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Abstract

The Joseon Dynasty, having adopted Neo-Confucianism as the basis of its ruling order, applied the principles of Sino-centrism (華夷論) to its spatial awareness and operation. According to this ideology, the dynasty divided its domains into civilized (華) and non-civilized (夷) areas, and considered its islands to belong to the latter group, that is, “barbaric lands” located beyond the reach of the king’s edification. That is how the rulers of the dynasty adopted the “vacant island” (空島) policy, prohibiting its people from inhabiting the islands, except for those close to the mainland or large enough to have a county or prefectural administration. Many of the uninhabited islands were used as state-owned horse farms. It was during the mid-seventeenth century, shortly after Joseon had suffered two devastating invasions, one by the Japanese (Imjin waeran, 1592-98) and the other by the Manchus (Byeongja horan, 1636-37), that significant changes occurred in the Joseon dynasty’s interest in and understanding of the strategic importance of the islands, resulting in the adoption of an entirely new policy. The key to the new policy was the shift from “vacation” to “inhabitation” of the islands and the establishment of naval bases on certain strategic islands. Now the islands began to be perceived as useful parts of the territory. This paper examines changes in the awareness and policies of the Joseon dynasty regarding the importance of its islands through a case study of Jeollado Province. The results are as follows. First, the number of islands identified by the Joseon dynasty increased dramatically, from about 30 in the first half of the fifteenth century to 250 about a century later, and continued to grow to between 430 and 460 by the mid-nineteenth century. Second, there were 34 state-run horse farms on the islands of Jeollado Province in the fifteenth century, but this figure was drastically reduced by more than half, to 15, in the late seventeenth century. Research has also revealed that at least thirtyfour horse farms run by the Joseon dynasty were closed in the mid-Joseon period. This decrease was inversely proportional to the number of islands identified by the government of Joseon after the mid-Joseon period. Third, the abolition of the “island vacation” policy as well as the closure of the state-run horse farms led to a dramatic increase in the number of people inhabiting the islands of Jeollado Province, resulting in the growth of the population by 23% over a thirty-year period in late Joseon. The population of the islands in some counties and prefectures rose by as much as thirty per cent, which contributed to promoting the status of the islands in the administrative units concerned to one equivalent to those of the larger units on the mainland. Fourth, the dramatic increase in the population of the islands of Jeollado Province led to the establishment of new naval bases around the islands. Until the fifteenth or sixteenth century there were only seven naval bases, but the figure doubled to fifteen in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In conclusion, a series of remarkable changes occurred in the islands of Jeollado Province during the late Joseon period. Such changes were largely attributable to the Joseon government’s new understanding of, and increasing interest in, the importance of the islands and to the change of policies occasioned by this new perception of the islands. For the government of the late Joseon period, the islands were no longer a space of separation and isolation but one of communication.