CHOSEN (COREA)
9
Chosen (Morning Calm"), by peaceful annexation in August 1910 became an integral part of the Japanese Empire. It is a peninsula extending south- ward from the north-east of Asia, washed on the east by the Sea of Japan, on the west by the Yellow Sea. To the north lie Manchuria and the Russian Maritime Province, the boundary being marked by the rivers Yalu and Tumen and the Ever White Mountains; while on the south it faces the west of Japan across the Corea Strait, with the island of Tsushima about midway. It has a coast-line of some 5,400 miles, including its innumerable islands, of which Quelpart is the largest. It is situated between 124° 11′ and 130° 56' E long. and between 33° 06′ and 43 N lat., its total length being 600 miles from north to south, and greatest breadth 135 miles from east to west, with an area of about 85,156 square miles. The eastern half of the peninsula is a sinuous range of mountains of which western Corea is the slope, and the chief rivers are therefore on the western side, most of the important harbours being sit- uated on that coast. Chosen is divided into thirteen provinces (do):-North and South Kankyo (Hamheung), North and South Heian (Pyeng-an), Kokai (Hwang-hai), Kogen (Kang-won), Keiki (Kyong-ki) North and South Chusei (Chung-Chong), North and South Keisho (Kyong-sang) and North and South Zenra (Cholla). The climate is continental, but healthy. Cold and heat waves run to the extreme, and especially is the cold severe in the north. Spring and Autumn are short, and the variation in temperature between day and night is very sharp, reaching 25 degrees in some places in the north. The fauna includes tigers, leopards, wild deer. wild hogs, and monkeys in the south, and the pheasant, eagle, falcon, crane and stork are common. A stunted breed of native horses exists and immense numbers of oxen are raised both as draught animals and for food. Goats are few, and sheep-breeding was started in 1914 by the introduction of sheep from Mongolia. A great deal of attention is now being paid by the Government to the encouragement of breeding horses as well as other livestock, and to the raising of swine and poultry. Much of the soil is fertile, and agriculture has considerably advanced under the Japanese re- gime, with improved methods of cultivation, in the selection of seeds and manure, in irrigation and in reclamation. Sericulture and fruit-growing are also being given great encouragement by the authorities. There are extensive forests in the north, and gold, copper, iron, coal and other minerals are distributed throughout the country, gold-mines being worked by British, American and French syndicates, and a number of placer and other mines by natives and by Japanese. The principal exports are rice. beans, silk, fish- oil and manure, iron and iron ore, raw cotton, livestock and hides. Manu- facture is still very small, but grows yearly, and includes cotton yarn, silk- reeling, sugar, paper, artificial fertilisers, cement and flour. The greater part of the sea-borne trade is carried by Japanese bottoms.
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Opinions differ as to the exact origin of the Coreans. Their language belongs to the "Turanian" group, and is more akin to Japanese than to any other tongue, especially in grammatical construction, though in pronunciation and vocabulary there are great differences. Chosen was once a greatly ad- vanced nation, from which the Japanese learned many arts and crafts, and indeed the rudiments of the ancient Chinese civilisation, but she seems never to have enjoyed any political importance. Situated between China in the west and Japan in the east, her rulers seem ever to have been involved in intrigue and scheming to keep in with the stronger party. For centuries she paid tribute to Peking, while preserving a nominal independence and pur- suing a policy of exclusion to all foreigners other than Chinese. After the Meiji Restoration in Japan, the Japanese were anxious to break down this exclusive barrier, and in 1876 succeeded in entering into a treaty of amity and commerce. Although China assented to this and to subsequent treaties