Republic of Korea

The Republic of Korea is a country in East Asia. It borders China to the north and Nowa Polska to the northeast. It occupies the entirety of the Korean peninsula as well as some islands off the coast such as Jeju, Ulleungdo, and Dokdo.

Korea is a liberal democracy, though culturally traditionalist and isolationist. However, it has made strides to make alliances with other nations for its own economic benefit and national security. Korea is part of the Security Commonwealth, aligning with other countries wary of communist and West Spanish foreign influence.

## History

### Korean Empire

In the mid-19th century, European powers took a greater interest in East Asia and sought to bring some of these countries under their sphere of influence. Most famously, the British were able to win a tremendous victory against the Qing Dynasty in the two Opium Wars, weakening the Qing Empire and bringing European influence more firmly in Asia. From the Opium Wars came the Taiping Rebellion in China, even further diminishing the Qing's ability to designate foreign influence or even control its own people. Joseon king Cheoljong started to break ties with the Qing in 1853, during the siege of Beijing, believing that the weakened Qing would be of no use to Korea. King Cheoljong officially broke relations with the Qing in 1860 during the Convention of Peking, declaring the Joseon Dynasty over and the in its stead, the Korean Empire. Cheoljong was an isolationist, and suspected that if Europeans were going to spread their sphere of influence with China, they would most likely want to do the same with its tributaries; therefore, Cheoljong saw it necessary to redirect Korea to a more independent foreign policy route.

However, the newly-found Korean Empire's isolationist policy would not last, and Cheoljong's fears of European influence permeating into Korea were proven correct. In 1866, a group of French Catholic missionaries in Korea were captured and executed, in fear that they would bring Western influence in Korea. Around 17 thousand Korean Catholics existed in Korea, though the religion was heavily persecuted, as Joseon (and now imperial) government officials believed it would threaten their Confucian-style rule. Ironically, this persecution of Catholics and anything the government deemed western would bring the Second French Empire to send a fleet of naval vessels and troops to conduct a punitive expedition into Korea.

With a small naval fleet and about 3000 men, France first sought out to capture the Korean capital city of Seoul to ensure quick victory and have the government be directly influenced by France. However, they failed at even sieging Ganghwa Island at the mouth of the river to Seoul. The French troops realigned their war goals and instead sailed to the port city of Haeju, occupying it for months and refusing to leave even while under siege until the Korean government would negotiate.

Finally, in 1867, Korean regent Heungseon Daewongun and French admiral Pierre-Gustave Roze signed the Treaty of Ganghwa, leasing the Haeju to the French and opening it up as a free trade city for 99 years, in no doubt inspired by the British lease of Hong Kong. Haeju would become a wealthy trading port city in the following years as French merchants traded European industrial technology with Korean agriculture and some of its own technologies. French missionaries, explorers, and diplomats would also come to arrive in Haeju, further spreading Catholicism and Western political ideals.

Despite this, the general Korean public and the Korean government felt humiliated by being partially occupied by a foreign power. After the outbreak of the Franco-Prussian War in 1870, the Korean public and the army were eager to gain Prussian support to expel the French from Haeju. However, the Daewongun, a staunch isolationist, believed that further contact with Western countries would only bring upon the downfall of Korea. Angered by the stagnation of the Korean court, members of the army, and later the public, launched a coup against the Daewongun, placing him and most of the Korean government under house arrest. Scholar Choe Ik-hyeon took de-facto power of the country and ordered the Imperial Korean Army to raise troops for a retake of Haeju. Some factions in the military gained Prussian arms and munitions as the German navy gave its support to weakening French influence in Asia. After a brief siege by Korean troops and German naval bombardment, the French garrison and diplomats in Haeju surrendered, allowing the port to return to Korean hands in 1871.

### Transition to Republicanism

After the Franco-Prussian War and the Battle of Haeju, Choe advocated for the return to monarchy and crowned King Gojong back to the throne in 1871. This angered some political factions, especially the Gaehwa (Enlightenment) faction of scholars, which advocated for industrialization and modernization of the country. To them, it seemed that despite the nominal military victory against foreign powers, the Korean government was regressing to a state of weakness again, refusing to learn from its mistakes and developing Korea to be stronger. With rampant poverty plaguing many parts of the country and a threat of Qing invasion imminent, scholar Bak Jeongyang advocated for moderate industrial and political reforms to King Gojong. Sensing a threat to his absolute power, King Gojong was hesitant to give up some of his power, though he allowed capitalism and industrial reform to initiate throughout the country.

The Gaehwa Party became what was essentially a de-facto political party in Korea, gaining support from reform-minded elites and scholars, the masses, and industrialists. They viewed Haeju's modernization and industrialization as something that the rest of the country could emulate, bringing selected foreign ideas into Korea to match them to Korean traditions and ideals. By 1884, Korea had limited modernization, with industrialization being limited to cities like Seoul, Pyeongyang, and Kaesong. The Qing saw this as a threat to its influence in East Asia, especially after the French expanded their influence in Indochina. The Qing tried to reinstate the Korean Empire as a tributary state and launched an invasion. While King Gojong's army had Western guns, they still suffered serious casualties from the Qing's much larger army. Multiple Korean towns and cities were sieged and destroyed as the Qing made their way southward. The German Empire and Britain supported the Korean army's repulsion of the Qing, succeeding in pushing Chinese forces out by 1886.

Despite this military victory and affirmation of Korean independence, more people saw Gojong's absolute monarchy as incompetent. The Korean army, armed peasants, and the Gaehwa Party launched a coup against King Gojong and established a Korean republic. Bak Yeongyang led the revolt and negotiated a constitutional monarchy with King Gojong. Bak Yeongyang and other scholars, after their travels to foreign nations, wrote a constitution for the new republic that abolished severe class distinctions, allowed for free speech and expression, allowed Christianity to be practiced, fixed regular elections for a National Assembly and a presidency.

### Gaehwa Era (1890 - 1900)

Korean officials set up and called for National Assembly and presidential elections in 1890. Former Minister of the Military, Interior, and Education Min Young-hwan was elected as a member of the Gaehwa Party. Min initiated reforms for the Korean military, modernizing it based on the visits he took to Russia and Germany. He also stressed education reform, establishing and funding schools and universities all around the country. This allowed for his reelection in 1895. However, President Min also faced peasant rebellions as regional officials and industrialists oppressed peasants and workers. The Korean government was split on how to deal with the issue: President Min demanded military action against the peasants, while some other members of the Gaehwa Party believed in negotiating with the peasants and passing reforms to enact economic reform. Min chose to use the military against the peasants, putting down the rebellion by 1896. This only polarized his cabinet and the National Assembly, with the Minju (Democratic) Party splitting away from the Gaehwa Party.

In 1899, the Korean government was once again torn apart on whether to support the Boxers or the Seven-Nation Alliance in the Boxer Rebellion in China. British, German, and Russian diplomats asked for Korean support in Manchuria, and so President Min sent a few divisions for money and for the Great Powers' recognizition of the Korean Republic. The Democratic Party felt intervention was unnecessary and hypocritical, considering that Korea had once fought a war against Western imperialism, but the Gaehwa Party cited the Boxer massacre of Christians and the Qing's invasion of Korea as reasons to further weaken China.