Joseon Dynasty, where slaves accounted for ４０% of the population.The annexation of Korea and Japan abolished the slave system that had lasted for ２,０００ years.
In Korean academic circles, it is estimated that when the population during the Joseon Dynasty was around 10 million people, around 4 million people, or about 40%, were slaves.
In 695, during the Unified Silla period, a document from a survey of four villages in Nishiwongyeong (near present-day Cheongju) records that 28 people out of a population of 460 were taken as slaves. The ratio is just over 6%.
Similar records can be found in the fiefdom that Lee Seong-gye received in 1391, just before the opening of Korea. Of the 162 people living there, only 7 people, or about 4.3%, were slaves. This will increase to 40% of the population in 100 years.
During the Goryeo period, if one of the parents was a slave, the child was also a slave, and marriage between a slave and a yangban adopted child was illegal. Since it was only inherited by slaves, it did not increase significantly.
MEMO
In Japan, the slave system was abolished with the end of the Ritsuryo system. The period is the beginning of the 10th century.
Rangban sought mass production of slaves
With the advent of the Joseon Dynasty, the system of the Goryeo Dynasty was gradually loosened, and the Yangban began actively promoting marriages, believing that it would be better to increase the number of slaves by marrying slaves and adopted children instead of marrying slaves to each other. He recommended marriages between adopted children and slaves. This is because the yangban were able to increase their wealth by using slaves who were almost unpaid.
Since slaves are not required to serve in the military or pay taxes, the increase in the number of slaves is not a positive phenomenon for the nation. For this reason, some Korean kings implemented policies to reduce the number of slaves.
Taizong established that any child born to a male slave (a class other than slaves) and a female slave would qualify as a good person. At that time, yangban often kept female slaves as concubines, so this measure reduced the number of slaves and played a major role in adoption.
Ryoban opposed the policy of reducing slaves
When the number of slaves decreased, yangban bureaucrats began to rebel against it, and they demanded its abolition, using the pretext that ``female slaves are disturbing human morals by marrying good men without permission.''
Read it together
The Hague Emissary Incident was tell - all diplomacy - Why was the emissary ignored? Evidence that the world did not recognize Korea, which had given up its sovereignty.
The Korean Empire was founded before the Russo-Japanese War
Japan helped Korea gain independence and eventually stripped Korea of diplomatic rights
The Hague emissary incident is a pathetic diplomatic failure
Main emissary activities
Already surrendered sovereignty before the Hague emissary incident
The southward movement of Russian interests was the cause of the Russo-Japanese War
Kojong made the mistake of causing the head of state to flee and seek asylum in the Russian legation, and the first Russo-Japanese Protocol (Komura-Weber Agreement) and the second Russo-Japanese Protocol (Yamagata-Lobanov Agreement) were concluded, and the premise was He returned to Gyeongun Palace and changed the country's name to the Korean Empire in 1897. Adding the name of an empire to a country's name meant that it was on the same level as Japan and China, and Japan approved of this.
Later, during the Russo-Japanese War that began in 1904, the First Japan-Korea Treaty was concluded, giving Japan the upper hand in the Russo-Japanese War. Under the Second Japan-Korea Treaty concluded in 1905 after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the Korean Peninsula was stripped of its diplomatic rights.
Although Japan helped establish the Korean Empire on a par with Japan through the Japan-Russia Protocol, Gojong continued to draw in Russian interests. The eventual outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War led to Japan stripping Korea of its diplomatic rights.
The Hague Emissary Incident occurred when Gojong dispatched an emissary to the Hague International Conference in 1907 to appeal for the restoration of diplomatic rights. They were doing the same kind of tell-all diplomacy that is practiced today.
However, Russia, who was supposed to have invited them, betrayed them and was rejected by all the participating countries, and the emissary sent by Gojong was not even able to enter the conference hall. Conversely, Japan's jurisdiction over the Korean Peninsula became internationally recognized.
[Main emissary activities]
He visits Count Nelidov, the chief representative of the Russian Empire, who is the chairman of the conference, but he is refused a meeting.
He visits representatives from the United States, England, France, and Germany, but is refused assistance.
We request a meeting with the Dutch Foreign Minister of the country hosting the conference, but he is refused.
The conference in The Hague, Netherlands recognized Japan's jurisdiction over the Korean Peninsula.
In the first place, in 1896, after the assassination of Queen Min and the Chunshengmun Incident, Go Song, the head of state, fled to the Russian Legation and went into exile (Roguan Transfer). At this point, Korea was no longer recognized by the world as an independent and independent nation.
With the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, Korea renounced its sovereignty less than a year after gaining independence from Qing thanks to Japan.
Even if they attempted to exercise remote control from their exile, they were already under Russian house arrest, and Russia gradually gained control over the Korean Peninsula. Even after Gojong returned to Korea and founded the Korean Empire, Russia continued to gain interests in the Korean Peninsula, which led to the Russo-Japanese War.
The Joseon Dynasty cried out to the Qing Dynasty and triggered the Sino-Japanese War, and was invaded by Russian interests due to the transfer of Rokan, leading to the Russo-Japanese War. The Hague Emissary Incident was a case in which a courier was sent to express his dissatisfaction with having been stripped of his diplomatic rights. Japan then gave up on the independence of the Korean Peninsula.
