1910 - Colonization of Japan/Fall of Joseon

Since the Japanese invasion, the Joseon dynasty kept getting weaker. Officials only sought their wealth, and conflicts between people and groups increased. However, the biggest struggle for the Joseon dynasty was the attack of different foreign countries. The two major countries that were trying to conquer the Joseon dynasty were Japan and Qing dynasty. Japan became powerful by early influence by western countries, including western weapons and resources, that were much more developed than the eastern countries. Japan had two different wars for their empire, against the Qing dynasty and Russia. Other countries predicted Japan to lose both of them, but Japan beat both countries, which made other countries not influence the Joseon dynasty. King Gojong, who was the 26th king of the Joseon dynasty, worked hard to prevent the colonization of Japan, by declaring themselves as the Korean Empire, to express that they are the same empire as other countries. Also, some activists started to fight against Japan to stop colonization. Despite these efforts, the Japanese empire finally colonized the Joseon dynasty in 1910. It was the fall of the 500-years dynasty. This was a major turning point in the Korean peninsula. Some people worked as independence activists. When they were caught, they had to go over dreadful tortures, which even led to death. Major independence acts happened, such as the March 1st movement in 1919, which happened all around the Korean peninsula. However, these acts did not show significant progress to independence. The major reason for this was by the pro-Japan collaborators. They were at the front to support Japan, and go against the independence activists. This time period was truly the darkest period of all time in the Korean peninsula.