Abstract
The United States reached out to Korea mainly to open trade and to rescue shipwrecked crews. But other imperial powers approached Korea with far greater political and military intentions. China was trying to strengthen its traditional suzerainty over Korea to secure the peninsula as a buffer area against foreign intrusion. Japan eyed Korea, regarding it within its “cordon of interest,” which was indispensable to Japan’s “independence and self-defense.”2 Russia also made incessant efforts to secure political influence and ice-free ports in the peninsula, especially after its southward move was frustrated by Britain in the Middle East and Afghanistan. But such machination by Russia ignited nervous concerns by Japan and Britain, thus eventually contributing to the conclusion of the Anglo-Japanese alliance in 1902, which helped Japan win the Russo-Japanese War in 1905.
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Notes
For US-Korean relations before 1882 and Shufeldt’s role in opening US-Korean diplomatic relations, see Jongsuk Chay, Diplomacy of Asymmetry: Korean-American Relations to 1910 (Honolulu: University of Hawaii Press, 1990), 17–59.
For a broader discussion, see Yur-bok Lee, Diplomatic Relations between the United States and Korea, 1866–1887 (New York: Humanities, 1970), 36–51.
See Fred Harvey Harrington, God, Mannon and the Japanese: Dr. Horace N. Allen and Korean-American Relations, 1884–1905 (Madison, WI: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1944), 233–34.
Tyler Dennett, “American ‘Good Offices’ in Asia,” The American Journal of International Law 16 (1922): 1.
Li Hung Chang, Memoirs of the Viceroy Li Hung Chang (London: Constable, 1913), 262; Tyler Dennett, “American ‘Good Offices’ in Asia,” 1–3.
Henry Chung, The Oriental Policy of the United States (New York: Flemming H. Revell Co., 1919), 31;
Yur-bok Lee, “Korean-American Diplomatic Relations, 1882–1905,” in One Hundred Years of Korean-American Relations, 1882–1982, ed. Yur-Bok Lee and Wayne Patterson (Alabama: The University of Alabama Press, 1986), 21.
George McCune and John Harrison, eds, KARD, I, 1883–1886 (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1951), 70–73; Lee, Diplomatic Relations, 56–57.
Tyler Dennett, “Early American Policy in Korea, 1883–7,” Political Science Quarterly, XXXVIII, 1 (March, 1923), 93, 97.
George Alexander Lensen, Balance of Intrigue: International Rivalry in Korea & Manchuria, 1884–1899 (Florida: University Press of Florida, 1982), 54–55;
Ian H. Nish, The Anglo-Japanese Alliance: The Diplomacy of Two Island Empires, 1894–1907 (London: The Athlone, 1966), 17.
Andrew Malozemoff, Russian Far Eastern Policy, 1881–1904: with Special Emphasis on the Causes of the Russo-Japanese War (New York: Octagon Books, 1977), 32–33.
Bayard to Foulk, August 18, 1885, KARD, I, 78; Lester Burrell. Shippee, “Thomas Francis Bayard,” in The American Secretaries of State and Their Diplomacy, ed. Samuel F. Bemis (New York: A. A. Knopf, 1927–29), 8, 85.
Marius B. Jansen, Japan and China: from War to Peace, 1894–1972 (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1975), 47, 71.
Park Jong Keun, Nisshin-senso to Chosen [Sino-Japanese War and Chosun] (Tokyo: Aoki Shoten, 1982), 9–44.
Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs, NGB: 28, II, 257–58, 278; Park Young-Jae, “Cheongilganghwawa mikuk” [Sino-Japanese Peace and the United States], Yeoksa Hakbo (Seoul: Yeoksa Hakhoe), 59 (September 1973), 62–63.
Allen to Olney, October 8, 11, 12, 13, 1895, Despatches, Korea, M. 134, R. 12; Allen to Dun, October 9, 11, 13, 1895, Despatches from US Ministers to Korea, 1882–1905, ed. Institute of Asian Culture Studies, 7 (Chuncheon: Hallym University, 2000), 261–63. See also, Bonnie Oh, “Myeongseong Hwanghu Sihaesakeongwa Migukui dae-Joseonjeongchaek,” [The Assassination of Queen Min and US policy toward Chosun], Myeongseonghwanghu Sihaesageon-gwa Agwanpacheongi-ui Gukjegwangye [The Assassination of Queen Min and the International Relations during Kojong’s Asylum to Russian Legation], ed. Choi Mun-hyeong (Seoul: Donglimsa, 1998), 98.
