Why is it confined to a corner of the peninsula?
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The origin of the Koreans is inconclusive, but it is presumed that they may have originated from the northern continent and belonged to the Mongolian race. Although Korean, the lingua franca of Korea, is related to Mongolian, it also shares many similarities with Japanese.
Ancient Joseon, which originated in 3000 B.C. and during the Jizi Joseon period, was once prosperous, but historical facts show that it was not the origin of the ancestors of the Koreans, but a branch of the ancient Chinese regime.
In 108 BC, Emperor Wu of the Han Dynasty succeeded in pacifying Weiman Korea and established the four counties of Lelang, Xuansu, Lintun and Zhenfan in the region, thus directly ruling a large area of the Korean Peninsula.
At this time, in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula, three indigenous tribal groups, Mahan, Benhan, and Jinhan, gradually formed, known as the "Samhan", and they are the ancestors of today's Koreans.
So, what is the name of South Korea? The answer, of course, is the three tribal groups – Samhan.
Around the 3rd century AD, a unified state called Baekje emerged in the Mahan region. The establishment of this country stemmed from the migration of a part of the Buyeo people to the south and became the upper class of Baekje, while the Mahan people became the lower class of Baekje.
At the same time, a Silu tribe in the Chenhan region established a unified state called Silla, with the three surnames Park, Xi, and Kim being the largest royal family. As for Benhan, they established a small state called Gayage.
In 427, Goguryeo moved to Pyongyang under pressure and took control of most of Korea. In 532, Silla eliminated Gayageum, and the Korean Peninsula formed a three-legged situation of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla, and this period is known as the "Three Kingdoms Period".
Under the influence of Chinese Buddhism and Chinese character culture, although the Three Kingdoms all believed in Buddhism and used Chinese characters, territorial expansion was always the mainstream in ancient times. As a result, the three countries fought fiercely for the fertile Han River valley.
During the Three Kingdoms period, although Goguryeo occupied the largest territory, it was unable to concentrate on development because it was busy fighting with the Central Plains Dynasty. In this case, Silla was the first to come to the fore.
Since the 6th century, Silla has repeatedly won foreign wars. First, Silla united with Baekje to regain control of the upper Han River from Goguryeo, and then launched an attack on Baekje in 554, successfully seizing control of the lower Han River.
By 562, Silla had eliminated Renna and driven the Wa forces out of the peninsula.
At the beginning of the 7th century, the rise of Silla caused discontent among Goguryeo. After repelling the invasion of the Sui Dynasty, Goguryeo united with Baekje to launch an attack on Silla and blocked Silla's road to China.
Silla could not sit idly by and appealed to the Tang Dynasty for help. However, the Tang Dynasty failed to attack Goguryeo three times, so it changed its strategy and attacked Baekje first. In 660, the Tang Dynasty and Silla joined forces to capture Baekje, and Baekje was destroyed.
However, the Baekje royal family turned to the Wa kingdom for help, and the Tang and Silla coalition forces successfully defeated the combined forces of Baekje and the Wa kingdom in the Battle of Baekgang Estuary in 663.
After destroying Baekje and Goguryeo, the Tang Dynasty established the Andong Protectorate in Pyongyang for direct rule and attempted to bring Silla under its jurisdiction.
Faced with pressure from the Tang Dynasty, Silla stepped forward and led the common people of the former Goguryeo and Baekje homelands to revolt. The Tang Dynasty had to retreat, and the Andong Protectorate moved to Liaodong.
A few years later, Silla successfully unified most of the Korean Peninsula south of the Taedong River, ending the situation that lasted for more than 800 years and laying the foundation for the future territory of North and South Korea.
In the end, the Tang Dynasty could only accept this fact and consider Silla as a tributary state.
Silla made the capital in Jinseong (Gyeongju), followed the Tang Dynasty system, implemented the first centralization, divided the country into Kyushu, and at the same time implemented the "Xiaojing Five System" in important areas.
In 788, Silla also established the imperial examination system to encourage the study of Confucianism. In addition, Silla's overseas ** was also quite active, and merchant ships frequently shuttled between the Tang Dynasty and Japan.
At the end of the 7th century, the Somo Yaka in the Northeast began to rise and established the Balhae Kingdom in the once prosperous area of Goguryeo, becoming Silla's new neighbor.
In the 9th century, Silla was hit by peasant uprisings and political turmoil, and began to decline and **. In 900, Zhen Xuan led the peasant army to occupy Jeolla and Gyeongsang-do, creating "Later Baekje".
