History of Korea

This article is about the history of Korea, up to the division of Korea in the 1940s. See History of North Korea and History of South Korea for the post-World War II period. See also Names of Korea.

Amitabha and Eight Great Bodhisattvas, Goryeo scroll from the 1300s.

The history of Korea stretches from Lower Paleolithic times to the present. The earliest known Korean pottery dates to around 8000 BCE, and the Neolithic period began before 6000 BCE, followed by the Bronze Age around 2500 BCE. The Gojoseon (Old Joseon) kingdom was founded in 2333 BCE, eventually stretching from the peninsula to much of Manchuria. By 3rd Century BCE, it disintegrated into many successor states.

In the early Common Era, the Three Kingdoms (Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje) conquered other successor states of Gojoseon and came to dominate the peninsula and much of Manchuria. The three kingdoms competed with each other both economically and militarily. While Goguryeo and Baekje were more powerful for much of the era, defeating Chinese invasions several times, Silla's power gradually extended across Korea and it eventually established the first unified state to cover most of Korean peninsula by 676, while former Goguryeo general founded Balhae as the successor to Goguryeo.

Cheongja ùnhak sanggam mun maebyeong, the 68th national treasure of Korea.

Unified Silla itself fell apart in the late 9th century, giving way to the tumultuous Later Three Kingdoms period (892-936), which ended with the establishment of the Goryeo Dynasty. After Balhae was defeated in 926, much of its people led by the Crown Prince was absorbed into Goryeo. During the Goryeo period, laws were codified, a civil service system was introduced, and Buddhism flourished. In 1238, the Mongolian Empire invaded and after nearly thirty years of war, the two sides signed a peace treaty.

In 1392, the general Yi Seong-gye established the Joseon Dynasty (1392-1910) after a coup. King Sejong the Great (1418-1450) promulgated Hangul, the Korean alphabet. Between 1592-1598, Japan invaded Korea, but was eventually repelled with the efforts by the Navy led by Admiral Yi Sun-sin, resistance armies, and Chinese aid. In the 1620s and 1630s, Joseon suffered invasions by the Manchu Qing Dynasty.

Beginning in the 1870s, Japan began to force Korea out of China's sphere of influence into its own. In 1895, Empress Myeongseong of Korea was assassinated by Japanese agents. In 1905, Japan forced Korea to sign the Eulsa Treaty making Korea a protectorate, and in 1910 annexed Korea, although neither is considered to be legally valid. Korean resistance to the Japanese occupation was manifested in the massive nonviolent March 1st Movement of 1919. Thereafter the Korean liberation movement, coordinated by the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in exile, was largely active in neighboring Manchuria, China and Siberia.

With the defeat of Japan in 1945, the United Nations developed plans for a trusteeship administration by the Soviet Union and the United States, but the plan was soon abandoned. In 1948, new governments were established, the democratic South Korea and Communist North Korea divided at the 38th parallel. The unresolved tensions of the division surfaced in the Korean war of 1950, when North Korea invaded South Korea.

Prehistory

Main article: Prehistoric Korea

Korean earthenware jar with comb pattern. 4000 BCE, Amsa-Dong, near Seoul. British Museum.

Archaeological evidence shows that hominids first inhabited the Korean Peninsula 700,000 years ago, though some North Koreans claim it may have been inhabited for 1,000,000 years. Tool-making artifacts from the Palaeolithic period (700,000 BC to 40,000 BC) have been found in present-day North Hamgyong, South P'yongan, Gyeonggi, and north and south Chungcheong Provinces. The people were cave dwellers and built homes, using fire for cooking food and warmth. They hunted, gathered and fished with stone tools.

Jeulmun Pottery Period

Main article: Jeulmun pottery period

The earliest known Korean pottery dates back to around 8000 BC. or before, and evidence of Mesolithic Pit-Comb Ware culture or Yungimun Pottery is found throughout the peninsula. An example of a Yungimun-era site is the Gosan-ni in Jeju-do. Jeulmun or Comb-pattern Pottery is found after 7000 BC, and pottery with comb-patterns over the whole vessel is found concentrated at sites in West-central Korea between 3500-2000 BC, a time when a number of settlements such as Amsa-dong existed. Jeulmun pottery is similar to that of the Russian Maritime Province, Mongolia, and the Amur and Sungari River basins of Manchuria.

