Silla–Goguryeo and Paekche–Kaya–Wa War
4th to 5th century war in Korea
The Silla–Goguryeo and Paekche–Kaya–Wa War (Korean: 나여–제야왜 전쟁; Hanja: 羅麗・濟倻倭 戰爭; RR: Nayeo–Jeyawae Jeonjaeng; MR: Nayŏ–Cheyawae Chŏnjaeng) was a series of conflicts that spanned for 40 years from the mid 4th century to the early 5th century between the Silla–Goguryeo alliance and the Paekche–Kaya–Wa alliance according to the Samguk sagi, Samguk yusa, Nihon Shoki, and inscriptions found in the Gwanggaeto Stele.
It was the first and only time where all four nations of Korea (Goguryeo–Silla–Paekche–Kaya) were involved in a single war, and Wa (Japan)'s first international conflict prior to the introduction of the Yamato Kingship and the following Battle of Baekgang that came after.
Background
History
During the Three Kingdoms period, Korea was divided into three kingdoms (Goguryeo, Paekche, Silla) and one confederacy of smaller kingdoms (Kaya).
Goguryeo, a kingdom that was built by Prince Chumong (King Dongmyeong) of Buyeo alongside the native Koreans in the ruins of Old Chosŏn, expanded its territories southward, overthrowing and absorbing the Four Commanderies of Han that were established after the Han dynasty invaded and destroyed Old Chosŏn. The kingdom reclaimed most of the lost lands from the Han by the early 4th century and successfully repelled incoming invasions from the Chinese dynasties.
Paekche was a kingdom that arose from an earlier confederacy (Mahan confederacy) that was part of the Samhan period of Korea. It is said that King Dongmyeong's second son, Onjo moved to Mahan and united the people there to create a new kingdom. Paekche became a powerful naval kingdom that had good diplomatic ties with Japan.
Kaya was a confederacy that succeeded its former polity known as the Byeonhan confederacy, it was the only region in Korea that did not become a single nation, but remained as a key trading hub for kingdoms in East Asia. The confederacy was composed of smaller kingdoms, but was unilaterally managed under the leadership of Geumgwan Gaya.
This brief starts where responsible research should: with the source description of “Silla–Goguryeo and Paekche–Kaya–Wa War” as 4th to 5th century war in Korea. Everything that follows is an evidence route, not borrowed authority.
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The subject matters to the history & society register because the source frames it as 4th to 5th century war in Korea. Its deeper value depends on whether names, dates, institutions and citations support that framing.
Contemporary correspondence, administrative files and participant testimony can test how later narratives organized the event or institution. The source revision retrieved here is dated Aug 31, 2026. The linked authority identifier is Q703426. None of the 0 selected statements returned an explicit reference.
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This entry incorporates text from “Silla–Goguryeo and Paekche–Kaya–Wa War” on English Wikipedia. Contributors are listed in the page history. Text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Selected authority identifiers and statements are retrieved from Wikidata under CC0; their references and qualifiers remain part of the verification path.