|
The following History Remixed page is under construction.
Please do not edit or alter this article in any way while this template is active. All unauthorized edits may be reverted on the admin's discretion. Propose any changes to the talk page. |
Republic of Korea Timeline: History Remixed
韓國民國 Hangukminguk OTL equivalent: North Korea & South Korea | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
||||||
| Anthem: 愛國歌 Aegukga "The Patriotic Song" |
||||||
 Location of Korea
|
||||||
| Capital | Seoul | |||||
| Largest city | Pyongyang | |||||
| Official languages | Korean | |||||
| Religion | 56.1% no religion 27.6% Christianity 15.5% Buddhism 0.8% other |
|||||
| Demonym | Korean | |||||
| Government | Unitary presidential constitutional republic | |||||
| - | President | Yoon Suk Yeol | ||||
| - | Prime Minister | Kim Jong-un | ||||
| Legislature | National Assembly | |||||
| Establishment | ||||||
| - | Gojoseon | 2333 BCE (mythological) |
||||
| - | Three Kingdoms | 57 BCE | ||||
| - | Balhae and Silla Kingdoms | 668 | ||||
| - | Goryeo dynasty | 918 | ||||
| - | Joseon dynasty | July 17, 1392 | ||||
| - | Korean Empire | October 12, 1875 | ||||
| - | Republic declared | March 1, 1919 | ||||
| - | Current constitution | February 25, 1969 | ||||
| Area | ||||||
| - | Total | 223,155 km2 86,161 sq mi |
||||
| - | Water (%) | 0.3 | ||||
| Population | ||||||
| - | estimate | 77,000,000 | ||||
| Currency | Korean won (₩) | |||||
| Time zone | UTC+9 | |||||
Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia. It constitutes the Korean Peninsula and borders Russia and China. The country's western border is formed by the Yellow Sea, while its eastern border is defined by the Sea of Japan. It has a population of 77 million, of which roughly half live in the Seoul Capital Area, the most populous metropolitan area in korea. Other major cities include Incheon, Busan, Pyongyang and Daegu.
The Korean Peninsula was inhabited as early as the Lower Paleolithic period. Its first kingdom was noted in Chinese records in the early 7th century BCE. Following the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea into Silla and Balhae in the late 7th century, Korea was ruled by the Goryeo dynasty (918–1392), the Joseon dynasty (1392–1897) and the succeeding Korean Empire (1875–1919). The empire era ended following Korea becoming Republic, after Korea becoming republic the country entered into a military alliance with the U.S.
Under the Syngman Rhee, the economy began to soar, recording the fastest rise in average GDP per capita in the world between 1940 and 2000. Despite lacking natural resources, the nation rapidly developed to become one of the Asian Tigers based on international trade and economic globalization, integrating itself within the world economy with export-oriented industrialization; currently being one of the largest exporting nations in the world, along with having one of the largest foreign-exchange reserves in the world.
Korea is a regional power and a developed country, with its economy being ranked as the world's thirteenth-largest by nominal GDP and the fourteenth-largest by GDP (PPP). In recent years, the country has been facing an aging population and the lowest fertility rate in the world. Korea's citizens enjoy one of the world's fastest Internet connection speeds and the densest high-speed railway network. The country is the world's ninth-largest exporter and ninth-largest importer. Its armed forces are ranked as one of the world's strongest militaries, with the world's second-largest standing army by military and paramilitary personnel. In the 21st century, Korea has been renowned for its globally influential pop culture, particularly in music (K-pop), TV dramas (K-dramas) and cinema, a phenomenon referred to as the Korean Wave. It is a member of the OECD's Development Assistance Committee, the G20, the IPEF, and the Paris Club.
Etymology[]
The name Korea is an exonym, although it was derived from a historical kingdom name, Goryeo (Revised Romanization) or Koryŏ (McCune–Reischauer). Goryeo was the shortened name officially adopted by Goguryeo in the 5th century and the name of its 10th-century successor state Goryeo. Visiting Arab and Persian merchants pronounced its name as "Korea". The modern name of Korea appears in the first Portuguese maps of 1568 by João vaz Dourado as Conrai and later in the late 16th century and early 17th century as Korea (Corea) in the maps of Teixeira Albernaz of 1630.