Mumun Pottery Period

Main article: Mumun pottery period

Archaeological evidence demonstrates that agricultural societies and the earliest forms of social-political complexity emerged in the Mumun Pottery Period (c. 1500-300 BC). People in southern Korea adopted intensive dry-field and paddy-field agriculture with a multitude of crops in the Early Mumun Period (1500-850 BC). The first societies led by big-men or chiefs emerged in the Middle Mumun (850-550 BC), and the first ostentatious elite burials can be traced to the Late Mumun (c. 550-300 BC). Bronze production began in the Middle Mumun and became increasingly important in Mumun ceremonial and political society after 700 BC The Mumun is the first time that villages rose, became large, and then fell: some important examples include Songguk-ri, Daepyeong, and Igeum-dong. The increasing presence of long-distance trade, an increase in local conflicts, and the introduction of bronze and iron metallurgy are trends denoting the end of the Mumun around 300 BC.

Gojoseon

Main article: Gojoseon

Gojoseon was the first Korean kingdom. According to the Samguk Yusa and other Korean medieval-era records, Gojoseon was founded in 2333 BC by the legendary Dangun, said to be descended from the Lord of Heaven.

The people of Gojoseon were the descendants of migrating Altaic tribes that settled in Manchuria, far eastern China north of the Yangtze River, and the Korean Peninsula. They are the first direct Korean ancestral line recorded in writing.

Initially, Gojoseon was probably located in Liaoning, but around 400 BC, moved its capital to Pyongyang, the capital of modern North Korea.

Bronze culture

The Bronze Age is often held to have begun around 1500 – 1000 BCE in Korea, though recent archaeological evidence suggests it might have started as far back as 2500 BCE. Bronze daggers, mirrors, and weaponry have been found, as well as evidence of walled-town polities. Rice, red beans, soybeans and millet were cultivated, and rectangular pit-houses and increasingly larger dolmen burial sites are found throughout the peninsula. [7] Contemporaneous records suggest that Gojoseon transitioned from a feudal federation of walled cities into a centralised kingdom at least before the 4th century BCE.

Iron culture

Korean stone dagger and stone arrowhead, 7th-6th century BCE.

It is believed that by the third century BCE, iron culture was developing and the warring states of China pushed refugees eastward and south. Recently however, an iron mirror has been found in Songseok-ri Kangdong-gun Pyongyang in North Korea, that may have originated from 1200 BCE.

Around this time, a state called Jin arose in the southern part of the Korean peninsula. Very little is known about Jin, but it established relations with Han China and exported artifacts to the Yayoi of Japan. A king of Gija Joseon may have fled to Jin after a coup by Wiman. Jin later evolved into the Samhan confederacies.

Later the Han Dynasty defeated the Wiman Joseon and set up Four Commanderies of Han.

Decline and fall

The course of the decline and fall of Gojoseon is in dispute, depending on how historians view Gija Joseon. The theory suggested by Joseon Sangosa is that Gojoseon disintegrated by about 300 BCE as it gradually lost the control of its former fiefs. Many smaller states sprang from the former territory of Gojoseon such as Buyeo, Okjeo, Dongye, Guda-guk, Galsa-guk, Gaema-guk, and Hangin-guk. Goguryeo and Baekje descended from Buyeo.

The Three Kingdoms refer to Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla, although Buyeo and the Gaya confederacy existed into 5th and 6th centuries respectively.

Proto-Three Kingdoms

Main article: Proto-Three Kingdoms of Korea

Gold buckle of the Proto-Three Kingdoms period

The Proto-Three Kingdoms period, sometimes called the Several States Period (열국시대), is the time before the rise of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, which included Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje, and occurred after the fall of Gojoseon. This time period consisted of numerous states that sprang up from the former territories of Gojoseon. Among these states, the largest and most influential were Dongbuyeo and Bukbuyeo.

Buyeo and other Northern states

Main article: Buyeo

After the fall of Gojoseon, Buyeo arose in today's North Korea and southern Manchuria, from about the 2nd century BC to 494. Its remnants were absorbed by Goguryeo in 494, and both Goguryeo and Baekje, two of the Three Kingdoms of Korea, considered themselves its successor.

