British policy towards Korea 1882-1910.

In attempting to evaluate British policy towards
Korea during the years 1882- 1910 , the first requirement
is to consider the nature of Korean society itself and
the changes that were taking place within it . Korea,
however, had a special historical relationship with China
and there impinged on this both Japanese and Russian
aspirations . As a result, British policy towards Korea
has to be examined in the light of Britain's interests
in the highly complex Far Eastern situation which,in turn,
cannot be divorced from her global interests. The Study
thus becomes one of an analysis of inter- state relationships. The course of investigation flows from the British Korean Treaty of 1882 to the British response to the
Japanese annexation of Korea in 1910 . The main areas
of investigation are the Port Hamilton Incident (1885-
1887), the Sino- Japanese War (1894- 1895) , the Anglo Japanese
Alliance (1902), the Russo - Japanese War (1904 -
1905) and the renewal of the Anglo - Japanese Alliance
(1905)·
It is within the above framework that an attempt
is made to consider the extent to which British policy
towards Korea was determined by her attitude towards
Korea alone and to what extent by far broader considerations.