As western powers colonized Asian countries and Japan forced Korea to open the country to the world and intervene in it, Qing, as a result, was spurred into using this war to try to transform the conventional relationship between Qing and Korea based upon a concept of a family with the same origin into a modern suzerain-dependency relationship (suzerain-colony relationship) and keep Korea under control.
アジア諸国の西欧列強による植民地化と日本による朝鮮王朝の開国と干渉に刺激された結果、清国と朝鮮の関係を伝統的な宗属関係から近代的な宗主国と属国の関係（宗主国と植民地の関係）に改めて朝鮮を自勢力下に留めようとした戦争。