Volta
Conflict3rd lunar month, 1885 – 2nd lunar month, 1887(Lunar)

Geomundo Incident

Claiming to block Russia’s southward advance, the Royal Navy occupied the island of Geomundo without Korea’s consent, leaving after two years through Qing mediation.

The British China Squadron at Port Hamilton (Geomundo) — British newspaper illustration, 1886
The British China Squadron at Port Hamilton (Geomundo) — British newspaper illustration, 1886

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Chafing under Qing interference after the Gapsin Coup, Korea looked to Russia (a treaty in 1884 and rumours of a secret pact). Britain, Russia’s great rival, seized Geomundo in 1885 and built batteries and barracks, calling it Port Hamilton.

When Qing obtained a Russian pledge not to take Korean territory, the British left in 1887. The crisis exposed the great-power rivalry over the peninsula, prompting the German vice-consul Budler and Yu Gil-jun to propose Korean neutrality.

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The map in 1885

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States and rulers at the time
Joseon — Gojong
Great Britain · occupying force
Russia
Qing — Guangxu Emperor
Places
Geomundo

People

  • Yu Gil-jun1856 – 1914

    related figure · Studied in Japan and the US after the 1881 inspection mission and the 1883 mission to America; wrote "Observations on a Journey to the West" and took part in the Gabo and Eulmi reforms

Before and after

Earlier
1885 Gwanghyewon Hospital Founded
Later
1885 Convention of Tianjin

Themes that include this event

  • Imperialism and the Partition of the World1839 – 1914

    From the Tanzimat to Sarajevo — seventy-five years in which the powers carved up West Asia, India, Southeast Asia, Africa and the Pacific, and the peoples there answered with reform and resistance