Volta
Conflict21st day of the 8th lunar month, 1875 (20 September)(Lunar)

Un’yō Incident

The Japanese warship Un’yō approached Chojijin on Ganghwa, exchanged fire, and landed on Yeongjongdo to plunder; Japan used the clash to force the Treaty of Ganghwa.

Sailors from the Un'yō storming Yeongjong fortress — Japanese woodblock print, 1876
Sailors from the Un'yō storming Yeongjong fortress — Japanese woodblock print, 1876

Unknown author Unknown author . · Public domain · Source

After the Daewongun stepped down in 1873, Park Gyu-su, O Gyeong-seok and others in Korea argued for opening to trade. In Meiji Japan there was talk of invading Korea, and Japan turned on Korea the gunboat diplomacy the West had used on it. Claiming to survey the waters, the Un’yō entered the Ganghwa strait without permission; when Korean batteries fired, it shelled Chojijin, landed at Yeongjongjin, killed defenders and looted.

The next year Japan returned with warships demanding redress and the opening of ports. Choe Ik-hyeon and others objected that Japan and the West were one and the same, but Korea signed the Treaty of Ganghwa in 1876.

Show on the map

The map in 1875

Open the full map

OpenFreeMap © OpenMapTiles © OpenStreetMap contributors

States and rulers at the time
Joseon · invaded — Gojong
Japan · invader — Emperor Meiji
Places
Chojijin, Ganghwa

People

  • Gojong1852 – 1919

    monarch · Twenty-sixth king of Joseon and first emperor of the Korean Empire

Before and after

Earlier
1874 Japanese Expedition to Taiwan
Later
1876 Treaty of Ganghwa

Themes that include this event

  • The Opening of East Asia1839 – 1901

    From the Opium War to the Boxer Protocol — sixty years in which China, Japan and Korea, forced open by Western gunboats, each tried to reform and went separate ways

  • Ganghwa Island1000 BC – 2011

    From dolmens to the Treaty of Ganghwa — Goryeo’s refuge capital and the stage of Korea’s opening, the island the kingdom fell back on in every crisis