Although records are sparse and contradictory, it is thought that in 86 BCE, Dongbuyeo (East Buyeo) branched out, after which the original Buyeo is sometimes referred to as Bukbuyeo (North Buyeo). Jolbon Buyeo was the predecessor to Goguryeo, and in 538, Baekje renamed itself Nambuyeo (South Buyeo).

Okjeo was a tribal state that was located in the northern Korean Peninsula, and was established after the fall of Gojoseon. Okjeo had been a part of Gojoseon before its fall. It never became a fully-developed kingdom due to the intervention of its neighboring kingdoms. Okjeo became a tributary of Goguryeo, and was eventually annexed into Goguryeo by Gwanggaeto Daewang in the 5th century.

Dongye was another small kingdom that was situated in the northern Korean Peninsula. Dongye, along with Okjeo eventually became absorbed into Goguryeo as the Three Kingdoms grew in power. Dongye was also a former part of Gojoseon before its fall.

Samhan

Main article: Samhan

Samhan (三韓) refers to the three confederacies of Mahan, Jinhan, and Byeonhan. The Samhan were located in the southern region of the Korean Peninsula. These three confederacies eventually become the foundations, at which Baekje, Silla, and Gaya were established. Mahan was the largest and consisted of 54 states. Byeonhan and Jinhan both consisted of 12 states, bringing a total of 78 states within the Samhan. The term "Samhan" is later used to describe the Three Kingdoms of Korea.

Today, the hanja name for Korea comes from the hanja of Samhan (韓).

Three Kingdoms period

Main article: Three Kingdoms of Korea

Goguryeo

Main article: Goguryeo

An example of a Goguryeo tomb mural.

Goguryeo was founded the earliest and was the largest of the three kingdoms. It was founded in 37 BC by Jumong (posthumous name Dongmyeongseong). Later, King Taejo centrilized the government. Goguryeo was also the first Korean kingdom to adopt Buddhism as the state religion in 372, under King Sosurim reign.

Goguryeo reached its zenith in the fifth century, when King Gwanggaeto and his son, King Jangsu expanded into almost all of Manchuria and part of inner Mongolia, and took the Seoul region from Baekje. Gwanggaeto and Jangsu subdued Baekje and Silla during their times, bringing about a loose unification of Korea.

Goguryeo later fought and defeated massive Chinese invasions in the Goguryeo-Sui War of 598-614, contributing to Sui's fall, and continued to repel the Tang dynasty under several important generals including Yeon Gaesomun and Yang Manchun.

However, numerous wars with China exhausted Goguryeo and it fell into a weak state. After internal power struggles, it was conquered by an allied Silla-Tang forces in 668.

Baekje

Main article: Baekje

One of the two gold diadem ornaments worn by the Baekje King Muryeong of Baekje.

Baekje's foundation by King Onjo in 18 BCE [8], as stated in the Samguk Sagi followed those of its neighbors and rivals, Goguryeo and Silla.

The Sanguo Zhi mentions Baekje as a member of the Mahan confederacy in the Han River basin (near present-day Seoul). It expanded into the southwest (Chungcheong and Jeolla provinces) of the peninsula and became a significant political and military power. In the process, Baekje came into fierce confrontation with Goguryeo and the Chinese commanderies in the vicinity of its territorial ambitions.

At its peak in the 4th century, it had absorbed all of the Mahan states and subjugated most of the western Korean peninsula (including the moder provinces of Kyonggi, Chungcheong, and Jeolla, as well as part of Hwanghae and Kangwon) to a centralized government. Baekje acquired Chinese culture and technology through contacts with the Southern Dynasties during the expansion of its territory.

Baekje played a fundamental role in transmitting cultural developments, such as Chinese characters, Buddhism, iron-making, advanced pottery, and ceremonial burial into ancient Japan. Other aspects of culture were also transmitted when the Baekje court retreated to Japan after Baekje was conquered. Baekje was defeated by a coalition of Silla and Tang Dynasty forces in 660.

Silla

Main article: Silla

Down-sized replica of the famous 80 meter tall pagoda at Hwangnyongsa Temple which was destroyed by the Mongols.

According to legend, the kingdom Silla began with the unification of six chiefdoms of the Jinhan confederacy by Bak Hyeokgeose in 57 BCE, in the southeastern area of Korea. Its territory included the present-day port city of Busan, and Silla later emerged as a sea power responsible for destroying Japanese pirates, especially during the Unified Silla period.

