French Campaign against Korea, 1866
Encyclopedia
The French campaign against Korea of 1866 is also known as Byeong-in yangyo (Western disturbance of the byeong-in year). It refers to the French
invasion of Ganghwa Island
in Korea
in retaliation
for the earlier execution by Korea's Joseon Dynasty
of French Catholic
priests proselytizing in that country. The encounter, which lasted nearly six weeks, was the first armed encounter between Korea and a Western power
. The overall result was a French retreat and a check on its influence in the region. The violent encounter also confirmed Korea in its isolationism for another decade, until Japan
forced it to end its isolationism in 1876 through the threat of military force (see Treaty of Ganghwa
).
Throughout the Joseon Dynasty
, Korea maintained a policy of strict isolationism
from the outside world (interaction with the Qing dynasty and occasional trading with Japan
through Tsushima). However, it did not succeed entirely in sealing itself off from foreign contact. Catholic missionaires had begun to show an interest in Korea as early as the 16th century with their arrival in China and Japan.
Through Korean envoy missions to the Qing court in the 18th century, foreign ideas, including Christianity, began to enter Korea and by the late 18th century Korea had its first native Christians. However, it was only in the mid 19th century that the first western Catholic missionaries began to enter Korea. This was done by stealth, either via the Korean border with Manchuria or the Yellow Sea. These French missionaries of the Paris Foreign Missions Society
arrived in Korea in the 1840s to proselytize to a growing Korean flock. Bishop Siméon-François Berneux
, appointed in 1856 as head of the infant Korean Catholic church, estimated in 1859 that the number of Korean faithful had reached nearly 17,000.
At first, the Korean court turned a blind eye to such incursions. This attitude changed abruptly, however, with the enthronement of the fourteen year old King Gojong in 1864. By Korean tradition, the regency in the case of a minority would go to the ranking dowager queen, In this case, it was the conservative mother of the previous crown prince, who had died before he could ascend the throne. The new king’s father, Yi Ha-ung, a wily and ambitious man in his early forties, was given the traditional title of the unreigning father of a king: Heungseon Daewongun, or “Prince of the Great Court”.
Though the Heungseon Daewongun’s authority at court was not official, stemming in fact from the traditional imperative in Confucian societies for sons to obey their fathers, he quickly seized the initiative and began to control state policy. He became one of the most effective and forceful leaders of the 500-year-old Joseon Dynasty. With the aged dowager regent’s blessing, the Heungseon Daewongun set out upon a dual campaign of both strengthening central authority and Korean isolation from the disintegrating traditional order outside its borders. By the time the Heungseon Daewongun assumed de facto control of the government in 1864 there were twelve French Jesuit priests living and preaching in Korea and an estimated 23,000 native Korean converts.
In January 1866, Russian ships appeared on the east coast of Korea demanding trading and residency rights in what seemed an echo of the demands made on China by other western powers. Korean Christians with connections at court saw in this an opportunity to advance their cause and suggested an alliance between France and Korea to repel the Russian advances, suggesting further that this alliance could be negotiated through Bishop Berneux. The Heungseon Daewongun seemed open to this idea, but it might have been a ruse to bring the head of the Korean Catholic Church out into the open. Berneux was summoned to the capital, but upon his arrival in February 1866, he was seized and executed. A round-up then began of the other French Catholic priests and Korean converts.
Several factors contributed to the Heungseon Daewongun‘s decision to crack down on the Catholics. Perhaps the most obvious was the lesson provided by China, which had apparently reaped nothing but hardship and humiliation from its dealing with the western powers, seen most recently in its disastrous defeat during the Second Opium War
. No doubt also fresh in the Heungseon Daewongun‘s mind was the example of the Taiping Rebellion
in China, which had been infused with Christian doctrines. 1865 had seen poor harvests in Korea as well as social unrest, which may have contributed to a heightened sensitivity to the foreign creed. The crackdown may also have been related to attempts to combat factional cliques at court, where Christianity had made some inroads.
