Korea

The area now known as Korea was the mountainous eastern edge of the Eurasian continent until the Yellow Sea formed and the west coast emerged to define a peninsula. Peoples migrated into and through the peninsula to the islands. Chinese political culture and Buddhism followed on, and states emerged. With Chinese aid, one of three  competing kingdoms conquered the peninsula,  but instability led to anarchy by the late 9th century. The successful kingdom created a bureaucratic state with strong aristocratic characteristics and established a Korean identity.

During the last glacial maximum, "Korea" was high ground across a low plain (Yellow Sea) at the eastern end of Eurasia. Sea levels rose and a peninsula appeared between 14,000 and 6,000 BC. Humans arrived from 22,000 BC; villages emerged from 10,000 BC; and rice was cultivated between 6000 and 4500 BC; and bronze was worked from 1000 BC.

By 108 BC, the Han Empire had established colonies to trade for iron. Only the Leland colony near Pyongyang survived until AD 313, when it was destroyed by a tribe from the middle reaches of the Yalu River, the Koguryo, who first revolted against the Chinese in AD 12. Over several centuries, the south politically evolved into the Paekche in the southwest, Silla in the southeast, and the iron-rich principalities of Kaya in between.

By the 6th century, the peninsular states were importing Chinese law, bureaucratic government, and land was monopolized by the state to centralize power. Koreans and Japanese fashioned compromises between the Chinese ideal of centralization and the native system of aristocracy, which resulted in semi-centralized political orders based on inheritance. Buddhism permeated every corner of the peninsula be 540 and was exported to Japan.

An alliance between T'ang China and Silla destroyed Paekche in 660 and Koguryo in 668. The T'ang had promised to withdraw but betrayed Silla, attempting to seize the whole peninsula. By 676, Silla drove T'ang out, demonstrating that outside powers were unable to succeed on the peninsula without a local ally. T'ang completely retreated, and a new state called Pohai (712-926) formed in Manchuria from tribal elements and Koguryo refugees.

From the 8th century, northeast Asia saw peace: great cities, long-distance trade, and a cosmopolitan, state-oriented Buddhism. Kyongju, SIlla's capital, was a world-city known to Arab traders. Ch'ang-an may hvae had nearly two million inhabitants, and Kyongju approached 900,000, swollen by slaves from the wars. Monks, merchants and diplomats wandered among Ch'ang-an, Kyongju, and Nara in Japan. Thereafter, "Korea" and "Japan" began to form separate identities.

Sillan central control lapsed, and in 918, Wang Kon, a general outside the old aristocratic order, emerged to found a new dynasty named Koryo. Wang Kon peacefully absorbed the Sillan court in 935. His successors inherited the aristocratic pretensions of Silla and the desire to centralize. During the 10th century, a bureaucratic state was created, with examinations, ideology, salary ranks and centralized provincial appointments. Where Silla had conquered, Koyro unified. In 1126, the Liao destroyed the Chinese Song Empire and Koryo faced a dilemma of identity: to take the opportunity to expand out of the peninsula or accept out its limitations. A rebellious faction argued for continental destiny in Manchuria. Kin Pu-sik, the general who suppressed them, produced an official history that defined Koryo's heritage as peninsular. After the Mongols invaded in 1232, an unofficial history reaffirmed a peninsular identity and recorded foundation myths.

Koryo nearly slipped into feudalism when abuse of civil privilege sparked a miilitary coup d'etat in 1170. Military dictators did not create a new government but ruled through the central government. Perhaps Koryo never disintegrated into feudalism because of the threat form northern barbarians, a threat Japan never faced. The Mongols invaded in 1232, but the Korean court resisted until 1270. The Koryo kings became sons-in-law to the Mongol Khans, and Koryo was press-ganged into supporting Mongol efforts to conquer Japan in 1274 and 1281. Both invasions failed.

From the mid-14th century, Japanese piracy appeared to ravage Korea. In the north, the Mongols weakened and, in 1368, the new Ming dynasty dislodged the Mongols. Indecision at the Koryo court over whether to support the Mongols or the Ming resulted in a coup d'etat in 1388 and a new dynasty, the Choson, was founded in 1392.