In 1485, during the reign of King Sejong, the ``Geongoku Daten'' made it clear in the law that if one parent was a slave, the child would also be a slave. The number of slaves in Korea increased rapidly again.
In some areas, such as Ulsan and Danseong, the percentage of slaves was close to 50-60% of the population, and in 1663, it was recorded as 73% in the Hanseong family register.
The yangban mass-produced slaves to enrich their own pockets, and the country engaged in a tug-of-war over and over again, as if the number of slaves increased any further, tax revenue would decrease as a national benefit. The power of the Yangban was strong within Korea, and even the king could not ignore it.
The slave system was abolished through the Kogo Reform and the annexation of Japan and Korea
As a result, the slave system was nominally abolished by the Kogo Reform of 1885. The Kobo Reforms are the reforms that Japan demanded after the Korean Peninsula became an independent country after the Sino-Japanese War.
Ultimately, after the annexation of Japan and South Korea in 1910, the establishment of the family register system and the change of names to the So family led to the abolishment of status records on family registers, and the systematic slave system came to an end.
With modernization under Japanese rule, the slave system that had lasted 2,000 years since recorded history on the Korean peninsula ended, and as many as 40% of slaves were freed.
Who on earth held a grudge against Japanese rule
A big question arises here. Nearly half of the population was liberated from slavery, gained rights as ordinary people, and began to live a civilized life. Do these people hold a grudge against Japanese rule? "I will not forgive Japan for liberating me, my family, and my future descendants from a life of slavery"...?
The yangban were indeed deprived of the right to abuse slaves and enrich their own pockets. Then, perhaps one day, they suddenly became the same class as the people who had previously been slaves. There is no doubt that the anti-Japanese movement was led by people who were dissatisfied with having their rights taken away from Japan.
POINT
South Korea says that Japan colonized the Korean Peninsula, but Japan liberated as many as 40% of its slaves. The Korean peninsula was colonized by the Yangban, a privileged class of Korea.
The Hague Emissary Incident was tell - all diplomacy - Why was the emissary ignored? Evidence that the world did not recognize Korea, which had given up its sovereignty.
The Korean Empire was founded before the Russo-Japanese War
Japan helped Korea gain independence and eventually stripped Korea of diplomatic rights
The Hague emissary incident is a pathetic diplomatic failure
Main emissary activities
Already surrendered sovereignty before the Hague emissary incident
The southward movement of Russian interests was the cause of the Russo-Japanese War
Kojong made the mistake of causing the head of state to flee and seek asylum in the Russian legation, and the first Russo-Japanese Protocol (Komura-Weber Agreement) and the second Russo-Japanese Protocol (Yamagata-Lobanov Agreement) were concluded, and the premise was He returned to Gyeongun Palace and changed the country's name to the Korean Empire in 1897. Adding the name of an empire to a country's name meant that it was on the same level as Japan and China, and Japan approved of this.
Later, during the Russo-Japanese War that began in 1904, the First Japan-Korea Treaty was concluded, giving Japan the upper hand in the Russo-Japanese War. Under the Second Japan-Korea Treaty concluded in 1905 after the end of the Russo-Japanese War, the Korean Peninsula was stripped of its diplomatic rights.
Although Japan helped establish the Korean Empire on a par with Japan through the Japan-Russia Protocol, Gojong continued to draw in Russian interests. The eventual outbreak of the Russo-Japanese War led to Japan stripping Korea of its diplomatic rights.
The Hague Emissary Incident occurred when Gojong dispatched an emissary to the Hague International Conference in 1907 to appeal for the restoration of diplomatic rights. They were doing the same kind of tell-all diplomacy that is practiced today.
However, Russia, who was supposed to have invited them, betrayed them and was rejected by all the participating countries, and the emissary sent by Gojong was not even able to enter the conference hall. Conversely, Japan's jurisdiction over the Korean Peninsula became internationally recognized.
[Main emissary activities]
He visits Count Nelidov, the chief representative of the Russian Empire, who is the chairman of the conference, but he is refused a meeting.
He visits representatives from the United States, England, France, and Germany, but is refused assistance.
We request a meeting with the Dutch Foreign Minister of the country hosting the conference, but he is refused.
The conference in The Hague, Netherlands recognized Japan's jurisdiction over the Korean Peninsula.
In the first place, in 1896, after the assassination of Queen Min and the Chunshengmun Incident, Go Song, the head of state, fled to the Russian Legation and went into exile (Roguan Transfer). At this point, Korea was no longer recognized by the world as an independent and independent nation.
With the Treaty of Shimonoseki in 1895, Korea renounced its sovereignty less than a year after gaining independence from Qing thanks to Japan.
Even if they attempted to exercise remote control from their exile, they were already under Russian house arrest, and Russia gradually gained control over the Korean Peninsula. Even after Gojong returned to Korea and founded the Korean Empire, Russia continued to gain interests in the Korean Peninsula, which led to the Russo-Japanese War.
The Joseon Dynasty cried out to the Qing Dynasty and triggered the Sino-Japanese War, and was invaded by Russian interests due to the transfer of Rokan, leading to the Russo-Japanese War. The Hague Emissary Incident was a case in which a courier was sent to express his dissatisfaction with having been stripped of his diplomatic rights. Japan then gave up on the independence of the Korean Peninsula.