As a result of the Korean dragnet all but three of the French missionaries were captured and executed: among them were Bishop Siméon Berneux, Bishop Antoine Daveluy, Father Just de Bretenières, Father Louis Beaulieu, Father Pierre Henri Dorié, Father Pierre Aumaître, Father Luc Martin Huin, all of them members of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and canonized by Pope John Paul II
on 6 May 1984. An untold number of Korean Catholics also met their end (estimations run around 10,000), many being executed at a place called Jeoldu-san
in Seoul on the banks of the Han River.
In late June 1866, one of the three surviving French missionaries, Father Félix-Claire Ridel, managed to escape via a fishing vessel, thanks to 11 native converts, and make his way to Chefoo (today known as Yantai
), China in early July 1866. Fortuitously in Tianjin at the time of Ridel‘s arrival was the commander of the French Far Eastern Squadron, Rear Admiral Pierre-Gustave Roze
. Hearing of the massacre and the affront to French national honor, Roze determined to launch a punitive expedition
. In this, he was strongly supported by the acting French consul in Peking, Henri de Bellonet.
On the French side, there were also compelling reasons behind the decision to launch a punitive expedition. These had to do with increasing violence against Christian missionaries and converts in the Chinese interior, which after the Second Opium War in 1860 had been opened up to westerners. As Korea was a nominal vassal of China, the massacre of westerners and Christians in Korea was seen by diplomatic and military authorities in the context of anti-Western behavior in China. Many believed a firm response to such acts of violence was necessary to maintain national prestige and authority.
In response to the event, the French chargé d'affaires
in Beijing
, Henri de Bellonet, took a number of intitiatives without consulting with Quai d'Orsay
. Bellonet sent a note to the Zongli Yamen
threatening to occupy Korea, and he also gave the French Naval Commander in the Far East, rear admiral Pierre-Gustave Roze
instruction to launch a punitive expedition against Korea, to which Roze responded : "Since [the kingdom of] Choson killed nine French priests, we shall avenge by killing 9,000 Koreans."
Though the French diplomatic and naval authorities in China were eager to launch an expedition, they were stymied by the almost total absence of any detailed information on Korea, including any navigational charts. Prior to the actual expedition, Rear Admiral Roze decided to undertake a smaller surveying expedition along the Korean coast, especially along the waterway leading to the Korean capital of Seoul
. This was done in late September and early October 1866. These preliminaries resulted in some rudimentary navigational charts of the waters around Ganghwa Island and the Han River
leading to Seoul. The treacherous nature of these waters, however, also convinced Roze that any movement against the fortified Korean capital with his limited numbers and large hulled vessels was impossible. Instead, he opted to seize and occupy Ganghwa Island, which commanded the entrance to the Han River, in the hopes of blockading the waterway to the capital during the important harvest season and thus forcing demands and reparations on the Korean court.
The nature that these demands were to take was never fully determined. In Peking, the French consul Bellonet had made outrageous (and as it turned out unofficial) demands that the Korean monarch forfeit his crown and cede sovereignty to France. Such a stance was not in keeping with the more circumspect goals of Rear Admiral Roze, who hoped to force reparations. In any case, the demands of Bellonet were never officially endorsed by the French government of Napoleon III Bellonet would later be severely reprimanded for his importunate blusterings.
On 11 October, Admiral Roze left Chefoo with one frigate (Guerrière), two avisos (Kien–Chan and Déroulède), two gunboats (Lebrethon and Tardif) and two corvettes (Laplace and Primauguet), as well as almost 300 Naval Fusiliers from their post in Yokohama, Japan. The total number of French troops is estimated at 800. On 16 October, a group of 170 Naval Fusiliers landed on Ganghwa island, seized the fortress which controlled the Han river, and occupied the fortified city of Ganghwa itself. On Ganghwa Island, the Naval Fusiliers managed to seize several fortified positions, as well as booty such as flags, cannons, 8,000 muskets, 23 boxes of silver ingots and few ones of gold, and various lacquer works, jades, and manuscripts and paintings that comprised the royal library
(Oikyujanggak) on the island.
