kuroda Kiyotaka as envoy, with Inoue Kaoru as his deputy, escorted by warships and troops. Talks took place on Ganghwa Island with the Korean official Sin Heon. Some Korean officials urged resistance, but the court, uncertain of China’s support and wary of war, chose to negotiate.

The decision divided the Korean elite. The official Pak Gyu-su argued that Korea could not afford a war and should accept limited trade. The Confucian scholar Choe Ik-hyeon took the opposite view: he submitted a memorial to the throne together with an axe, inviting the king to execute him if his warning was rejected, and argued that the Japanese were no different from the Western barbarians. He was exiled, and later died as a prisoner of the Japanese in 1907.

The treaty was signed on 26 February 1876. It had twelve articles. Article 1 declared Korea an autonomous state with the same sovereign rights as Japan. Busan was to be opened to trade, with two further ports to follow within twenty months. Japan could survey the Korean coast, station representatives in Korea, and Japanese nationals who committed offences in the open ports would be tried by Japanese officials.

Supplementary agreements signed in August 1876 allowed Japanese currency to circulate in the ports and exempted Japanese goods from customs duties. Koreans gained no corresponding rights in Japan.

Consequences

The treaty brought Korea into the modern system of international treaties on terms set by others. Busan was opened in 1876, Wonsan in 1880 and Incheon in 1883, and Japanese merchants quickly gained a strong position, especially in the rice trade. Korea’s government, lacking experience of Western-style diplomacy, discovered the full cost of the duty-free clauses only later.

China responded by encouraging Korea to sign treaties with Western powers to balance Japan. The United States signed a treaty with Korea in 1882, followed by Britain and Germany in 1883 and others. Tensions between pro-Chinese and reform-minded factions erupted in the Imo Incident of 1882 and the Gapsin Coup of 1884, and Sino-Japanese rivalry over Korea led to the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894 to 1895.

Legacy

Korean historians regard the treaty as the start of Korea’s loss of sovereignty. After Japan’s victories over China and Russia, Korea became a Japanese protectorate in 1905, and the annexation of Korea followed in 1910. The irony was sharp: Japan, which was itself still trying to escape the unequal treaties imposed on it, used the same tools against its neighbour.

Timeline

• 1866: Korea repulses a French expedition to Ganghwa Island.
• 1871: Korea repulses an American expedition to Ganghwa Island.
• 1873, December: The regent Heungseon Daewongun loses power.
• 1875, 20 September: The Unyo incident off Ganghwa Island.
• 1876, 26 February: The Japan-Korea Treaty is signed on Ganghwa Island.
• 1876, August: Supplementary trade agreements are signed.
• 1880: Wonsan is opened to Japanese trade.
• 1883: Incheon is opened to Japanese trade.

Why it matters

The Ganghwa Treaty ended Korea’s long isolation and drew it into a contest between Japan, China and the Western powers that it could not control. It marked Japan’s first step towards empire on the Asian mainland and remains a key date in Korean memory of colonial rule.