10 Chapter 2trade (with domicile in Asia) and diplomatic and cultural influences. These
events played an impor tant but secondary role in Korean emigration to the
RFE. As a result of the two Opium Wars (1839–1842 and 1856–1860),
China was forcibly opened to foreign trade in sixteen major Chinese cities
with British, American, French, and Rus sians. Hong Kong was also ceded
to the British (1842), and Beijing received the foreign legations (embassies)
of Rus s ia, Amer i ca, France, and Britain.^3 There were two principal results
of the Opium Wars: China’s hold on Korea as a vassal was greatly weakened
and the floodgates for Chinese emigration to the West were opened.^4 In
1876, Japan entered Korea and replaced China as Korea’s suzerain in the
Treaty of Kanghwa. Korea was now open to both Japa nese and Chinese
trade, but was still closed to Western and Eu ro pean trade and the resulting
influences. In 1882, China reestablished her suzerainty over Korea. China
then convinced Korea to open her ports to trade and sign foreign- trade
agreements. This vastly increased Korea’s contact with the outside world as
well as the flow of information from diaspora Koreans in Rus sia, Manchuria,
and China. Large numbers of Koreans also began to emigrate to Manchuria
and the Rus s ian Far East (see Table 1). Korea signed its first foreign- trade agree-
ment with the United States in 1882, followed by Great Britain and
Germany (1883), Italy and Rus sia (1884), and France (1886). However, few
Koreans, unlike the Chinese, emigrated beyond Asia’s borders until 1903.^5
The internal socioeconomic and po liti cal prob lems of Korea, in par tic-
u ar Hamgyong Province, l were the main “push” factors for Korean emigra-
tion to the RFE and si mul ta neously to Manchuria. There were five basic
social groups in Korea: the yangban (the literati, aristocracy. and diplomatic
core), the professional class, the commoners, the untouchables, and the
slaves. As a general rule, peasant life was extremely difficult in Korea, but
more impor tant, peasant- laborers had become a de facto hereditary class
“hardly di ff er ent from slaves.” Some had very little freedom outside of work.
For example, hired laborers in the Cholla region were locked up in walled
compounds when not working.^6 Land was also in short supply. The average
farmer owned between 1.25 and 2.5 acres of land. Thirty percent of those
from the farming/agricultural class (kiju) did not own land. During the
Choson dynasty, the average land parcels held by farmers grew progressively
smaller.^7 V. Vagin, in his expedition and interviews with Koreans in Blago-
slovennoe (1872), noted that these Koreans had come to the RFE because
they w ere struggling to survive in Korea. Korea had also experienced many
floods and droughts during the 1860s. Many of the farmers came to Rus sia
without even seeds. The marginalized peasant ele ments of Korean society
generally had two means of voicing their frustration: revolt or voting with