Gojong of Korea

Born into a distant branch of the ruling House of Yi, he took the throne at 11 in 1864 after the heirless King Cheoljong died, with his father acting as regent through the years of strict isolation. Japan forced Korea open in 1876, and the decades that followed brought coup attempts, peasant revolution, and the 1895 assassination of his politically active wife, Queen Min, carried out by the Japanese. He pushed the Gwangmu Reform to modernize military and industry, and after China lost the First Sino-Japanese War he proclaimed the Korean Empire in 1897, making himself its first emperor. Japan's victory over Russia in 1905 ended that - Korea lost diplomatic sovereignty, and though he refused to sign the treaty and appealed abroad, no power intervened. Forced to abdicate in 1907, he was confined to Deoksugung, his escape attempts failing, and watched Korea become a Japanese colony in 1910. He died on 21 January 1919 under circumstances Koreans considered suspicious - the official cause was cerebral hemorrhage, the persistent belief was poison - and the March First Movement erupted in direct response.