The Choson Dynasty is still on record as one of Koreas longest-lived dynasties. Its establishment in 1392 marked the end of the rule of the deposed Koryo Dynasty which was replaced by the Yi family (Chonju branch). The founder of the Choson, Yi Songgye, named the new dynasty after an ancient kingdom, the Choson kingdom, and moved the capital city from Kaesong to Hanyang (Seoul). The new dynasty sought to rebuild their diplomatic ties with their neighbours, the Ming Chinese, and ended hostilities with the nomadic tribes from the northern territories. The Choson dynasty was blamed for severe oppression of Buddhism and its followers. The Choson dynasty was in favour of Confucianism and went ahead to put in place a strict structure of social hierarchy which split the citizenry into four clear-cut castes based largely on the socio-economic standing and heredity of the people. The Choson dynasty was marred by serious and bloody uprisings of the low-class citizens on who were imposed heavy tax burdens and who were denied land rights.
Relations between Korea and Japan during the Choson era were not always healthy. The Imjin War marked one of the most disastrous periods in the relations between the two countries. Internal unrests and external attacks shook the dynasty severely during the 16th and 17th century, forcing the leadership to adopt an isolationist stance, leading to the establishment of what was referred to as the hermit kingdom. After a long period of relative calm and peace, the strength of the Choson dynasty started waning rapidly again towards the end of the 19th century, culminating in the end of the dynasty in 1910. The marks left by the dynasty are still evident in modern Korea. This paper focuses on Koreas relationships with her neighbours and other countries from the region, Europe, and North America. It also discusses the social structures manifest during the Choson dynasty.
Choson dynasty and social stratification
Koreas social structures as inherited from the overthrown dynasty were bound for change from the moment the Choson dynasty embraced Confucianism as the official religion. The Choson dynasty leaders were ambitious in enforcing the principle of the Confucianism philosophy. Known for strict doctrines and clear-cut social stratification mechanisms, it was predictable that the citizenry would be divided along their socio-economic lines.
The Confucian scholars of the Choson dynasty went ahead to establish a clear line between the ruling class and the ruled. Korean people were divided into several castes which were hereditary. Though the society had been stratified even before the Choson dynasty gained power, the divisions had not been as strict and social mobility was possible. The king occupied the apex of the structure together with members of the royal family, making him the most powerful person in the nation. Confucianism required that the leader leads his subordinates by example, while his subordinates were charged with the duty of obeying and remaining loyal to the king. Lee observes that according to the Confucius philosophy, the ruler should employ the service of hisher subjects in accordance with the rites, whereas the subjects should serve their ruler by doing their best.
Immediately below the king were the Confucian scholars who formed the aristocrat class, or the yang bin (Kim 48). As noted earlier, the Choson dynasty embraced Confucianism as the official religion and was keen on creating a nation on the Confucian philosophy. Not surprisingly, one of the initial steps the dynasty took on assuming power was shifting the capital from Kaesong, where Buddhism was more influential, to Seoul which was governed through a well-balanced and sophisticated political system based on Confucian principles (Kim 49).
This class comprised the ruling elite and also drew membership from the top echelons of the military and civil service who actually controlled Koreas culture, economy and the government. The yangban were recruited through a rigorous process which emphasized on wisdom and discipline, and were expected to continuously sharpen or upgrade their wisdom throughout by studying the Confucian doctrine continuously with the ultimate aim of becoming sages. To join the yangban, it was compulsory for one to pass imperial or civil service examinations. On paper, anyone could take the examinations (with little regard of their economic or social standing) and was assured of a place in the civil service on passing the examination. In reality though, only those from wealthy and well-connected backgrounds were able to support themselves while they prepared for the examinations. According to the New World Encyclopedia, cases of rigging and other malpractices in favour of the candidates from wealthy families were not uncommon. As such, the yangban was sort of a closed class whose membership was restricted largely to wealthy families and their sons. Members of the class guarded their class jealously as anyone who fell from the class to a lower class, for failing the examination or another reason, would find it impossible to climb back and would thus be confined to the lower class into which his descendants would now belong to, with little or no hope of regaining their yangban status (Baker 843).
