“The first Sino-Japanese War, or known to the Chinese as the Jiawu War, lasted less than a year. China was crushed, losing not only the control of Korea, but also a large piece of her territory in Northeast China. Consequently, China was forced to sign a humiliating treaty to end the war. ”

Last week, i Capital said that Japan undergone a major transformation after Emperor Meiji assumed the throne in 1867 and started the “Meiji Restoration”. The adoption of Western technology and practices led Japan to become an aggressive, militant Westernised Asian country. Apart from industrialising her economy, Japan also emulated Western powers’ empire building game. Few people know that Japan aggressively carried out her first colonisation campaign by absorbing the Ryukyu Kingdom to become the Okinawa Prefecture in 1879. The other territories Japan was eyeing were neighbourly Taiwan, Korea, and China. She failed to colonise Taiwan in the 1874 attempt, but eventually got what she wanted through Korea.

During the 19th century, the Korean society was characterised by poverty and oppression by the ruling class. The Korean court was supported by China which received tributary from the resource-rich Korea. Japan, on the other hand, was vying for Korea’s abundant coal and iron resources to fuel her industrialisation drive. However, the region was controlled by China, Japan decided to change that and make Korea a so called independent state. In 1876, Japan used military power to force Korea to sign the Treaty of Ganghwa Island, opening up Korean ports for commerce, copying what Commodore Perry's big Black Ships did by forcing Japan to open up in 1853. The Ganghwa Treaty also granted the Japanese people many of the same rights such as extraterritoriality in Korea