• Journal of the Korean association of regional geographers
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• v.19 no.4
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• pp.747-763
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• 2013

Books on world geography, so called "萬國地誌" had an important influence on changing Koreans' views of the world and the nation through the introduction of new world geographical knowledge during the period of modern enlightenment(1894~1910). "小學萬國地誌" was published in 1895 by Hakbu as an early world geography textbook. This study sought to discuss the significance and influence of "小學萬國地誌" by focusing on its contents organization and description style. The findings are as follows. The six regional contents organization adopted the modern regional geographical method by regional scale classification, describing the human geography based on the physical geography, comparing regional characteristics or studying the relationship between human and the nature. In addition, this textbook was written using the kukhanmun style that displays several characteristics of modern printing culture. Many geographical names were written in Korean characters and geographical knowledge was accepted actively from the modern world, subsequently contributing to the generalization of geographical knowledge. This textbook led to the transition of the Koreans' worldview from a China-centric focus by providing practical and specific knowledge about the world, toward the Korean modernization based on the multiple ideologies of social Darwinism and the advent of enlightenment, imperialism and nationalism.