The Donghak Peasant Revolution, also known as the Donghak Peasant Movement, was an anti-government, anti-feudal and anti-foreign uprising in 1894 in southern Korea which was the catalyst for the First Sino-Japanese War.
The uprising started in Gobu during February 1894, with the peasant class protesting against the political corruption of local government officials. The revolution was named after Donghak, a Korean religion stressing "the equality of all human beings". The Joseon government forces failed in their attempt to suppress the revolt, with initial skirmishes giving way to major battles. Korean court asked Qing China for military assistance to "quell the domestic unrest." When Japanese officials discovered three thousand Chinese troops had disembarked near Seoul in June, Japan's policy makers met to decide how to respond to China's violation of the Convention of Tientsin by "dispatching forces without informing Tokyo."
Read more about Donghak Peasant Revolution: Origins, Foreign Intervention, Donghak Revolution of 1894, Aftermath, Kim Gu, A Donghak Fighter
Famous quotes containing the words peasant and/or revolution:
“A peasant becomes fond of his pig and is glad to salt away its pork. What is significant, and is so difficult for the urban stranger to understand, is that the two statements are connected by an and and not by a but.”
—John Berger (b. 1926)
“A revolution is not the overturning of a cart, a reshuffling in the cards of state. It is a process, a swelling, a new growth in the race. If it is real, not simply a trauma, it is another ring in the tree of history, layer upon layer of invisible tissue composing the evidence of a circle.”
—Kate Millett (b. 1934)