By This weekend I decided to escape the Chusok crowds by taking a trip to beautiful Gangwha-do Island to the Northwest of Seoul. The island is a nice quiet place to escape the hustle and bustle of Seoul for those just looking to relax. The island is also a great place to explore Korean history. Kangwha-do sits on strategic ground right at the mouth of the Han River. Any amphibious invader of Seoul would have to closely pass by this island to enter the Han River. In response to this strategic fact the Koreans have built a number of fortifications on the island. Because of this the island has a number of historical sites ranging from the pre-historic, to resistance against the Mongol hordes, defeat by the Manhcus, battles with the Japanese, engagements with the French, and even a battle against the American Marines in 1871.
Beautiful Image from Gangwha-do Island
In 1866 the US ship the General Sherman traveled up the Daedong River to Pyongyang in North Korea to open trade with Korea. From here things get sketchy but apparently the crew members were extremely disrespectful and a general nuisance in their attempts to open trade with the Koreans. When the Daedong River waters receded the General Sherman ran a ground. With the ship stranded the Koreans attacked the ship but were initially unsuccessful due to the ship’s iron hull. However, the Koreans were able to force the crew from the safety of their ship by burning sulfur and saltpeter outside the ship. The deadly fumes caused the crew to abandon ship where they were met by a Korean mob that mutilated and burned their bodies. Interestingly enough North Korean founder Kim Il Sung, in his efforts to build his personality cult, claimed that his grandfather led the attack on the General Sherman.
In response to this incident the US government in 1868 sent the USS Shenandoah to investigate what happened to the General Sherman. The ship’s crew was continuously stonewalled by the Korean government and returned home in vain.
The US government then decided to dispatch armed Marines to send a message to the Korean government. The Navy dispatched 5 ships loaded with 1,230 Marines to Korea. The Marines armed with Remington carbines and Springfield muskets landed on Ganghwa Island on June 10, 1871. The Marines easily captured the fortifications along the Gangwha Strait with the aid of their superior weaponry and training including Gwangseong-bo Command Fortress. From here the Marines moved further inland and occupied the rest of the island by June 11th.
Some of the Korean casualties after the battle with the American Marines.
The embarrassed Korean government immediately began to form a force on the main land armed with modern weapons to retake the island. The Marines happy with the knowledge that they had given the Korean government payback for the General Sherman incident departed the island on July 3rd after occupying it for nearly a month.
What I always find interesting about history is the perspective of a battle from the losing side. According to the marker at the present day Gwangseong-bo Fortresss the Korean defenders inflicted “heavy casualties” on the American Marines and offered “stiff resistance.” The marker did not give any number of casualties which made me instantly suspect. With some research I have found out that the Koreans killed three Marines that day. Not exactly what I would call “heavy casualties.” Especially when the “stiff resistance” is coming from soldiers in improved fortifications firing down on the Marines conducting an amphibious assault. You would expect a lot more American casualties. The Korean forces on the other hand suffered 350 killed and 20 captured. This is all clear indicators of the level of training the Korean Army had in those days. Even if they were all armed with bows and arrows you would expect more then three people killed.
Gwangseong-bo Command Fortress on Gangwha-do Island Today
This incident must have been a great lesson learned by the Japanese. The Japanese at the time was being heavily Westernized after the 1868 Meiji Restoration. The American victory at Gangwha was a great example of the superiority of western weapons and tactics against their Asian neighbors. The Japanese learned well and they moved their newly modernized navy to Ganghwa waters in 1876 and threatened to bombard Seoul if the Korean government did not sign a trade treaty with Japan. The Korean government signed the treaty which became the beginning of a long period of Korean history dominated by Japan that did not end until the defeat of Japan in World War II.
This story shows the history Americans have had in recent Korean history. I look at this incident and wonder how different things would of been in Asia if the Korean government had decided to open trade with the US with arrival of the General Sherman? The Koreans could have emulated the Japanese model of learning from the West to build national power. It appears the Korean government should have definitely opened up after the 1871 conflict with the US at Gangwha. It was painfully obvious how inadequate their military was in combating western weapons and tactics. Probably due to denial, fear of the military, or just political instability the Korean government did nothing to address the problems with their military.
Could the Koreans have prevented the Japanese domination of their country if they had westernized sooner? Could this have influenced the events in World War II from ever happening by preventing the Japanese from having a bridge head into Asia? Could this have kept Korea together as one nation thus preventing the Korean War? Who knows but once again it is interesting to think about.
For more information and pictures about the 1871 American campaign at Gangwha-do check out this site.