From his earlier exploratory expedition, Roze knew it was impossible for him to lead a fleet of limited force up the treacherous and shallow Han River to the Korean capital and satisfied himself instead with a “coup de main” on the coast. On the mainland across the narrow channel from Ganghwa Island, however, the French offensive was met with stiff resistance from the troops of General Yi Yong-Hui, to whom Roze sent several letters asking for reparation, without success. A major blow to the French expedition came on 26 October, when 120 French Naval Fusiliers landed briefly on the Korean mainland in an attempt to seize a small fortification at Munsusansong (depicted in the illustration above). As the landing party came ashore they were met by brisk fire from the Korean defenders.
If the monastery of Munsusansong fell into French hands, the way to Seoul
would be open, so, the 7 October, a second landing party was launched by Roze. 160 Naval Fusiliers attacked the monastery of Munsusansong (Mt. Munsu Fort) defended by 543 Korean "Tiger Hunters". Three French soldiers were killed and 36 injured before a retreat was called. Except for continued bombing and surveying activity around Ganghwa and the mouth of the Han River, French forces now largely fortified themselves in and around the city of Ganghwa.
Roze then sent a new letter, asking for the release of the two remaining French missionaries whom he had reason to believe were imprisoned. No answer was forthcoming, but it became clear from activity seen on the mainland across the narrow straits that Korean forces were mobilizing daily. On 9 November, the French were again checked when they attempted to seize a fortified monastery on the southern coast of Ganghwa called Jeongdeung–sa. Here again stiff Korean resistance, coupled by the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Korean defenders, now numbering 10 000 men, forced a French retreat with dozens of casualties but no deaths.
Soon thereafter, with winter approaching and the Korean forces growing stronger, Roze made the strategic decision to evacuate. Before doing so, orders were given to bombard the government buildings on Ganghwa Island and to carry off the varied contents of official storehouses there. It was also learned around this time that the two missing missionaries feared captured in Korea had in fact managed to escape to China. This news contributed to the decision to leave.
All told the French suffered three dead and approximately 35 wounded. In retreating from Korea, Roze attempted to lessen the extent of his retreat by stating that with his limited means, there was little more he could have accomplished, but that his actions would have a dissuasive effect upon the Korean government:
The European residents in China considered the results of the expedition minimal and demanded unsuccessfully a larger expedition for the following spring.
After this expedition, Roze with most his fleet returned to Japan
, where they were able to welcome the first French military mission to Japan (1867–1868) in the harbour of Yokohama
on 13 January 1867. The French government ordered the military to leave as a result of heavy losses in the French intervention in Mexico
.
. In 2010 it was revealed that the French government was planning to return the books on a renewable lease to Korea, despite the fact that French law generally prohibited the cession of museum property. In early 2011 South Korean president Lee Myung Bak and French president Nicolas Sarkozy
finalized an agreement for the return of all the books on a renewable lease. In June 2011 celebrations were held in the port city of Incheon
to commemorate their final return. The collection is now being stored in the National Museum of Korea
.
foundered on the coast of Korea. Some of the sailors were massacred, but the United States
could not obtain reparations. The United States offered France a combined operation, but the project was abandoned due to the relatively low interest for Korea at that time. An intervention happened in 1871, with the United States Korean expedition.
The Korean government would finally agree to open the country in 1876, when a fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy
was sent under the orders of Kuroda Kiyotaka
, leading to the Treaty of Ganghwa
.
