Final Summation Essay for History World Civilizations

This is a summary essay of three topics of my choice. I wanted to do the summation essay on my personal favorite parts of the world that I want to visit and that interests me the most out of all the cultures and countries on earth. They are Japan, Korea, and Vietnam. I also like other cultures in the world, especially asian-based ones such as Thailand, China, etc, but I chose to do those three specific countries because they're my favorite and I've always wanted to visit them and learn their languages and cultures.

Throughout the entire essay, I will be talking about Japan, Korea, and Vietnam from chapter 11 in our World History book.

No one really knows when humans first settled on the Japanese archipelago. It was long believed that there was no Paleolithic possession in Japan, but since World War II thousands of sites have been found throughout the country, producing a large diversity of Paleolithic tools.

These include both core tools and flake tools. There is little doubt that the people who used these implements moved to Japan from the Asian continent. At one stage, land that connected to what are now the Korea andTsushimastraits made immigration from the Korean peninsula possible, while another connection, to what are now the S?ya and Tsugaru straits, allowed people to go in from northeastern Asia.

However, it's believed that the first human habitation in the Japanese archipelago has been traced to prehistoric times. The J??mon period, named after its "cord-marked" pottery, was followed by the Yayoi in the first millennium BC when new technologies were introduced from continental Asia. In Japanese, the name "Japan" is Nihon or Nippon, which means "Land of the Rising Sun." It was once believed that Japan was the first country to see the sunrise in the East in the morning.

"Kamakura, Japan was the 4th biggest city in the world in 1250. Kamakura was the de facto capital of Japan for a relatively brief period from 1185-1333. The city grew rapidly during its capital years. Researchers peg its 1250 population at 200,000 making it the fourth largest city in the world at the time. The modern town of Kamakurahas a slightly lower population at 174,000. Today it's considered an attractive small town for its beaches and many temples that mark the city's glorious past" (Spacey).

Japan was considered to be an island country, compared to China, which was a continental civilization. Japan was made up of four main islands; Honshu, two smaller islands of Kyushu, and Shikoku. Japan has very good temperate climates. It's a little warmer on the east coast and has cooler temperatures as well, further down the islands. Japan is not an agricultural fantasy. The country's very mountainous and only 20% of the total land area is suitable for agricultural things and cultivation.

According to a legend, the islands of Japan were made because of or with the marriage of the god Izanagi and the goddess Izanami. Japan is supposedly a gift from the gods. Modern scholars have a better and more realistic explanation for the origins of the Japanese islands and its civilization. The Japanese islands have been inhabited for a longs time, with the earliest known civilization to be the Neolithic inhabitants, called the Jomon.

Japan was closed to the world for 217 years. It had limited and very little communication and contact with the rest of the world from 1635-1852. This was because of a law known as the Sakoku Edict that didn't allow trade, made foreign travel illegal by the Japanese people, banned Christianity and made Japan off-limits to most of the foreigners. The law was passed after Japan experienced numerous problems after contact with foreign powers.

These included Japanese slaves being sent to Europe by the Portuguese, threats to Japanese sovereignty and epidemics such as smallpox. Japan's long period of isolation put the country technologically behind the Western powers. In 1852, the American Navy effectively forced Japan to open her markets. Japan's long period of isolation helped the country to develop a unique culture.

Now I'll go on to Korea and some of its interesting history. The Korean peninsula originally had 3 Korean kingdoms. The smaller of the 3 was Silla, Silla sold out its neighbors and allied with the Tang Chinese which destroyed both of its rivals. After that, the Koreans never regained their former power or influence in Asia. Korea (Silla) was one of the first and only countries to have 2 consecutive female rulers in its history. Queen Seondok (632–647 AD) and Queen Jindeok (647–654 AD). Korea (Silla) was one of the longest continuous dynasties in world history, ruling for more than 900 years.

Around the time of A.D. 668, many of the kingdoms that were competing were brought together into a unified power on the Korean Peninsula. Successive governments or authorities kept Korean political and cultural independence going for more than a thousand years. Last South Korea is on a little peninsula off of the northeast coast of China and beside the Japanese islands. Until World War II, Korea was a unified civilization known asGojoseon, a state that dated back as far as 2300 BC.

