Person1841 – 1909
Itō Hirobumi
First prime minister of Japan who forced the 1905 protectorate treaty and became the first Resident-General; shot by Ahn Jung-geun at Harbin
Where they went
8 related events
- 1
Half of the Meiji leadership spent a year and nine months in the United States and Europe, sounding out revision of the unequal treaties and studying Western institutions and industry.
- 2
After the Gapsin Coup, Li Hongzhang of Qing and Itō Hirobumi of Japan agreed to withdraw both armies from Korea and to notify each other before sending troops again.
- 3
Japan promulgated the first modern constitution in East Asia and opened the Imperial Diet the following year. It was a constitution granted by the emperor, in whom sovereignty resided.
- 4
The treaty that ended the Sino-Japanese War gave Japan Taiwan and a huge indemnity, but the Triple Intervention of Russia, Germany and France forced it to return the Liaodong Peninsula. The powers then scrambled to lease Chinese territory.
- 5
On 17 November 1905, with troops surrounding Gyeongungung, Itō Hirobumi forced a treaty stripping the Korean Empire of its diplomatic rights; a Japanese Residency-General was set up and soon meddled in domestic affairs too.
- 6
Using the Hague mission as a pretext, Japan and pro-Japanese ministers forced Gojong to give up the throne to Sunjong, who took the era name Yunghui.
- 7
Having removed Gojong, Japan forced a new treaty installing Japanese vice-ministers in every ministry ("government by vice-ministers"); a secret memorandum also disbanded the Korean army.
- 8
At Harbin Station in Manchuria, Ahn Jung-geun shot dead Itō Hirobumi, architect of Japan’s aggression against Korea. Imprisoned at Lüshun, he wrote On Peace in the East before his execution the next year.
People who appear alongside
- Lee Wan-yong1858 – 1926
One of the Five Eulsa Traitors; as prime minister he signed the 1907 treaty, the 1909 memorandum and the annexation treaty
- Li Hongzhang1823 – 1901
Qing viceroy who steered policy toward Korea after 1882 and signed the Tianjin Convention and the Treaty of Shimonoseki with Itō Hirobumi
- Sunjong1874 – 1926
Second and last emperor of the Korean Empire (era Yunghui), enthroned after Gojong’s forced abdication
- Iwakura Tomomi1825 – 1883
Court noble who engineered the imperial restoration and led the Meiji government’s 1871–1873 embassy to America and Europe
- Ōkubo Toshimichi1830 – 1878
Satsuma statesman who led the early Meiji government, pushing through the abolition of the domains and state-led industry, and opposed invading Korea
- Saigō Takamori1828 – 1877
Satsuma leader of the Meiji Restoration who resigned when his call to send a mission to Korea was rejected, and died leading the Satsuma Rebellion
- Emperor Meiji1852 – 1912
Emperor of Japan (r. 1867–1912) in whose name the shogunate was overthrown, the Meiji reforms carried out and the Meiji Constitution promulgated
Themes this person appears in
- 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
- Seoul18 BC – 1988
From Hanseong Baekje to the June Democratic Struggle — the Han River land every kingdom fought for, and Joseon’s capital for five centuries