Silla artifacts, including unique gold metalwork, show influence from the northern nomadic steppes, with less Chinese influence than are shown by Goguryeo and Baekje. Silla expanded rapidly by occupying the Han River basin and uniting the city states.

By the 2nd century, Silla existed as a large state, occupying and influencing nearby city states. Silla began to gain power when it annexed in 562 the Gaya confederacy, between Baekje and Silla. Silla often faced pressure from Baekje and Japan, and at various times allied and warred with Baekje and Goguryeo.

In 660, King Muyeol of Silla ordered his armies to attack Baekje. General Kim Yu-shin, aided by Tang forces, conquered Baekje. In 661, Silla and Tang moved on Goguryeo but were repelled. King Munmu, son of Muyeol and nephew of General Kim launched another campaign in 667 and Goguryeo fell in the following year.

Gaya

Main article: Gaya confederacy

Gaya was a confederacy of chiefdoms in the Nakdong River valley of southern Korea, growing out of the Byeonhan confederacy of the Samhan period. In 562, Gaya ultimately was absorbed into Silla.

North and South States

Main article: North and South States

The term North-South States refers to Unified Silla and Balhae, during the time when Silla controlled the Korean peninsula while Balhae expanded into Manchuria. During this time, culture and technology significantly advanced, especially in Unified Silla.

Unified Silla

Main article: Unified Silla

File:Temple-at-gyeongju.jpg

Bulguksa Temple is a UNESCO World Heritage Site.

After the unification wars, the Tang Dynasty established territories in the former Goguryeo, and began to administer and establish communities in Baekje. Silla attacked the Chinese in Baekje and northern Korea in 671.

China then invaded Silla in 674 but led by General Kim Yu-shin, Silla defeated the Chinese army in the north. Silla drove the Tang forces out of the peninsula by 676 to achieve unification of most of the Three Kingdoms.

Unified Silla was a time when Korean arts flourished dramatically and Buddhism became a large part of Silla culture. Buddhist monasteries such as the Bulguksa are examples of advanced Korean architecture and Buddhist influence. State-sponsored art and architecture from this period include Hwangnyongsa Temple, Bunhwangsa Temple, and Seokguram Grotto, a World Heritage Site. Unified Silla was also a time of peace, as the Song Dynasty of China was nonaggressive. The Song was also an important trading partner with Silla.

Silla began to experience political troubles in 780. This severely weakened Silla and soon thereafter, descendants of the former Baekje established Later Baekje. In the north, rebels revived Goguryeo, beginning the Later Three Kingdoms period.

Unified Silla lasted for 267 years until, under King Gyeongsun, it was replaced by Goryeo in 935.

Balhae

Main article: Balhae

Balhae stele at the National Museum of Korea.

Balhae was founded in the northern part of former lands of Goguryeo by Dae Joyeong, a former Goguryeo general. Balhae controlled the northernmost areas of the Korean Peninsula, much of Manchuria (though it didn't occupy Liaodong peninsula for much of history), and expanded into present-day Russian Maritime Province. Balhae styled itself as Goguryeo's successor state. It also adapted from the Tang Empire, for example in the layout of its capitals.

In a time of relative peace and stability in the region, Balhae culture flourished, especially during the long reign of the third Emperor Mun (r. 737-793). Like Silla culture, the culture of Balhae was strongly influenced by Buddhism. However, Balhae was severely weakened by the tenth century, and the Khitan Liao Dynasty conquered Balhae in 926.

No historical records from Balhae have survived, and the Liao left no histories of Balhae. Goryeo (see below) absorbed some Balhae territory and received Balhae refugees, including the crown prince and the royal family, but compiled no known histories of Balhae either. The Samguk Sagi ("History of the Three Kingdoms"), for instance, includes passages on Balhae, but does not include a dynastic history of Balhae. The eighteenth century Joseon dynasty historian Yu Deukgong advocated the proper study of Balhae as part of Korean history, and coined the term "North and South States Period" to refer to this era.