The founder of the Gojoseon is Dangun. Dangun unified numerous tribes that were inhabitants of the Korean Peninsula. Early Korean cultures were based on clans of families and were/are known for their advanced rice cultivation, large stone tombs called Dolmen tombs, and metal works. Ancient Korea was much much bigger than today. At its high point, Gogoryeo (from which Korea gets its name) took up almost the entirety of Manchuria. That's about 10 times larger than North and South Korea today.

Now I'mgoing totalk about someinterestingfactsabout Korea.The civilizations on theKorean Peninsulahad central heated floors (Ondol) before Rome even existed c 1000BC.Korean Peninsulahad metal movablekindprinting before Europe evenwrittenits1stbook.the primaryuse of metal printing in Goryeo is recorded as 1234, a full 220 years before theJohann Gutenbergbible waswrittenin 1454.

Korea (Beakje)is probably goingaccountable forintroducing Buddhism to Japan andserving tothe Yamato (Japanese)to determinetheir1stkingdom. In 1448, King Sejong created Korea's 1st and solely nativeorthographyHangulto assistimprove his peoplesacquisition. As a result ofthe Chinese characters (Hanja) weretoughto use anddidn'tsuit the Korean language. Amazingly, it took nearlyfive hundredyears for them to catch on and becomewidelyused.

Finally, I'm going to talk about Vietnam and its ancient history and why it's so important. Althoughit'snotrestrictedto thatalone, War and Conflictis that theoneplanand event that permeates Vietnamese history and has been doingthisfor thousands of years.immenseamounts of armies have marched theirmannerpass Vietnam, and throughoutthe variouscenturies of warthe stateof Vietnam aswe all knowitthese dayswasformed,outlinedandshaped. It wasafter allan excellentplaceto start outa civilization because theencompassingvale protectedthe firstYue dialect(Viet) peoples (thereis not anysingle identity yet) from outsiders.Within thenorth protected by mountains,within thewest by viscous jungles, to the South by the Delta and to the East byocean.

The only issue was that the Red Deltaunbrokenon flooding annually,very likeany rivers, deltas orafter alltheNileas an example. This forcedthe varioustribesto figure alongasonecluster, and eventually, our co-operationled totheinstitutionof Early Hydraulic systems, the flourishing of Trade and Barter, and a non-professionalhowever importantTribal Guard. All these achievements sawthe increaseofa standardidentity and bycurrently, around 5000 yearsago (3000–2800 BC), this gavethanks toa standardculture,thatwas practiced across the multipleteamsco-existingwithin theRed River.

Vietnam has a history of tribes uniting to form strong dynasties. The first dynasty that many consider to be the start of the Vietnamese state was the Hong Bang Dynasty which was ruled by the legendary Hung kings.

"In 111 BC, the Han Dynasty from China absorbed Vietnam into their empire. Vietnam would remain a part of the Chinese empire for over 1000 years. It was in 938 AD that Ngo Quyen defeated the Chinese and gained independence for Vietnam. Vietnam was then ruled by a succession of dynasties including the Ly, Tran, and the Le dynasty. Under the Le dynasty the kingdom of Vietnam reached its peak, expanding to the south and conquering a portion of the Khmer Empire.

In 1858 the French came to Vietnam. In 1893 the French incorporated Vietnam into French Indochina. France continued to rule until it was defeated by communist forces led by Ho Chi Minh in 1954. The country became divided into Communist North Vietnam and the anti-Communist South. The Vietnam War raged for years between the two countries with the US supporting the South and communist countries supporting the north. The North eventually won uniting the country under communist rule in 1975" ("Vietnam History And Timeline Overview").

Works Cited:

1. Spacey, John. "7 Interesting Things About Japanese History".Japan Talk, 2018, https:// japan-talk.com/jt/new/japanese-history.
2. "Japan - History".Encyclopedia Britannica, 2018, https://www.britannica.com/place/Japan/
3. "Korea | Historical Nation, Asia".Encyclopedia Britannica, 2018, https://www.britannica.com/ place/Korea.
4. "Vietnam History And Timeline Overview".Ducksters.Com, 2018, https://www.ducksters.com/            geography/country/vietnam_history_timeline.php.
5. "Vietnam | History, Population, Map, & Facts".Encyclopedia Britannica, 2018, https:// britannica.com/place/Vietnam.

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