전쟁과정 이론을 통해 본 병자호란 개전(開戰)원인에 관한 연구

Abstract

The international order and situations in East Asia in the 17th century were a very complicated and being confused period. The major East Asian states, Joseon, Ming, Mongolia, and Qing, were at a critical time to change their national strategic postures. In particular, due to the long war between the Ming and Qing empires to seize hegemony in the international order in East Asia, each country had to do its best to maintain national power for surviving. From this complex point of view, the conceptual framework of war process theory was used to derive the cause of the outbreak of the Qing Empire's Invasion to Joseon in 1636. The key variables are, first, the structural factor of the regional international system, and second, the national attribute factor. Third, the relative relationship factor, and fourth, the historical experience factor. This study was aimed to analyze how these factors were interacted during the outbreak of the Qing Empire's Invasion to Joseon. Hong Taiji, the emperor of the Qing Empire, built a countermeasure system against the alliance system between the Ming Empire and Joseon by first conquering and integrating Mongolia in order to overcome his strategic weakness of being surrounded by the Ming Empire, Mongolia, and Joseon. Subsequently, by subjugating Joseon, the emperor tried to create advantageous situations in which the Qing Empire, Mongolia, and Joseon could make the Ming Empire surrounded. In 1636, Hong Taiji, who took the throne as the undisputed emperor representing the Manchus, Mongols, and Han race, had only the priorities of which direction to preemptively attack the Ming Empire and Joseon, and when to attack. Hong Taiji's choice was to attack Joseon preemptively, mobilizing all available forces and ending the war against Joseon in a shorter period. In the end, the decisive factor in the outbreak of war was the strategic judgement of Hong Taiji, the Qing emperor. The cause of the Qing Empire's Invasion to Joseon has great implications even today.