Overview
Joseon governed for five centuries as a Neo-Confucian monarchy from its new capital Hanyang, today’s Seoul. Society was ordered around the yangban scholar-elite and the gwageo state examinations.
Key developments
King Sejong’s reign (1418–1450) was the golden age, producing the Hangul alphabet (1443/1446), scientific instruments, and agricultural handbooks. Catastrophes followed: Hideyoshi’s invasions from Japan (the Imjin War, 1592–1598) were repelled with Ming help and Yi Sun-sin’s navy, and Manchu invasions in 1627 and 1636–37 forced tributary ties to the Qing.
Long stability and relative seclusion followed; 19th-century Westerners called Joseon the “hermit kingdom.”
End and transition
Late crisis came with the Donghak peasant rising of 1894, the Sino-Japanese War fought over Korea, the Gabo reforms, and the assassination of Queen Min in 1895. King Gojong proclaimed the Korean Empire in 1897.