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
invasion of Ganghwa Island
Ganghwa Island
Ganghwa Island is an island in the estuary of the Han River, on the west coast of South Korea. Ganghwa Island is separated from Gimpo, on the mainland, by a narrow channel, which is spanned by two bridges. The main channel of the Han River separates the island from Gaeseong in North Korea.About...
in Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...
in retaliation
Punitive expedition
A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons outside the borders of the punishing state. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavior, but may be also be a covered revenge...
for the earlier execution by Korea's Joseon Dynasty
Joseon Dynasty
Joseon , was a Korean state founded by Taejo Yi Seong-gye that lasted for approximately five centuries. It was founded in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Goryeo at what is today the city of Kaesong. Early on, Korea was retitled and the capital was relocated to modern-day Seoul...
of French Catholic
Catholic
The word catholic comes from the Greek phrase , meaning "on the whole," "according to the whole" or "in general", and is a combination of the Greek words meaning "about" and meaning "whole"...
priests proselytizing in that country. The encounter, which lasted nearly six weeks, was the first armed encounter between Korea and a Western power
Western world
The Western world, also known as the West and the Occident , is a term referring to the countries of Western Europe , the countries of the Americas, as well all countries of Northern and Central Europe, Australia and New Zealand...
. The overall result was a French retreat and a check on its influence in the region. The violent encounter also confirmed Korea in its isolationism for another decade, until Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
forced it to end its isolationism in 1876 through the threat of military force (see Treaty of Ganghwa
Treaty of Ganghwa
The Japan-Korea Treaty of Amity, also known as the Treaty of Ganghwa or Treaty of Kanghwa, was made between representatives of the Empire of Japan and the Kingdom of Joseon in 1876...
).
Background
Joseon Dynasty
Joseon , was a Korean state founded by Taejo Yi Seong-gye that lasted for approximately five centuries. It was founded in the aftermath of the overthrow of the Goryeo at what is today the city of Kaesong. Early on, Korea was retitled and the capital was relocated to modern-day Seoul...
, Korea maintained a policy of strict isolationism
Isolationism
Isolationism is the policy or doctrine of isolating one's country from the affairs of other nations by declining to enter into alliances, foreign economic commitments, international agreements, etc., seeking to devote the entire efforts of one's country to its own advancement and remain at peace by...
from the outside world (interaction with the Qing dynasty and occasional trading with Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
through Tsushima). However, it did not succeed entirely in sealing itself off from foreign contact. Catholic missionaires had begun to show an interest in Korea as early as the 16th century with their arrival in China and Japan.
Through Korean envoy missions to the Qing court in the 18th century, foreign ideas, including Christianity, began to enter Korea and by the late 18th century Korea had its first native Christians. However, it was only in the mid 19th century that the first western Catholic missionaries began to enter Korea. This was done by stealth, either via the Korean border with Manchuria or the Yellow Sea. These French missionaries of the Paris Foreign Missions Society
Paris Foreign Missions Society
The Society of Foreign Missions of Paris is a Roman Catholic missionary organization. It is not a religious order, but an organization of secular priests and lay persons dedicated to missionary work in foreign lands....
arrived in Korea in the 1840s to proselytize to a growing Korean flock. Bishop Siméon-François Berneux
Siméon-François Berneux
Siméon-François Berneux was a French Catholic missionary, and a member of the Paris Foreign Missions Society who was canonized as a saint....
, appointed in 1856 as head of the infant Korean Catholic church, estimated in 1859 that the number of Korean faithful had reached nearly 17,000.
Though the Heungseon Daewongun’s authority at court was not official, stemming in fact from the traditional imperative in Confucian societies for sons to obey their fathers, he quickly seized the initiative and began to control state policy. He became one of the most effective and forceful leaders of the 500-year-old Joseon Dynasty. With the aged dowager regent’s blessing, the Heungseon Daewongun set out upon a dual campaign of both strengthening central authority and Korean isolation from the disintegrating traditional order outside its borders. By the time the Heungseon Daewongun assumed de facto control of the government in 1864 there were twelve French Jesuit priests living and preaching in Korea and an estimated 23,000 native Korean converts.
Several factors contributed to the Heungseon Daewongun‘s decision to crack down on the Catholics. Perhaps the most obvious was the lesson provided by China, which had apparently reaped nothing but hardship and humiliation from its dealing with the western powers, seen most recently in its disastrous defeat during the Second Opium War
Second Opium War
The Second Opium War, the Second Anglo-Chinese War, the Second China War, the Arrow War, or the Anglo-French expedition to China, was a war pitting the British Empire and the Second French Empire against the Qing Dynasty of China, lasting from 1856 to 1860...
