 The relative decline of Qing China coupled with a modern and industrialized Japan gave the Japanese to flex its newly modernized political and military muscles to occupy and colonize the Korean peninsula, a quest Japan had been trying to do for centuries.By the late-19th Century, the Joseon Dynasty was unable to keep up with the rapid industrialization of the Western World and Japan as it was eventually absorbed into the Chinese Qing Dynasty's tributary system.In 1910, Japan annexed Korea due to the decline of the Qing Dynasty, and remained under Japanese control until its defeat by the Allied Powers during World War II.