BRITAIN's APPROACH TO KOREA INFLUENCED BY ITS EXPERIENCE IN JAPAN

WHEN I STUDIED British extraterritoriality in Japan, the provisions as to extraterritoriality in the Treaty of Friendship and Commerce of 26 November 1883 between the United Kingdom and Korea (the Treaty) struck me as a rehearsal of many of the problems that British officialdom had encountered in Japan in applying extraterritoriality up to that date. It was as though the Treaty's British negotiators were determined not to encounter the same difficulties and prevarications in Korea that they had faced in Japan and it occurred to me that the Treaty would repay closer examination in the context of British extraterritoriality in Japan. I also wondered why we hear so little about Korean treaty ports or ‘unfair’ treaties in the context of Anglo-Korean relations.

British extraterritoriality in Japan was a key feature of Japan's changing relations with Britain for 40 years from 1859 to 1899 but it hardly featured in Anglo-Korean relations and British extraterritoriality in Korea is not referred back to as a blot on the history of Anglo-Korean relations. If anything, some aspects of British extraterritoriality were seen as a positive in Korean opposition to Japan's increasing dominanation of Korea in the years before 1910 when Japan finally annexed Korea.

Of course, this lack of focus on British extraterritoriality in Anglo-Korean relations reflects the fact that Britain was only ever a ‘bit player’ in Korea's history at a time when Korea was riven by internal divisions and too weak to stand up for itself against the competing interests of its nearest neighbours: Japan, China and Russia. Britain had no territorial interest in Korea; its principal strategic interest was to forestall any increase in Russian influence in Korea or any Russian naval presence in and around Korea. Otherwise, Britain wished simply to have access to the Korean market for its manufactures. Even here, the Korean markets paled into insignificance besides the size and value of the Japanese and Chinese markets.

The result was that, during the 26 years period of British extraterritoriality in Korea from 1884 to 1910, the British registered population never exceeded 100 of whom a significant proportion were missionaries; and British flagged vessels were notable for their near complete absence from Korean waters.