. No doubt also fresh in the Heungseon Daewongun‘s mind was the example of the Taiping Rebellion
Taiping Rebellion
The Taiping Rebellion was a widespread civil war in southern China from 1850 to 1864, led by heterodox Christian convert Hong Xiuquan, who, having received visions, maintained that he was the younger brother of Jesus Christ, against the ruling Manchu-led Qing Dynasty...
in China, which had been infused with Christian doctrines. 1865 had seen poor harvests in Korea as well as social unrest, which may have contributed to a heightened sensitivity to the foreign creed. The crackdown may also have been related to attempts to combat factional cliques at court, where Christianity had made some inroads.
Pope John Paul II
Blessed Pope John Paul II , born Karol Józef Wojtyła , reigned as Pope of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of Vatican City from 16 October 1978 until his death on 2 April 2005, at of age. His was the second-longest documented pontificate, which lasted ; only Pope Pius IX ...
on 6 May 1984. An untold number of Korean Catholics also met their end (estimations run around 10,000), many being executed at a place called Jeoldu-san
Jeoldu-san
Jeoldu-san is a rocky promontory overlooking the Han River in the district of Mapo-gu, Seoul, South Korea...
in Seoul on the banks of the Han River.
In late June 1866, one of the three surviving French missionaries, Father Félix-Claire Ridel, managed to escape via a fishing vessel, thanks to 11 native converts, and make his way to Chefoo (today known as Yantai
Yantai
Yantai is a prefecture-level city in northeastern Shandong province, People's Republic of China. Located on the southern coast of the Bohai Sea and the eastern coast of the Laizhou Bay, Yantai borders the cities of Qingdao and Weihai to the southwest and east respectively.The largest fishing...
), China in early July 1866. Fortuitously in Tianjin at the time of Ridel‘s arrival was the commander of the French Far Eastern Squadron, Rear Admiral Pierre-Gustave Roze
Pierre-Gustave Roze
Pierre-Gustave Roze was a French admiral. He was born in Toulon, France and throughout his adult life served as a career naval officer. As a young rear admiral he served in Mexico during the French intervention there of 1862. In 1865 he was appointed commander of the French Far Eastern Station...
. Hearing of the massacre and the affront to French national honor, Roze determined to launch a punitive expedition
Punitive expedition
A punitive expedition is a military journey undertaken to punish a state or any group of persons outside the borders of the punishing state. It is usually undertaken in response to perceived disobedient or morally wrong behavior, but may be also be a covered revenge...
. In this, he was strongly supported by the acting French consul in Peking, Henri de Bellonet.
On the French side, there were also compelling reasons behind the decision to launch a punitive expedition. These had to do with increasing violence against Christian missionaries and converts in the Chinese interior, which after the Second Opium War in 1860 had been opened up to westerners. As Korea was a nominal vassal of China, the massacre of westerners and Christians in Korea was seen by diplomatic and military authorities in the context of anti-Western behavior in China. Many believed a firm response to such acts of violence was necessary to maintain national prestige and authority.
In response to the event, the French chargé d'affaires
Chargé d'affaires
In diplomacy, chargé d’affaires , often shortened to simply chargé, is the title of two classes of diplomatic agents who head a diplomatic mission, either on a temporary basis or when no more senior diplomat has been accredited.-Chargés d’affaires:Chargés d’affaires , who were...
in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...
, Henri de Bellonet, took a number of intitiatives without consulting with Quai d'Orsay
Quai d'Orsay
The Quai d'Orsay is a quai in the VIIe arrondissement of Paris, part of the left bank of the Seine, and the name of the street along it. The Quai becomes the Quai Anatole France east of the Palais Bourbon, and the Quai de Branly west of the Pont de l'Alma.The French Ministry of Foreign Affairs is...
