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| 1902, Jan. 30 |
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| Determined to exclude Russia from Korea, Japan concluded with Great Britain the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (See 1902, Jan. 30). Japan recognized Britain's rights in China, and Britain acknowledged Japan's “special interests” on the Korean peninsula. Korean “independence” was again affirmed. Japan now pushed harder for Russian withdrawal of forces from Manchuria. Japan then entered upon negotiations with Russia, which was trying to exploit a great timber concession on the Yalu River in northern Korea (first secured in 1896). The negotiations proved fruitless. | 1 |
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| 1903, July |
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| A Russian military force crossed the Yalu and occupied a Korean town. Japan then proceeded to military resolution of its differences with Russia. | 2 |
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| 1904, Feb. 8 |
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| A Japanese surprise attack on the Russian installations at Lüshun launched the RUSSO-JAPANESE WAR (See 1904–5). Japanese forces immediately occupied Seoul, and Korea was obliged to annul all concessions made to Russia. Korea fell entirely under Japanese control and was forced (Aug. 1904) to accept Japanese diplomatic and financial advisers. Pro-Japanese ministers were placed in important ministerial posts. Japan won a startling and rapid series of victories over the Russians, the first time since the Mongols that an Asian military force had defeated a European power. | 3 |
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| 1905, Sept. 5 |
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| The Treaty of Portsmouth, ending the war, was overseen by U.S. president Theodore Roosevelt (1858–1919). Feeling it necessary for Japan to accept U.S. control over the Philippines (as agreed upon in the Taft-Katsura Agreement of July 1905), Roosevelt pushed for Russia's recognition of Japan's preponderant interest—political, military, and economic—in Korea. Russia was further obliged to accept whatever measures Japan deemed necessary for the protection and control of Korea. Britain, too, renegotiated the Anglo-Japanese Alliance (Aug. 1905), recognizing Japan's special place in Korea. | 4 |
Through an organization established by Japan to push its interests in Korea, the Ilchinhoe (Advancement Society), Japan pushed for the establishment of a protectorate over Korea. The treaty was forced by It Hirobumi on Korean prime minister Han Kyu-s l (Nov. 17). Through the Protectorate Treaty, Japan acquired complete control over Korea's foreign affairs, presided over by a resident general from Japan. It held this position (1906–8). | 5 |
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| 1906, Feb. 1 |
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| Kojong published his opposition to the Protectorate Treaty in an article published in the Korea Daily News. This newspaper had been founded by Yang Ki-t'ak (1871–1938) and the British journalist Ernest Bethell (1872–1909) in 1905, and since it was run by an Englishman, Japanese censors could not control it as they did the Korean press. They and others lambasted the Ilchinhoe. After he sent a secret delegation to the Second Hague Peace Conference (1907), Kojong was forced to abdicate by Japan (July 19) in favor of his son, Sunjong (1874–1926, r. 1907–10), last king-emperor of the Yi dynasty and a mere figurehead. The administration was placed almost entirely under Japanese control. | 6 |
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| 1907, Aug |
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The Korean army was disbanded, and many of its soldiers joined  ibyng (righteous brigades), which enhanced their fighting organization. This immediately led to widespread uprisings and a war of independence, which was suppressed with great difficulty. | 7 |
| Between 1907 and 1910, nearly 3,000 battles were fought between Japanese forces and Korean guerrilla units. By 1910, nearly 20,000 Koreans had died in the anti-Japanese cause. | 8 |
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| 1909, Oct. 26 |
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| An Chung-gn (1879–1910), a Korean patriot involved in ibyng and other anti-Japanese activities, assassinated It Hirobumi at the train station in Harbin. An was tried and executed in March 1910. | 9 |
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| 1910, May |
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| Gen. Terauchi Masatake (1852–1919) was appointed resident general and set in motion plans for the annexation of Korea. | 10 |
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| Aug. 22 |
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| KOREA WAS FORMALLY ANNEXED BY JAPAN. | 11 |
| In the last years of the Yi dynasty, numerous private schools were founded to supply modern Western-style education, and many of these were the work of Protestant missionaries and Korean converts. In the few years prior to annexation, 2,250 such private schools came into existence. Korea's first school for young women, Ehwa Girls School, was founded earlier (1886) through the work of U.S. missionaries; later, many other girls' schools were created by Koreans, and these schools were important agencies for liberating young women from the strictures of yangban society. The great attraction of Protestantism from the 1880s forward seems to have been centered in the non-yangban sectors. | 12 |
| As use of the Korean language became an act on behalf of independence and one of anti-Japanese defiance, new work on Korean grammar appeared. Yu Kil-chun's (1856–1914) Chosn munjn (Grammar of Korean) was the first such work. It was later followed by the work of the great scholar Chu Si-gyng (1876–1914): Kug munpp (A Korean Grammar) and Mal i sori (A Phonology of Korean). Similar patriotic work of a historical bent was that of Ch'oe Nam-sn (1890–1957), founder of the Society for Refurbishing Korea's Literary Legacy, which hunted down and published series of old Korean texts. | 13 |
| In literature, the “new novel,” written completely in han'gl and largely in the vernacular, emerged and became a vehicle for the new intellectual trends and especially for independence. They also addressed other social issues, such as women's equality. (See Korea, 1910–1945) | 14 |
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