History

Topics on the events and eras that shaped South Korea, from the ancient kingdoms through division to the modern republic.

• Three Kingdoms Period — The era of Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla (1st century BCE–668 CE) and Silla’s unification of the peninsula; the foundational phase of Korean civilization.
• Baekje Kingdom — One of the Three Kingdoms (18 BCE–660 CE) in the southwestern peninsula; a sophisticated maritime and cultural power that served as the primary conduit for Chinese civilization and Buddhism into Korea and Japan, until its fall to the Silla–Tang alliance in 660.
• Unified Silla Period — The first political unification of the Korean peninsula (668–935); a nearly three-century golden age of Buddhist civilization centered on the capital Gyeongju before its decline into the Later Three Kingdoms.
• Goryeo Period — The medieval kingdom (918–1392) that unified the peninsula, gave Korea its name, and produced celadon, the Tripitaka Koreana, and metal movable type.
• Joseon Dynasty — Korea’s longest dynasty (1392–1910); a Neo-Confucian state that created Hangul, the gwageo examination order, and the yangban society, and endured the Imjin and Manchu invasions.
• Korean Independence Movement — The anti-colonial struggle (1876–1945), from the Donghak Revolt and Righteous Army to the March 1st Movement and the Provisional Government.
• Japanese Colonial Period — The 1910–1945 era of Japanese imperial rule over Korea, its exploitation and modernization, and its enduring legacies.
• Korean Liberation and Founding, 1945–1948 — The three years between liberation from Japan and the founding of the Republic of Korea; occupation, division at the 38th parallel, and the Syngman Rhee state.
• Korean War — The 1950–1953 conflict that divided the Korean peninsula and shaped modern South Korea.
• Gwangju Uprising (May 18 Incident) — The May 1980 armed popular resistance in Gwangju and its brutal suppression under Chun Doo-hwan; a defining episode of the democracy movement.
• Democratization of South Korea — The 1987–1993 transition from military-authoritarian rule to competitive democracy.
• The 1997 Asian Financial Crisis and Korean Economic Restructuring — The November 1997 currency collapse and $57 billion IMF bailout, the chaebol and labor restructuring under IMF conditionality, the Gold Collection Campaign and Daewoo’s fall, and the crisis’s lasting legacy of labor-market dualism and elevated household debt.
• Sewol Ferry Disaster (2014) — The April 16, 2014 sinking of the overloaded ferry MV Sewol off Jindo Island, which killed 304 people, most of them Danwon High School students; a national trauma that exposed regulatory and corporate negligence, eroded institutional trust, and helped catalyze the later Candlelight movement.
• Candlelight Revolution (2016–2017) — The mass candlelit-vigil movement of November 2016–March 2017 that, in response to the Choi Soon-sil influence-peddling scandal, drove the impeachment and unanimous Constitutional Court removal of President Park Geun-hye; a landmark of peaceful civic mobilization that set the precedent invoked during the 2024 martial law crisis.
• December 2024 Martial Law Crisis and Constitutional Crisis — President Yoon Suk-yeol’s six-hour martial law declaration of December 3, 2024, the National Assembly’s defiance, his impeachment and unanimous Constitutional Court removal, his arrest for insurrection, and Lee Jae-myung’s June 2025 snap-election victory.