. Bellonet sent a note to the Zongli Yamen
Zongli Yamen
Zongli Yamen was the government body in charge of foreign affairs in imperial China during the late Qing dynasty. It was established by Prince Gong in 1861, following the Convention of Peking. It was abolished in 1901 and replaced with a Foreign Office of ministry rank.The former site of the...
threatening to occupy Korea, and he also gave the French Naval Commander in the Far East, rear admiral Pierre-Gustave Roze
Pierre-Gustave Roze
Pierre-Gustave Roze was a French admiral. He was born in Toulon, France and throughout his adult life served as a career naval officer. As a young rear admiral he served in Mexico during the French intervention there of 1862. In 1865 he was appointed commander of the French Far Eastern Station...
instruction to launch a punitive expedition against Korea, to which Roze responded : "Since [the kingdom of] Choson killed nine French priests, we shall avenge by killing 9,000 Koreans."
Preliminaries (10 September – 3 October 1866)
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
. This was done in late September and early October 1866. These preliminaries resulted in some rudimentary navigational charts of the waters around Ganghwa Island and the Han River
Han River (Korea)
The Han River is a major river in South Korea and the fourth longest river on the Korean peninsula after the Amnok, Duman, and Nakdong rivers. It is formed by the confluence of the Namhan River , which originates in Mount Daedeok, and the Bukhan River , which originates on the slopes of Mount...
leading to Seoul. The treacherous nature of these waters, however, also convinced Roze that any movement against the fortified Korean capital with his limited numbers and large hulled vessels was impossible. Instead, he opted to seize and occupy Ganghwa Island, which commanded the entrance to the Han River, in the hopes of blockading the waterway to the capital during the important harvest season and thus forcing demands and reparations on the Korean court.
The nature that these demands were to take was never fully determined. In Peking, the French consul Bellonet had made outrageous (and as it turned out unofficial) demands that the Korean monarch forfeit his crown and cede sovereignty to France. Such a stance was not in keeping with the more circumspect goals of Rear Admiral Roze, who hoped to force reparations. In any case, the demands of Bellonet were never officially endorsed by the French government of Napoleon III Bellonet would later be severely reprimanded for his importunate blusterings.
Expedition (11 October–12 November 1866)
Kyujanggak
The Kyujanggak was the royal library of the Joseon Dynasty, and functions today as a key repository of Korean historical records. It was founded in 1776 during the reign of Jeongjo, at which time it was located on the palace grounds of Changdeokgung...
(Oikyujanggak) on the island.
From his earlier exploratory expedition, Roze knew it was impossible for him to lead a fleet of limited force up the treacherous and shallow Han River to the Korean capital and satisfied himself instead with a “coup de main” on the coast. On the mainland across the narrow channel from Ganghwa Island, however, the French offensive was met with stiff resistance from the troops of General Yi Yong-Hui, to whom Roze sent several letters asking for reparation, without success. A major blow to the French expedition came on 26 October, when 120 French Naval Fusiliers landed briefly on the Korean mainland in an attempt to seize a small fortification at Munsusansong (depicted in the illustration above). As the landing party came ashore they were met by brisk fire from the Korean defenders.
If the monastery of Munsusansong fell into French hands, the way to Seoul
Seoul
Seoul , officially the Seoul Special City, is the capital and largest metropolis of South Korea. A megacity with a population of over 10 million, it is the largest city proper in the OECD developed world...
would be open, so, the 7 October, a second landing party was launched by Roze. 160 Naval Fusiliers attacked the monastery of Munsusansong (Mt. Munsu Fort) defended by 543 Korean "Tiger Hunters". Three French soldiers were killed and 36 injured before a retreat was called. Except for continued bombing and surveying activity around Ganghwa and the mouth of the Han River, French forces now largely fortified themselves in and around the city of Ganghwa.
Roze then sent a new letter, asking for the release of the two remaining French missionaries whom he had reason to believe were imprisoned. No answer was forthcoming, but it became clear from activity seen on the mainland across the narrow straits that Korean forces were mobilizing daily. On 9 November, the French were again checked when they attempted to seize a fortified monastery on the southern coast of Ganghwa called Jeongdeung–sa. Here again stiff Korean resistance, coupled by the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Korean defenders, now numbering 10 000 men, forced a French retreat with dozens of casualties but no deaths.
