[9] During his early adolescence, Jeon left Dangchon village with his father and migrated throughout multiple regions in Jeolla, probably in search of better livelihoods.

[6] During an 1895 interrogation, Jeon recounted that he and his family had lived in poverty before his involvement in the revolt, and were barely able to "have rice as breakfast, and porridge as dinner.

"[11] Around the late 19th century, Joseon Korea was plagued with various social problems, including poverty, excessive taxation, and corruption.

Outside of its borders, foreign powers, such as Japan, France, Germany, Russia, Qing China, and the United States all sought to expand their influence over Korea, often through unequal treaties and gunboat diplomacy.

At some point around his late 20s to early 30s, Jeon acquired a copy of Jeong Yak-yong's Gyeongse Yupyo [ko], which had previously been retained by seonbis from Haenam and Gangjin.

[14] The Donghak movement, which was first created by Choe Je-u in 1860, had spread to the Jeolla region by the 1880s, gaining widespread support from the indignant peasantry through its ideas of universal equality and human welfare.

[16] According to the March 6, 1895 issue of the Tokyo Asahi Shimbun, Jeon claimed in an interrogation that he was introduced to the Donghak movement by Kim Chi-do(김치도; 金致道) in 1892.

He detailed that he participated in the movement as he was moved by its principles and wished to "achieve the goals" of "driving out corrupt officials" and "protecting the nation and bringing comfort to the people", rather than due to religious motives.

The Joseon government appointed hyeongam[e] of yong-an Pak Won-myeong(박원명; 朴源明) as the new magistrate of Gobu, and ordered the investigation and management of the incident.

[4] On April 28, 1894, Jeon Bong Jun's revolution became anti-Western and anti-Japanese because of the oppressive and brutal actions of the Japanese army in punishing the Korean farmers.

This revolution spread from town to county as the peasant army vowed to eradicate the entirety of the Korean ruling class and expel all Japanese and western parties.

By September his peasant revolt came to a violent end as his army of farmers were decisively defeated by a well trained, better equipped Japanese military in the Battle of Ugeumchi.