Like the royalty, members of the yangban were exempted from taxes and could breach some restrictions including night-time curfews without attracting any consequences. To protect their elite status and keep others from joining the class, most members of the yangban class only married other members of the class (Park 40). Though marriages between yangban and members of the lower rungs were not unheard of, they were few and far between, and were riddled with complexities of the class to which their offspring would belong.
The yangban controlled the military, the civil service, the municipalities and the central government. During the early years of the Choson dynasty, the yangban system was professional and largely corruption-free. The tides changed with the Seven-Year War following which the greed and corruption of the members of the class became obvious through their actions. The yangban received a stipend for their positions with the civil service. However, they started receiving bribes from those who wanted positions in the civil service and the military. As their greed intensified, crooked yangban developed a mechanism of dispossessing peasants of their land. They would impose very high taxes on the peasants and would quickly move in and seize the land when the peasants were slow or unable to honor the tax obligations. Corruption in the yangban ranks made it possible for people to fake their ancestries and claim membership to the class. Others bought their way into the yangban making the class a largely incompetent and corrupt class, driven only the tax exemptions and other benefits that members of the class were entitled to (Karlsson 557).
The rank immediately below the yangbin was held by administrative and technical officials. This class, the chungin was made up of artists, astronomers, interpreters, and military professionals. By virtue of their technical and administrative capabilities, this class was crucial in regional administration. Although they could qualify to join the yangban, their ancestries blocked their way up. The chungin ruled the local regions (Country Studies, n.d).
The largest proportion of the population was restricted to classes below the chungin. The sangmin (the commoners) made up to 75 percent of the Korean population. The commoners class comprised farmers, merchants and craftsmen. Members of this class could be, and were often, forcefully conscripted into the military and were the subject of heavy taxation regimes imposed by the yangban. The Choson dynasty had shifted its focus from commerce to agriculture immediately it took power. The predominantly agrarian economy therefore depended heavily on tax revenue from the farming community. The corrupt yangban found the liberty to impose ridiculously high taxes failure to pay which the farmers risked losing their farmlands to the fraudulent and greedy government officials. Flawed taxation regulations and demands were at the heart of numerous internal uprisings and intense friction between the commoners and the ruling elite, and contributed significantly to the cracks which weakened the hold of the dynasty on the power. Recurrent occurrences of bad weather conditions and subsequent crop failures seriously reduced the countrys tax revenues (Park Yang 314). The tax exemption structures were riddled with corruption, enabling wealthy landlords to get tax exemptions while the oppressed peasant farmers bore the full weight of the repulsive tax obligations, creating an environment ripe and suitable for bloody internal confrontations between the oppressed peasants and the military (Karlsson 559).
Below the commoners were the chommin or the base people who were regarded as the societys lowest people. Like the rest of the classes, members of this class remained within by virtue of the heredity and therefore carried little hope of climbing to the higher castes. The chommin were assigned duties which were regarded as low-class or unclean. They thus included servants and slaves, female entertainers (kisaeng), shoe makers, executioners, actors and jailkeepers. The slaves, or Nobis, were owned by the government while others were owned privately by government officials and wealthy landlords. The Nobi system had already been part of Koreas life for more than a thousand years before the establishment of the Choson dynasty. The paekchong, who were said to have descended from the Nomadic tribes of the Inner Asia, dealt with meat and hides, a practice considered unclean and which led to their segregation. Buddhist monks and nuns, after the Choson leadership settled for Confucianism and the official state religion, found themselves in this dishonoured class.
The Nobis generally respected the social structure and rarely escaped or turned against their owners. During times of dire need, particularly during the Japanese and Manchuria invasions, thousands of Nobis were set free on condition that they joined the military to fight the invading forces. When the Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshis forces launched their destructive and bloody campaigns against the Koreans, the Nobis jumped at the opportunity to torch government offices and archives in order to destroy records of their low status of servitude (Country Studies, n.d). At the end of the invasions, the Nobis would be taken back to their rightful owners. This seasonal and opportunistic liberation of Nobis planted the seed of violent resistance which took root in the late seventeenth century when Korea was under King Sukjong. For centuries, the Nobis had been the victims of violence and other forms of mistreatments at the hands of their masters. The masters, many of who were yangban, were largely immune from legal proceedings sometimes initiated against them by their slaves. With their liberation, the Nobis began responding to violence from their masters with an equally heavy hand, only the Nobis were many times more violent on and than their masters, choosing to engage in such violent resistance actions as physically assaulting or murdering masters, to raping their wives or daughters, to participation in coup detats and outright rebellion (Kim 49).