Then, in 903, Gong descended from the Silla nobility and conquered most of Gangwon Province and Gyeonggi Province to establish the Taebong Kingdom. Since the Taefeudal Kingdom occupied the old land of Goguryeo, it was also called "Later Goguryeo".
Together with the Silla that still exists, the Korean Peninsula entered the "post-Three Kingdoms period".
In 918, the Gong tribe overthrew Goguryeo and established Goryeo, and moved the capital to Kaesong the following year. To distinguish it from Goguryeo, this new state was called "Wang's Goryeo".
Ten years later, in 935, the last king of Silla surrendered to Goryeo under the attack of Later Baekje, and a generational marriage was entered into with Goryeo. Subsequently, in 936, Goryeo destroyed Gobaekje and once again achieved the unification of the Korean Peninsula.
Despite the victory of Goryeo, it always faced the threat of the Khitans. In 926, the Balhae Kingdom was destroyed by the Khitan, and from then on, the Khitan began to carry out several invasions of Goryeo, the second of which even sacked Kaesong, forcing Goryeo to become a Khitan tributary state.
However, Goryeo was not intimidated by the Khitan threat, and in 1018, after the Khitan third invasion was defeated by Goryeo, the Khitan lost the courage to attack Goryeo.
At the turn of the 11th and 12th centuries, the Khitan Empire was already in decline, and the Jurchens began to invade Goryeo. In 1104, the Wanyan Jurchens clashed with Goryeo when they attacked the Eastern Jurchens in Hamgyong Province.
However, in 1107, Goryeo adopted a preemptive strategy and launched an attack on the Jurchens, successfully containing the Jurchen invasion. However, in 1127, after the Jurchen-founded Jin State annexed the Liao State and the Song Dynasty, its power grew rapidly, and Goryeo knew that it could not resist it, and finally had to recognize the Jin State as its vassal.
In Goryeo at the end of the 12th century, the dictatorship of military commanders became the norm. In 1196, the military general Cui Zhong's family won by virtue of its strength, and after 60 years of four generations of dictatorship, the king was completely overlooked.
However, the rise of Mongolia changed everything. In 1216, the Mongols and Goryeo agreed to jointly attack the Khitan, and after the Khitan surrendered, Goryeo also paid tribute. However, in 1231, the Mongols attacked Goryeo and besieged Kaesong on the pretext that their envoys had been killed.
Unable to resist the powerful Mongol army, Goryeo was finally overthrown in 1258, and the king of Goryeo surrendered and surrendered to the Mongols.
The Yuan dynasty ruled Goryeo and established the province of Zhengdong to wage war against Japan. Although he retained the status of the king of Goryeo, he also allowed the king to marry a Mongolian princess and send the prince to the Yuan Dynasty as a hostage, thereby strengthening the Mongolization of the Goryeo nobility.
However, with the fall of the Yuan Dynasty and the establishment of the Ming Dynasty, Goryeo became independent, and there was also a ** within the ruling class, with some people insisting on following the remnant Yuan, while others advocated kinship with the Ming Dynasty.
In 1388, Zhu Yuanzhang, the founding emperor of the Ming Dynasty, sent troops to the border with the goal of recovering the areas north and east of Tieling, which had originally belonged to the Yuan dynasty. However, the pro-Yuan faction of Goryeo resolutely resisted and sent Yi Sung-gye to march to Liaodong.
Finding the Ming army unstoppable, Li Chenggui staged a coup d'état and exiled the pro-Yuan king and ministers. In 1392, Yi Sung-gye usurped the throne and established the Yi dynasty, which was given the name "Joseon" by the Ming Dynasty, also known as the Lee dynasty.
The Li dynasty ruled for more than 500 years and lasted until 1910. The Li dynasty was a loyal subject state of the Ming dynasty, adopting the same neo-Confucian doctrine as the Ming dynasty and rejecting Buddhism.
In 1440, King Sejong of Joseon borrowed Chinese characters to create Hanmon, but it was not until the 20th century that Hangul was truly popularized and used due to the nostalgia of intellectuals for Chinese characters.
During the Yi Dynasty, Joseon established a navy and in 1419 made an expedition to Tsushima to destroy the nest of the Japanese invaders. From the late 14th century onwards, the Li dynasty and the Jurchens fought a series of victories, greatly expanding their northern territory.
