Korea was under Japanese rule during much of the early twentieth century. It was the culmination of a process that began with the Japan–Korea Treaty of 1876, whereby a complex coalition of Meiji government, military, and business officials sought to integrate Korea both politically and economically into the Japanese Empire, first as a protectorate in 1905 (Japan–Korea Treaty of 1905), and officially annexed in 1910 (Japan–Korea Annexation Treaty). In 1945, defeated at