DBWI:If Korea and Siam's fate was reversed?

In 1890s, King Gojong's deplomatic moves have led korea to keep independence, despite ceding jeju island to japanese and land north of chongchon river to chinese. Meanwhile, Siam became a French Colony after franco-chinese war. What would happened, and what would be needed to reverse this POD?
 
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Maybe avoiding the succession crisis after King Mongkut's death could keep Siam independent?
Yea, a lot of it also had to do with Britain opting to partition Siam with the French, parting with Pattani for Malaya and Lan Na for Burma.

If Siam could prove it's more useful as a buffer state than a colony, the British would have made a more hardline stance against the French.
 
Well, there were plenty of close calls. If Gojong wasn't as careful in playing the Japanese, Russians and Chinese against each other, any one of them could have absorbed Korea. Japan, in particular, is particularly sticky, considering the growing power of the pro-annexation Imperial Japanese Army. There were even plans to assassinate Queen Myeongseong (who was the architect of Gojong's foreign policy) by the Japanese ambassador, Goro Miura, by sending Japanese ronin into her palace with the help of the Japanese-trained Hullyeondae on site. However, that ended up being called off when she had Gojong replace them with the Russian-trained Hyeondae Gibyeong (otherwise known as the Korean Cossacks, or 'Modern Cavalry'). The backlash was pretty bad, considering her detractors saw a witch consorting with European devils rather than fellow Asians. But let's face it... The Japanese were too absorbed by the belief in European imperialism as a means to gain respect from the Westerners. Korea would have been done for under them.

OOC: And yes, I just realized that Hyeondae Gibyeong could have meant Hyundai Cavalry, which sounds like the K-drama plot for a time-travelling group of Korean mercenaries in Hyundai vehicles. :V
 
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So, would we still have seen the People's Federation of Indochina which controlled all of former French Indochina or not?
 

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So, would we still have seen the People's Federation of Indochina which controlled all of former French Indochina or not?

Not likely. It was a pretty odd animal and collapsed at the end of the Cold War. It was sort of like the Southeast Asian equivalent of Yugoslavia.

I mean that's what you get for putting into one state nationalities that hate each other.
 
Not likely. It was a pretty odd animal and collapsed at the end of the Cold War. It was sort of like the Southeast Asian equivalent of Yugoslavia.

I mean that's what you get for putting into one state nationalities that hate each other.
At least it was (relatively) bloodless (true, there were a few border conflicts but that was nothing compared to what happened in Yugoslavia).
 
Well, there were plenty of close calls. If Gojong wasn't as careful in playing the Japanese, Russians and Chinese against each other, any one of them could have absorbed Korea. Japan, in particular, is particularly sticky, considering the growing power of the pro-annexation Imperial Japanese Army. There were even plans to assassinate Queen Myeongseong (who was the architect of Gojong's foreign policy) by the Japanese ambassador, Goro Miura, by sending Japanese ronin into her palace with the help of the Japanese-trained Hullyeondae on site. However, that ended up being called off when she had Gojong replace them with the Russian-trained Hyeondae Gibyeong (otherwise known as the Korean Cossacks, or 'Modern Cavalry'). The backlash was pretty bad, considering her detractors saw a witch consorting with European devils rather than fellow Asians. But let's face it... The Japanese were too absorbed by the belief in European imperialism as a means to gain respect from the Westerners. Korea would have been done for under them.

OOC: And yes, I just realized that Hyeondae Gibyeong could have meant Hyundai Cavalry, which sounds like the K-drama plot for a time-travelling group of Korean mercenaries in Hyundai vehicles. :V

Don't give K-Drama producers too many ideas, I mean, they dabbled in de facto AH more than once considering all the shows about a surviving Korean monarchy in the 21st century. :p
 
Don't give K-Drama producers too many ideas, I mean, they dabbled in de facto AH more than once considering all the shows about a surviving Korean monarchy in the 21st century. :p
IC: which is pretty much OTL.. Rather, we have Alternate History K-Dramas dealing with Republican Korea.
 
despite ceding Liancourt Rock to japanese and jiandao to chinese.
OOC: Liancourt and Jiandao aren't comparable to the significant territorial losses of Thailand IOTL. For one, Liancourt is a tiny rock in the middle of nowhere and is also uninhabitable (the current family that lives there are supported by the South Korean government to bolster its territorial claims). Jiandao was also always Qing-ruled. Far from the immense loss in territory and population that the cession of Laos and Cambodia represented for Bangkok.
 
OOC: Liancourt and Jiandao aren't comparable to the significant territorial losses of Thailand IOTL. For one, Liancourt is a tiny rock in the middle of nowhere and is also uninhabitable (the current family that lives there are supported by the South Korean government to bolster its territorial claims). Jiandao was also always Qing-ruled. Far from the immense loss in territory and population that the cession of Laos and Cambodia represented for Bangkok.
Okay. Retconned it.
 
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