The communal societies of prehistoric times - the Paleolithic age, the society and culture in the Neolithic period; walled-town states and confederated kingdoms - Bronze Age culture, Old Choson and Wiman Choson, confederated kingdoms - Puyo, Koguryo and the state of Chin, society, polity and culture in the confederated kingdoms period; aristocratic societies under monarchical rule - the development of the kingdoms of Koguryo, paekche and Silla; foreign relations of these three kingdoms, political and social structure and aristocratic culture of these three kingdoms; the fashioning of an authoritarian monarchy - Silla unification and the founding of the Parhae kingdom, government, society and culture of Silla, society and culture of Parhae; the age of powerful gentry families; the hereditary aristocratic order of Koryo; rule by the military - the Cho'oe and Mongols; emergence of the literati - the pro-Yuan policy, founding of the Choson (Yi) dynasty; the creation of a Yangban society - development of Yangban society in Choson, administrative, social and economic structure of the Yangban state, foreign policy of early Choson, Yangban bureaucratic culture; the rise of the neo-Confucian literati - changes in society under rule by the meritorious elite, struggle against Japanese and Manchus; economic advances and intellectual ferment; dynastic disarray and national peril; growth of the forces of enlightenment - the Tonghak Peasant Army, reform movement of 1894-1896; incipient nationalism and imperialist aggression - the Independence Club, Japanese aggression and the annexation of Korea; the first phase of Japanese rule, 1910-1919; nationalism and social revolution, 1919-1931; forced assimilation, mobilization and war - Japanese advance in Asia, agriculture, industry and labour mobilization, the last phase of colonial rule 1941-1945; liberation, division and war, 1945-1953 - colonial legacy and the tarnsfer of power - Soviet-US rivalry and the division of the peninsula, American occupation, emergence of separate states, the Korean War 1950-1953; authoritarianism and protest, 1948-1990 - Syngman Rhee and the First Republic, the April Revolution (1960) and the Second Republic, the Park Chung Hee era, opposition, mutiny, insurrection and coup, the Fifth Republic of Chun Doo Hwan 1981-1988, the Sixth Republic and prospects for democracy; economic development in historical perspective, 1945-1990 - international factors, internal social and political factors, role of culture and timing.
