The Three Hans- Why Korea's Native Name is Daehan

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Why Korea's name is Daehan? Well, to those who don't know the ancient characters of hanja which make up 70% of the Korean language, Daehan means, in literal translation, "Large Han". What is this "Han", then?

Not to be confused with the ethnic Han Chinese (Basically the people living in current People's Republic of China excluding the province of Inner Mongolia, Xinjiang Uighur, Tibet, Qinghai, etc.), the "Han"s, are three "United" kingdoms in peace, in which they themselves are united, too. The three Hans are Mahan (마한), Jinhan (진한), and Byunhan (변한).

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The Mahan Confederacy is mostly the area of the Baekjae Dynasty that existed after it. It was a council of tribal kings and leaders, then mostly the council was led by Onjo, the brother of the second king of the Gorguyeo Dynasty in the north, who decided to move South and make his own kingdom. Later, he conquered all of the area of Mahan and later led the council of Kings.

The Jinhan Confederacy was the area of the 12 kingdoms, currently North Gyeongsang Province, in which later got united by the Saroguks, based in Gyeongju City, and became the Shinla Dynasty, Shinla had three families choosing the leader, rotating by the Parks, Suks, and Kims, which all had family relations with each other. Later, the Kim family only had kings.

Then comes Byunhan. later the short-living Gaya Dynasty and then part of Shinla.  Gaya was famous for a lot of natural resources, especially Iron and metal, in which they used it to make the most strongest weopons in East Asia and sell some of the resources to the Japanese.

Now, where does the name "Daehan" first get used? In October 12th, 1897, King Gojong of the Joeson Dynasty (1392-1910) decided China was to weak to give tributes to, and decided to modernize the nation so it won't fall behind huge empires. Yes, the Korean Empire in Korean is "Daehan Jaeguk", meaning "Daehan Empire". The Republic of Korea in Korean is "대한민국", "Daehan Minguk", meaning Daehan People's nation= Republic of Daehan. North Korea's government prefers to use everything as "Joeson", not "Daehan", though.

Why Hanguk is sometimes used in South Korea, is because it acts as an abbreviation for "Daehan Minguk". (That's why it's Hangook Tires, Canada's No. 1 Tire, not Daehan Mingook Tires!)
You get it? Hangook Tires actually advertised their brand like that in Canada!

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