Korean History

Korea is located at the physical boundary among three powerful nations: China, Japan, and Russia. As these nations sought to establish geopolitical "spheres of influence" between the two World Wars, Korea became the focus of contention between the three. Japan defeated both China (1895) and Russia (1905) in separate wars - this left Korea under Japan's control. After the defeat of Russia, Japan first dominated and then annexed Choson in 1910. Over the next 35 years, Japan attempted to destroy Korean culture completely by outlawing the Korean language and even Korean family names, purging all nationalists that appeared, and by taking over the land control system and all middle and upper level government positions. Assimilation efforts ended only with defeat of Japan at the end of World War II.

For more on later Korean history please see the other articles on Korean history in the Asian Absolute Directory of Useful Information.

chinese translation | japanese translation | korean translation