The story surrounding the rise of nationalism within any nation is a very powerful and meaningful story to tell. Korea is no different. For Korea, the notion of nationalism and independence dates back to the late 19th century, when China, Korea and Japan were in the midst of a power struggle. The struggle for power involved the "decentralization" of China and the significant increase in the power and influence of the Japanese administration. Amidst this shift in East Asian powers and the breakdown of Korea's dependent relationship with China, Korea slowly broke free of its dependence on China and is striving to create its own identity independent of China. However, establishing its own nationalism and independence faced many setbacks due to the ambivalence that arose from Japan's rise to power. While some supported and admired Japan, others perceived its growing influence as a threat. All these external factors that weighed on Korea seemed to trigger the notion of nationalism and the creation of the idea of ​​minjok and the notion of an independent country, kukka. The emergence of nationalist thought in Korea is most likely linked to the arrival of Western ideas and scholarly thinking that were prevalent at that time. The rapid proliferation of nationalism in the country was partly due to the number of academics who wrote and spoke about the subject in books and other media, such as newspapers. Thus, patriotic newspapers like The Independent in the late 19th to early 20th centuries were effective media for transferring nationalist ideology to the Korean population. The entry of Western thought into Korea: the seeds of nationalism and independenceThe end of the 19th century..... . middle of paper ......rs and voice of the nation. Newspapers like The Independent accurately reflected the thoughts of academics in turbulent times. Not only did it become the tool for spreading these ideas, but it became the symbol of the nationalist movement itself. Korea (California: Stanford University Press, 2006) Tongnip Sinmun: April – December 1896, (Seoul, South Korea, 1981) Yongho Ch'oe, Peter H. Lee, William Theodore De Bary, Sources of Korean Tradition: From the XVI to the Twentieth Centuries (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000) Pai, Hyung Il, Constructing 'Korean' Origins: A Critical Review of Archaeology, Historiography, and Racial Myth in Korean State-Formation Theories (London: Harvard University Press, 2000)