Japan / Korea: Signing of the Japan-Korea Treaty of Amity, Ganghwa, 1876.

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 Empire of Korea in 1876. It was an unequal treaty forced on Korea by a rapidly modernising Japan that was eager to become a colonising power in Eastern Asia. When the negotiations were concluded, the ports of Busan, Inchon and Wuson were opened for trade. Japan employed gunboat diplomacy to press the Joseon Dynasty to sign this unequal treaty. The pact opened up Korea, as Commodore Matthew Perry's fleet of Black Ships had opened up Japan in 1853. It ended Joseon's status as a tributary state of Qing China, at least in the eyes of Joseon and Japan, if not China, and opened three ports to Japanese trade. The Treaty also granted Japanese many of the same rights in Korea that Westerners enjoyed in Japan. The chief treaty negotiators were Kuroda Kiyotaka, Governor of Hokkaido, and Shin Heon, General and Minister of Joseon Dynasty Korea.

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