Choson dynasty and international relations
The Goryeo Dynasty had placed much emphasis on international trade and had thus established good cross border trade relations with the Chinese, Manchurians, Japanese and the Arabians with whom she traded. Korea was an important source of jewelries, silk, brocades, ginseng, and celadon porcelain. Korean porcelain was valued highly and was particularly sought after by Arabians and the Chinese. When the Choson dynasty replaced the Goryeo dynasty, it toned down the emphasis on commerce in favour of agriculture. The relationships between Choson Korea and her neighbours and former trade partners started waning.
After the defeat of the Goryeo dynasty, Koreas relationships with her neighbours ranged from good and amicable, to cold and bloody. The founder of the Choson dynasty, General Yi, sought to establish good relations with her neighbour China which was then governed by the Ming dynasty. The Ming dynasty became friendly to the Choson dynasty because it regarded Korea as a client state. Little did Koreans, and the world, expect that Korea would soon host and become the victim of numerous and recurring armed conflicts among larger outside countries among them China, Japan, Russia, France and Britain (Asia for Educators, 2009). Like the proverbial shrimp (of the Korean proverb Korae ssawume saewudung Tojinda which translates loosely to When whales are fighting, shrimps backbone gets broken), Korea was to suffer injuries as larger powers fought.
As a result of the healthy relationship between Korea and China, the influence of China and its people on Korean culture took hold during this period. The leadership of the Choson dynasty built its leadership structure by borrowing heavily from the Chinese bureaucracy. The Confucian philosophy on which the Choson dynasty was built actually originated from China. It is through China that Korea was to import Western ideas including Catholicism which reached Korea in the seventeenth century. The good relationship between China and Korea was evident when China rose militarily to defend her friend from armed attacks by other countries in the region.
The relationship between Choson dynastys Korea and Japan were however less rosy. In the late 16th century, Korea was invaded by the Japanese armed forces who visited immense destruction and devastation on the militarily weaker Korea. Although China came to Koreas aid and helped repel the Japanese, the Choson dynasty was badly devastated by the seven-year long and the dynasty was command of the dynasty was badly challenged. The Choson dynasty had turned down Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshis request to make way for him to invade China. When Koreas leadership rejected his request, Hideyoshi and his forces turned their weapons on Korea, initiating a war that would persist for the better part of the next seven years and, destroying the Korean peninsula while forcibly relocating thousands of Koreas technicians and artisans to Japan. The war only came to an end following the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi but not before devastating both Ming China and Choson Korea.
As if the clouds of evil were still hanging over Korea, more bloody clashes were to follow shortly. The Manchu tribes of Manchuria launched their attack on northwestern Korea in 1627. The Manchu were a nomadic tribe from continental Asia and were interested in conquering China. The Manchu people were interested in attacking China but first attacked and intimidated Chinas friend Korea, forcing Korea to pay tribute to the king of the Manchu. The two Manchuria attacks of 1627 and 1637 weakened the hold of the Choson dynasty even more. The Choson dynasty had little choice but to become a tribute of the Qing dynasty which had replaced the Ming dynasty in China after the latter was weakened irreparably by the Japanese. The warlike Manchus would in 1644 conquer China. The Qing dynasty also suffered numerous attacks from European powers including Britain, France and Russia. Weak, and with enough problems of its own, the Qing dynasty could not protect Choson dynastys Korea as the Ming dynasty had done previously, leaving Korea to solve her own problems (New World Encyclopedia).
Following these attacks, the Choson dynasty opted for an isolationist policy which dominated Koreas relationship with her neighbours as well as other countries. During this period of isolation, Korea rebuilt her structures and economy, which had suffered severely as a result of the wars. Under the isolationist policy which led Korea to be referred to as the hermit kingdom, Korea restricted her relations with the outside world to Mongolia, China and Northern Asia with which she conducted trade. There was also limited trade with Japan (Lee 68 New World Encyclopedia).
