100 historical puzzles full of twists and shocks

On May 6, 1889, the day the Eiffel Tower, a symbol of modernity, stood tall in Europe, a lowly civil servant in Joseon was appointed as the governor of Gobu County.
The cause of the largest civil uprising in Joseon, the Donghak Peasant Revolution, is Jo Byeong-gap.
The Eiffel Tower changed the world, and so did a single person.
A year before the poor French intellectual Denis Diderot was appointed editor-in-chief of the Encyclopédie, King Yeongjo of Joseon destroyed a telescope that his subjects had obtained with difficulty from the Qing Dynasty.
It is an 'ugly' tool that dares to look straight at the sun.
The 'Encyclopedists' ushered in the Age of Enlightenment in Europe, while the broken telescope brought damp darkness to Joseon, rather than light.
During the majestic 19th century, when the entire world was rushing toward modernity, striving for wealth and a strong military, what was happening in Joseon and the world? When Newton discovered the law of universal gravitation after seeing an apple, and when Edison invented the phonograph, what did Joseon realize and invent during the same era?

At some point, history ceased to be a necessary map for moving forward into the future, but became a tool that was not afraid to be distorted for personal gain.
History exists not just for pride.
Mistakes and failures are also part of our history that we must not forget.
"100 Lost Scenes of Modern History" captures 100 scenes that changed the fate of this land during a time when the world was in turmoil due to explosive "intellect" and intense "exchange."
From the reign of King Yeongjeongjo to liberation and the founding of the nation, all 100 scenes are 'inconvenient' facts that cannot be learned in school.
The moment we properly confront the history that has been 'disappeared' by someone, things that were previously invisible begin to become visible.

No matter how hard you try, if it can't be done, it can't be done.
Sorry, but that's the world.
If good people always live well, why learn morality?
Morality is taught in schools because there are countless bad people among the rich.
But no matter how much you teach, the number of bad people does not decrease, and good people usually suffer losses.
I repeat, unfortunately, that is the world.
The driving force behind history is intelligence.
Intelligence creates the times.
When it is said that ‘intelligence moves heaven’, it is not ‘intelligence with utmost sincerity’ but ‘intelligence with utmost sincerity’.
Knowledge and reason.
Heaven is not moved by your sincerity.
Only by using our brains and successfully solving problems can we move forward into a new era.
Then the heavens will be moved.
It is not sincerity, but intelligence that moves heaven.
This is important.
The saying, “If you have intelligence, you can move heaven” contains a hidden moral expectation.
It is an unscientific proposition that even if you are incompetent, if you work hard you will succeed, or rather, you should succeed.
My goodness, have you ever seen a history where a good country won?
The history we learn in school during our youth contains precisely that hopeful view of history.
But real history has nothing to do with morality.
---From the "Preface"

Newton is the person who completed the scientific revolution that Copernicus had ignited in Europe in the 16th century.
The scientific revolution was driven by the modern spirit of reason.
The law of universal gravitation, or gravitation, which Newton announced in his 1687 treatise Principia, greatly contributed to the Industrial Revolution that Europeans later achieved.
Newton died on March 20, 1726, four months after King Yeongjo announced the three major national indicators.
Along with the law of universal gravitation, there is another law discovered by Newton.
It's called the 'Law of the Three Movements'.
There are three: ‘the law of inertia’, ‘the law of acceleration’, and ‘the law of action and reaction’.
All the machines and scientific tools we use in our daily lives today are household items created using these three laws of nature.
There is no room here for metaphysical laws such as morality, philosophy, or ethics.
Gangsters ride cars, and priests, pastors, and monks ride cars too.
There is no good or evil in law, nature, or machines.
---「Chapter 1.
From the Yeongjeongjo era

Gojong was a member of the royal family who was chosen because the interests of the Pungyang Jo clan's Dowager Queen and the powerful families aligned.
He is a man who never received imperial training and would have lived an ordinary life and died if King Cheoljong had not died.
Such a boy became king at a time when the old system was in ruins and the world was collapsing.
(…) Those who led the Meiji Restoration were modern people who had witnessed the ‘cold modern era.’
These people are often called Yushin Jisha.
Among them, the person who is well known to us is Ito Hirobumi.
Entering the reign of King Gojong, Joseon now entered into full-scale conflict with Japan, and indeed, the world.
The 'exchange' and 'intellect' that I have consistently talked about in this book now meet the modern era.
How will Joseon navigate this modern era, whose true identity was revealed by the Opium Wars and rationalized by Darwin?
There were no modern people in Joseon.
There was no Yushin leader who reformed Japan.
But then suddenly modern times came.
These last few scenes are the story of a man coping with the modern times during the first ten years of King Gojong's reign.
This is the story of Heungseon Daewongun, the father of King Gojong, who failed to reform Joseon.
---「Chapter 2.
From the Daewongun era

Every failed revolution becomes treason, and its instigators become traitors.
Kim Ok-gyun, Hong Yeong-sik, Park Yeong-hyo, Seo Gwang-beom, and Seo Jae-pil were killed on the streets or went into exile.
Family members also commit suicide or are executed.
(…) On September 24, Gojong received his appointment letters from those representing the emperor at the Mohwagwan in Muakjae.
The Byeong-in Yangyo was simply a ‘commotion’, a Western disturbance, caused by Western barbarians.
The Gapsin Coup was an incident that occurred when elites rebelled against the four great powers.
The coup failed and the Four Great Powers were not liquidated.
Rather, it ended in a tragedy where even the family was implicated and executed, and even their names were erased.

---「Chapter 3.
From the era of King Gojong and the Min clan