The Kingdom of Goryeo became first known to Westerners when Afonso de Albuquerque conquered Malacca in 1511 and described the peoples who traded with this part of the world known by the Portuguese as the Gores. Despite the coexistence of the spellings Corea and Korea in 19th-century publications, some Koreans believe that Imperial Japan, around the time of the Japanese occupation, intentionally standardized the spelling of Korea, making Japan appear first alphabetically.
After Goryeo was replaced by Joseon in 1392, Joseon became the official name for the entire territory, though it was not universally accepted. The new official name has its origin in the ancient kingdom of Gojoseon (2333 BCE). In 1875, the Joseon dynasty changed the country's official name from Joseon to Daehan Jeguk (Korean Empire). The name Daehan (Great Han) derives from Samhan (Three Han), referring to the Three Kingdoms of Korea, not the ancient confederacies in the southern Korean Peninsula. However, the name Joseon was still widely used by Koreans to refer to their country, though it was no longer the official name.
Following the end of empire, in 1919, the "Republic of Korea" (韓국民國, lit. 'Korean People's State') was adopted as the legal English name for the new country. However, it is not a direct translation of the Korean name. As a result, the Korean name "Hanguk Minguk" is sometimes used by South Koreans as a metonym to refer to the Korean ethnicity (or "race") as a whole, rather than just the Korean state.
History[]
Prehistory[]
The Korean Academy claimed ancient hominid fossils originating from about 100,000 BCE in the lava at a stone city site in Korea. Fluorescent and high-magnetic analyses indicate the volcanic fossils may be from as early as 300,000 BCE. The best preserved Korean pottery goes back to the paleolithic times around 10,000 BCE and the Neolithic period begins around 6000 BCE.
Beginning around 300 BC, the Japonic-speaking Yayoi people from the Korean Peninsula entered the Japanese islands and displaced or intermingled with the original Jōmon inhabitants. The linguistic homeland of Proto-Koreans is located somewhere in Southern Siberia/Manchuria, such the Liao river area or the Amur region. Proto-Koreans arrived in the southern part of the Korean Peninsula at around 300 BC, replacing and assimilating Japonic-speakers and likely causing the Yayoi migration.
Gojoseon[]
According to Korean legend, Dangun, a descendant of Heaven, established Gojoseon in 2333 BCE. In 108 BCE, the Han dynasty defeated Gojoseon and installed four commanderies in the northern Korean peninsula. Three of the commanderies fell or retreated westward within a few decades, but the Lelang Commandery remained as a center of cultural and economic exchange with successive Chinese dynasties for four centuries. By 313, Goguryeo annexed all of the Chinese commanderies.
Proto–Three Kingdoms[]
The Proto–Three Kingdoms period, sometimes called the Multiple States Period, is the earlier part of what is commonly called the Three Kingdoms Period, following the fall of Gojoseon but before Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla fully developed into kingdoms.
This time period saw numerous states spring up from the former territories of Gojoseon, which encompassed northern Korea and southern Manchuria. With the fall of Gojoseon, southern Korea entered the Samhan period.
Located in the southern part of Korea, Samhan referred to the three confederacies of Mahan, Jinhan, and Byeonhan. Mahan was the largest and consisted of 54 states. Byeonhan and Jinhan both consisted of twelve states, bringing a total of 78 states within the Samhan. These three confederacies eventually developed into Baekje, Silla, and Gaya.
Three Kingdoms[]
The Three Kingdoms of Korea consisted of Goguryeo, Silla, and Baekje. Silla and Baekje controlled the southern half of the Korean Peninsula, maintaining the former Samhan territories, while Goguryeo controlled the northern half of the Korean Peninsula, Manchuria and the Liaodong Peninsula, uniting Buyeo, Okjeo, Dongye, and other states in the former Gojoseon territories.
