Map of the Persian Empire
As we all know, countries that can be called "empires" generally have the characteristics of strong national strength, vast territory, and great influence. However, throughout the history of China and foreign countries, there are always some peoples and countries that do not measure up to their own strength like to exaggerate themselves and call themselves "great empires". As everyone knows, their arrogance can easily become the laughing stock of the ages, causing future generations to laugh at shame, and the "Korean Empire" on the Korean Peninsula, which was short-lived, is one of them.
▲Gyeongbokgung Palace, South Korea
Speaking of which, the Korean Empire was essentially the last feudal dynasty on the Korean Peninsula, Lee's Korea. Lee's Joseon was built by the Goryeo general Li Chenggui in the early years of the Ming Dynasty, and the first thing Li Chenggui did after he unified the Korean Peninsula was to send envoys to Nanjing, hoping to be recognized by the Ming Dynasty. To this end, Li Chenggui deliberately asked for the name of "Joseon" from Zhu Yuanzhang, the ancestor of the Ming Dynasty. At the beginning of the founding of the country, Li Chenggui set an ancestral precept to future generations to be loyal to the Ming Dynasty, so the kings of The Joseon Dynasty of The Lee clan were very respectful to the Ming Dynasty, not only worshipping him as Zhengshuo, but also often offering beautiful women and rare treasures. The Emperor of the Ming Dynasty did not treat this "Filial Son of Daming" badly, and when he paid tribute, he paid a generous reward, and during the "Nongchen Rebellion", the Ming Dynasty also sent a large army to help.
▲ Stills of Joseon's Taizu Lee Sung-gyu
At the end of the Ming Dynasty, after Nurhaci unified the Jurchens, he sent troops to conquest Korea, which was forced by the situation to accept The Later Jin rule. I thought that after the change of the suzerainty, I would be treated better, who thought that the status of North Korea would plummet from then on. During the Ming Dynasty, the two countries would often exchange congratulatory envoys, and the emperors of the Ming Dynasty also listed Korea as a "country without conquest" and gave it a generous reward every once in a while. After the Ming Dynasty destroyed the Qing Dynasty, Korea was reduced to a "second-class country", not only was it often eaten by the Qing court, but the sons of the Joseon Dynasty had to enter Beijing as hostages. Whenever the king of Joseon thought about the treatment during the Ming Dynasty, he could not help but shed tears, and his heart became more and more nostalgic for the old lord.
On the other hand, due to the long-term acceptance of Confucian culture, the Korean monarchs also regarded the Manchus as Yidi, and privately called the Qing Emperor and qing envoys "Hu Huang's envoys", and The Joseon Hyojong proposed the Northern Expedition several times, vowing to restore the Ming Dynasty as his mission, but because the Dprk was too small and poor, the Northern Expedition plan had to be stillborn. However, the Koreans still did not give up any opportunity to despise the Manchu Qing, except for the official documents for the Qing Dynasty, the rest of the Documents in Korea all adopted the Chongzhen era name, which was used for nearly 260 years.
▲The Chongzhen era number in ancient Korean books
After the "Opium War", the Qing court was repeatedly defeated in the face of the great powers, and after the "Sino-Japanese Sino-Japanese War", the Manchu Qing forces were forced to withdraw from the peninsula. The Korean subjects felt that the opportunity to turn themselves into masters had finally arrived, so they jointly requested the King of Joseon, Ri Hee (Gojong of Joseon), to be proclaimed emperor. In order to justify the behavior of claiming the emperor, some ministers even put forward many strange arguments, such as the ministers Jiang Maoxin and Li Xiubing wrote: "Although the territory of our state is not large, since xi and huang (that is, Fuxi and huangdi), more than 5,000 years of orthodox liturgical cultural relics have been passed down. The great cause of His Majesty's holiness should be inherited by the Great Ming Dynasty."
▲ Emperor Gaozong Li Xi called the emperor an old photo
External co-organizer Yu Jihuan combined his own work, citing the example of Germany and Austria accepting Roman orthodoxy, saying that Korea and the Qing Dynasty also inherited The Chinese orthodoxy, and since the Qing Dynasty can be called emperor, North Korea can also sit on an equal footing with it. In October of the 23rd year of Guangxu (1897 AD), under the praise of many ministers, the ambitious Li Xi wore a twelve-chapter crown and ascended the throne as emperor according to the Ming Dynasty etiquette system, calling himself "Guangwu Emperor" and changing the name of the country to "Korean Empire".
Although the name of Korea was changed to "Korean Empire", its strength is still weak, and its embarrassing position between China, Japan and Russia has not changed, and it is facing the risk of being slaughtered at any time. After the outbreak of the "Russo-Japanese War", the Korean Empire on the Korean Peninsula became the object of contention between the two sides, and after Japan's victory over Tsarist Russia, it successfully included Korea in the list of protectorates. In order to better rule Korea, the Japanese forced Lee Hee, the founding emperor of the Korean Empire, to give way to the crown prince Lee Tuo (Chunjong of Joseon).
▲Old photo of Chunzong and his wife
After Li Tu ascended the throne, in the face of the aggressive Japanese Kou, he had to give up his control of the Korean military and political spheres and become a puppet emperor with no political rights to speak of. In the second year of Xuanun (1910 AD), after more than a decade of colonial rule, Japan finally completely controlled the "Korean Empire" and forced Li Ton to agree to the so-called "Japan-Korea merger" policy. In this way, the "Korean Empire", which had only been established for 13 years, took the initiative to merge into Japan, and this farce directed by the great nation was also declared over.