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Korea 's Ancient History

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Korea’s ancient history revolves around The Three Kingdoms of Korea. These Three Kingdoms of Korea included the states of Goguryeo, Baekje and Silla. These three kingdoms unified under Silla in 676, which led to the North-South States Period and relative peace. This period of peace however was broken under internal strife and this state surrendered to Goryeo and unified together renamed Joseon under King Taejo of Goryeo. This empire was relatively peaceful at the beginning until the invasion of the Japanese. After these wars and a series of wars against Manchuria, the empire of Joseon was in a state of peace for about 200 years. Although Korea was in a relative state of peace, it was also isolated from the outside world. It was isolated due to the Joseon Dynasty. The Joseon decided to close off the country in an attempt of protecting the country from imperialism. Korea was forced to open trade by the Japanese in the Japan-Korea Treaty of 1876. The Japanese were able to secure the treaty and the three beneficial ports – Busan, Incheon, and Wanson for trade (U.S 2015). The Japanese were able to accomplish this by sending its warship, Inoue Yoshika to Ganghwa Island and crush any resistance, forcing the Koreans to sign the Treaty of Amity of 1876 or Treaty of Ganghwa Island (U.S 2015). This allowed the Japanese to effect Korean trade before the western countries of the United States and Europe and take advantage of Korea’s potential economic benefits such as the coal and iron

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