Korean

From Martial Arts, Karate, Kungfu Dojo School Directory

Korea (Korean: 한국 or 조선, see below) is a geographic area, civilization, and former state situated on the Korean Peninsula in East Asia. The peninsula is currently divided into North Korea and South Korea, and borders China to the northwest and Russia to the northeast, with Japan situated to the southeast across the Korea Strait.

Korea began with the founding of Gojoseon in 2333 BC, according to the Dangun legend. Limited linguistic evidence suggests possible Altaic-Tungusic origins of these people, whose northern Mongolian Steppe culture absorbed immigrants and invaders from northern China. The adoption of the Chinese writing system ("hanja" in Korean) in the 2nd century BCE, and Buddhism in the 4th century CE, had profound effects on its society. Koreans later passed on these, as well as their own advances, to Japan.

After the unification of the Three Kingdoms of Korea by Silla in 676, Korea was ruled by a single government and maintained political and cultural independence, despite the Mongol invasions of the Goryeo Dynasty in the 13th century and Japanese invasions of the Choson Dynasty in the 16th century. In 1377, Korea produced the Jikji, the world's oldest printed document using movable metal type. In the 15th century, the turtle ships, possibly the world's first ironclad warships, were deployed, and during the reign of King Sejong the Great, the Korean alphabet hangul was created.

During the latter part of the Choson Dynasty, Korea's isolationist policy earned it the Western nickname the "Hermit Kingdom". By the late 19th century, the country became the object of colonial designs by the imperial aggressors of Japan and Europe. In 1910, Korea was forcibly annexed by Japan and remained occupied until the end of World War II in 1945.

In 1945, Soviet Union and United States troops occupied the northern and southern halves of the country, respectively. The two Cold War enemies helped establish governments sympathetic to their own ideologies, leading to Korea's current division into two political entities: North Korea and South Korea.