Gwangmu Reform

The Gwangmu Reform (Korean: 광무개혁; Hanja: 光武改革; RR: Gwangmu Gaehyeok) was a collection of reforms that were aimed at modernizing and westernizing the Korean Empire as it felt held back from what other countries had achieved in their own process of industrial revolutions. It takes its name from Gojong, also known as the Gwangmu Emperor. The reforms that took place during the Gwangmu Era from 1897 to 1907 showed, in the long term, Korean potential for starting and achieving modernisation. This sort of development was unseen until the Chang Myon-era of the 1960s and 1970s. The Gwangmu reform later staged the fundamental background for future Korean development in infrastructure, reforming the economy and creating the nucleus of the modern bureaucracy and military.