By the 15th century, the territory of Korea reached an all-time maximum of about 2210,000 square kilometers, with the Yalu River and the Tumen River as the boundary to divide the border between China and North Korea, and moved the capital to Seoul.
The Ming Dynasty also confirmed this border, and it has not changed since then.
At the end of the 15th century, party strife in Korea intensified, and there were many contradictions within the court. By the end of the 16th century, when the partisan strife in Korea was intensifying and the armament was gradually relaxed, Japan had basically completed its reunification and began to covet China and Korea.
In 1592, Toyotomi Hideyoshi, Japan's military leader, sent 150,000 troops to invade Korea, and the Imjin Great Patriotic War broke out. Led by the young Japanese general Kato Kiyomasa, their army was overwhelmed and invaded most of Korea's territory, forcing King Seonjo to flee Uiju and appeal to the Ming Dynasty for help.
In the same year, the army of the Ming Dynasty, under the leadership of Li Rusong, held high the banner of national righteousness, crossed the Yalu River, and resisted the Japanese to aid Korea. In 1593, the allied forces of the Ming Dynasty successfully defeated the main force of the Japanese army, and successively recovered Pyongyang, Kaesong, and Seoul, and most of Korea was also recovered.
Toyotomi Hideyoshi's aggressive ambitions were not diminished by the victory of the Kafune fleet, and in 1597 he again sent a large army of land and water to attack Korea. However, under the joint resistance of the Ming Dynasty and the famous Korean general Yi Sunsin, the Japanese army was defeated in naval battles many times.
Although in 1598, Yi Sunsin and the Ming veteran Deng Zilong won a resounding victory in the Battle of Luliang, in this battle, they also paid the price with their lives. Soon after, Toyotomi Hideyoshi died in despair, and Japanese troops eventually withdrew from Korea.
After seven years of heroic resistance by the Ming and Korean armies, they succeeded in driving out the Japanese invaders and crushing Toyotomi Hideyoshi's ambitions to conquer both China and Korea. However, shortly after the expulsion of Japan, Korea was invaded by the Jurchens.
In 1627, the Later Jin of the Jianju Jurchen invaded Korea, and the Korean army was defeated and the king was forced to flee to Ganghwa Island. Eventually, North Korea pledged to maintain neutrality between the Later Jin and Ming dynasties to ensure its own security.
In 1636, the Later Jin changed its name to the Qing Dynasty and demanded obedience and tribute from the Li Dynasty. Korea resolutely refused, but in desperation, the Qing Dynasty launched another war. However, Korea was no match for the Qing army, and in 1637, Korea was forced to surrender and pay tribute to the Qing Dynasty, while also severing relations with the Ming Dynasty.
However, even after the fall of the Ming Dynasty, North Korea continued to use the era name of the Ming Dynasty until the beginning of the 20th century. North Korea has suffered two foreign invasions and trampling, with a significant reduction in population and severe damage to productivity.
By the end of the 18th century, the population had recovered from 5 million after the war to 9 million. After the 19th century, the Qing Dynasty began to decline, but North Korea did not realize this and still insisted that the Qing Dynasty, as the suzerainty of Korea, should be responsible for Korea's foreign relations.
For this reason, Westerners call Korea the "Land of Hermits". During this period, the Donghak Party movement arose in North Korea and was blindly xenophobic.
In 1871, the U.S. Navy arrived at the mouth of the Han River, and North Korea shelled it, forcing the U.S. to withdraw. In 1875, Japan invaded Korea, and Korea fought back.
However, in 1876, Korea was finally forced to sign the Ganghwa Treaty, and Japan gained trade and extraterritoriality rights in Korea, and Korea's sovereignty began to be violated.
After that, Western powers such as Great Britain, the United States, France, Germany, Russia, Italy, and Austria-Hungary also signed unequal treaties with Korea. In 1882, there was a Mutiny in Korea against Japan and the traitors it cultivated, and both the Qing Dynasty and Japan sent troops to intervene.
Eventually, Japan was granted the same garrison rights as the Qing Dynasty, preparing for further aggression against Korea. In 1884, the Korean Enlightenment faction advocated learning from Japan's Meiji Restoration, and planned a coup d'état with the Japanese minister, which was eventually suppressed by the Qing army led by Yuan Shikai.
In 1885, the Qing Dynasty and Japan withdrew their troops from Korea at the same time.
In 1894, the Donghak uprising broke out in Korea, which led to the intervention and conflict between the Qing Dynasty and Japan, which eventually led to the Sino-Japanese War. In this war, the Qing Dynasty suffered a crushing defeat, while Japan emerged victorious.