Until the late 19th century, the isolationist policy remained in place and the Choson dynasty only started warming up to other countries, albeit reluctantly, in 1876 when the Treaty of Kanghwa was signed, defining Korea as an independent state, challenging the links between the Choson dynasty and China, and forcibly opening up parts of Korea to exploitation by Japanese nationals. This led Korea to establish diplomatic relations with both China and Japan. Soon, Korea started opening up to the rest of the world and was soon enjoying healthy relationships with the United States, Russia, Britain, Italy and other countries. The Japanese however dominated not only in Korea but also the entire region particularly following its victories in the Sino-Japanese and the Russo-Japanese wars between 1894 and 1905. Following its victory in the Sino-Japanese war in 1895, Japan went ahead to establish her hegemony over Korea through the Treaty of Shimonoseki following which the Japanese leadership dictated a raft of measures which the Korean government was to take to discourage internal disturbances which had intensified as more and more Koreans took up arms against the Japanese. The Koreans however resisted Japanese dominance valiantly, a resistance which culminated in the Japanese assassination of Queen Min who the Japanese accused of encouraging the resistance (Britannica Online Encyclopedia).
Focus of the paper
This paper has concentrated its attention on the social structure and Koreas relations with neighbours and other countries during the Choson dynasty, in history books as one of the longest dynasties in the history of the world. The choice of topics has been informed on the fact that the two were two distinct to Korea and thus set it apart from the her neighbours and from the rest of the world.
Koreas relations with the rest of the world are particularly interesting during the Choson dynasty. Relations between China and Japan were acrimonious and each considered the Korean peninsula a strategic place. China was also the target of attacks by the Manchuria who went on to conquer China. For the Nomadic fighters and the Japanese to reach China, they passed through Korea. In retaliation, China had to defend itself in Korea in an attempt to stop the invading forces. The entry into the fray of Russia, and later Britain and France did not make matters better for Korea. In all these confrontations, Korea was suffering injuries while other powers fought each other. Koreas strategic location made it the interest of these powers, drawing it to battles it had little or no stakes in.
Koreas social stratification was also unique to the country. The system was borrowed from China while Japan has a system not very different from it. However, the Choson dynasty was too strict in the way it practiced the Confucian philosophy, making its social structure too strict and exclusive. It became too difficult for members of one class to move to an upper class. The struggle for liberation, particularly among the slaves, who suffered much abuse from their masters contributed significantly to the weakening of the Choson dynasty.
Relations between Korea and Japan during the Choson era were not always healthy. The Imjin War marked one of the most disastrous periods in the relations between the two countries. Internal unrests and external attacks shook the dynasty severely during the 16th and 17th century, forcing the leadership to adopt an isolationist stance, leading to the establishment of what was referred to as the hermit kingdom. After a long period of relative calm and peace, the strength of the Choson dynasty started waning rapidly again towards the end of the 19th century, culminating in the end of the dynasty in 1910. The marks left by the dynasty are still evident in modern Korea. This paper focuses on Koreas relationships with her neighbours and other countries from the region, Europe, and North America. It also discusses the social structures manifest during the Choson dynasty.
Choson dynasty and social stratification
Koreas social structures as inherited from the overthrown dynasty were bound for change from the moment the Choson dynasty embraced Confucianism as the official religion. The Choson dynasty leaders were ambitious in enforcing the principle of the Confucianism philosophy. Known for strict doctrines and clear-cut social stratification mechanisms, it was predictable that the citizenry would be divided along their socio-economic lines.
The Confucian scholars of the Choson dynasty went ahead to establish a clear line between the ruling class and the ruled. Korean people were divided into several castes which were hereditary. Though the society had been stratified even before the Choson dynasty gained power, the divisions had not been as strict and social mobility was possible. The king occupied the apex of the structure together with members of the royal family, making him the most powerful person in the nation. Confucianism required that the leader leads his subordinates by example, while his subordinates were charged with the duty of obeying and remaining loyal to the king. Lee observes that according to the Confucius philosophy, the ruler should employ the service of hisher subjects in accordance with the rites, whereas the subjects should serve their ruler by doing their best.
