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Q Cubed
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t3h y3ll0w p3ril
Apr 1999
time: 23:16
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i notice there aren't any threads whose titles support the inclusion of korea into civilization 3.
i've decided to remedy that.
korea's been around longer than japan, pretty much; genetic evidence points to the possible conclusion that not only did japan borrow extensively from korea in terms of culture (tea ceremony was borrowed, but in korea it later developed into a barley tea thing) but the majority of their genetic stock is also korean in origin.
futhermore, archaeological evidence suggests that japan did not receive some basic technologies and ideas without korean influence... i.e., bronze working, buddhism, confucianism...
(those were from a discover magazine article, iirc. i'll have to do research, but as soon as i find it, it'll be cited. as will the other stuff that i claim and can't prove, but know to be a fact. furthermore, you can look up a lot of this at britannica, or encarta, etc)
enough on that:
culturally.
korea has the only native alphabet in east asia; it is a true alphabet, unlike the iconographic language of china and the syllabary of japan. this has the benefit of being simple to learn and transfer to new technologies, such as keyboards. commissioned under king sejong the great, hangul, as it is called, is interesting primarily because of its method of writing: vowels and consonants are combined to form a one-syllable character; these characters are strung into words. it's a lot simpler than it sounds here.
korea has one of the oldest astronomical observatories in the world, chomsongdae observatory, in the ancient capital of kyongju (a un-recognized cultural site): built under the directorship of queen sondok between 634CE and 647CE, it is the first and oldest standing observatory in east asia to this day. partly because of this, korea has the world's longest-running weather record (still going, too).
you can corroberate the following with encarta, or britannica, or rok moe or some such.
going back further: in ancient times, the korean peninsula had several nations: kaya (quickly conquered by the silla), paekche, and koguryo (all of these had precursors, but i don't remember what they were called). to make a long story short, silla, through politlcal and military maneuvering managed to conquer the other two and unify the nation under one banner. they became the first dynasty. later, another dyanasty, the yi dynasty, supplanted them; korea managed to push far into manchuria during this time. time goes on, they develop prized celadon (most art critics deem it to be superior, the pale, almost faint green pottery... quite gorgeous, if you ever get to see one.) they develop the language, the printing press (wood block, then metal type) (before gutenberg!), some other things i can't remember.
key military thing: during the invasion of hideyoshi, some time during the 16th century, a korean admiral, yi sun-shin, constructed the world's first ironclad ships, called kobukson, or turtle ships, which managed to crush the invading japanese navy and greatly aid in the defeat of the japanese ground forces. these ships, were, well, rather neat: sulfur was burned to create a smoke screen; the tops were covered with armor plates, first to deflect cannon shots, and second to deter boarding parties (spiked iron plates, who'd want jump on that?), lots of archers, guns, and cannons. simply put, going up against it: boom. a model of the ship looks like so: 
aoe2 added them with the war wagon. details are sketchy on that, at least for me, but i'm sure with proper research... apparently it's some sort of primitive arty support: rockets launched from a wagon that carried loads of them. these rockets were designed to go boom, but not in the air like fireworks, rather on enemy soldiers in an attempt to hurt, maim, kill...
now for the sadder part of history: in the early 20th century, japan forced korea into first a protectorate status, during which it assassinated the royal family (korea was well on its way to becoming industrialized, much as how japan did; korea too suffered under american 'open your ports to our trade' policy), after which it occupied it as a territory. during this long and brutal period of 40 years or so, from 1905CE to 1945CE, koreans were treated little better than slaves; women were taken to the front lines to serve as 'comforters' for the japanese soldiers, men were taken as soldiers for battalions meant to be cannon fodder, and those who weren't sent overseas in those wars were forced to work in the farms or factories. the japanese tried to stamp out korean culture, including customs, language, everything.
then the good americans came in, along with the evil soviets, in the aftermath of the japanese. they set up two different governments; a war happened, which ended in a stalemate. at this time, the americans had a dim view of most asians, and so did not allow the south koreans to be represented at the bargaining table. also at this point, the soviets did not view asians as the yellow peril, so the north koreans were at the bargaining table. go fig.
so now, like, south korea's some big economic powerhouse.
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formal : korea
noun : koreans
adj : korean
strengths : scientific, economic (?)
ruler : king sejong the great
some cities: seoul, kyongju, inchon, taejon, pusan, chongju, ulsan, cheju, suwon, kwangju, taegu, pyongyang, nampo, hamhung, pohang
some leaders: yi sun shin, ulchi-mondok, kyon-hwon, kung-ye, wang-kon
unique unit: kobukson/turtle ship
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14-11-2001 08:21
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