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East Asia · Empire, war and the modern states

Korean Empire

1897–1910

The Korean Empire (1897–1910) was proclaimed by King Gojong (as Emperor Gwangmu) to assert Korea's full sovereignty and equality after the decline of Chinese suzerainty. It pursued the Gwangmu Reforms (modernization of the military, industry, and a land survey).

Existed
1897–1910
Shown on the map
1898–1910
Peak area
233k km²
Region
East Asia

Overview

The Korean Empire (1897–1910) was proclaimed by King Gojong (as Emperor Gwangmu) to assert Korea's full sovereignty and equality after the decline of Chinese suzerainty. It pursued the Gwangmu Reforms (modernization of the military, industry, and a land survey). Caught between Japan and Russia, it lost autonomy after the Russo-Japanese War: the 1905 protectorate treaty stripped its diplomacy, and Japan formally annexed Korea in 1910, ending it.

Common questions

What was the Korean Empire?
The Korean Empire (1897–1910) was proclaimed by King Gojong (as Emperor Gwangmu) to assert Korea's full sovereignty and equality after the decline of Chinese suzerainty. It pursued the Gwangmu Reforms (modernization of the military, industry, and a land survey).
When did the Korean Empire exist?
The Korean Empire existed 1897–1910. On this map it is drawn 1898–1910.
How large was the Korean Empire?
At its greatest extent drawn on this map, the Korean Empire covered about 233,000 km². That is the largest area the border data gives it across the years it is drawn, not necessarily its greatest extent in history.

Sources

This compendium cites its sources once for the whole document rather than per territory. Its bibliography names the English Wikipedia article for each polity as the basis of these profiles, supplemented by Encyclopaedia Britannica, chinaknowledge.de, the World History Encyclopedia, museum and university sources, and the academic works it lists. The article this entry is anchored on:

This entry was last updated .

This entry was researched and drafted with AI from the sources above, and has not been reviewed by a historian. How entries are made

Text available under CC BY-SA 4.0: reuse it with a credit to The World Through Time and a link to this page. Passages drawing on the Wikipedia articles listed above are also licensed CC BY-SA 4.0 by their contributors.

Border geometry for the map itself comes from Cliopatria v0.12 (Seshat Global History Databank, CC-BY-4.0).

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