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 History |
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Peoples
speaking languages that were ancestors of modern Korea came from
North Asia in prehistoric times. Originally they made their living
by hunting and collecting wild animals and plants. Many already
lived in small villages and made pottery. About 5500 years ago,
groups of the food collecting people began to cultivate millet,
then various kinds of beans including soy. As early as 2700 b.c.,
rice began to appear in the southern parts of Korea. It was the
first of many things borrowed from the developing civilization
of neighboring China. By 1500 bronze making techniques were imported
from China followed by iron about 1000 years later. Developed
agriculture and good metal tools produced more food and farmer
populations grew steadily. By about 400 b.c. Korean farmers migrated
across the Sea of Japan (called the Eastern Sea by Koreans) to
southern Japan. This was the beginning of farming villages in
Japan and much of the modern Japanese population is descended
from these immigrants. The Japanese and Korean people are really
close cousins.
Several
rich Korean kingdoms grew up in the first two millennia a.d. Shilla
(668-935) occupied what is now South Korea. Its kings established
Buddhism as the official state religion, but Confucian scholars
and ideas also entered Korea. Near the southeastern city of Kyongju
stand huge artificial mounds. They are the burial places for the
members of the Shilla royal dynasty and they are loaded with gold
and gems, especially jade.
For
more information on this subject:
http://violet.berkeley.edu/~korea/history.html
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Korea and China:
The Korean kingdoms were influenced by Chinese trade goods and culture. Korean writing
systems (4th century a.d.), architecture, political systems,
religions, and even musical instruments came from China. Koreans
adapted these Chinese things and made them their own. Chinese
scholars had devised a kind of printing system using carved
wooden blocks. Koreans took this invention one step further
and created the first world's first metal moveable type in the
12th century. Adaptation of foreign things for their own use
is a historical characteristic of Korean culture, even today.
One good
example of how foreign things and ideas become "Koreanized"
is pottery making. About a thousand years ago Korean potters
learned how to make a special kind of fine, blue-green glazed
pottery
called celadon. Korean artisans adopted the technique and it
became one of Korea's great cultural emblems. Even Chinese visitors
remarked on how beautiful Korean celadon was. For 600 years
a village near Seoul called Ich'on, has been home of Korea's
greatest potters and it is here that the great celadon techniques
have been revived. Today, it is still prized and sold all over
the world.
Celadon
happens to be one of the many forms of art and culture that Korea
passed on to Japan. Another is writing. The Japanese writing system
derives from China, as does paper making, block printing, art
styles and much more.
Yet
Japan has not always been friendly to its cousin to the west.
By the 20th Century Japan had become an industrial power. Early
in the century they conquered Korea and imposed Japanese culture
and language upon it. Koreans struggled to maintain their language
and cultural identity. Only with Japan's defeat in World War II
(Independence Day, August 15, 1945) was this yoke removed from
Korea's shoulders. By that time many Koreans had become "westernized,"
and looked forward to industrialization, but yet another conflict
intervened.
For
more information on this subject:
http://park.org/Korea/Sponsors/Samsung/HoAm/art.html
www.kofo.or.kr/english
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Korea
and Japan:
After World
War II the victorious Allies temporarily divided Korea along
the 38th parallel between north and south. North Korea soon
became a Communist state under the influence of the Soviet Union.
South Korea declared themselves a republic in 1948 and became
allies of the United States. After two years of military confrontation
along the border, North Korean troops suddenly attacked the
south in June, 1950. Almost defeated, the South Korean government
called upon the United Nations to help. Many countries, led
by the United States, sent troops. The Allied armies drove the
North Koreans back but fearing an attack upon themselves, the
People's Republic of China sent huge numbers of troops to aid
North Korea. By early 1951 the war was stalemated along the
old border. Armistice negotiations began, but took two years
to complete. In the meantime battles raged and many lives were
lost. Fifty thousand Americans died in the war, as did millions
of Koreans on both sides. South Korea was devastated, its industries
and agriculture ruined. Yet, out of the ashes South Koreans
built a strong industrial state with a high standard of living.
By the 1990s, along with economic development South Koreans
also built a fully democratic western-style government. And,
President Kim Dae Jung won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2000 for
his work in building peaceful relations with North Korea. These
remarkable transformations shows Koreans' willingness to adapt
outside ideas and to make them part of their culture.
For more
information on this subject:
http://violet.berkeley.edu/~korea/history.html
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