History of Sinju

The history of Sinju

Overview
All three of the dominant language families present in northern Jungju—Cheonjeic, Jeongmic, and Fusenic— descend from various waves of migration from eastern Yoju.

Prehistory
Rice is believed to have first been domesticated around the Pale River 淡江 in modern-day Taikieng around 10000 BCE. Millet and wheat arrived to Jungju later from Yoju at around 6000 BCE and 2000 BCE respectively.



The Baiguang 白堽 culture was active from 3000 to 2000 BCE around the Red River 紅河 Valley in an area that is now part of Hokan, Longzhou, and Mincang.

Cheonje
Je came to be most prominent of the various states on the Central Sinju plain and in 1 CE, declared itself Cheonje. Between its unification and the 5th centuries, Cheonje pushed into the east and south, expanding into present-day Meisaan, Taikieng, Sitoan, and Hhokai. Existing Namjung (AUSTROASIATIC), Gahaeng (KRA-DAI), and Namdo (AUSTRONESIAN) peoples in the areas were displaced or gradually assimilated. Expansion northward into Dumo and Jeongmi were not marked by the same level of settlement or control as to the east and south due to the harsher natural environment and stiff resistance from the local inhabitants.

Cheonje developed several innovations that would highly influence Sinju after Cheonje's own demise. Among these were civil service examinations, Je characters, an efficient bureaucracy, and a rich philosophical tradition.

Cheonje experienced a steady decline starting from the 8th century that accelerated over the course of the 9th century. The collapse of Cheonje is conventionally dated to 876 CE, when the Nukic warlord Miho overthrew Emperor Mal 末帝 and established the Gim dynasty.

Migrations
The two millennia between 1000 BCE And 1000 CE saw waves of migration into and throughout Sinju. The development of advanced irrigation techniques among the peoples of the Central Sinju Plain led to a gradual expansion of Cheonjeic peoples in all directions, which accelerated with Cheonje's constant wars of expansion during the first millennium CE.

From the 5th century BCE, large-scale waves of migration from Jeongmic tribes from eastern Yoju made their way into Yedal and northern Jungju. This set off a chain reaction in northern Jungju, as Fusenic-speaking peoples were pushed in large numbers into modern-day Yeoseo, Fusen, and Bangju. The new Jeongmic settlers brought with them iron tools and weapons, and possessed advanced horse-riding and archery skills. They established several new polities across northern Jungju, of which Old Jeongmi was the most prominent.

Their arrival resulted in an initial heavy depopulation of what is now modern-day Jeongmi. The population of the region prior to the arrival of Jeongmic tribes in the 6th century is estimated to have been at around 5 million people, a mix of Fusenic rice farmers, Haic millet and wheat farmers, and Resic hunter-gatherers. By the 3rd century BCE, this number had dropped to less than 2 million before stabilizing and then later rebounding.

From the 8th century CE, widescale disturbance in eastern Yoju led to another mass wave of migrations from the west, this time from Nukic peoples. In the later days of Cheonje, Nukic and Jeongmic warlords terrorized Cheonje, with the Dobinai (Nukic) warlord Miho capturing the capital Sanggyeong 祥京 and deposing Emperor Mal in 876. Both Jeongmic and Nukic troops were widely utilized by Cheonje as mercenaries by the empire against both external foes and for use in internal power struggles.

Post-classical history
The Gim alphabet was invented in 1122 and spread throughout much of the Jeongmic-speaking world over the next two centuries.

Early modern history
The Kingdom of Anre, once a major player in northern Sinju centered on Yeoseo, saw itself greatly weakened after losing several wars to Jeongmi and Fusen throughout the 16th century, before finally being extinguished in 1604.

Mincang
The 19th century saw the emergence of a Mincangan national movement that culminated in the creation of the Mincang Confederation in 1859.

Muroese Empire


Nationalism was a potent force in Sinju during the 19th century and a visible threat to the Muroese Empire, which was fragmented into a diverse array of different ethnicities and languages that could serve as the basis for separatist nationalisms. This was amplified by the fact that by its neighbors supported the development of separatist movements in the empire, most apparent in Longzhou's support for Venguo separatists.

The Muroese Empire eventually disappeared overnight after its loss in the Great Muja War, being partitioned into several new states based on the country's ethnolinguistic composition. Goma, which as a Muroese-speaking region had remained part of Muro after the war, developed its own separatist movement and won its own independence in 1917.

Imperialism
During the 19th century, Jeongmi, Meisaan, and Fusen built a massive maritime empires. The Jeongmian Empire, formed during a period of Jeongmian maritime hegemony, became the largest empire in world history, at its height encompassing over a quarter of the world's land area. Other Sinjuan countries such as Longzhou, Hokan, and Taikieng created their own colonial empires, but on a smaller scale. Nukigurun continued its overland expansion across Yoju.