Korean Empire

The Korean Empire, officially the Empire of Korea, was the monarchical state proclaimed in October 1897 by King Gojong of the Joseon dynasty, which he raised to imperial rank in the hope of holding Korea independent after the tributary tie to the Qing was broken by the First Sino-Japanese War. Gojong oversaw the Gwangmu Reform, a partial modernisation of the army, the economy, the land system, education and industry: Russian instructors drilled new battalions from 1897, and the state tried to buy ships for a navy. The reforms were cut short. Japan had isolated Korea through a run of treaties, and in 1905 the Eulsa Treaty made the empire a protectorate of Japan, negotiated without Gojong's participation over his refusal. He sent the American Homer Hulbert to Washington and secret emissaries to the Hague Convention of 1907 to repudiate the treaty, but they were accorded no recognition, and popular anger burned the houses of the ministers who had signed. The Japanese annexation of August 1910 ended the empire.