HIST104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 18: Korean Nationalism, Korean War, Syngman Rhee
26 Apr 2018
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Document Summary
From as early as the 7th century, korea had an unusually high degree of ethnic unity - not much diversity. Known for its isolation from the rest of the world. Just like japan, korea was opened up by foreign powers in the late 19th century. The country most responsible for forcing korea to open up was japan. In 1876 the japanese did to korea the same thing that the us had done to the japanese a few decades earlier. Forced the koreans to let the japanese trade in a treaty force - japanese had special privileges to trade with them. Also got the right for japanese people in korea to be tried in japanese courts by its own laws. Korea became a formal part of japan"s empire in 1910. Japanese did more to industrialize korea than typical of most powers. Their main interest in korea however was to produce raw materials and agricultural products that the japanese wanted.