With the defeat of the Qing Dynasty, Korea was able to break free from its control and take the opportunity to achieve independence, turning to the bosom of Japan.
At the end of the 19th century, North Korea was renamed South Korea and the Korean Empire was established. After that, in order to compete for control of Korea, ** and Japan respectively supported close forces.
In 1904, Japan forced Korea to sign the Japan-Korea Protocol, thus controlling South Korea's finances and diplomacy. After the Russo-Japanese War, Japan took full control of Korea and in the same year gained support for the annexation of Korea through an agreement with the United States.
Under the agreement, the United States agreed to make Korea a protectorate of Japan, while Japan recognized the Philippines as a colony of the United States.
From 1906 to 1911, a volunteer movement broke out in Korea to resolutely resist the aggression of the Japanese invaders. Sadly, the campaign ended in failure.
In 1909, the Korean righteous An Shigeun assassinated Hirobumi Ito, the Japanese commander in Korea, in Harbin. In 1910, Japan used this as an excuse to collude with Korean traitors led by Lee Wan-yong to plan and sign the "Japan-Korea Merger Treaty" to formally annex Korea and make it a Japanese colony.
After World War I, the principle of national self-determination proposed by the United States in 1918 was adopted by Korean intellectuals, who signed the Declaration of Independence, and hundreds of thousands of people chanted for independence in the streets of Seoul.
However, Japan carried out a brutal crackdown that resulted in the deaths of more than 6,000 people. At the same time, a large-scale anti-Japanese national uprising broke out in Korea, but it was eventually suppressed.
In 1919, the Korean **Temporary**, led by Syngman Rhee, was established in the French Concession in Shanghai, and then moved to Hawaii in the United States.
In 1937 and 1941, Japan launched a full-scale war of aggression against China and the Pacific War. During this time, more than 5 million Koreans were forced to serve in Japan's war effort, and some even became Japanese soldiers.
However, by August 1945, Japan had been defeated. Subsequently, the Soviet Union and the United States controlled the north and south of the Korean Peninsula respectively with the 38th parallel as the boundary, and tried to be entrusted by the United States, the Soviet Union, Britain, and China, but ultimately failed due to the opposition of North Korea.
In 1947, the United States referred the Korean issue to the United Nations for a vote, but the Soviet Union refused to vote. Under these circumstances, in August 1948, the United States supported Syngman Rhee in the South in establishing Korea**; In September, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea was established in northern Korea under the leadership of Kim Il Sung.
Subsequently, the Soviet Union and the United States withdrew their troops, and the Korean Peninsula was divided into two opposing regimes by the 38th parallel. In 1950, the Korean War broke out when North Korea decided to attack South Korea in an attempt to unify the peninsula because of its advanced equipment provided by the Soviet Union.
In this war, the North Korean army was overwhelmed, capturing Seoul in June and compressing the Korean army to the Daegu and Busan areas.
In July, the US-led coalition**, under the leadership of MacArthur, openly intervened in the Korean civil war, and the North Korean army was forced to retreat north of the 38th parallel. After that, Syngman Rhee advocated crossing the 38th parallel and continuing northward with **, approaching the Yalu River.
Faced with this situation, in October, at the request of the DPRK, the Chinese People's Volunteers crossed the Yalu River to resist US aggression and aid Korea with a heroic and fearless spirit to defend their homeland.
After hard fighting, the front finally stabilized near the 38th parallel.
In 1953, the demarcation of the North-South dividing line marked the end of the Korean War, and the Korean Peninsula was henceforth divided into two independent states: North and South Korea. Although both countries are actively seeking reunification, the desire for reunification has not yet been realized because the United States opposes North-South reconciliation in order to control South Korea.
However, despite the difficulties, the two countries have maintained membership in the United Nations.
After the war, South Korea was only 100,000 square kilometers in size, which was a significant difference from expectations. Not only that, but the people were impoverished, the political situation was unstable, and the military staged frequent coups d'état, and six republics were established successively.
However, since the 70s, South Korea's economic development has been on a par with Japan's, with GDP per capita growing from $87 in 1962 to $10,548 in 1996, creating the "Han River Miracle" and ranking 11th in the world.
At present, South Korea's per capita GDP has exceeded 30,000 US dollars, making it the fourth developed country in Asia, but this achievement has also come at a huge cost.
At the same time, nationalist sentiment in South Korea is extremely inflated to the point of getting carried away.
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