Donghak Peasant Revolution

In 1894 peasants in south-western Korea, many of them followers of the Donghak religion, rose against corrupt officials and heavy taxes under the Joseon dynasty. Led by Jeon Bong-jun, they defeated government troops and briefly ran much of Jeolla province. The crisis drew Chinese and Japanese troops into Korea and helped trigger the First Sino-Japanese War; a second rising in the autumn was crushed by Korean and Japanese forces, and its leaders were executed in 1895.

Late nineteenth-century Korea suffered from inequality, official corruption and excessive taxation, and a series of peasant revolts had already weakened royal authority in the provinces. Donghak, founded by Choe Je-u, blended elements of Christianity, shamanism and folk belief with the teaching that all humans share in the divine and that a new age was coming. The government banned it and executed Choe in 1864, but under his successor Choe Sihyeong it spread through Chungcheong and Jeolla, organised in local units called jeob. In 1892 and 1893 believers held mass petitions demanding an end to persecution, and some called for the expulsion of Westerners and Japanese.

The spark came at Gobu, where the magistrate Jo Byeong-gap had built a new reservoir, charged water taxes and imposed arbitrary fines. Early in 1894 local rebels occupied the government office, destroyed the reservoir and returned confiscated property, but dispersed after a new magistrate was appointed. Jeon Bong-jun, the Donghak leader of Gobu, then joined Kim Gae-nam and Son Hwa-jung to raise a much larger army, which grew to tens of thousands. The rebels, many armed only with bamboo spears, routed government forces at Hwangtojae and on the Hwangryong River in the spring and captured Jeonju, the provincial capital.

Unable to restore order, the government requested foreign military help. The Qing dynasty sent troops, and Japan, objecting that it had not been notified as an earlier convention required, sent its own forces. In the meantime the rebels and government agreed the Jeonju truce, accepting demands that included punishing corrupt officials, freeing slaves and allowing widows to remarry. Through the summer the rebels ran much of the south-west through local offices, though landowners in some towns resisted. Japan, however, went to war with China, occupied Seoul and set up a pro-Japanese government there.

Alarmed by Japan's growing control, Jeon resolved to fight again, and in the autumn the more cautious northern Donghak leaders, Choe Sihyeong and Son Byong-hi, joined him. Estimates of the combined army vary enormously, from about 25,000 to 200,000. It marched on Gongju, held by Korean government troops and a few hundred Japanese soldiers. In November, at the pass of Ugeumchi, wave after wave of poorly armed rebels was cut down by modern rifles and artillery, and only a small remnant survived. A further defeat at Taein followed, and Jeon disbanded his army.

Jeon was betrayed and captured in December 1894, and Kim Gae-nam was executed the same month. Japanese and government troops hunted down the remaining bands across the south with great brutality. Jeon, Son Hwa-jung and two other leaders were tried and hanged for treason in March 1895. The total number of rebels killed is uncertain, with estimates ranging from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands.

Some rebel demands, such as freeing slaves and allowing widows to remarry, appeared in the government's Gabo Reform, though without the land reform peasants most wanted. Many former rebels later joined the Righteous Armies that fought Japanese rule, and Donghak itself became the Cheondoist religion. Historians still debate whether the movement was mainly religious or a peasant war, and the official names used in North Korea and South Korea reflect different answers.

Our 1880 map shows Korea under the Joseon dynasty, and our 1900 map shows the peninsula after China's defeat by the Empire of Japan.