KOREA: "HERMIT KINGDOM" IS A FACT! In 1656 a Dutch merchant ship went aground off Cheju Island, and its 36 surviving crewmen were taken to Seoul for detention. During persecutions in 1801, 1839, and 1866, Korean converts were either put to death or forced to recant; foreign missionaries were often killed.	VIETNAM: WARRING CLANS SEEK SUPPORTERS In 1493, Pope Alexander VI split the map of the world into equal parts for Portugal and Spain to share in its territorial and spiritual appropriation. Portuguese (pursuing spices) capture spice-trading Malacca in 1511. In 1535 Portuguese explorers arrived at the Bay of Tourane (Da Nang). This site became the primary Western trading port Faifo (Hoi An) in region called Cochinchina.
INTELLECTUAL CHANGE
Korea's first significant contact with Christianity was through missionaries in China. A new religion founded in 1860 by Ch'oe Che-u, with traditional animism to appeal to the peasantry. This religion was called Tonghak, or "Eastern Learning," to contrast with Sohak, or "Western Learning"--i.e., Catholicism.	Alexander de Rhodes (1591-1660): credited with the development of quoc ngu, the phonetic alphabet used in the writing of modern Vietnamese. French missionaries eventually take Mainland SEA as their territory.
SOCIAL CHANGE
Common people attracted to Christianity with promises of social equality.	Little effect at local level until French form Indochina’s colonial administration.