Abstract

During the second half of the nineteenth century, Korea found itself forced to open up to a world dominated by imperialist interests. The traditional Sinocentric worldview that had hitherto dominated Korean political thought gave way before a new manner of thinking in which individual states interacted and competed with one another as, at least formally, equal partners in a community of sovereign states. Navigating ist way in these new circumstances while maintaining ist independence was no easy task for the Korean state, and, much like Japan and China, it chose to rely on foreign advisers in ist efforts to do so.