In the second half of the 19th century, Korea found itself in a practically completely new world. Isolated Korea was a part of East Asia, where imperialistic forces started to spread their influence. In previous centuries, Korea adopted her isolation policy because she thought that she was the only »pure« country and, with that, the center of real Confucianism. Pressure from the West and Korea's old neighbour Japan pushed the birth of Korean nationalism. Meanwhile, China wanted to increase the influence and control it had over Korea. Nationalism in Korea can be seen in three different movements: Wijeongcheoksa, Donghak and Gaehwa.
The latter was a progressive enlightenment movement that pushed for an independent, sovereign Korea and its rapid modernization. The main initiators of these ideas were the members of the Gaehwa Party. The most noticeable of which were Bak Yeonghyo, Seo Gwangbeom, Seo Jaepil, Hong Yeongsik and Gim Okgyun. They came into contact with Western literature and Western thought with the help of the Japanese, of which the most important was Fukuzawa Yukichi. With his help, they formed a plan on how to modernize Korea. Members of the party were supported by King Gojong but faced difficulties when pushing for reforms. The main two issues were the lack of finances and the members of the Min clan, who had a great influence over the royal court. Queen Min was also a part of the Min clan, which had conservative tendencies and relied heavily on Chinese support.
Because of the overruling power of clan Min, the Gaehwa Party members decided that there was no alternative other than to aggressively take over the government and to push through their reforms. They executed a coup d'etat on 4th December 1884 with the help of the Japanese army. However, the coup was crushed by the hands of the conservatives and the Chinese army.
The unsuccessful coup had the exact opposite result as the members of the Gaehwa Party wished for. China consolidated its power on the Korean Peninsula. With that, every enlightenment movement and thought were crushed in the upcoming decade. The lost decade, in terms of modernization, played a crucial role at the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th centuries when Korea fell to the hands of the Japanese Empire.
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