Immediately below the king were the Confucian scholars who formed the aristocrat class, or the yang bin (Kim 48). As noted earlier, the Choson dynasty embraced Confucianism as the official religion and was keen on creating a nation on the Confucian philosophy. Not surprisingly, one of the initial steps the dynasty took on assuming power was shifting the capital from Kaesong, where Buddhism was more influential, to Seoul which was governed through a well-balanced and sophisticated political system based on Confucian principles (Kim 49).
This class comprised the ruling elite and also drew membership from the top echelons of the military and civil service who actually controlled Koreas culture, economy and the government. The yangban were recruited through a rigorous process which emphasized on wisdom and discipline, and were expected to continuously sharpen or upgrade their wisdom throughout by studying the Confucian doctrine continuously with the ultimate aim of becoming sages. To join the yangban, it was compulsory for one to pass imperial or civil service examinations. On paper, anyone could take the examinations (with little regard of their economic or social standing) and was assured of a place in the civil service on passing the examination. In reality though, only those from wealthy and well-connected backgrounds were able to support themselves while they prepared for the examinations. According to the New World Encyclopedia, cases of rigging and other malpractices in favour of the candidates from wealthy families were not uncommon. As such, the yangban was sort of a closed class whose membership was restricted largely to wealthy families and their sons. Members of the class guarded their class jealously as anyone who fell from the class to a lower class, for failing the examination or another reason, would find it impossible to climb back and would thus be confined to the lower class into which his descendants would now belong to, with little or no hope of regaining their yangban status (Baker 843).
Like the royalty, members of the yangban were exempted from taxes and could breach some restrictions including night-time curfews without attracting any consequences. To protect their elite status and keep others from joining the class, most members of the yangban class only married other members of the class (Park 40). Though marriages between yangban and members of the lower rungs were not unheard of, they were few and far between, and were riddled with complexities of the class to which their offspring would belong.
The yangban controlled the military, the civil service, the municipalities and the central government. During the early years of the Choson dynasty, the yangban system was professional and largely corruption-free. The tides changed with the Seven-Year War following which the greed and corruption of the members of the class became obvious through their actions. The yangban received a stipend for their positions with the civil service. However, they started receiving bribes from those who wanted positions in the civil service and the military. As their greed intensified, crooked yangban developed a mechanism of dispossessing peasants of their land. They would impose very high taxes on the peasants and would quickly move in and seize the land when the peasants were slow or unable to honor the tax obligations. Corruption in the yangban ranks made it possible for people to fake their ancestries and claim membership to the class. Others bought their way into the yangban making the class a largely incompetent and corrupt class, driven only the tax exemptions and other benefits that members of the class were entitled to (Karlsson 557).
The rank immediately below the yangbin was held by administrative and technical officials. This class, the chungin was made up of artists, astronomers, interpreters, and military professionals. By virtue of their technical and administrative capabilities, this class was crucial in regional administration. Although they could qualify to join the yangban, their ancestries blocked their way up. The chungin ruled the local regions (Country Studies, n.d).
The largest proportion of the population was restricted to classes below the chungin. The sangmin (the commoners) made up to 75 percent of the Korean population. The commoners class comprised farmers, merchants and craftsmen. Members of this class could be, and were often, forcefully conscripted into the military and were the subject of heavy taxation regimes imposed by the yangban. The Choson dynasty had shifted its focus from commerce to agriculture immediately it took power. The predominantly agrarian economy therefore depended heavily on tax revenue from the farming community. The corrupt yangban found the liberty to impose ridiculously high taxes failure to pay which the farmers risked losing their farmlands to the fraudulent and greedy government officials. Flawed taxation regulations and demands were at the heart of numerous internal uprisings and intense friction between the commoners and the ruling elite, and contributed significantly to the cracks which weakened the hold of the dynasty on the power. Recurrent occurrences of bad weather conditions and subsequent crop failures seriously reduced the countrys tax revenues (Park Yang 314). The tax exemption structures were riddled with corruption, enabling wealthy landlords to get tax exemptions while the oppressed peasant farmers bore the full weight of the repulsive tax obligations, creating an environment ripe and suitable for bloody internal confrontations between the oppressed peasants and the military (Karlsson 559).
