Page 70 - NAKS MAC 2026 EBook

2026년 독립기념 ‘코리아 리뷰’ 에세이

Ashley Kang

The Historical Significance of American Independence and the Korean Independence
Movement

Have you ever heard of the American Independence and the Korean Independence Movement? To put
it simply, American Independence was achieved by war of the U.S. colonies against Great Britain for
control over the U.S. colonies. While the Korean Independent Movement were battles of weapons of
soldiers, the protests of students and civilians and other important activities of the people of Korea that
were against the annexation of Japan to take back their independence. In both of those historical and
major landmarks, there were many events and ideas that were historically significant.

What does historical significance mean? Historical significance means the decision or action the
people of the past took upon that the modern crowd deems important. This “modern crowd” is a group of
people that have different views or opinions about the historical significance of those events and ideas
that occurred, or were thought of in the past. The Korean Independent Movement and the American
Independence were both historically significant because of the historical events and people that were
important and made a change that led to the Korean Independent Movement and the American
Independence.

There were many people and events that were historically significant to the Korean Independence
Movement. One of the important events was the March 1st Movement that started on March 1, 1919 and
ended somewhere around spring of 1921. The march consisted of regular civilians and students. The
march was not violent as the civilians and students marched in the streets of Korea courageously. But the
soldiers of Japan arrested those protestors and tortured them, which resulted in death for some people.
This March 1st Movement showed the courage and determination of the protesters against the Japanese
annexation and the desire to regain their independence. This event is known and is important to the
history of Korea and the sacrifices of the protestors are remembered by current generations of Korean
citizens.
The March 1st Movement was led by a brave student and a Korean independent activist known as Yu
Gwan-sun. She was born in the winter of 1902, 13 years before the Japanese annexation and her parents
were both later killed by Japanese soldiers. When Yu Gwan-sun saw people like her suffering from the
annexation, she gathered students and people for the March 1st Movement to protest. Although the
march wasn’t violent, the Japanese soldiers arrested the protestors and tortured them, which often
resulted in death. Unfortunately, Yu Gwan-sun was one of the prisoners, and passed away in prison at the
young age of 17, in the fall of 1920. Yu Gwan-sun is known as a courageous and determined schoolgirl and
Korean independence activist who died for her country’s independence.
The March 1st Movement and Yu Gwan-sun is historically significant because of her determination,
courage, sacrifice, and her efforts in leading the March 1st Movement for her country’s independence.
While the Korean Independent Movement had non violent protests, the American Independence also
had many non violent ways of defeating the British rule. One of those ways was boycotting. The Stamp Act
of 1765 was one of the actions the colonists did to lower the taxes of the stamps that the British sold.
Many of the colonists protested in the streets about the higher taxes and voiced their opinions about
them. A similar occurrence was the Townshend Acts of 1767 when the British parliament passed to
increase the taxes on materials like glass, paper,and tea. To protest, the merchants stopped buying and
trading materials from Britain and made dresses and clothes themselves. This led to the British economy
starting to fall. The colonists who had no voice in the parliament were able to voice it by boycotting
through non violent means.
The boycotting of the Stamp Act of 1765 and the Townshend Acts of 1767 were both the efforts of
colonists trying to lower the high tax rates. The efforts of the colonists are the reason for how American
Independence was historically significant.
In conclusion, the American Independence and the Korean Independence Movement were
historically significant because of the people’s effort, determination and courage.

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