Richard D. McBride II

10.18399/acta.2025.28.2.006

Internal development theory Yi Kibaek modernization theory Marxist history historiography in Korea

Internal development theory (naejaejŏk palchŏnnon) has been one of the most influential and enduring approaches to the systematic study of Korean history since its classic articulation in the 1960s by Yi Kibaek (1924–2004) in Han’guksa sillon (1967, rev. ed. 1976). Scholars see both the influence of modernization theory and resonance with Marxist history in Yi’s language choices. More importantly, it makes Koreans actors in their historical development, unlike Japanese theories of the colonial period which imagined Korea as merely a geographic area acted upon by outside forces. Internal development theory is conventionally invoked in two modes. The first is in its modern mode to advance the position that the “sprouts of capitalism” had appeared and would eventually have led toward Western-style modernization if Chosŏn Korea (1392–1910) was not colonized by Imperial Japan (1868–1945). The second is in its premodern mode, where it asserts that the rise of new social groups were the primary cause of political change. Scholars have tested the premodern mode of internal development theory and, although some aspects are not completely persuasive, the basic premise continues to be influential. This essay presents a draft translation of the last chapter of the revised edition of Han’guksa sillon, “Han’guksa ŭi palchŏn kwa chibae seryŏk” (Development and ruling power in Korean history), which was not included in Edward Wagner’s translation (1984). This hitherto untranslated chapter articulates the way Yi conceptualized what came to be known as the internal development theory.