Later Three Kingdoms

Main article: Later Three Kingdoms

The Later Three Kingdoms (892 - 936) consisted of Silla, Hubaekje ("Later Baekje"), and Taebong (also known as Hugoguryeo, "Later Goguryeo"). The latter two, established as Unified Silla declined in power, were viewed as heirs to the earlier Three Kingdoms of Korea.

Taebong (Later Goguryeo) was originally led by Gung Ye, a Buddhist monk who founded Later Goguryeo. The unpopular Gung Ye was deposed by Wang Geon (877-943) in 918, when Gung Ye killed his wife and son. Wang Geon was popular with his people, and he decided to unite the entire peninsula under one government. He attacked Later Baekje in 934 and received the surrender of Silla in the following year. In 936, Goryeo conquered Later Baekje.

Goryeo

Main article: Goryeo

Historical map of the Mongol Empire

The famous Gyeongcheonsa Pagoda from the Goryeo Dynasty.

Goryeo was founded in 918 and by 936, replaced Silla as the ruling dynasty of Korea. ("Goryeo" is a short form of "Goguryeo" and the source of the English name "Korea.") The dynasty lasted until 1392. During this period laws were codified, and a civil service system was introduced. Buddhism flourished, and spread throughout the peninsula. The development of celadon industry flourished in 12th and 13th century. The publication of Tripitaka Koreana, and world's first metal printing technology in 13th century, attests to Goryeo's cultural achievements.

In 1231 the Mongols began its campaigns against Korea and after 25 years of struggle, the royal family relented by signing a treaty with the Mongols. For the following 80 years Goryeo survived, but under the interference of the Mongols. In the 1340s, the Mongol Empire declined rapidly due to internal struggles. King Gongmin was free at last to reform a Goryeo government. Gongmin had various problems that needed to be dealt with, which included the removal of pro-Mongol aristocrats and military officials, the question of land holding, and quelling the growing animosity between the Buddhists and Confucian scholars.

Another problem was that "Japanese" pirates were now organizing deep raids into the country. General Lee Seonggye distinguished himself by repelling the pirates in a series of successful engagements. The Goryeo dynasty would last until 1392, when Lee Seonggye, who had heavy support among aristocracy, would easily take power in a coup.

File:Xcoldricex6.jpg

Kingfisher glazed Goryeo celadon incense burner, a national treasure of South Korea.

Joseon

Main article: Joseon Dynasty

In 1392 a Korean general, Lee Seonggye, was sent to China to campaign against the Ming Dynasty, but instead he returned to overthrow the Goryeo king and establish a new dynasty. He named it the Joseon Dynasty in honor of the previous Joseon before (Gojoseon is the first Joseon. "Go" was added to distinguish between the two). King Taejo moved the capital to Hanseong (formerly Hanyang; modern-day Seoul) and built the Gyeongbokgung palace. In 1394 he adopted Confucianism as the country's official religion, resulting in much loss of power and wealth by the Buddhists. Joseon experienced advances in science and culture; most notably, the Hangul alphabet was invented by King Sejong in 1443. The Joseon Dynasty is believed to have been the longest-lived actively ruling dynasty in East Asia during the last millennium.

Economy

A fishing junk in 1871. This is the oldest surviving photograph known to show Koreans, taken by Felice Beato during the U.S. military campaign.

Joseon maintained a stable economy during peaceful times. After the Joseon court was established and completed, the economy began to prosper as well. Early during the Joseon Dynasty, the economy was stable, especially during King Sejong's rule. However, the economy suffered after the Japanese invasions 1592-1598 and internal court corruption, bribery, and heavy tax, strained the Korean economy.

Social hierarchy

The Joseon formed a very strict class system that greatly affected the economy. The king was at the top of the system, while the yangbans and government officials and generals were below him. Yangbans were influential scholars during the Joseon Dynasty. The middle class consisted of a few merchants and craftsmen. The bulk of the economy was in lower class of the farmers and the lowest class of the slaves who did not pay any taxes to the government. At one point, slaves comprised 30% of the population.

Foreign invasions

Korean Embassy to Japan, 1655, attributed to Kano Toun Yasunobu. British Museum.

