In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

The United States Faces Korea chapter two Geographically and culturally worlds apart, the United States and the Korean Peninsula in the early nineteenth century had little in common. Yet they were about to enter a turbulent period of conflict and cooperation that would last for more than a century and a half. As early as the 1830s, the United States government believed that one of the advantages of opening Japan to the West would be the possibility of trade with Korea. The Korean ruling elite during the Choson Dynasty (1392–1910), however, was ill prepared to deal with the West. They were unable to foresee the emerging collision between their Sino-centric worldview, with its hierarchical and insular East Asian traditions, and the Western concept of equal, independent, and competitive nation states. Not until the outbreak of the Opium War (1840–42) did they begin to recognize the impact that the influx of European and American in- fluences would have on their familiar international order.1 Even after they received a belated and vague report about the war from Korean tributary missions to China, they failed to comprehend the ominous implications of China’s loss in the war and of the Treaty of Nanking (1842), in which China agreed to cede Hong Kong to England and to open five ports to British trade. Nor were the Koreans fully aware of Commodore Matthew C. Perry’s visit to Japan in 1853 and of the Treaty of Kanagawa that Perry signed with Japan in 1854. Moreover, they did not fully understand the causes and consequences of the Anglo-French War with China (1856–60), except for the shocking news that foreign forces had occupied Peking and that the Chinese Emperor had fled to Jehol north of the Great Wall. Meanwhile, a small number of Korean scholars and officials began to piece together a general introduction to Europe and America from books imported from China in the middle of the nineteenth century. These sources painted a benign picture of America: they said that the United States had fought for political independence from autocratic British rule, had become a rich but just country, and refrained from bullying small states. From 1853 to 1866 shipwrecked foreigners, among them American sailors and fishermen, washed up in the coastal areas of Korea. Startled local Korean leaders referred to them as strange “barbarians” but nonetheless kindly provided them with food, clothing, and shelter and safely returned them, mostly via China. In particular, Koreans rescued the crew of an American whaling ship, the Two Brothers, in July 1855 and an American schooner, the Surprise, in June 1866 and handed them over to the Chinese authorities. This was a time when U.S. maritime activities intensified in the Asia-Pacific region. As Hahm Pyong Choon suggests, Koreans routinely responded to these isolated incidents of foreigners in distress with humanitarian assistance.2 first encounters However, the first major confrontation between the United States and Korea was violent and tragic for both countries. The ambitious Taewongun (grand prince, 1821–98), who governed the Choson Dynasty as a regent for his young son, King Kojong (r. 1864–1907), enforced a rigid policy of seclusion from Western powers and Catholic influence. An American merchant ship, the General Sherman, challenged that policy by sailing down the Taedong River toward Pyongyang in 1866.3 The marauding crewmen—Americans, English, Chinese, and Malays—not only killed, wounded, and kidnapped Koreans, they also demanded grain, gold, silver, and ginseng as conditions for their withdrawal. Furious Korean soldiers and residents set fire to their ship and killed all twenty-four crewmen on board. Koreans suffered thirteen casualties.4 This incident was followed by violent and destructive “disturbances” on the Han River near Seoul and at Kangwha Island near Inchon inflicted by the French Navy. Hearing the news about the General Sherman, the American legation in Peking sent an urgent diplomatic inquiry through the Chinese Tsungli Yamen (Office for General Management), which was in charge of foreign affairs. The Choson government replied that “a strange British [sic] ship illegally approached Pyongyang, engaged in arrogant activities, ran aground, and perished by fire.” Because an Anglican missionary, Robert J. Thomas, who served as an interpreter and guide for the General Sherman, had presented himself as British, the Choson government identi fied the ship as British too. To further the investigations, the United States dispatched the warship Wachusett, under Commander Robert W. Shufeldt, to the...

Share