In the Service of His Korean Majesty is based on the papers of William Nelson Lovatt, the British-American commissioner of customs in Pusan, Korea, who served between 1883 and 1886. Lovatt came to Korea recommended by P. G. von Möllendorff, newly appointed foreign advisor to Kojong, king of Korea. Putting Western advisors in the Korean royal court and setting up a customs service along the lines of China's Imperial Maritime Customs Service (IMCS) was Li Hongzhang's way of counteracting the Japanese influence in Korea that had been growing ever since the Kanghwa Treaty of 1876. Fearful of losing hegemony in Korea, Li Hongzhang sought to draw international interest to the peninsula and to bolster the Koreans' own ability to fend off Japanese imperial intentions. Thus, von Möllendorff found himself in a position to witness events in the royal court, and Lovatt was able to watch the rapid rise of Japanese...

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