Below the commoners were the chommin or the base people who were regarded as the societys lowest people. Like the rest of the classes, members of this class remained within by virtue of the heredity and therefore carried little hope of climbing to the higher castes. The chommin were assigned duties which were regarded as low-class or unclean. They thus included servants and slaves, female entertainers (kisaeng), shoe makers, executioners, actors and jailkeepers. The slaves, or Nobis, were owned by the government while others were owned privately by government officials and wealthy landlords. The Nobi system had already been part of Koreas life for more than a thousand years before the establishment of the Choson dynasty. The paekchong, who were said to have descended from the Nomadic tribes of the Inner Asia, dealt with meat and hides, a practice considered unclean and which led to their segregation. Buddhist monks and nuns, after the Choson leadership settled for Confucianism and the official state religion, found themselves in this dishonoured class.
The Nobis generally respected the social structure and rarely escaped or turned against their owners. During times of dire need, particularly during the Japanese and Manchuria invasions, thousands of Nobis were set free on condition that they joined the military to fight the invading forces. When the Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshis forces launched their destructive and bloody campaigns against the Koreans, the Nobis jumped at the opportunity to torch government offices and archives in order to destroy records of their low status of servitude (Country Studies, n.d). At the end of the invasions, the Nobis would be taken back to their rightful owners. This seasonal and opportunistic liberation of Nobis planted the seed of violent resistance which took root in the late seventeenth century when Korea was under King Sukjong. For centuries, the Nobis had been the victims of violence and other forms of mistreatments at the hands of their masters. The masters, many of who were yangban, were largely immune from legal proceedings sometimes initiated against them by their slaves. With their liberation, the Nobis began responding to violence from their masters with an equally heavy hand, only the Nobis were many times more violent on and than their masters, choosing to engage in such violent resistance actions as physically assaulting or murdering masters, to raping their wives or daughters, to participation in coup detats and outright rebellion (Kim 49).
Choson dynasty and international relations
The Goryeo Dynasty had placed much emphasis on international trade and had thus established good cross border trade relations with the Chinese, Manchurians, Japanese and the Arabians with whom she traded. Korea was an important source of jewelries, silk, brocades, ginseng, and celadon porcelain. Korean porcelain was valued highly and was particularly sought after by Arabians and the Chinese. When the Choson dynasty replaced the Goryeo dynasty, it toned down the emphasis on commerce in favour of agriculture. The relationships between Choson Korea and her neighbours and former trade partners started waning.
After the defeat of the Goryeo dynasty, Koreas relationships with her neighbours ranged from good and amicable, to cold and bloody. The founder of the Choson dynasty, General Yi, sought to establish good relations with her neighbour China which was then governed by the Ming dynasty. The Ming dynasty became friendly to the Choson dynasty because it regarded Korea as a client state. Little did Koreans, and the world, expect that Korea would soon host and become the victim of numerous and recurring armed conflicts among larger outside countries among them China, Japan, Russia, France and Britain (Asia for Educators, 2009). Like the proverbial shrimp (of the Korean proverb Korae ssawume saewudung Tojinda which translates loosely to When whales are fighting, shrimps backbone gets broken), Korea was to suffer injuries as larger powers fought.
As a result of the healthy relationship between Korea and China, the influence of China and its people on Korean culture took hold during this period. The leadership of the Choson dynasty built its leadership structure by borrowing heavily from the Chinese bureaucracy. The Confucian philosophy on which the Choson dynasty was built actually originated from China. It is through China that Korea was to import Western ideas including Catholicism which reached Korea in the seventeenth century. The good relationship between China and Korea was evident when China rose militarily to defend her friend from armed attacks by other countries in the region.
The relationship between Choson dynastys Korea and Japan were however less rosy. In the late 16th century, Korea was invaded by the Japanese armed forces who visited immense destruction and devastation on the militarily weaker Korea. Although China came to Koreas aid and helped repel the Japanese, the Choson dynasty was badly devastated by the seven-year long and the dynasty was command of the dynasty was badly challenged. The Choson dynasty had turned down Japanese warlord Toyotomi Hideyoshis request to make way for him to invade China. When Koreas leadership rejected his request, Hideyoshi and his forces turned their weapons on Korea, initiating a war that would persist for the better part of the next seven years and, destroying the Korean peninsula while forcibly relocating thousands of Koreas technicians and artisans to Japan. The war only came to an end following the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi but not before devastating both Ming China and Choson Korea.
