Koryo's Inevitable Decline
Koryo is one of critical kingdoms in Korean history during 10th and 14th century. During Koryo era, cultural aspect of the country flourished in many ways. For example, blue ceramic is a clear demonstration of creativity. Moreover, Koryo made a lot of cultural exchanges with foreign countries, such as contacting with Thailand and Islam cultures. These contacts made the country to experience international differences and contributed to the outgrowth of the country. Unfortunately, Koryo went through extreme chaos at the end of the era. Koryo started to decline because of the invasions of foreign countries, new rules on land policy and the advent of ambitious general, Yi Songgye.Despite of many mutual exchanges with foreign countries, Koryo was attacked and invaded by China and Japan constantly. When a country is attacked by another country numerously, the country loses control on inner affairs and becomes unstable and easier to decline. Geographically, Northern part of Korea is connected to China. Therefore, it was easier for China to invade Korea. At the end of Koryo era, which was 1359, Koryo was attacked by a group called Red Turbans (Han, 178). These aggressive Red Turbans were defeated by the Mongol army (Mongol
As the country was attacked and invaded by these foreign countries, Koryo faced another problem - new policy on lands. The new policy was to privatize the estates. When the power of bureaucracy declined and dynasty power was rising, dynasty assured the livelihood of the officials (Hatada, 55). A large number of officials gradually increased their power through purchasing the private agricultural states. By privatizing the lands, officials could buy number of lands as they want. That means, the lands are less owned by the states and the states had problems with their finances. This resulted the officials to own a land that could only meant to gain their personal power. The instability of the country was yet to be begun. Radio Korea International, The History of Korea, Korea, Jung moon Printing, 1995. Eckert, Carter J. et al, Korea: Old and New A History, England, Harvard University Press, 1990
Some common words found in the essay are:
Chonju Han, Wihwa Island, Yi Dynasty, Koryo Hatada, Red Turbans, Yi Songgye, Songgye Koryo, Kaesong Capital, Kongyang Koryo, , yi songgye, foreign countries, private agricultural, red turbans, private agricultural estates, agricultural estates, hatada 57, hatada 61, numerous invasions, history korea, koryo hatada, officials owned private, owned private agricultural, exchanges foreign countries, history korea korea,
Approximate Word count = 1675
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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