Joseon dealt with a pair of Japanese invasions from 1592 to 1598 (Imjin War). This conflict brought prominence to Admiral Yi Sun-sin, and the use of turtle ships and hwachas by the Korean military. Subsequently, there were invasions from Manchuria in 1627 (see the First Manchu invasion of Korea) and again in 1636 (see the Second Manchu invasion of Korea), after which the Joseon dynasty recognized the legitimacy of the Qing Empire. There was trade with the Japanese at Busan, and emissaries were sent to Edo in Japan. Europeans were not permitted to trade at Korean ports until the 1880s.

19th century

The Gyeongbokgung Palace

During the 19th century, Korea tried to control foreign influence by closing the borders to all nations but China. In 1853 the USS South America, an American gunboat, visited Busan for 10 days and had amiable contact with local Korean officials. Several Americans who were shipwrecked on Korea in 1855 and 1865 were also treated well and sent to China for repatriation. The Joseon court which ruled Korea, was well aware of the foreign invasions and treaties involving Qing China, as well as the Opium Wars, and followed a cautious policy of slow exchange with the west. In 1866 the General Sherman Incident put Korea and the United States on a collision course.

In 1871, the United States confronted Korea militarily, and retreated, in what the Koreans call the Sinmiyangyo. By 1876, a rapidly modernizing Japan forced Korea to open its ports and successfully challenged the Qing Empire in the Sino-Japanese War (1894-1895). In 1895, the Japanese murdered Empress Myeongseong, who had sought Russian help, and the Russians were forced to retreat from Korea.

Korean Empire

Main article: Korean Empire

In 1897, Joseon was renamed the Korean Empire, and King Gojong became Emperor Gojong. A period of Russian influence followed, until Japan defeated Russia in the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905). Korea effectively became a protectorate of Japan on 25 July 1905, the 1905 Protectorate Treaty having been promulgated without Emperor Gojong's required seal.

Japanese occupation

Main article: Korea under Japanese rule

In 1910 Japan effectively annexed Korea by the Japan-Korea Annexation Treaty. While the legality of the treaty is still asserted by Japan, it is generally not accepted in Korea because it was not signed by the Emperor of Korea as required and violated international convention on external pressures regarding treaties. Korea was controlled by Japan under a so-called Governor-General of Korea until Japan's unconditional surrender to the Allied Forces, on 15 August 1945, with de jure sovereignty deemed to have passed from Joseon Dynasty to the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.

European-styled transport and communication networks were established across the nation. This facilitated Japanese exploitation, but modernization had little if any effect on the Korean people, but was mainly being used to serve Japanese trade needs, and their tight centralized controls. The Japanese removed the Joseon hierarchy, destroyed the Korean Palace, and revamped Korea's taxation system to evict tenant farmers, export Korean rice crops to Japan which provoked Korean famines; and brought in a punitive series of measures which included murdering those who refused to pay taxes in the provinces; forced slavery in roadworks, mines, and first sweat shop factories in Korea. Then Japan further promoted slavery of Koreans in Japan and its occupied territories by transporting forced slaves to these areas.

After the Korean Emperor Gojong died in January 1919, with a rumor of poisoning, liberation rallies against Japanese invaders took place nationwide on 1 March 1919 (the March 1st (Samil) Movement). This movement was suppressed by force and about 7,000 were killed by Japanese soldiers and police. An estimated 2 million people took part in peaceful, pro-liberation rallies. (The Japanese record claims less than half million.) Many Korean Christians, including an entire village of Jeamri, were crucified or burnt alive in churches as they fought for Korean liberation. This movement was partly inspired by United States president Woodrow Wilson's speech of 1919, declaring support for right of self determination and an end to colonial rule for Europeans. No comment was made by Wilson on Korean liberation, perhaps as a pro-Japan faction in the USA sought trade inroads into China through the Korean peninsula.

The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was established in Shanghai, China, in an aftermath of March 1st Movement, which coordinated the Liberation effort and resistance against Japanese control. Some of the achievements of the Provisional Government include the Battle of Chingshanli of 1920 and the ambush of Japanese Military Leadership in China in 1932. The Provisional Government is considered to be the de jure government of the Korean people between the period 1919 to 1948, and its legitimacy is enshrined in the preamble to the constitution of the South Korea.

