Korea is imperialized
Korea has all of the elements required to be a successful country. Japan had seen this potential that Korea had. Unfortunately, Korea was under Chinese control. In order to get to Korea, the Japanese had to go to war with China. In 1894, the Sino-Japanese war had begun. The end result was a year later, Korea had been relieved of Chinese control. In 1910, Korea had become a Japanese colony. Even though the Japanese had won the war in 1895, they did not annex it, as a colony, until 1910.
Motives
There was a lot that Korea had that Japan either didn't have or really needed. Korea had a ton of raw materials. In the time period, raw materials were important to an industrialized nation. Even if it wasn't an industrialized nation, they could sell the raw materials. Korea had a vast population. If there is a big population, then you have a ton of labour. If there is a ton of labour, then you have high demand for work. If you have a high demand for work, you can get away with paying these workers very little and they will still be satisfied. Korea is a peninsula that separates China and Japan. Before Japan took it over, China was knocking on Japan's door, so to speak. Now that Japan has control of Korea, they can protect the homeland with a colony they don't care about.
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Korea is right in between China and Japan.
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Takeover
a political cartoon showing the smaller Japanese, defeating the larger Chinese (i mean country size)
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Japan's takeover was relatively violent. The Japanese had forced the occupying dynasty of China to sign The Treaty of Ganghwa, in 1895. They then relieved China of Korea, and were on their merry way.
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