Korea's Technological Connections to the Rest of the World: Firearms

While the Choson Navy ultimately emerged victoriously under the leadership of Admiral Yi, during the Imjin War, Choson, Korea- other than in number of soldiers- severely lacked in the number of firearms and its effectiveness due to the muskets, or Arquebuses, used by Japanese troops.

Even though gunpowder was around for hundreds of years as it was utilized in fireworks and cannons, when Japan invaded the Korean peninsula, they stormed the Korean coasts with a frightening new weapon which, when correctly utilized, destroyed the Choson forces. The Arquebus musket was far more advanced, frightening, and deadlier than the bows and other ranged weapons used by Korea; therefore, had no chance repelling the Japanese invaders on land. It was only by defeating the Japanese at sea that the enemy's supply line was cut and forced the Japanese to retreat due to starvation.

I believe that the Arbescus was able to make it to the hand of the Japanese due to their open-door policy toward foreign trading compared to the closed-door policy of the Choson bureaucracy. The musket technology eventually made it to Korean armories once Choson soldiers commandeered the weapons from fallen Japanese troops.

However, before Choson was introduced to the "Jo-chong" by the Japanese, they were experimenting with a gunpowder weapon of their own. However, it was so inefficient that the Choson muskets never made records- at least to the world wide web or Korean history books. My assumption is that the lack of efficiency came from its design and the way it was used. These 'ancient blunderbusses' were exactly what I said it was: portable cannons.

The weapon was extremely inaccurate due to the fact that these miniature cannons required to be hand-held, had poor range, and was engineered out of a quick need to respond against the Japanese muskets. Either way, Choson repelled the Japanese thanks to the leadership of Admiral Yi.