3:14 am on December 24th, 2006 1
Interesting item of history.
I seem to remember reading somewhere that the Korean Royalty thought the Chinese had the right answer to the foriegn threat–total isolation.
Personal opinion, I think the thought of the change opening the country and modernization would bring about was too much for the conservative rulers to contemplate.
3:15 am on December 24th, 2006 2
The Korean leaders at the time were influenced by China and felt that the Chinese had been exploited by the Western powers thus they felt isolation was the answer to prevent exploitation. What China had done was allow the West to use them unlike Japan who used the West to empower themselves. In the end the exploitation by the West they feared would have never been as bad as the exploitation they endured under the Japanese.
3:15 am on December 24th, 2006 3
Excellent post about the Ganghwa Incident. I recently read a description of that 1871 battle on Kanghwa by the leader of the expedition, Commander Frederick Low.
In describing the battle, where 105 U.S. Marines fought against untold numbers of entrenched Korean defenders, with 650 Koreans killed in its aftermath, Commander Low commented that the Korean "Tiger Fighters" fought back with a courage "rarely equalled and never excelled by any people."
I can't think of a higher compliment in remembering those early Korean defenders who probably made up for what they lacked in technology, training and tactics with a surfeit of bravery.
Also, interesting question about what could've happend if Korea had emulated Japan's Meiji Restoration early on.
Although it's tempting to say that Korea could've easily benefitted by following Meiji Japan's lead in modernizing and opening up to the West, I think major social, political and cultural differences between Yi-dyansty Korea and Meiji Japan effectively precluded such reforms from taking root in Korea at the time.
For starters, consider some fundamental political differences between Yi Korea and Meiji Japan.
The Korean monarch up to the end of the 19th Century had absolute power over his people. Korean kings were basically primitive sino-centric despots and proto-dictators, a'la Kim Jong-il, Adolf Hitler and Sadaam Hussein. For all intents and purposes, Korea at the end of the 19th Century, was functioning at a level socially and politically akin to Europe in the dark ages.
On the other hand, in Meiji Japan, the emperor was nothing more than a mere symbolic, quasi-religious entity, with no real political power, other than serving as a figurehead and rubber stamp for the various lords, advisors, and other minor officials who were constanty vying against each other and jockeying for power in post-feudal Japan.
However, one maxim did prevail in 19th Century Japan that made the Meiji restoration possible. It was the common Japanese belief of "Rich country, Strong Army." This belief did not exist in Korea, and was actually repulsed by the Korean Kings, the Yangban "scholars" and court officials as being "primitive" and "backwards". So while the Japanese were forging ahead, medieval-like despotic kings continued their rule in Korea up to the early part of the 20th Century.
Also during the mid-19th Century, Korea's de facto foreign policy, as articulated by King TaeWon was "no foreign treaties, no trade, no missionaries, no Christianity, no West and no Japan".
TaeWon's sino-centric sycophants also parroted this line, as well as other various mantras about how "moral rectitude" and "Confucian virtue" would eventually trump the "barbaric" shows of force used by the West and Japan.
In short order though, these egg-headed mandarins would all be put in their place, but not until King TaeWon was succeeded by his relatively foreigner friendly son, King Kojong in 1873.
Regardless, up to the Yi Dynasty, Korea lacked the cultural, social and political underpinnings to handle modernization or free trade of any kind.
It was only through a series of forced unilateral treaties with Japan and the U.S. that Korea was eventually pried open. It doesn't take a genius to figure out that it was the backwards Korean Confucianist mentality, combined with the parasitic influence of Korea's monarchy and the Yangban that had successfully kept Korea down for centuries.
I'll even go as far as to say that had it not been for Japan's assistance in getting rid of the blood-sucking Korean "royal" family and Japan's subsequent 1910-45 annexation of Korea, Korea could've never benefitted from the U.S. assistance and become what it is today. Also, I try not to ever compare Korea with Japan, because I realize that had it not been for Japan's and the U.S's heavy-handed and inequitable early dealings with Korea, Korea would probably be in the exact same place today that it was 100 years ago.
1:55 pm on October 10th, 2007 4
[...] battle flag taken by US Marines in the American Campaign of 1871 on Gangwha Island is being returned via a lease to the Korean [...]
4:58 am on December 2nd, 2007 5
[...] The strategic incompetence of not forming a strong domestic army became quite evident when in 1871 American Marines defeated Korean defenders of Kangwha-do island at the mouth of the Han River and occupied it for a short time. This embarrassment of the Korean [...]