| 4th century AD
| Early Three Kingdoms culture, including iron metallurgy, horses, painted chamber tombs, distinctive gold crowns, and other elite artifacts, makes its way into Japan during the Kofun period.
One theory to account for this is that Korean "horseriders" from Baekje could have entered Japan to become the new ruling elite. Whether or not the "horserider" theory is true in detail, at the very least there was a massive and defining cultural transmission from Korea to Japan during this time.
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| 6th century AD
| Korean officials, teachers, and sculptors introduce Buddhism and Buddhist art to Asuka Japan.
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| 614 AD
| Goguryeo defeats a major invasion by China's Sui dynasty.
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660-935
Unified Silla
| The Silla kingdom, allied with China's Tang, defeats Baekje in 660 and Goguryeo in 668 to form Unified Silla, the first pan-Korean state. Meanwhile, in Manchuria, the Balhae (Parhae), 698-926, establish a northern kingdom. During this time Buddhism is dominant, and favorable trade relationships with China and Japan help Korea to become brilliant and wealthy.
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| 7th century
| Introduction of Huayan and Chan (Zen) Buddhism from China.
Confucian National Academy opens in 682.
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| 771 - after 774
| Building of Seokkuram cave chapel.
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| 8th-9th centuries
| Relationships with Tang China change from conflict to cooperation, resulting in widespread cultural influence on Korea. Luxury goods (including books and artworks) are imported from China, and many Korean monks visit China to study Buddhism. Korean trade relations also include contact with Japanese and Arab merchants. Scholarship and technology, such as woodblock printing, flourishes.
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936-1392
Goryeo
| Silla in the late 9th century, overcome by political and social disunity, breaks apart into smaller regional entities. General Wang Geon establishes the Goryeo kingdom in 918 and unifies the entire peninsula by 936 (the English word "Korea" comes from "Koryŏ," the McCune-Reischauer spelling of "Goryeo.") Outstanding cultural products from this time include inlaid celadon (sanggam), other types of celadon, the Tripitaka Koreana (Buddhist scripture woodblocks), and the world's earliest movable metal type.
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| 1018
| Goryeo defeats Liao in the Goryeo-Khitan Wars.
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| 1087
| Completion of the first Tripitaka Koreana, which was destroyed in the Mongol invasions of Korea in 1232.
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| 1145
| Compilation of Samguk sagi (Histories of the Three Kingdoms), Korea's earliest surviving history.
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| 1231-1368
| Mongols invade China in 1211 and Korea in 1231. They eventually conquer China (Yuan dynasty, 1271-1368) and reduce Korea to a client state with close relations including royal intermarriage between the two courts. These ties facilitate a ceramics exchange, with Cizhou-style iron brown underglaze techique imported from China to Korea, and underglaze copper red moving from Korea to China.
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| ca. 1234
| Invention of movable metal type in Korea. (Movable ceramic type was invented two hundred years earlier, in Song China.)
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| 1251
| Completion of the second Tripitaka Koreana, which is still extant today in Haeinsa.
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| 1274, 1281
| Using South Korea as a base, the Mongols launch two massive but unsuccessful invasions against Japan, that are repelled with the help of typhoons (kamikaze, meaning "divine winds").
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| 1285
| Compilation of Samguk yusa (Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms), Korea's second-oldest surviving history.
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1392-1910
Joseon
| General Yi Seonggye establishes the Joseon (Yi) dynasty in Korea, following the collapse of Mongol rule. Culturally aligned with Ming China, the early Joseon enjoy 200 years of peace until about 1600, the start of the modern (pan-global) era when Japan, China, and Europe all collide with monumental effect upon the Korean shore.
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| 15th-16th century society
| Confucianism displaces Buddhism as the state ideology at the start of the Joseon dynasty. Rise of the yangban governing class. The Buddhists literally "run for the hills," upon which they build their temples far from official notice; but Buddhist religion remains popular among royals and commoners. Women are gradually relegated to inferior status according to the Confucian model, losing the extensive property and social rights that they had previously enjoyed.
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| 1418-1450
| King Sejong the Great supervises an era of cultural achievement that includes
the creation of hangul, Korea's native writing system.
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| 15th-16th century painting
| With the change of dynasty, there is a reaction against Buddhism and Buddhist art. Joseon painting, as in the work of An Gyeon (ca. 1440-1470), becomes inspired by the earlier landscapes of China's Northern Song, while also incorporating a variety of influences from China's Ming and Korea's Goryeo dynasties.
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| 15th-16th century ceramics
| Porcelain ware is created for the elite, while buncheong ware serves the less exalted. Ceramic production in Korea halts in the 1590s due to Japanese invasions. When production restarted in the 17th century, only porcelain was manufactured; the less-refined buncheong was no longer produced in Korea, although it continued in Japan where its use was favored in the tea ceremony.
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| 1592, 1597
| Imjin War: Japanese under Toyotomi Hideyoshi invade Korea causing great loss of life. They are eventually repelled, thanks in large part to Admiral Yi Sun-sin's technologically advanced Turtle Ships. Hundreds of Korean potters are kidnapped by the Japanese and forcibly relocated to southern Kyushu, where they kick-start the Satsuma and Arita ware ceramic traditions, and develop Raku ware for Japan's tea ceremonials.
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| 1627, 1636
| Manchu invasions reduce Korea to a tributary of China
(Qing dynasty, 1644-1911).
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| 18th century
| At this time there are contradictory developments in Korean society.
A growing middle class and its amusements (compare Tokugawa Japan) bypasses Confucian hierarchialism with a new concern for ordinary life in literature, true-view, and genre painting; while Western incursion poses even more fundamental political and cultural challenges. In response, a philosophy called sirhak, or "practical learning," seeks to advance agriculture and improve the lot of the common people. Although Korea - like China and Japan - tries to preserve its own uniqueness and independence, all of East Asia is ultimately drawn into the evolving world system.
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| 1767
| King Yeongjo starves to death his own son, Crown Prince Sado, by locking him in a rice chest; only thus was he able to prevent Sado, who was reputedly insane, from becoming king after him.
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| 1776
| Jeongjo, Sado's son, ascends the throne; he initiates major political reforms against the Yangban officials and in favor of the middle class.
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| 1784
| Yi Sung-hun introduces Catholicism from China to Korea. After a slow start and sporadic persecutions (1866), Christianity
sinks deep roots into the Confucian kingdom; today (2010) about 1/3 (over 13 million) of South Koreans are Christian.
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| 1876
| Japanese gunboats force the opening of Korea's ports,
an operation that Japan had learned all too well from the United States in 1853, when Commodore Matthew Perry did the same thing to Japan.
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| 1895
| Japanese agents assassinate Queen Min, an independence reformer, in Gyeongbok Palace.
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| 1910-present
| Japan colonizes Korea (1910-1945). North-South split after WW II.
Korean War (1950-1953) devastates the peninsula, with over two million civilian casualties. By the late 20th century, SK achieves democratic prosperity and over one million South Koreans immigrate to the US. As of 2011, NK remains isolated under Chinese protection.
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