Korean history

The history of Korea stretches from Lower Paleolithic times to the present. The earliest known Korean pottery dates to around 8000 BC, and the Neolithic period began before 6000 BC, followed by the Bronze Age around 2500 BC. According to the Samguk Yusa and other Korean medieval-era records, the Gojoseon (Old Joseon) kingdom was said to be founded in 2333 BC, eventually stretching from the peninsula to much of Manchuria. By 3rd Century BC, 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. Goguryeo and Baekje were more powerful for much of the era, especially Goguryeo, which defeated massive Chinese invasions. 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 Dae Jo-yeong founded Balhae as the successor to Goguryeo.

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 the fall of Balhae in 926 to Khitan, much of its people were absorbed into Goryeo.

During the Goryeo period, laws were codified, a civil service system was introduced, and Buddhism flourished. In 993-1019, Khitan invaded Goryeo and were repelled. In 1238, the Mongolian 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. 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 was assassinated by Japanese agents. In 1897, Joseon was renamed the Korean Empire (1897-1910), and King Gojong became Emperor Gojong.

Nevertheless, In 1905, Japanese 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

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

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 0000-000 BC, a time when a number of settlements such as Amsa-dong(암사동) existed. Jeulmun pottery bears basic design and form similarities to the Jōmon culture in Japan and to that of the Russian Maritime Province, Mongolia, and the Amur River and Sungari River basins of Manchuria.

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

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. [4] 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

It is believed that by the third century BC, 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 BC.

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.

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