were 10,000 in the capital Then she showed her hand. The Japanese Minister,
Mr. Otori, brusquely demanded of the King that he should renounce Chinese
suzerainty. The Koreans tried evasion. The Japanese pressed their point,
and further demanded wholesale concessions, railway rights and a monopoly
of gold mining in Korea. A few days later, confident that Europe would not
intervene, they commanded the King to accept their demand unconditionally,
and to give the Chinese troops three days' notice to withdraw from the
land. The King refused to do anything while the Japanese troops menaced his
capital.

The declaration of war between Japan and China followed. The first incident
was the blowing up by the Japanese of a Chinese transport carrying 1,200
men to Korea. The main naval battle was in the Yalu, between Korea and
Manchuria, and the main land fight, in which the Chinese Army was
destroyed, in Pyeng-yang, the main Korean city to the north. The war began
on July 25, 1894; the Treaty of Peace, which made Japan the supreme power
in the Extreme East, was signed at Shimonoseki on April 17, 1895.

Before fighting actually began, the Japanese took possession of Seoul, and
seized the palace on some trumpery excuse that Korean soldiers had fired on
them and they had therefore been obliged to enter and guard the royal
apartments. They wanted to make their old friend and ally the ex-Regent,
the actual ruler, as he had been in the King's minority but he did not care
to take responsibility. Japanese soldiers turned the King out of his best
rooms and occupied them themselves. Any hole was good enough for the King.
Finally they compelled the King to yield and follow their directions. A new
treaty was drawn up and signed. It provided

1. That the independence of Korea was declared, confirmed, and established,
and in keeping with it the Chinese troops were to be driven out of the