Soon thereafter, with winter approaching and the Korean forces growing stronger, Roze made the strategic decision to evacuate. Before doing so, orders were given to bombard the government buildings on Ganghwa Island and to carry off the varied contents of official storehouses there. It was also learned around this time that the two missing missionaries feared captured in Korea had in fact managed to escape to China. This news contributed to the decision to leave.
- "The expedition I just accomplished, however modest as it is, may have prepared the ground for a more serious one if deemed necessary,... The expedition deeply shocked the Korean Nation, by showing her claimed invulnerability was but an illusion. Lastly, the destruction of one of the avenues of Seoul, and the considerable losses suffered by the Korean government should render it more cautious in the future. The objective I had fixed to myself is thus fully accomplished, and the murder of our missionaries has been avenged." report of 15 November by Admiral Roze
The European residents in China considered the results of the expedition minimal and demanded unsuccessfully a larger expedition for the following spring.
After this expedition, Roze with most his fleet returned to Japan
Japan
Japan is an island nation in East Asia. Located in the Pacific Ocean, it lies to the east of the Sea of Japan, China, North Korea, South Korea and Russia, stretching from the Sea of Okhotsk in the north to the East China Sea and Taiwan in the south...
, where they were able to welcome the first French military mission to Japan (1867–1868) in the harbour of Yokohama
Yokohama
is the capital city of Kanagawa Prefecture and the second largest city in Japan by population after Tokyo and most populous municipality of Japan. It lies on Tokyo Bay, south of Tokyo, in the Kantō region of the main island of Honshu...
on 13 January 1867. The French government ordered the military to leave as a result of heavy losses in the French intervention in Mexico
French intervention in Mexico
The French intervention in Mexico , also known as The Maximilian Affair, War of the French Intervention, and The Franco-Mexican War, was an invasion of Mexico by an expeditionary force sent by the Second French Empire, supported in the beginning by the United Kingdom and the Kingdom of Spain...
.
Ancient Korean books
The books seized by the French at Ganghwa, some 297 volumes altogether dating from between the 14th and 19th centuries, went on to become the core of the Korea collection in the Bibliothèque Nationale de FranceBibliothèque nationale de France
The is the National Library of France, located in Paris. It is intended to be the repository of all that is published in France. The current president of the library is Bruno Racine.-History:...
. In 2010 it was revealed that the French government was planning to return the books on a renewable lease to Korea, despite the fact that French law generally prohibited the cession of museum property. In early 2011 South Korean president Lee Myung Bak and French president Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy
Nicolas Sarkozy is the 23rd and current President of the French Republic and ex officio Co-Prince of Andorra. He assumed the office on 16 May 2007 after defeating the Socialist Party candidate Ségolène Royal 10 days earlier....
finalized an agreement for the return of all the books on a renewable lease. In June 2011 celebrations were held in the port city of Incheon
Incheon
The Incheon Metropolitan City is located in northwestern South Korea. The city was home to just 4,700 people when Jemulpo port was built in 1883. Today 2.76 million people live in the city, making it Korea’s third most populous city after Seoul and Busan Metropolitan City...
to commemorate their final return. The collection is now being stored in the National Museum of Korea
National Museum of Korea
The National Museum of Korea is the flagship museum of Korean history and art in South Korea and is the cultural organization that represents Korea...
.
Epilogue
In the course of these events, in August 1866, an American ship General ShermanGeneral Sherman Incident
The General Sherman Incident was the destruction of an armed merchant marine side-wheel steamer that visited Korea in 1866. It was an important catalyst to the end of Korean isolationism in the 19th century...
foundered on the coast of Korea. Some of the sailors were massacred, but the United States
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
could not obtain reparations. The United States offered France a combined operation, but the project was abandoned due to the relatively low interest for Korea at that time. An intervention happened in 1871, with the United States Korean expedition.
