17
One of the official acts of the Emperor after his marriage, was to issue an edict legalizing the cultivating of opium, which, although carried on for 30 years before, was merely allowed but not formally legalized.
The commercial treaty signed by the Corean king in 1886 and Japan's constant encroachments developed a spirit of revolt among many of the Coreans, whom the European powers classed as "Reactionists," because they were opposed to the concessions made to the foreigners.
Those who stood loyally by the helpless King, and who were not disturbed by the invasion of the foreigners, were called the Progressive party.
For centuries Corea was considered a Chinese dependency, and China was opposed to the concessions made to the foreigners. Therefore China was compelled to lean upon the Reactionisits. The Japanese, holding that they possessed a historical right to an equal voice with China in the Corean peninsula, allied themselves with the Progressive party.
Internal disturbances between the so-called Progressive and Reactionary parties and Christian reformers kept Corea in a constant state of revolution.
Finally the Japanese, eager for an excuse to subjugate Corea, called attention to what she called the misrule that prevailed in Corea, and proposed that the Chinese should join them in carrying out what the Japanese considered reforms.
To this proposal China would not agree, believing that Corea should be left alone; besides, China was hampered by her alliance with the reactionary party. Consequently, Japan undertook the work of conquest alone. As a first step in that direction, the Japanese kidnaped the Corean king and compelled him to act as the instrument of his captors.
The first document which his captors compelled him to sign was an order that the Chinese troops who had come at his invitation should leave the country, This occurred on July 23, 1894, and marked the beginning of the war between the two chief races of the Far East.
The war lasted but nine months, yet during this time nearly ten thousand lives were lost and three times as many persons wounded.
Most all of China's war vessels were destroyed or taken and her forts demolished.
The Chinese soldiers had sunk to such a low social status that even the lowest civilian despised them.
