And it is also easy to foresee that in the interval existing until its absorption, Korea must remain, also like Turkey, merely the plaything of diplomacy and the battle-ground for rival nations.
Until the year 1876 Korea was really a "Hermit Kingdom," with every current from the outside world carefully excluded.

In that year her near neighbor, Japan, made the first rift in the enclosing shell.

A treaty was concluded opening Chemulpo, Fusan and Won-San to Japanese trade.

The civilizing tide pressed in, and by 1883 the United States, France, England and Germany had all concluded treaties and Korea was open to the outside world.
The government of Korea at this time was simply an organized system of robbery and extortion--wearing not even the mask of justice.

The undisguised aim of officialdom was to extort money from the people; and the aim of the high-born Korean youth (or _yang-ban_) was to pass the royal examination in Chinese classics, which was requisite to make him eligible for official position, and then join the horde of vampires who fed upon the people.