Japan's Rise and Korea's Fall, 1868–1912

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1868 event where samurai reformers overthrew the shogun and restored power to Emperor Meiji, launching rapid modernization to avoid China's fate.

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"Rich country, strong army" — the Meiji government's guiding slogan for modernization.

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Created an elected Diet (parliament) but kept sovereignty and military control with the emperor; limited voting rights.

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Large family-run industrial and financial conglomerates (e.g. Mitsubishi, Mitsui) that grew from state-subsidized beginnings during Meiji industrialization.

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Japan defeated Qing China over influence in Korea; Treaty of Shimonoseki gave Japan Taiwan and forced China to recognize Korean "independence."

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Japan defeated Russia over rival claims in Korea and Manchuria — the first modern defeat of a European power by an Asian one.

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Forced Korea to open its ports to Japanese trade — Korea's own "unequal treaty," ending its isolation policy.

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Powerful figure at the Korean court who tried to balance Chinese, Japanese and Russian influence to preserve Korean independence; assassinated by Japanese agents in 1895.

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Korean peasant uprising against corruption and foreign influence; both China and Japan sent troops to help suppress it, sparking the Sino-Japanese War.

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After two victorious wars and years of tightening control, Japan formally annexed Korea, ending its independence.

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Japan (Meiji): centralized state, whole government committed, succeeded. China (Self-Strengthening, see Part 1): divided bureaucracy, resistant conservatives, largely failed.

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Fear of colonization — they had watched China humiliated in the Opium Wars and unequal treaties, and wanted to avoid the same fate.