Kyung Moon Hwang - A History of Korea

A History of Korea

PALGRAVE ESSENTIAL HISTORIES
General Editor: Jeremy Black

This series of compact, readable and informative national histories is designed to appeal to anyone wishing to gain a broad understanding of a countrys history.

Published

A History of the Low CountriesPaul Arblaster

A History of ItalyClaudia Baldoli

A History of RussiaRoger Bartlett

A History of Spain (2nd edn)Simon Barton

A History of the British Isles (2nd edn)Jeremy Black

A History of IsraelAhron Bregman

A History of IrelandMike Cronin

A History of GreeceNicholas Doumanis

A History of the Pacific IslandsSteven Roger Fischer

A History of KoreaKyung Moon Hwang

A History of the United States (3rd edn)Philip Jenkins

A History of DenmarkKnud J. V. Jespersen

A History of PolandAnita J. Prazmowska

A History of IndiaPeter Robb

A History of China (2nd edn)J. A. G. Roberts

A History of GermanyPeter Wende

Series Standing Order
ISBN 1403938113 HB
ISBN 1403938121 PB

If you would like to receive future titles in this series as they are published, you can make use of our standing order facility. To place a standing order please contact your bookseller or, in case of difficulty, write to us at the address below with your name and address and the name of the series. Please state with which title you wish to begin your standing order. (If you live outside the United Kingdom we may not have the rights for your area, in which case we will forward your order to the publisher concerned.)

Customer Services Department, Macmillan Distribution Ltd

Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS, England

A History of Korea

An Episodic Narrative

Kyung Moon Hwang

Kyung Moon Hwang 2010

All rights reserved. No reproduction, copy or transmission of this publication may be made without written permission.

No portion of this publication may be reproduced, copied or transmitted save with written permission or in accordance with the provisions of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988, or under the terms of any licence permitting limited copying issued by the Copyright Licensing Agency, Saffron House, 610 Kirby Street, London EC1N 8TS.

Any person who does any unauthorized act in relation to this publication may be liable to criminal prosecution and civil claims for damages.

The author has asserted his right to be identified as the author of this work in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

First published 2010 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN

Palgrave Macmillan in the UK is an imprint of Macmillan Publishers Limited, registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.

Palgrave Macmillan in the US is a division of St Martins Press LLC, 175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.

Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies and has companies and representatives throughout the world.

Palgrave and Macmillan are registered trademarks in the United States, the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.

ISBN 9780230205451 hardback
ISBN 9780230205468 paperback

This book is printed on paper suitable for recycling and made from fully managed and sustained forest sources. Logging, pulping and manufacturing processes are expected to conform to the environmental regulations of the country of origin.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress.

10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
19 18 17 16 15 14 13 12 11 10

Printed in China

Contents

List of Images and Boxes

IMAGES

BOXES

Acknowledgments

Since the beginning of this project, I have benefited from the feedback of many colleagues and anonymous reviewers. I wish to start with heartfelt appreciation for Young-Hoon Rhee, John Duncan, Jennifer Jung-Kim, and Virginia Moon, who read the entire manuscript and offered much-needed criticisms and corrections. I would also like to thank Sunyoung Park, Gari Ledyard, Jihang Park, Christine Kim, Yumi Moon, and my Korean history students for offering helpful insights along the way. Colleagues at USC, in particular my friends at Parkside, East Asian Studies, and the History Department, were steadfast sources of comfort and encouragement. A special thanks goes to Jack Wills, whose work served as an inspiration for this book. The most endearing inspiration, of course, came from my wife and our son, as well as from family members both here in the US and in South Korea.

Finally, I wish to express my gratitude to the Palgrave Macmillan team, whose support, professionalism, and kindness made this book a reality: Kate Haines, Jenni Burnell, Felicity Noble and the team at Macmillan Publishing Solutions.

Kyung Moon Hwang

Note on Romanization

Korean terms will be Romanized with the McCune-Reischauer system, with the exception of the names of certain well-known individuals. The Romanization of Pyongyang and Seoul will use these more familiar forms instead of the McCune-Reischauer renderings.

Brief Chronology of Korean History

4th7th centuries:	Three Kingdoms Period (Kogury, Paekche, Silla)
668918:	Unified Silla Kingdom
9181392:	Kory Dynasty
11701270:	Military Rule
12701356:	Mongol Overlord Period
13921910:	Chosn Dynasty
1446:	Promulgation of the Korean Alphabet
159298:	Japanese Invasions
162736:	Manchu Invasions
1894:	Tonghak Rebellion, Sino-Japanese War, Kabo Reforms
18971910:	Great Korean Empire (Taehan cheguk)
190510:	Japanese Protectorate
191045:	Japanese Colonial Rule
191019:	Military Rule
1919:	March First Uprisings
1920s:	Cultural Rule
193845:	Wartime Mobilization
1945:	Liberation and Occupation by Allied Forces
1948:	Establishment of the Republic of Korea (South) and Democratic Peoples Republic of Korea (North)
19503:	Korean War
1987:	Democratization in South Korea

Map of Korea

Courtesy of Yongjoon Cho.

Introduction

This book assumes no prior knowledge of Korean history, but it does ask that the reader remain open to an uncommon narrative structure for presenting the richness and distinctiveness, as well as the universality, of one of the worlds oldest cultures. The sweep of Korean civilization, furthermore, is matched by the scope of its modern transformation. This book attempts to make this complex history more accessible by dividing its coverage into short chapters, each of which uses a representative event, or episode, as a window into the chapters broader topic and themes. The order of the chapters is chronological as well as thematic. Not everything important that happened in Korean history is highlighted, but the hope is that a focus on particular events, people, and patterns will provide the reader a full understanding of the major historical connections and issues.