French expedition to Korea: Difference between revisions
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#REDIRECT [[French Campaign against Korea, 1866]] |
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{{wikify|February 2007}} |
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{{Infobox Military Conflict |
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|conflict=French campaign against Korea, 1866<br>(The ''byeong-in yang-yo'') |
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|date=October-November 1866 |
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|image=[[Image:FranceGanghwa.jpg|250px]] |
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|place=predominantly [[Ganghwa Island]], some small engagements on the[[Korean peninsula]] |
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|casus=Korean execution of nine French missionaries as well as native Catholic converts|= |
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|result=French defeat |
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|combatant1=[[Joseon Dynasty]] [[Korea]]<br/> |
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|combatant2=[[France]] |
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|commander1='''Korea:'''<br/>[[Gojong of Joseon|King Gojong]] <br/> [[Daewon-gun]]<br/> |
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|commander2='''France:'''</br>[[Pierre-Gustave Roze]]<br/> |strength1='''Korea:'''<br/>unknown<br/> |
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|strength2='''France:'''<br/>150 |
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|casualties1='''Korea:'''<br/>Unknown<br/> |
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|casualties2='''France:'''<br/>10</br> |
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}} |
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The '''French campaign against Korea of 1866''' is known in Korea as the ''byeong-in yang-yo'' 丙寅洋擾, or “the foreign disturbance of the ''byeong-in'' year (1866)”. It refers to the French occupation of [[Ganghwa Island]] in Korea in retaliation for the earlier execution by Korea of French Jesuit priests prosletyzing illicitly in that country. The encounter, which lasted nearly six weeks, was the first armed encounter between Korea and a western power. By all accounts the episode ended in French failure, contributing further to Korean isolationism and damaging French prestige in the Far East for a generation. |
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==Background== |
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Though [[Joseon]] dynasty Korea maintained a policy of strict segregation from the outside world (save for tribute intercourse with China and occassional trading with Japan through [[Tsushima]]), 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 tribute 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 Jesuits 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.<ref>Dallet, 452.</ref> |
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At first the Korean court turned a blind eye to such incursions. This attitude changed abruptly, however, with the enthronement of 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 the fiercely 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: [[Daewon-gun]], or “Prince of the Great Court”. Though the Daewon-gun’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 Daewon-gun set out upon a dual campaign of both strengthening central authority Korean isolation from the disintegrating traditional order outside its borders. By the time the Daewon-gun assumed de facto control of the government in 1864 there were twelve French Jesuit priests living and preaching illicitly in Korea and an estimated 23,000 native Korean converts.<ref>Kane (1999), 2.</ref> |
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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. Native 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 Daewon-gun seemed open to this idea, though it is uncertain whether this was ruse to bring the head of the Korean Catholic Church out of his hiding place. Berneux was summoned to the capital but upon his arrival in February 1866 he was seized and executed. A roundup then began of the other French Catholic priests and native converts. |
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Several factors contributed to the Daewon-gun‘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 Daewon-gun‘s mind was the example of the [[Taiping]] rebellion in China, which had been infused with western 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. |
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As a result of the Korean dragnet all but three of the dozen French missionaries were captured and executed. An untold number of Korean Catholics also met their end, many being executed a place called [[Jeoldu-san]] in Seoul on the banks of the Han River. In late June 1866 one of the three surviving French missionaires, Father Felix-Claire Ridel, managed to escape via a fishing vessel and make his way to [[Tianjin]], 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, Henry de Bellonet. |
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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 missionaires 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. While the acting French consul in Peking took up a diplomatic iniative with Chinese authorities, Rear Admiral Roze made his own military preparations for a campaign against Korea. |
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==Preliminaries (18 September-3 October, 1866)== |
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Though the French diplomatic and naval authorities in China were eager to launch an expedition, they were stymied by the almost utter 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 (Korea)|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 reparitions on the Korean court. |
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The nature 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 only to force reparitions. In any case, the demands of Bellonet were never officially endorsed by the French government of [[Napoleon III]], and for his importunate blusterings he would later be severely reprimanded.<ref>Kane (1999), 20.</ref> |
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==Expedition (11 October-12 November, 1866)== |
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==Aftermath== |
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==References== |
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<references/> |
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==Sources== |
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*Choe, Chin Young. ''The Rule of the Taewŏn’gun 1864-1873: Restoration in Yi Korea''. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1972. |
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*Choi, Soo Bok. “The French Jesuit Mission in Korea, 1827-1866.” ''North Dakota Quarterly'' 36 (Summer 1968): 17-29. |
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*Dallet, Charles. ''Histoire de l’Eglise de Corée''. Paris: Librairie Victor Palmé, 1874. (This epic history of the 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, but which had been smuggled out of the country. Unfortunately it has never been fully translated into English). |
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*Kane, Daniel C. “Bellonet and Roze: Overzealous Servants of Empire and the 1866 French Attack on Korea.” ''Korean Studies'' 23 (1999): 1-23. |
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*Kane, Daniel C. “Heroic Defense of the Hermit Kingdom.” ''Military History Quarterly'' ( Summer 2000): 38-47. |
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*Kim, Youngkoo. ''The Five Years‘ Crisis, 1861-1871: Korean in the Maelstrom of Western Imperialism''. Seoul: Circle Books, 2001. |
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*Orange, Marc. “L’Expédition de l’Amiral Roze en Corée.” ''Revue de Corée''. 30 (Autumn 1976): 44-84. |
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[[fr:Expédition en Corée du contre-amiral Roze]] |
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[[ja:丙寅洋擾]] |
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[[zh:丙寅洋擾]] |
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Revision as of 19:32, 3 February 2007
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