Korea in the 19th Century - ubcasia 101 The History of Asia Since 1500

Korea in the 19th Century

February 5, 2015

Review

? Did the British defeat the Mughal Emperor in battle?

? What was the impact of British rule on caste and religious differences?

? Was the rebellion of 1857 a nationalistic rebellion?

? How is modern imperialism different from traditional imperialism?

Japan in 1900 vrs China in 1900

? was run by modernizing elite

? had a modern military, and the beginnings of a modern economy

? had established a modern educational system

? had adopted nationalism and strengthened national unity

? Even looked different----Western dress, etc. became popular

? no foreign "concessions". Not a semi-colony Instead Japan itself was gaining an empire

Korea in 1900

? The Confucian Chosn dynasty was still in power.

? The Korean economy was still primarily agrarian. Industrialization had not yet begun.

? Nationalism had appeared among the educated elite but had not yet spread the the general population.

? There were very few modern schools, nor had much of the military been modernized

? Korea in 1900 looked a lot more like China at the time than it looked like Japan.

Korea's Distinctiveness

? But Korea was clearly not China.

? Traditional Korea had its own social order, headed by an hereditary Confucian scholar elite.

? It relied on slave labour much more than China or Japan did after 1000. (p. 380)

? It had its own popular culture, including pansori (p.366), its own writing system, and its own cuisine (Kimchee/Gimchi--p. 367). It even had its own new religion, Donghak (p. 368-69), which was very different from the Taiping religion of China or the new religiosity of 19th century Japan.

(There was no Ee ja jai ka movement in Korea.)

? And it never bound its women's feet (See Queen Min, p.372)

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