Modern Korean History Issues - Essay Example

? Modern Korean History The editor of The Independent presents a balanced and comprehensive history of modern Korea where they make an exploration of the social, economic and political issues that Korea has come across following its flung into the wider world as the sun was setting on the 19th century. Formerly, the Korean society was an insular society. By the virtue of being both ethnically and culturally homogeneous, the Korean society in the beginning became a prey of the Japanese imperialist expansionism.1 Later on, following the World War II, this society capricious split into two; with varied social and political systems as well as different geopolitical orientations. This made them to evolve into sharply contrasting societies; with South Korea becoming one of the countable postcolonial developing countries to enter into the world's first rank. This so happened even in the event that the start was seemingly unpromising. On the other hand, North Korea became among the world's most known isolated and totalitarian societies. It could only be described as a nuclear power with a population which was not only impoverished, but also famine-stricken.2 Notwithstanding the above division, the Koreans had for a lengthy period of time lived in social classes. These classes included the king together with the ruling class, the peasants and the landlords. The reasons as to why this society is being painted as inward looking can be better understood form the peasant war. In 1984, the peasant war occurred and this uproar was geared towards doing away with the anti-imperialistic and anti-feudal phenomenon and in their place birth a modern state. This war has so resulted from two principal issues: the invasion of imperialism and the failure of the feudal system.3 Notably, the Korean medieval society was uniquely characterized by an integration of a centralized power system and an economic system which was based on the concept of the landlord. This special feature furthers that explanation of the Korean society as an inward-looking society. Ordinarily, the central figure in their centralized power system, known as the king, had bureaucratized the aristocracy and the yangban via the examination of the civil service and their subsequent inclusion in the compacted system. Both the nobility and the yangban received economic gain in terms of slaves and land. This benefited them in that, their profits were certain. Nevertheless, this representative economic gain was a threat to the prevalent system of power. Moreover, the king together with his nobility and the yangban has assumed control over the owner- and tenant farmers- who were referred to as the ruled class. But the reality of the matter is that this relationship was solely was clearly manifested in rent and taxes, that is, a tax relationship existed between the peasants and the state, while on the other hand, a rent relationship existed between the landlords and the tenants. It is crystal clear that the significance of these two kinds of relationships was secondary.4 This, therefore, meant that the only thing that could be done on the feudal problem was its revelation in the landlord-tenant rapport. Similarly, feudal conflicts were present in the state-peasant relationship since the king, the nobility and the yangban were the members of the landlord class while owner and tenant farmers formed the class of the peasants. Tax was the basis on which the state-peasant rapport was rooted. Moreover, the power of the landlord was boosted following the institution of the land tax. This move led to the concealment of the state-peasant in the landlord-tenant rapport thus making the latter conflict more and more prominent.5 The peasant wars held had destroyed numerous tax records in government offices. Moreover, a number of rich peasants were attacked. During the uprisings, the peasants came to the full knowledge that the conflicts were as a result of land inequality. This made them attack the local gentry and large landlords making land issue to be their main problem, which was later successful. Traditional land theories of land ownership were put in a place, where male adults were allocated land, which were equal and to a limited extent. Equivalent tenant farming was enacted and rent on land was reduced answering their anti-tax struggle. Those who cultivated a certain land had all rights which came along with it. Besides the land reforms, the peasants also proposed a punishment for a local registrar.6 In so doing, their principal intention was to be in ownership of land. The landlord-tenant system was brought to an end and this was later on followed by the realization on the part of the government that peasants ought to have owned land, and become small-scale farm product producers. Many landlords rose against this reform and fell on the wrong side of the government, a move that was a welcome note for the imperialists. This opened a highway where feudal problems flew in to the society. Imperialists came in with the concept of modernization which was a challenge due to its financial demands. These raised up peasants to the position of landlords. Commodities like rice were vastly exported due to the opened up ports. Commodity monetary economy became more pronounced as middlemen continued to exploit the farmers. The condition of peasants who worked in these farms became even more extreme, and more uprisings were felt in the year 1894. The revolution was entirely an anti-feudal movement and concentrated on reforms. Opening up of Korean ports meant imperial invasion into the local Korean