Late Choson Korea Colonial Korea

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Late Choson Korea Colonial Korea  The Cold
War and the Two Koreas
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• Map of Korea
• Map of Asia

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Korean Society during the Yi Dynasty (13921910)

• Ancient Choson ca. 4th-cent. BC federation of
  tribes, capital at modern Pyongyang.
• Yi Dynasty Victorious general Yi Song-gye
  established in 1392, with territory under its
  control named Choson, and received approval of
  the Ming emperor.
• Buddhism was originally the state religion for
  the protection and welfare of the kingdom. After
  Yi Founding, Confucianism and IN and Buddhism was
  OUT.
• Strong Hereditary Monarchies had evolved in an
  earlier period, and local Korean aristocracy
  remained strong well after same class faded in
  China.
• The Yangban was the top social class of the Yi
  dynasty, consisting of hereditary civilian and
  military officials. After the Yi Founding, the
  Yangban dominated Yi society. Earlier local
  matrilineal customs had given women great power,
  however women gradually lost status in Yi society.

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Outside Challenges to the Hermit Kingdom

• 1598 Japanese Shogun attempts to invade Korea
  repulsed by Ming and Manchu allies.
• 1637 Manchu invasion successful. Manchus soon
  leave after capturing the young Korean ruler.
• In 1653 a Dutch VOC merchant ship went aground
  off Cheju Island, and its 36 surviving crewmen
  were taken to Seoul for detention. Thirteen years
  later Hendrik Hamel and seven others escaped and
  returned home. Hamel wrote an account of his
  experiences--the first book on Korea published in
  Europe.

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Ideological Conflict in Korean Society

• Korea's first significant contact with
  Christianity was through missionaries in China.
  Korean envoys to China in the 16th century
  brought back with them a world atlas and
  scientific instruments made by the priests, as
  well as literature on science and Christianity.
  Common people attracted to Christianity with
  promises of social equality. Catholicism spread
  from Seoul to the provinces steadily.
• In 1715 the Pope sided with the Dominicans
  (against the Jesuits) and condemned all Confucian
  ancestor worship as idolatry rituals this
  remained the policy of the Catholic Church until
  the mid-20th century. The Chinese emperor in
  1724 then banned Christian missionaries form his
  empire. The Korean king Chongjo initially
  tolerated Christian practices among his court
  members, but in the late 18th century incidents
  of anti-Confucian behavior cause the ruler to
  abandon his tolerant policy.
• During persecutions in 1801, 1839, and 1866,
  Korean converts were either put to death or
  forced to recant foreign missionaries were often
  killed. However, commoners continued to support
  the Catholic church, mostly in secret and beyond
  urban areas. In 1831 the Vatican established a
  Korean parish, and French priests were smuggled
  into the Korean kingdom for secret proselytizing.

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Tonghak Rebellion

• A new religion founded in 1860 by Ch'oe Cheu
  (1824-1864), a fallen country yangban scholar,
  advocated sweeping social reform. It had much in
  common with traditional animism and appealed to
  the peasantry. This religion was called Tonghak,
  or "Eastern Learning," as a counterpoise to
  Sohak, or "Western Learning"--i.e., Catholicism
• Ch'oe Cheu was captured and executed by the Yi
  court, but his movement flourished underground.
• Outbreak of Tonghak Rebellion in 1894 gave
  Japanese a pretense for eliminating foreign (i.e.
  Chinese) influences from the Korean peninsula.

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The Forced Entry of the Outside World into Korea

• "Foreign Disturbance of 1871" American flotilla
  of five warships was repulsed and a platoon of
  marines was driven back.
• Treaty of Kanghwa (1876) ports of Pusan, Wonsan,
  and Inch'on were opened to Japanese trade. This
  treaty first brought Korea on to the
  international diplomatic scene.
• Convention of Tientsin (Tianjin) (1885) treaty
  signed by the Qing official Li Hung-chang and
  Japan's Ito Hirobumi designed to guarantee a
  Sino-Japanese balance of power on the Korean
  peninsula.
• Treaty of Shimonoseki (April 17, 1895) agreement
  at the end of the Sino-Japanese War that, among
  other concessions, recognized Korea's
  "independence" from China.

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EARLY KOREAN RADICALISM

• During the Russo-Japanese War (1904-1905),
  Japanese forces moved onto the peninsula, despite
  Korean declarations of neutrality. The signing of
  the Japan-Korea Protection Treaty in 1905 gave
  Japan virtual control over Korea, and in 1910 a
  Korean royal proclamation announced the
  annexation by Japan.
• March First Movement the nationwide
  anti-Japanese rallies staged on March 1, 1919,
  during the occasion of mourning the death of
  Emperor Kojong,
• Syngman Rhee (1875-1965) first president of the
  Republic of Korea (South Korea) and first Korean
  to receive a Ph.D. degree from an American
  university (Princeton, 1910). He had been n China
  during WWII, but he returned with US occupation
  forces. .
• Nai-Sen Ittai Japan and Korea are One Entity
  was the slogan behind Japanese governmental
  policy to eradicate Korean national identity,
  initiated during WWII.