A History of Korea Read Free

never been easy for those untold millions who have toiled over the centuries on Korea’s plains and elsewhere in the country’s rural areas.
    The Korean peninsula as a whole is only moderately endowed with natural resources. Most of the farm products, especially rice, have historically come from the southern part of the peninsula. Southern Korea, in fact, is considered the rice bowl of Korea. Throughout Korea’s history, rice has been the staple diet and has also functioned as currency. For these reasons, South Korea has always had a much greater population density than other parts of the country. On the other hand, the northern mountain ranges contain concentrations of mineral deposits. In fact, North Korea has most of the mineral resources of the peninsula. As of 2008 North Korea had $6.2 trillion worth of ample mineral resources, 24.1 times more than South Korea’s $257 billion. In addition, North Korea has 6 billion tons of magnesite (South Korea has none), 20.5 billion tons of coal, and 2,000 tons of gold, as well as important deposits of iron ore, lead, zinc, tungsten, barite, graphite, molybdenum, limestone, mica, fluorite, copper, nickel, silver, aluminum, and uranium. South Korea has overcome this disadvantage by producing a highly educated and motivated populace that has made that country one of the ten largest industrialized nations in the world. As of 2009 South Korea’s economy was 37.4 times larger than that of North Korea. Its nominal GNI stood at $837.2 billion in stark contrast to North Korea’s $22.4 billion. South Korea’s per-capita GNI , at $17,175, was 17.9 times larger than North Korea’s $960. Its total trade volume of $686.6 billion was 201.9 times greater than North Korea’s $3.4 billion.
    Korea’s looming mountains are unevenly distributed in the eastern part of the peninsula, as are Japan’s highest mountains in the western part of the main island of Honshu. Therefore, whereas the Korean peninsula faces China, the Japanese islands face the Pacific, although the East Sea provides a few natural havens for ships. As a result, Korea has had a geographical affinity with China but, figuratively, turns its back on Japan.
    In mountainous Korea the settlements that formed had mountains or hills in the rear and rivers or streams at the front. According to traditional geomantic theories, these areas were considered propitious sites. The Korean peninsula had many such favorable places where villages and cities were formed.
    The Korean peninsula served as a land bridge over which Chinese culture was diffused from China to Japan. At first Ural-Altaic tribes migrated eastward from Siberia toward the Korean peninsula and carried with them Neolithic culture and, later, Bronze Age skills. Through their intimate cultural contact with China, Koreans brought Buddhism and Confucianism into the peninsula and transmitted these to Japan. On the other hand, the peninsula has proved vulnerable to foreign invasion both from the sea and the continental mainland, having been invaded by the Chinese in the seventh century, Mongols in the thirteenth century, the Japanese in the sixteenth century, and Manchus in the seventeenth century. Korea’s geographical position also made it the focus of regional conflict in the Far East. At the turn of the twentieth century Korea was the object of two wars, as China and Japan in turn fought to maintain footholds on the peninsula, and then Japan fought to exclude a Russia keenly interested in Korea’s ice-free ports. Taking note of its contours and strategic locations, some Western observers have likened the Korean peninsula to a dagger or pistol pointed at the heart of the Japanese archipelago.
    Like its landscape, Korea’s climate has also influenced the course of its history considerably. In Korea seasonal differences are striking, with the annual rainfall varying around 40 inches (1,000 millimeters) overall and concentrated in the summertime; indeed, two-thirds of Korea’s