Getting to know Korea through its history

Abstract

One of the processes that have marked the world in recent times had undoubtedly been globalization, which, through the bonds of interconnectivity and interdependence that it had generated between nations and peoples around the world, have created the need to generate different methods for the understanding and cooperation between the thousands of different cultures that coexist today.

On this occasion, prompted by the 10^th Meeting of Korean Studies in Latin America and by my passion for history, I have asked myself how influential Korea’s history has been on its unique and special culture?

This paper seeks to find the answer to this question by recalling different historical periods in the Korean peninsula, beginning with the settlement of the first peoples and the subsequent founding of the kingdom of Gojoseon, as well as the rise and fall of the subsequent Goreyo and Joseon kingdom and their importance in the rich culture that Korea possesses today.

The numerous wars and invasions endured over the the centuries such as the Mongol and Japanese invasions in the 13^th and 16^th centuries, the Japanese colonization and finally the forgotten Korean War. Facts that strengthen the definition of Korean identity given at the beginning of the document that characterized them as a nation strong in principles and traditions whose communitarian ideology has allowed them to survive the passing of the centuries.