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Paekche was a kingdom that mixed Puyo refugees (who had moved southward after their defeat by the Koguryo) with native Mahan tribes. After the Koguryo king surrendered in 668, the Chinese removed the king, officials, and 200,000 prisoners and placed rule over the territory under a military governor and established commanderies.
The Chinese planned a similar strategy with Koguryo when the Tang-Silla alliance laid siege to the capital, Pyongyang, in 661. They also established administrative and military offices throughout Paekche. The Chinese left 10,000 troops in Paekche after the latter’s surrender in 660. The Tang court was not content to simply defeat its Koguryo enemies but intended to incorporate the peninsula into its state. Under this agreement the Tang helped Silla defeat Paekche, and then the two attacked Koguryo. The key to Koguryo’s destruction was the pact between Tang and Silla and internal power struggles. The subsequent Tang (T’ang) dynasty also invaded Koguryo and was defeated until a fateful alliance with Silla, which led to the unification of the peninsula.Īfter the fall of the Sui dynasty Koguryo prepared itself for further invasion by the Tang, setting up defenses along the border between the two states and forming an alliance with the Turks. Koguryo dominance did not last, however, and starting in the early seventh century Koguryo was constantly at war with the Chinese Sui dynasty.Īlthough Koguryo defeated the Sui invasions, the largest consisting of 1 million soldiers, the years of warfare significantly weakened the country. In 475 Kwanggaet’o attacked the Paekche capital and expanded his borders southward by defeating an allied force of the Chinese Northern Wei kingdom and Paekche soldiers.
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He drove back a Japanese invasion of Silla in 400 c.e. He also took over the Liaotung region of northeastern China, which had been a focal point for Chinese attacks against Koguryo. According to an inscription in his tomb, he conquered 64 fortresses and 1,400 villages. The golden age of Koguryo’s territorial expansion was during the rule of King Kwanggaet’o. Paekche took advantage of Koguryo’s weakness by invading the capital near Pyongyang and killing the ruler. However, the Chinese retaliated in 342, successfully attacked the Koguryo capital, dug up the corpse of the Koguryo king, and departed with 50,000 prisoners. the Koguryo king drove the Chinese out of their Lo-lang commandery centered in Pyongyang. For centuries Koguryo kings fought against tribes to the north and China to the west. The Yemaek tribes, who conquered the Puyo state in 37 b.c.e., founded Koguryo. Koguryo was unifi ed as a kingdom under the sixth ruler, King T’aejo, and occupied the northern part of the Korean peninsula and Manchuria in northeastern China. Our knowledge of the three kingdoms comes from archaeology and ancient historical texts from China, Japan, and Korea, particularly the Samguk Sagi, Korea’s first history written in 1145. Koguryo was the largest and earliest unified kingdom, followed by Paekche and Silla.
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when the three states of Koguryo, Silla, and Paekche existed simultaneously until the unification of the peninsula by Silla in 668 c.e. The Three Kingdoms period refers to an era in Korean history in the fourth century c.e.