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The French campaign against Korea in 1866 was a punitive expedition undertaken by the Second French Empire in retaliation for the earlier Korean execution of several French Catholic missionaries. The encounter over Ganghwa Island lasted nearly six weeks. The result was a French retreat and a check on French influence in the region.〔Pierre-Emmanuel Roux, ''La Croix, la baleine et le canon: La France face à la Corée au milieu du XIXe siècle'', p. 231-275.〕 The encounter also confirmed Korea in its isolationism for another decade, until Japan forced it to open up to trade in 1876 through the Treaty of Ganghwa. In Korea it is known as the ''Byeong-in yangyo'', or "Western disturbance of the ''byeong-in'' year". ==Background== Throughout the history of the Joseon Dynasty, Korea maintained a policy of strict isolationism from the outside world (with the exceptions being interaction with the Qing dynasty and occasional trading with Japan through the island of Tsushima). However, it did not succeed entirely in sealing itself off from foreign contact. Catholic missionaires had begun to show an interest in Korea as early as the 16th century with their arrival in China and Japan. Through Korean envoy missions to the Qing court in the 18th century, foreign ideas, including Christianity, began to enter Korea and by the late 18th century Korea had its first native Christians. However, it was only in the mid 19th century that the first western Catholic missionaries began to enter Korea. This was done by stealth, either via the China–North Korea border or the Yellow Sea. These French missionaries of the Paris Foreign Missions Society arrived in Korea in the 1840s to proselytize to a growing Korean flock. Bishop Siméon-François Berneux, appointed in 1856 as head of the infant Korean Catholic church, estimated in 1859 that the number of Korean faithful had reached nearly 17,000.〔Dallet, 452.〕 At first, the Korean court turned a blind eye to such incursions. This attitude changed abruptly, however, with the enthronement of the fourteen-year-old King Gojong in 1864. By Korean tradition, the regency in the case of a minority would go to the ranking dowager queen. In this case, it was the conservative mother of the previous crown prince, who had died before he could ascend the throne. The new king’s father, Yi Ha-ung, a wily and ambitious man in his early forties, was given the traditional title of the unreigning father of a king: Heungseon Daewongun, or “Prince of the Great Court”. Though the Heungseon Daewongun’s authority at court was not official, stemming in fact from the traditional imperative in Confucian societies for sons to obey their fathers, he quickly seized the initiative and began to control state policy. He became one of the most effective and forceful leaders of the 500-year-old Joseon Dynasty. With the aged dowager regent’s blessing, the Heungseon Daewongun set out upon a dual campaign of both strengthening central authority and Korean isolation from the disintegrating traditional order outside its borders. By the time the Heungseon Daewongun assumed de facto control of the government in 1864 there were twelve French Jesuit priests living and preaching in Korea and an estimated 23,000 native Korean converts.〔Kane (1999), 2.〕 In January 1866, Russian ships appeared on the east coast of Korea demanding trading and residency rights in what seemed an echo of the demands made on China by other western powers. Korean Christians with connections at court saw in this an opportunity to advance their cause and suggested an alliance between France and Korea to repel the Russian advances, suggesting further that this alliance could be negotiated through Bishop Berneux. The Heungseon Daewongun seemed open to this idea, but it might have been a ruse to bring the head of the Korean Catholic Church out into the open. Berneux was summoned to the capital, but upon his arrival in February 1866, he was seized and executed. A round-up then began of the other French Catholic priests and Korean converts. Several factors contributed to the Heungseon Daewongun‘s decision to crack down on the Catholics. Perhaps the most obvious was the lesson provided by China, which had apparently reaped nothing but hardship and humiliation from its dealing with the western powers, seen most recently in its disastrous defeat during the Second Opium War. No doubt also fresh in the Heungseon Daewongun‘s mind was the example of the Taiping Rebellion in China, which had been infused with Christian doctrines. 1865 had seen poor harvests in Korea as well as social unrest, which may have contributed to a heightened sensitivity to the foreign creed. The crackdown may also have been related to attempts to combat factional cliques at court, where Christianity had made some inroads. As a result of the Korean dragnet all but three of the French missionaries were captured and executed: among them were Bishop Siméon Berneux, Bishop Antoine Daveluy, Father Just de Bretenières, Father Louis Beaulieu, Father Pierre-Henri Dorie, Father Pierre Aumaître, Father Martin-Luc Huin, all of them members of the Paris Foreign Missions Society and canonized by Pope John Paul II on 6 May 1984. An untold number of Korean Catholics also met their end (estimations run around 10,000),〔"It is estimated than 10,000 were killed within a few months" (Source )〕 many being executed at a place called Jeoldu-san in Seoul on the banks of the Han River. In late June 1866, one of the three surviving French missionaries, Father Félix-Claire Ridel, managed to escape via a fishing vessel, thanks to 11 native converts, and make his way to Chefoo (today known as Yantai), China in early July 1866.〔Jean-Marie Thiébaud, La présence française en Corée de la fin du XVIIIème siècle à nos jours, p.20〕 Fortuitously in Tianjin at the time of Ridel‘s arrival was the commander of the French Far Eastern Squadron, Rear Admiral Pierre-Gustave Roze. Hearing of the massacre and the affront to French national honor, Roze determined to launch a punitive expedition. In this, he was strongly supported by the acting French consul in Peking, Henri de Bellonet.〔(Jean-Marie Thiébaud, La présence française en Corée de la fin du XVIIIème siècle à nos jours, p.20 )〕 On the French side, there were also compelling reasons behind the decision to launch a punitive expedition. These had to do with increasing violence against Christian missionaries and converts in the Chinese interior, which after the Second Opium War in 1860 had been opened up to westerners. As Korea was a vassal state of China, the massacre of westerners and Christians in Korea was seen by diplomatic and military authorities in the context of anti-Western behavior in China. Many believed a firm response to such acts of violence was necessary to maintain national prestige and authority. In response to the event, the French chargé d'affaires in Beijing, Henri de Bellonet, took a number of intitiatives without consulting with Quai d'Orsay. Bellonet sent a note to the Zongli Yamen threatening to occupy Korea,〔Jean-Marie Thiébaud, La présence française en Corée de la fin du XVIIIème siècle à nos jours, p.21〕 and he also gave the French Naval Commander in the Far East, rear admiral Pierre-Gustave Roze instruction to launch a punitive expedition against Korea, to which Roze responded : "Since (kingdom of ) Choson killed nine French priests, we shall avenge by killing 9,000 Koreans."〔Jean-Marie Thiébaud, La présence française en Corée de la fin du XVIIIème siècle à nos jours, p.21〕 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「French campaign against Korea (1866)」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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