economy. This invasion happened in three phrases, which occurred in between the year 1894 and 1905. After struggling with China on who was going to colonize Korea, Japan won in 1905 after the Russo-Japanese war.7 It is during this period that there was a considerably vast rivalry between China and Japan over Korea. While modernization in Japan was via the Meiji, in Korea it took the Yangwu movement trend. Since japan had a stout craving to enter into a trade relationship with Korea, it could not distress the capital it so needed for the process of modernization. The very first thing that Japan did in efforts to establish its rule was the invasion of the Korean economy. Japan actually made sure that it had access to all markets where Korea was selling its industrial goods. Japan also ensured that it had exploited the mineral and agricultural products within its colony. Since japan had not been industrialized at this time, it played the role of the middleman in the sale of products from other industrialized countries.8 In efforts to establish unity among the above mentioned different classes in the Korean society, the peasants engaged in a fight and at the same time kept in check the problem of the nation. In those days, the process that these peasants employed was in the offing of availing an insight on the way forward as concerns the problem in the event that the same was to be experienced in the present day. Rather than being a revolution, the peasant war could be understood as an uprising of the Tonghak. This uprising had its roots in the socioeconomic situation that was present in the Korean society during the Chason period. The problem with the peasants was greatly propelled by the opening of the ports which they had all through protected so that the imperialist could have access to.9 Principally, the peasants’ complaints were centered on taxation, land and the distribution of commodities. On the other hand, the same peasants also had reform plans; the eradication of feudal conflicts and plans geared towards bringing to a halt the present economic exploitation and the distribution systems that the imperialists carried out. The Chason dynasty brings on board the issue of politics in the Korean society. This had actually loaded places. Being a convenient business center, Chason's population was growing at an alarming rate. On the other hand, the economic and political needs of the Koreans were being served by Hanyang. Notably, in this peninsular is where the Korean history was molded. But with the imperialist invasion in this peninsular, both the Korean society's socio-cultural situation and political economy underwent change.10 The imperialists took control over the Korean enterprises and this amounted to economic influence. On the political front, the imperialists had distressed the hereditary kingship of the Koreans. These imperialist had also come with them Christianity thus influencing the socio-cultural aspect of the Koreans. All these new-fashioned forces worked hand in hand in shaping the old Korea to a modernized one. Illustratively, in the colonial era, it is factual noting that the lives that the Koreans lived were desperate and characterized by roads which were ordinarily imperfect. Moreover, these Koreans hardly had access to hygienic living and their manner of disposing waste was very poor11. Unlike the Japanese, the Koreans had no access to proper education. They (the Koreans) were actually alleged to be unhygienic even when the media had a different view of the same. The media had in fact reported that the Koreans display signs of weakness simply because they hardly had access to better education and jobs as was the case with the Japanese imperialists. The accumulation of trash and waste on the Korean streets was viewed as a paramount weakness among the Koreans. It was a denial of sanitation services.12 Additionally, the Japanese imperialists were found to contract contagious and dangerous diseases at a rate that was far much higher than that of the Koreans. Besides, their mortality rate was equally high. In the event that any outbreak was reported, the vulnerability of the Japanese was four times that of their Korean counterparts. This scenario is quite ironical when it is considered that the Japanese were the ones who had better access to the medical facilities. For the Koreans, it was crystal clear to them that they were under obligation to first fight poverty for them to adequately fight any reported diseases. On the contrary, the Japanese embarked on a number of campaigns in efforts to uphold a disease free imperialist quad13. It can therefore be concluded that Korean socioeconomic situation bore a number of uprisings, which in turn armor-plated numerous radical changes. Some of these uprisings included feudal laws and land among other nationwide problems. The same uprisings also led to various reforms. The Korean revolution aimed at restoring the land to the farmworkers from their initial landlords. The second revolution was introduced by the imperialists.14 They intensified desperate measures, which were implemented by the peasants in order to protest against the high taxes. Following its win over China on the colonization of Korea, Japan exploited a lot of raw materials and resources to modernize their country. Undeniably, Japan treated the Koreans in a way that was in humane by taking their land, overtaxing them, denying them education, wealth creation and medication. Bibliography Young-ho, Lee. "The Socioeconomic Background and the Growth of the New Social Forces of the 1894 Peasant War." Korean Journal, (1994): 90-100. Read More