Gapsin Coup

The Gapsin Putsch, also known as Gapsin Revolution, was a 3-day failed coup attempt on December 4, 1884 Korea of the late Joseon Dynasty. The term Gapsin ( 갑신 ) is derived from the annual appointment for the year 1884 in the Chinese 60 -year cycle.

Expiration

After the opening of Japan and the subsequent rapid modernization of the country's Gaehwapa, a group of Korean reformers Kim Ok- gyun and Pak Yeong- hyo attempting to carry out such changes in Korea. To turn off the conservative faction reformabgeneigte the Korean court, they occupied on 4 December 1884, the Royal Palace in Hanseong.

To counter the threat, the Queen Min Chinese troops to quell the ill- planned coup called on the sly. After three days succeeded the Yuan Shikai -run, 1,500 men strong Chinese garrison in Hanseong to put down the coup. During the fight the building of the Japanese legation was burned and forty Japanese were killed. Kim Ok- gyun and the other surviving reformers who had relied on the Japanese support only reluctantly granted saw himself forced to flee to Japan into exile.

Follow

The Japanese government demanded an apology and compensation from the Korean government. This led to the Treaty of Hanseong January 9, 1885 in the diplomatic relations between Korea and Japan have been restored and the latter also received 110,000 yen and a new plot of land for the new building of the embassy.

For the reform movement in Korea, the failure of the coup was a fatal setback. Because their leaders were away for a decade of Korean soil and their use of force Japan had discredited as a guiding model for modernization moral.

To reduce tensions on the Korean peninsula between the Chinese empire of the Qing Dynasty and the Japanese Empire, both parties entered into in April 1885 the Treaty of Tientsin.