On January 22, 1864, a twelve year old nephew of the late king became King KoJong with his father as regent. His father, Yi Ha-ung, was commonly known as the Taewon-gun. The period of his reign of the years 1864-1873 was known as the Dark Age Period. The economy was poor and Korea was also isolated from the rest of the world with the exception of China and Japan. Soon after the opening of Japan to the West in 1854 and the opening of northern ports of China, made it impossible for Korea to maintain her isolation. Korea was reluctant and unwilling to open the country to the West because they had negative views of China and Japan which had given way to Western pressure. After 1867, the Japan created a serious problem for the Korea. Japan made several requests for Korea to establish new diplomatic and commercial relations. Korea's refusal to accept the wishes of Japan and coupled with other issues such as disrespectful treatment of Japanese envoys by Korean local officials at Tongnaebu caused the uprise to the Seikan-ron, or Conquer Korea Agitation. The Unyo-kan incident also had major effects during the period of time. When Japanese warships, involved in secret marine survey projects in Korean and Chinese waters, arrived at a small island on Korean islands, the Koreans fired at the ship, thinking that the intruders were Westerners. This led the Japanese to take advantage of the situation and demanded a treaty establishing new diplomatic and commercial relations between Korea and Japan. Although, Taewon-gun was in opposition of this, King Kojong was persuaded by Pak Kyu-su, and O Kyong-sok, to pursue a peaceful solution. As a result, Korea and Japan signed the Kanghwa treaty on February 26, 1876, in which Japan recognized Korea as an independent nation. Japan gained many special privileges under these treaties similar to those gained by the Western powers in China and Japan. In 1876 and 1881, missions were sent to Japan to study the con...