Continued anti-Japanese uprisings, such as the nationwide uprising of students in November 1929, led to the strengthening of military rule in 1931. After the outbreaks of the Sino-Japanese War in 1937 and World War II Japan attempted to exterminate Korea as a nation. Worship at Japanese Shinto shrines was made compulsory. The school curriculum was radically modified to eliminate teaching in the Korean language and history within Korea. The continuance of Korean culture itself began to be illegal. Korean culture and economy suffered heavy losses. The Korean language was banned and Koreans were forced to adopt Japanese names. Numerous Korean cultural artifacts were destroyed or taken to Japan. To this day, valuable Korean artifacts can often be found in Japanese museums or among private collectors. Newspapers were prohibited from publishing in Korean and the study of Korean history was banned at university with Korean textbooks burnt, destroyed, or made illegal which Editing Agency of Korean History oversaw. According to an investigation by the South Korean government, 75,311 cultural assets were taken from Korea. Japan has 34,369, The United States has 17,803.

Some Koreans left the Korean peninsula to Manchuria and Primorsky Krai. Koreans in Manchuria formed resistance groups known as Dongnipgun (Liberation Army) which would travel in and out of the Korean-Chinese boundary, fighting guerrilla warfare with the Japanese forces. These guerilla armies would come together in 1940s as Korean Liberation Army and the Liberation Army took part in allied action in China and parts of South East Asia. Tens of thousands of Koreans also joined the Peoples Liberation Army and the National Revolutionary Army.

During World War II, Koreans were forced to support the Japanese war effort. Tens of thousands of men were conscripted into Japan's military. Around 200,000 girls and women, mostly from Korea and China, were conscripted as sex slaves, euphemistically called "comfort women".

The division of Korea

Main article: Division of Korea

File:Soldiers Climbing Sea Wall in Inchon.jpg

Soldiers climbing a sea wall in Incheon

The unconditional surrender of Japan, the earlier collapse of Nazi Germany, combined with fundamental shifts in global politics and ideology, led to the division of Korea into two occupation zones effectively starting on September 8, 1945, with the United States administering the southern half of the peninsula and the Soviet Union taking over the area north of the 38th parallel. The Provisional Government was ignored, mainly due to American misconception that it was too communist-aligned. This division was meant to be temporary and was first intended to return a unified Korea back to its people until the United States, United Kingdom, Soviet Union, and Republic of China could arrange a trusteeship administration.

At the Cairo Conference on 22 November 1943, it was agreed that Korea would be free "in due course Korea shall become free and independent”; at a later meeting in Yalta in February 1945, it was agreed to establish a four-power trusteeship over Korea. On August 9 1945, Soviet tanks entered northern Korea from Siberia, meeting little to no resistance. Japan surrendered to the Allied Forces on 15 August 1945.

In December 1945, a conference convened in Moscow to discuss the future of Korea. A 5-year trusteeship was discussed, and a joint Soviet-American commission was established. The commission met intermittently in Seoul but deadlocked over the issue of establishing a national government. In September 1947, with no solution in sight, the United States submitted the Korean question to the UN General Assembly.

Initial hopes for a unified, independent Korea quickly evaporated as the politics of the Cold War and opposition to the trusteeship plan from Korean anti-communists resulted in the 1948 establishment of two separate nations with diametrically opposed political, economic, and social systems. On December 12 1948, by its resolution 195 in the Third General Assembly, the United Nations recognised the Republic of Korea as the sole legal government of Korea. In June 1950 the Korean War broke out when North Korea breached the 38th parallel line to invade the South, ending any hope of a peaceful reunification for the time being.

See History of North Korea and History of South Korea for the post-war period.

References

• Byeon Tae-seop (변태섭) (1999). 韓國史通論 (Hanguksa tongnon) (Outline of Korean history), 4th ed. ISBN 89-445-9101-6.
• Yang, S.C. (1999). The North and South Korean political systems: A comparative analysis. (Rev. Ed.). Seoul: Hollym. ISBN 1-56591-105-9

See also

• List of Korea-related topics
• Prehistory of Korea
• List of Korean Kings
• Military history of Korea

External links

• http://www.koreaorbit.com/history-of-korea/history-of-korea-dynasties.html
• http://www.asianinfo.org/asianinfo/korea/history.htm#The%20Ko%20Choson
• http://www.rootsinfo.co.kr/history/king01.html -in Korean
• Archival Heritage of Korea
• Kyujanggak Achieve(big pdfs of many history classics of Korea in their original written Classical Chinese)