General Sherman incident

The General Sherman incident was the destruction of an armed merchant marine side-wheel steamer that visited Korea in 1866. It was an important catalyst to the end of Korean isolationism in the 19th century. After passing the Keupsa Gate without permission from the Koreans, the United States merchant ship was attacked and fought for several days before being destroyed.


Background
In the mid-19th century, European nations and the United States were eager to open up new trade in Asia, and began establishing trade in China and southeast Asia. Japan was also opened up to trade after Commodore Matthew Perry sailed into Uraga Harbor near Edo (modern Tokyo) on July 8, 1853, and under the threat of force Japan signed the Convention of Kanagawa in 1854. As early as 1832 discussions of opening up Korea were made by the captain of the USS Peacock, Edmund Roberts, yet in 1844 a draft by the United States Congress was shelved due to lack of interest.

The first contact between the U.S. and Korea was not in any way hostile, and in 1853 the USS South America, a US gunboat, visited Busan for 10 days while en route to Japan and had dined with local Korean officials. Several Americans who were shipwrecked in Korea between 1855, 1865 and 1866 were treated well and sent to China for repatriation. However, the Joseon Dynasty court which ruled Korea was well aware of the colonization of China as a result of the First as well as the Second Opium War and maintained a strict policy of isolationism to avoid a similar fate.