ABSTRACT
The Hermit Kingdom was the last of the East Asian nations upon which the Western powers imposed the unequal treaty system. The isolation of the hermit nation was broken by the treaty system and the aggressive expansion of the West, which brought Korea into the international world. Under King Gojong, some of the hermit kingdom's traditions had been abandoned and not only through the signing of the first of the treaties earlier in 1882. Korea, the Land of the Morning Calm, entered the period studied here, part of its late Yi Dynasty, as the 'hermit kingdom', under benign, rather nominal Chinese suzerainty, following Confucian principles. King Gojong leant towards Japan, although Gapsin Coup wished to preserve Korea's independence; Queen Min favoured China more, while the daewongun and his supporters were Korean nationalists. Korea now sought and perhaps really needed experienced outside assistance to help manage foreign relations and also military matters.
