Joseon has tried to control foreign influence by closing the borders to all nations but China during the nineteenth century.

In 1853, the USS South America, an American gunboat, had visited Busan for ten days and had had amiable contact with local officials.

Several Americans shipwrecked on Korea in 1855 and 1865 had also been treated well and sent to China for repatriation.

The Joseon court is aware of the foreign invasions and treaties involving Qing China, as well as the First and Second Opium Wars, and follows a cautious policy of slow exchange with the West.

In 1866, reacting to greater numbers of Korean converts to Catholicism despite several waves of persecutions, the Joseon court clamps down on them, massacring French Catholic missionaries and Korean converts alike.

Later in the year, France invades with a small expeditionary force under the command of Rear Admiral Pierre-Gustave Roze and occupies portions of Ganghwa Island.

It is the first military contact between Korea and a Western force.

The Korean army loses heavily, but the French are forced abandon the island.

After the Korean expedition, Roze and his fleet return to Yokohama, Japan, headquarters of the French Far Eastern Squadron.

The United States confronts Korea militarily in 1871 in response to the burning of the General Sherman, killing two hundred and forty-three Koreans in Ganghwa Island before withdrawing.

This incident is called the Sinmiyangyo in Korea.