| The March First Movement was the largest and most far-reaching of the Korean national liberation movements,and it was the only one in which all classes,regions(the entire Korean peninsula)and Koreans inside and outside the Korean peninsula participated at the same time.The March First Movement broke out in March 1,1919.In April,it expanded and reached a climax.In May,the Japanese authorities brutally suppressed the Movement,and it basically ended in June of the same year.The first chapter of this paper is the introduction section,which introduces the background of the topic,the status of domestic and foreign research,the research method as well as briefly outlines the basic backgrounds and process of the March First Movement.The body of the paper consists of chapters 2 to 5,which discuss the national bourgeoisie,the young student groups,the peasant class,and the working class in the March First Movement respectively.The second chapter of this paper is related to the national bourgeoisie.First,It argues that the national representatives were essentially a national bourgeoisie with religious backgrounds and intellectual identities.The national bourgeoisie in the capacity of national representatives was the initiator of the March First Movement and determined the nature of the movement.The fact that the national representatives "surrendered" at the beginning of the March First Movement was due to the weak and submissive nature of the national bourgeoisie.The bourgeois movement entered a new phase after the March First Movement,which was marked by the birth of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea.The third chapter of this paper discusses the young students’ group.The rise of nationalist sentiment among the young students’ group made it the vanguard of the March First Movement.The group perceived the political struggle in a simplistic manner due to its own limitations.In recognition of the gap between their own strength and that of the Japanese colonial authorities,the young student group’s position was overly radical.The fourth chapter of this paper covers the working class.The working class was the strongest class in the March First Movement and mainly fought by going on strikes.The working class completed the transformation from a class in itself to a class for itself in the March First Movement.The growth of the working class after the Movement changed the nature of the national liberation movement in Korea and gave it a new meaning.The fifth chapter of this paper is about the peasant class.The reason for the participation of the peasant class in the Movement was the plundering of land and food by the Japanese colonial authorities and the oppression that resulted from the high rents.The peasant class was the main force in the March First Movement,however,its limitations lie in the lack of proper leadership. |