Goguryeo was a highly militaristic state, and a large empire in East Asia, reaching its zenith in the 5th century when its territories expanded to encompass most of Manchuria to the north, parts of Inner Mongolia to the west, parts of Russia to the east, and the Seoul region to the south. Goguryeo experienced a golden age under Gwanggaeto the Great and his son Jangsu, who both subdued Baekje and Silla during their times, achieving a brief unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea and becoming the most dominant power on the Korean Peninsula. In addition to contesting for control of the Korean Peninsula, Goguryeo had many military conflicts with various Chinese dynasties, most notably the Goguryeo–Sui War, in which Goguryeo defeated a huge force said to number over a million men. In 642, the powerful general Yeon Gaesomun led a coup and gained complete control over Goguryeo. In response, Emperor Tang Taizong of China led a campaign against Goguryeo, but was defeated and retreated. After the death of Tang Taizong, his son Emperor Tang Gaozong allied with the Korean kingdom of Silla and invaded Goguryeo again, but was unable to overcome Goguryeo's stalwart defences and was defeated in 662. However, Yeon Gaesomun died of a natural cause in 666 and Goguryeo was thrown into chaos and weakened by a succession struggle among his sons and younger brother, with his eldest son defecting to Tang and his younger brother defecting to Silla. The Tang-Silla alliance finally conquered Goguryeo in 668. After the collapse of Goguryeo, Tang and Silla ended their alliance and fought over control of the Korean Peninsula. Silla succeeded in gaining control over most of the Korean Peninsula, while Tang gained control over Goguryeo's northern territories. However, 30 years after the fall of Goguryeo, a Goguryeo general by the name of Dae Joyeong founded the Korean-Mohe state of Balhae and successfully expelled the Tang presence from much of the former Goguryeo territories.
North–South States Period[]
[UNDER PROGRESS]
Joseon dynasty[]
In 1392, the general Yi Seong-gye overthrew the Goryeo dynasty after he staged a coup and defeated General Ch'oe Yŏng. Yi Seong-gye named his new dynasty Joseon and moved the capital from Kaesong to Hanseong (formerly Hanyang; modern-day Seoul) and built the Gyeongbokgung palace. In 1394, he adopted Confucianism as the country's official ideology, resulting in much loss of power and wealth by the Buddhists. The prevailing philosophy of the Joseon dynasty was Neo-Confucianism, which was epitomised by the seonbi class, scholars who passed up positions of wealth and power to lead lives of study and integrity.
[UNDER PROGRESS]
During the 15th and 16th centuries, Joseon enjoyed many benevolent rulers who promoted education and science. Most notable among them was Sejong the Great (r. 1418–50), who personally created and promulgated Hangul, the Korean alphabet. This golden age saw great cultural and scientific advancements, including in printing, meteorological observation, astronomy, calendar science, ceramics, military technology, geography, cartography, medicine, and agricultural technology, some of which were unrivaled elsewhere. Joseon implemented a class system that consisted of yangban the noble class, jungin the middle class, yangin the common class, and cheonin the lowest class, which included occupations such as butchers, tanners, shamans, entertainers, and nobi, the equivalent of slaves, bondservants, or serfs.
[UNDER PROGRESS]
After establishing relations with the new Shun dynasty, Joseon experienced a nearly 200-year period of peace. Kings Yeongjo and Jeongjo led a new renaissance of the Joseon dynasty during the 18th century.
Korean Empire[]
Beginning in 1867, modernized China began to exert more influence in Korea, [UNDER PROGRESS]
In 1875, the Joseon dynasty proclaimed the Korean Empire (1875–1919). King Gojong became emperor. During this brief period, Korea had very success in modernising the military, economy, real property laws, education system, and various industries. Russia, Japan, Thailand, France, and the United States all invested in the country and sought to influence it politically.
[UNDER PROGRESS]
The Korean monarchy was overthrown in the nonviolent March 1st Movement of 1919, which when republic was proclaimed shortly after with Syngman Rhee as first President of the Republic of Korea.