As if the clouds of evil were still hanging over Korea, more bloody clashes were to follow shortly. The Manchu tribes of Manchuria launched their attack on northwestern Korea in 1627. The Manchu were a nomadic tribe from continental Asia and were interested in conquering China. The Manchu people were interested in attacking China but first attacked and intimidated Chinas friend Korea, forcing Korea to pay tribute to the king of the Manchu. The two Manchuria attacks of 1627 and 1637 weakened the hold of the Choson dynasty even more. The Choson dynasty had little choice but to become a tribute of the Qing dynasty which had replaced the Ming dynasty in China after the latter was weakened irreparably by the Japanese. The warlike Manchus would in 1644 conquer China. The Qing dynasty also suffered numerous attacks from European powers including Britain, France and Russia. Weak, and with enough problems of its own, the Qing dynasty could not protect Choson dynastys Korea as the Ming dynasty had done previously, leaving Korea to solve her own problems (New World Encyclopedia).
Following these attacks, the Choson dynasty opted for an isolationist policy which dominated Koreas relationship with her neighbours as well as other countries. During this period of isolation, Korea rebuilt her structures and economy, which had suffered severely as a result of the wars. Under the isolationist policy which led Korea to be referred to as the hermit kingdom, Korea restricted her relations with the outside world to Mongolia, China and Northern Asia with which she conducted trade. There was also limited trade with Japan (Lee 68 New World Encyclopedia).
Until the late 19th century, the isolationist policy remained in place and the Choson dynasty only started warming up to other countries, albeit reluctantly, in 1876 when the Treaty of Kanghwa was signed, defining Korea as an independent state, challenging the links between the Choson dynasty and China, and forcibly opening up parts of Korea to exploitation by Japanese nationals. This led Korea to establish diplomatic relations with both China and Japan. Soon, Korea started opening up to the rest of the world and was soon enjoying healthy relationships with the United States, Russia, Britain, Italy and other countries. The Japanese however dominated not only in Korea but also the entire region particularly following its victories in the Sino-Japanese and the Russo-Japanese wars between 1894 and 1905. Following its victory in the Sino-Japanese war in 1895, Japan went ahead to establish her hegemony over Korea through the Treaty of Shimonoseki following which the Japanese leadership dictated a raft of measures which the Korean government was to take to discourage internal disturbances which had intensified as more and more Koreans took up arms against the Japanese. The Koreans however resisted Japanese dominance valiantly, a resistance which culminated in the Japanese assassination of Queen Min who the Japanese accused of encouraging the resistance (Britannica Online Encyclopedia).
Focus of the paper
This paper has concentrated its attention on the social structure and Koreas relations with neighbours and other countries during the Choson dynasty, in history books as one of the longest dynasties in the history of the world. The choice of topics has been informed on the fact that the two were two distinct to Korea and thus set it apart from the her neighbours and from the rest of the world.
Koreas relations with the rest of the world are particularly interesting during the Choson dynasty. Relations between China and Japan were acrimonious and each considered the Korean peninsula a strategic place. China was also the target of attacks by the Manchuria who went on to conquer China. For the Nomadic fighters and the Japanese to reach China, they passed through Korea. In retaliation, China had to defend itself in Korea in an attempt to stop the invading forces. The entry into the fray of Russia, and later Britain and France did not make matters better for Korea. In all these confrontations, Korea was suffering injuries while other powers fought each other. Koreas strategic location made it the interest of these powers, drawing it to battles it had little or no stakes in.
Koreas social stratification was also unique to the country. The system was borrowed from China while Japan has a system not very different from it. However, the Choson dynasty was too strict in the way it practiced the Confucian philosophy, making its social structure too strict and exclusive. It became too difficult for members of one class to move to an upper class. The struggle for liberation, particularly among the slaves, who suffered much abuse from their masters contributed significantly to the weakening of the Choson dynasty.
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