The Korean government would finally agree to open the country in 1876, when a fleet of the Imperial Japanese Navy
Imperial Japanese Navy
The Imperial Japanese Navy was the navy of the Empire of Japan from 1869 until 1947, when it was dissolved following Japan's constitutional renunciation of the use of force as a means of settling international disputes...
was sent under the orders of Kuroda Kiyotaka
Kuroda Kiyotaka
, also known as , was a Japanese politician of the Meiji era. He was the second Prime Minister of Japan from 30 April 1888 to 25 October 1889.-As a Satsuma samurai:...
, leading to the Treaty of Ganghwa
Treaty of Ganghwa
The Japan-Korea Treaty of Amity, also known as the Treaty of Ganghwa or Treaty of Kanghwa, was made between representatives of the Empire of Japan and the Kingdom of Joseon in 1876...
.
See also
- General Sherman incidentGeneral Sherman IncidentThe General Sherman Incident was the destruction of an armed merchant marine side-wheel steamer that visited Korea in 1866. It was an important catalyst to the end of Korean isolationism in the 19th century...
- United States expedition to Korea
- Ganghwa Island incidentGanghwa Island incidentThe Ganghwa Island incident or the Japanese Battle of Ganghwa , was an armed encounter between the Joseon Dynasty and Japan which occurred in the vicinity of Ganghwa Island on September 20, 1875.-Background:...
(1875) - French military mission to Japan (1867–1868)
- French people in KoreaFrench people in KoreaThere is a small community of French people in Korea-History:French people began coming to Korea as early as the seventeenth century, when French Catholic missionaries first came to the country...
- L'Expédition en Corée du contre-amiral Roze (French)
Sources
- Choe, Chin Young. The Rule of the Taewŏn’gun 1864-1873: Restoration in Yi Korea. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972.
- Choi, Soo Bok. “The French Jesuit Mission in Korea, 1827-1866.” North Dakota Quarterly 36 (Summer 1968): 17-29.
- Dallet, Charles. Histoire de l'Église de Corée. Paris: Librairie Victor Palmé, 1874. (This epic history of the Catholic Church in Korea is important as well for some of the first depictions of Korea by westerners. It was pulled together by Dallet from letters of the missionaries themselves as well as an earlier draft written by one of the missionaries executed in 1866 that had been smuggled out of the country. Unfortunately, it has never been fully translated into English).
- Kane, Daniel C. “Bellonet and Roze: Overzealous Servants of Empire and the 1866 French Attack on Korea.” Korean Studies 23 (1999): 1-23.
- Kane, Daniel C. “Heroic Defense of the Hermit Kingdom.” Military History Quarterly (Summer 2000): 38-47.
- Kane, Daniel C. "A Forgotten Firsthand Account of the P'yǒngin yangyo (1866) : An Annotated Translation of the Narrative of G. Pradier." Seoul Journal of Korean Studies. 21:1 (June 2008): 51-86.
- Kim, Youngkoo. The Five Years' Crisis, 1861-1871: Korean in the Maelstrom of Western Imperialism. Seoul: Circle Books, 2001.
- Orange, Marc. “L'Expédition de l;Amiral Roze en Corée.” Revue de Corée. 30 (Autumn 1976): 44-84.
- Wright, Mary C. "The Adaptability of Ch'ing Diplomacy: The Case of Korea." Journal of Asian StudiesJournal of Asian StudiesThe Journal of Asian Studies is a quarterly peer-reviewed academic journal published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of the Association for Asian Studies, covering Asian studies. The journal was first established in 1941 as The Far Eastern Quarterly, obtaining its new title in September 1956...
, May 1958, 363-81. Available through JSTORJSTORJSTOR is an online system for archiving academic journals, founded in 1995. It provides its member institutions full-text searches of digitized back issues of several hundred well-known journals, dating back to 1665 in the case of the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society...
.
External links
- L'Expédition en Corée du contre-amiral Roze (French)
- The Korean campaign of Admiral Roze (French)
- Martyrs of Korea