Korea Insight Today

Korea Through 5,000 Years — Episode 4 A History in Parallel with the West When people imagine the Middle Ages in Europe, they often picture a familiar world. Stone castles. Armored knights. Monasteries. Cathedrals. Feudal lords. And armies marching toward the Crusades. But thousands of kilometers to the east, Korea was also entering a distinctly medieval age of its own. In 918 CE , a new kingdom called Goryeo was founded. Its name would eventually give the modern world the word Korea . Over the next several centuries, Goryeo would build a sophisticated state centered on the capital of Gaegyeong, develop one of the great Buddhist cultures of East Asia, produce celadon ceramics of extraordinary refinement, trade across the seas, and defend itself against powerful northern empires. At roughly the same time, Europe was experiencing the rise of the Holy Roman Empire, the Norman Conquest of England, the growth of castles and cathedrals, and the beginning of the Crusades. The two civilizatio...

Korea Through 5,000 Years — Episode 3 A History in Parallel with the West When people in the West think of the early Middle Ages, they often imagine a world that emerged after the fall of Rome. The Western Roman Empire was gone. New kingdoms were forming across Europe. The Byzantine Empire still ruled from Constantinople. Islamic civilization was expanding across the Middle East, North Africa, and eventually into Spain. Charlemagne would build a powerful empire in Western Europe. And Viking ships would soon appear along the coasts of Britain and continental Europe. But what was happening in Korea during the same centuries? At the eastern end of Eurasia, the Korean Peninsula was also entering a new age. The centuries-long struggle among Goguryeo, Baekje, and Silla had ended. Silla controlled most of the Korean Peninsula. To the north, however, a new kingdom called Balhae arose from the political world left behind by Goguryeo. For more than two centuries, these two states existed side b...

Korea Through 5,000 Years — Episode 2 A History in Parallel with the West When Augustus became the first emperor of Rome in 27 BCE, the Mediterranean world was entering one of the most famous imperial ages in human history. Rome would build roads across continents, command enormous armies, construct monumental cities, and eventually rule tens of millions of people from Britain to Egypt. But thousands of kilometers to the east, another political transformation was beginning. On and around the Korean Peninsula, the communities that would become Goguryeo, Baekje, Silla, and Gaya were emerging from the political world that followed the fall of Gojoseon. Over the next several centuries, they would develop into powerful states with armies, fortresses, royal courts, diplomatic networks, sophisticated metalworking, distinctive burial cultures, and new religious traditions. By the fourth and fifth centuries, while the Roman Empire was converting to Christianity and struggling with internal div...