Heungseon Daewongun (Korean: 흥선대원군; Hanja: 興宣大院君; 24 January 1821 – 22 February 1898) was the title of Yi Ha-eung, the regent of Joseon during the minority of Emperor Gojong in the 1860s.

Yi Ha-eung, had to solve both the looming threat posed by Western nations, which were continuously encroaching upon the sovereignty of Eastern states, while at the same time attempt to rebuild a country ravaged by poverty and internal power struggles.

[3] He is remembered both for the wide-ranging reforms he attempted during his regency, as well as for what was described by historian Hilary Conroy as "vigorous enforcement of the seclusion policy, persecution of Christians, and the killing or driving off of foreigners who landed on Korean soil".

On 21 January, Yi Myeong-bok was enthroned as King Gojong, and Dowager Queen Sinjeong began her regency.

His main goal was to "crush the old ruling faction that had virtually usurped the sovereign power of the kings earlier in the century".

[5][8] Cumings notes that this was not a revolution but a restoration, as the Daewongun was attempting to return to the days of King Sejong in the fifteenth century.

[9] The Daewongun's foreign policy was rather simple, as Cumings describes it: "no treaties, no trade, no Catholics, no West, and no Japan".

The Isolation Policy became more entrenched in 1868 when German merchant Ernst Oppert attempted to take hostage the bones of the Daewongun's father in order to force him to open Korea to trade;[10] and even further so after the 1871 American attack of Gwanghwado.

However, because he refused to engage in international relations entirely, there was a limited choice of market and slim opportunity for an Industrial Revolution to occur in Korea.

Indeed, the Daewongun wanted to avoid engagement with the West – which would have been inevitable if Western countries were allowed to trade freely – as it would erode government influence.

The Joseon Dynasty had a strict social hierarchy: the wealth of the yangban nobility rested on the backs of sangmin farm labourers and tenants; the Daewongun wanted to prevent the collapse of this hierarchy; despite his fame for his fairness and support of civilization, the emancipation of the sangmin would mean the destruction of the yangban, his own social class.

The international relations of Joseon worsened as the Daewongun adopted increasingly desperate and harsher measures in order to repel Westernization.

The Daewongun made the choice of protecting the world he knew by trying to shut out foreigners, at the cost of delaying development and modernization, and to keep Korea a hermit kingdom.

Many Koreans state that had he chosen to engage with foreign countries as his daughter-in-law Queen Min advocated, the Japanese rule of Korea could have been avoided.

However, others state that the ten years of the Isolation Policy was too small a part of the Joseon Dynasty to derive such a statement from.

His wife, Queen Min, influenced his decision to "assume the full measure of royal responsibility", an action that forced the Daewongun into semi-retirement.

Due to an 1881 isolationist conservative plot to overthrow Gojong and install Yi Jae-seon as king but with Daewongun as the effective power behind the throne, this son was executed in October 1881.

On the second day of the mutiny, a group of rioters were received by the Daewongun, "who reportedly exhorted them to bring down the Min regime and expel the Japanese".

In exchange for his help, the Daewongun asked for a promise that if the reforms succeeded, "Japan will not demand a single piece of Korean territory".

[4] The Japanese became nervous after placing the Daewongun in charge, as he seemed interested "only in grasping power and purging his opponents and did not see the need for a reform policy".

The two decided to involve the Daewongun in the plot, and after making inquiries, learned that he was "indignant enough to plan a coup" and would cooperate with them.