History



The history of Korea can be traced from the Stone Age to the present. Its history is marked by internal struggles for power and wars with foreign invaders. Korean history can be divided into the following periods: Prehistory and Gojoseon, Three Kingdoms, Unified Silla and Balhae, Goryeo, Joseon dynasty, Japanese occupation, Korean War.

Prehistoric Times
People began living on the Korean Peninsula approximately 600,000 years ago, during the Paleolithic Period. Inhabitants during this period depended on simple gathering. It was only during the Neolithic Period that they began to make earthenware, engage in agriculture, and live in settlements. In the Bronze Age they used weapons to expand their power, eventually leading to the emergence of states in the form of common primitive societies.

Gojoseon
With the development of culture in the Bronze Age also came the earliest forms of the state in various areas. Among these, the earliest mentioned in existent history was Gojoseon, established 2333 B.C. National Foundation Day (Gaecheon jeol), one of Korea's four most important holidays, commemorates the day Gojoseon was founded.

Three Kingdoms Period  
Following Gojoseon is the Three Kingdoms Period, during which three states emerged. In the north there was Goguryeo, founded by King Dongmyeong in 37 B.C. In the south, in what is now known as the Gyeongsang region, was Silla, founded by Bak Hyeokgeose in 57 B.C. In the area that is currently Gyeonggi Province there existed Baekje, founded by King Onjo in 18 A.D. The Three Kingdoms Period came to a close, however, when Silla allied itself with Tang China to destroy Baekje (660 A.D.) and then Goguryeo (668 A.D.). Unified Silla emerged at the center stage of history.

Having lasted around a thousand years since its initial founding, however, Silla, in its end stages, experienced many crises due to corruption and inept rulers. Unified Silla broke into three states: Silla, Later Baekje, and Later Goguryeo. History calls this the Later Three Kingdoms Period.

Goryeo and Joseon Dynasties
Goryeo Dynasty (474 year:918~1392) In 918 A.D. on the western calendar, Wang Geon of Later Goguryeo unified the Later Three Kingdoms to establish Goryeo, constructing the capital at Gaeseong, in what is now North Korea. In the Goryeo Period, most people believed in Buddhism. Despite foreign invasions from Mongolia and elsewhere, Goryeo produced Buddhist scriptures such as the Tripitaka Koreana and sought national reconciliation through Buddhism. The Tripitaka Koreana is currently preserved in Haein Temple, located in Hamcheon, South Gyeongsang Province. There were notable cultural acheivements during this period. Goryeo celadon was first made at this time. Developed creatively from pottery brought from China, Goryeo celadon is recognized today for its artistic value. Eventually, however, the Goryeo dynasty as well came to have an inept court in later years, and participation in the political process by Buddhist monks, corruption, and other factors brought about a national crisis.

Joseon Dynasty
( 518 year : 1392~1910) Joseon was founded by Yi Seonggye, who led a revolution. As a minister in Goryeo, Yi had opposed war with Ming, the dynasty that ruled China. The Goryeo court still wanted to go to war, so when Yi was leading soldiers to fight China, he turned them around at Wihwa Island, near the border, and took power. Four years later, in 1392, Yi removed Goryeo's last king, King Gongyang, and founded a new dynasty, Joseon. In order to better legitimize his endeavor, Yi put forth policies that rejected Buddhism and honored China's Confucianism. Confucianism, too, had no small number of negative effects. Joseon was a 500 year dynasty with 26 kings, but because of the overemphasis on theory and moral legitimacy and its disregard for industry and commerce, the country was left open to foreign invasion in the course of establishing a modern nation state. In the late 19th century Joseon was an object of rivalry among European powers and Japan, and in 1910 officially became a Japanese colony.

Japan's rule of Joseon changed in character following the outbreak of the Pacific War. Wanting to remove American interference from its effort to further advance into Southeast Asia, and America's meddling in her procurement of oil for her war with China Japan attacked the US at Pearl Harbor in 1941. The United States had anticipated and planned this response, which new history shows involves the US provoking Japan's advance to enable the US government to engage Hitler's Germany in World War II. In the U.S. counterattack and declaration of war on Japan, Japan would be greatly weakened, diverted from imperial territorial expansion in Asia, and a little more than three years later she would be on the verge of defeat.

In 1945, the U.S. fire-bombed sixty cities in Japan and exploded two atomic bombs over Hiroshima and Nagasaki bringing an end to World War II and the Japanese empire.

On August 15th of that year, Korea was liberated from 36 years of Japanese rule. However, the US and the Soviet Union, both participants in the Pacific War, entered the Korean Peninsula as occupational forces on their respective sides of the 38th parallel. This division was originally only supposed to be a temporary part of the process of disarming the Japanese military, but shortly after the arrival of these occupational forces, the 38th parallel became a political dividing line. As a result, the north saw the establishment of a communist regime led by Kim Il Sung and supported by the Soviet Union, while in the south, the Republic of Korea was born as a liberal democratic state, through an open national vote supervised by the US.

The Founding of the Republic of Korea
The vote in the southern part of the peninsula selected Syngman Rhee as the new president of the Republic of Korea, but society remained in disorder and in a severe state of confrontation between of rightist and leftist elements. In the north, however, the new Kim Il Sung regime took the disorder under control in a short period of time. The north then began preparing for war. On June 25, 1950, with no declaration of war, it attacked the Republic of Korea, beginning the Korean War. Some 3 million casualties and three years later, in July 1953, both sides signed a cease fire agreement. The Republic of Korea experienced ideological confrontation and other threats to its very existence, but gradually things began to stabilize, and beginning in the seventies, the country achieved more than 10% growth a year, starting a period of national prosperity that would be known as the "Miracle on the Han." By the end of 2001, yearly exports were US $150.4 billion, imports were US $141.1 billion, giving Korea one of the top ten economies in the world.