Kajima Morinosuke, Diplomacy of Japan, 1894–1922, I, Sino-Japanese War and Triple Intervention (Tokyo: Kajima Institute of International Peace, 1976–1980), 432–47.
B. A. Romanov, Russia in Manchuria, 1892–1906, trans. Susan Wilbur Jones (New York: Octagon Books, 1974), 131, 136–38; Malozemoff, Russian Far Eastern Policy, 109–10.
Herbert D. Croly, Williard Straight (New York: Macmillan, 1924), 181; Yunchiho Ilgi [Diary of Yun, Chi-ho], 6, November 17, 1905, 194.
Vipan Chandra, Imperialism, Resistance, and Reform in Late Nineteenth-Century Korea (Berkeley: Institute of East Asian Studies, University of California, Berkeley, 1988), 173–210;
Shin Yong-ha, Dokriphyeophwoe-wa Gaehwawundong [The Independence Club and the Enlightenment Movement] (Seoul: Sejongdaewang Ginyumsauphwoi, 2000).
See Han Chul-ho, Chinmi Gaehwapa Yeongu [A Study of Pro-American Reformist Group] (Seoul: Gukhak-jaryowon, 1998);
Fred Harvey Harrington, God, Mammon, and Japanese (Madison: University of Wisconsin Press, 1944), 154.
Gang Man-gil, Gocheosseun Hangukgeundaesa [New Modern Korean History] (Seoul: Changjakgwa Bipyeongsa, 1994), 197–99; Duus, Abacus and Sword, 127.
Duus, Abacus and Sword, 129–32; Gang, Hanguk Geundaesa, 200; Shin Yong-ha, “Gwangmu Gaehyeokeui Munjejeom” [The Problems of Gwangmu Reform], Changjakgwa Bipyeong 13, 3 (Fall 1978), 143–83.
Duus, Abacus and Sword, 129, 131; Carter J. Eckert, et al, Korea: Old and New, A History (Seoul: Ilchokak, 1990), 236.
Allen to Sherman, October 5, 1897, KARD, III, 31–32; Ian H. Nish, The Anglo-Japanese Alliance: The Diplomacy of Two Island Empires, 1894–1907 (London: Athlone, 1966), 71.
George N. Curson, Problems of the Far East: Japan, Korea, China (London: Longman, Green, and Co., 1894), 156;
Isabella B. Bishop, Korea and Her Neighbors (New York: Revell, 1898; repr. Seoul: Yonsei University Press, 1970), 255, 257;
Yun Chi-ho, September 22, 1897, Yun Chi-ho Ilgi [Yun Chi-ho Diary] (Seoul: Kuksa Pyonchan Wiwonhoe, 1973–89), V, 96.
Yun Chi-ho, Ilgi (November 5, 1898), V, 178, 193–94.
See Lee Tae-jin, ed, Ilbon-ui Daehanjeguk Gangjeom [Japanese Seizure of Korea] (Seoul: Kkachi, 1995);
Oh Young-seop, Kojong Hwangjewa Hanmaluibyeong [Kojong and Righteous Army] (Seoul: Seonin, 2007).
See also Duus, Abacus and Sword, 129; James B. Palais, Politics and Policy in Traditional Korea (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1991), 55–56. Palais observed that such high turnover could have been caused by the King’s need to provide prestige and status to the upper class yangban at the expense of administrative efficiency.
Outlook, 1905, quoted from Marius B. Jansen, Japan and China: From War to Peace (Chicago: Rand McNally, 1975), 125.
John Albert White, The Diplomacy of the Russo-Japanese War (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1964), 51, 84.
Moriyama Shigenori, Kindai Nikkan Kankei-shi Kenkyu [A Study of Modern Japan-Korean Relations] (Tokyo: Tokyo Daigaku Shuppankai, 1987), 117–21.
Moriyama, Kindai, 121–25. For the reform effort of the pro-American faction, see, Han Chul-ho, Chinmigaehwapa Yeongu [A Study of pro-American Reformist Party] (Seoul: Gookhakjaryowon, 1998).
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© 2009 Seung-young Kim
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Kim, Sy. (2009). The Rise of Korean Expectation and Decline of US Commitment to Korea, 1882–1901. In: American Diplomacy and Strategy toward Korea and Northeast Asia, 1882–1950 and After. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230621688_3
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