Treaty of Ganghwa

• Date: 1876
• Other Names: 江華島條約 (Kanfa tou jouyaku, Kouka tou jouyaku; K: Ganghwado Joyak)
• Japanese: 日朝修好条規 (Nicchou shuukou jouki)

The Treaty of Ganghwa Island, or Japan-Korea Treaty of Amity, was a treaty signed between Meiji Japan and Joseon Dynasty Korea, in 1876. It established formal diplomatic relations between the two countries in the modern/Western mode, opened three Korean ports to Japanese trade (much as other treaties had opened Japanese and Chinese ports to Western trade), and stipulated that Korea was an independent nation.

This was all done without the agreement of Qing Dynasty China, however, which still saw Korea as a tributary state. The Treaty is thus frequently cited as one of a number of events or factors contributing to increasing tensions in the late 19th century between China and Japan over influence in Korea.

References

• Conrad Schirokauer, David Lurie, and Suzanne Gay, A Brief History of Japanese Civilization, Wadsworth Cengage (2013), 193.