Rare photos of Korea taken before the Japanese occupation at the turn of the XIX-XX centuries

Korea in the second half of the 19th century was a rather closed state, which did not seek to meet Western progress and continued to live according to its own customs. It was an agrarian country, and those rare travelers who were lucky enough to get to the Korean Peninsula noted that the country was in the Middle Ages.

In those days, the state was called not Korea, but Joseon, which means "morning freshness". The capital of the country was the city of Hanson - modern Seoul. Despite the fact that Korea as a single and independent state ceased to exist after the Japanese occupation of 1910, the influence of the neighboring country was traced on the peninsula already from the end of the 19th century. The Japanese, threatening a military invasion, actively intervened in the economic policy of the Joseon state, and also took a direct part in the development of the dynastic crisis in the ruling imperial family.

Due to the difficult military situation in the waters surrounding Korea, Western travelers came to the peninsula infrequently. There are not so many preserved photographs of the sunset era of the Joseon state, and we offer a look at the rare shots that reflect the life of Koreans at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries.