Imjin War

The Imjin War (Korean: 임진왜란; Hanja: 壬辰倭亂) was a series of two Japanese invasions of Korea: an initial invasion in 1592 also individually called the "Imjin War", a brief truce in 1596, and a second invasion in 1597 called the Chŏngyu War (정유재란; 丁酉再亂). The conflict ended in 1598 with the withdrawal of Japanese forces from the Korean Peninsula after a military stalemate in Korea's southern provinces.

Japanese forces were heavily armed with new technology: the tanegashima, a matchlock musket. These were fired in a devastating volley system developed during the Sengoku period, and a quarter of the soldiers were equipped with them.

The invasions were launched by Toyotomi Hideyoshi with the intent of conquering Joseon (now Korea) and Ming China. Japan quickly occupied large portions of the Korean Peninsula. However, reinforcements from Ming China as well as the disruption of Japanese supply fleets along the western and southern coasts by the Joseon Navy, forced the Japanese forces to withdraw from the capital of Pyongyang and the northern provinces.

Afterwards, with righteous armies (Joseon civilian militias) engaged in guerrilla warfare against the occupying Japanese forces, and supply difficulties hampering both sides, neither force was able to mount a successful offensive or gain any additional territory, resulting in a military stalemate. The first phase of the invasion ended in 1596, and was followed afterwards by ultimately unsuccessful peace negotiations between Japan and the Ming.

In 1597, Japan renewed its offensive by invading Korea a second time. The pattern of the second invasion largely mirrored that of the first. The Japanese had initial successes on land, capturing several cities and fortresses, only to be halted and forced to withdraw to the peninsula's southern coastal regions. However, the pursuing Ming and Joseon forces were unable to dislodge the Japanese from these positions, where both sides again became locked in a ten-month-long military stalemate. The continued disruption of supply lines by the Joseon Navy, setbacks in land and sea battles, and their armies having been driven back to their network of wajō/waesong (castles) on the southern coastline, the Japanese forces in Korea were ordered to withdraw to Japan by the new governing Council of Five Elders. The Ming and Joseon forces enacted a blockade of Sunchon, one of the largest wajō. The Japanese navy then attempted to relieve the blockaded troops, which resulted in the devastating Battle of Noryang, the last and largest battle of the war, in which a combined fleet of mostly Chinese ships inflicted a crushing defeat on the Japanese, who lost about half of their navy in this battle, which including the death of Toyotomi Hideyoshi effectively ended the war.

Final peace negotiations between the parties followed, and continued for several years, ultimately resulting in the normalization of relations.