History of the TAEKWONDO

The origin of the martial arts associates with the ancient need of the man not only of defending itself, but of developing his body and his mind. Initially this need was translated in the form of " sports activities " generally related to the accomplishment of religious rites. The origin of the martial Korean art dates his origins according to some experts in 1.400 B.C., though they have managed to discover drawings and statuettes with warriors' forms in positions of combat with antiquity of 2.333 B.C.
According to a former Korean legend, it was in this epoch when the King Tan Tan-gun gun, mythical born personage of the son of the sky and a wife of a tribe whose totemic symbol was the bear, I believe Choson's kingdom (former name of the nation of Korea) that was meaning " Earth of the calm dawn ".
EVIDENCES ON THE ORIGIN OF THE TAEKWONDO IN IT SPEAKS ALL TOGETHER
there has been inspected that the Taekwondo is not indigenous to Korea, but a synthesis of martial arts of China and Japan.
The legendary origin of the martial arts Buddhist of the India attributes to himself Bodhidharma, a monk. Bodhidharma travelled to China in the 6th century A.D. and founded the famous monastery Shaolín, and there it taught methods to train his bodies and his spirits. Later, these methods combined with the beginning of the I-Ching and the Taoism, forming the bases for the martial Chinese arts of the Kung Fu, Kempo and Thai Chi Chuan.
 The first really tangible evidence of a martial art in Korea goes back to the period of the " Three Kingdoms ": Koguryo (37 B.C. - 668 A.D.), Paekje (18 B.C. - 660 A.D.), and Chair (57 B.C. - 935 A.D.).
The legendary origin of the martial arts Buddhist of the India attributes to himself Bodhidharma, a monk. Bodhidharma travelled to China in the 6th century A.D. and founded the famous monastery Shaolín, and there it taught methods to train his bodies and his spirits. Later, these methods combined with the beginning of the I-Ching and the Taoism, forming the bases for the martial Chinese arts of the Kung Fu, Kempo and Thai Chi Chuan.
Murals identical with the ruins of two royal tombs (Muyong-chong and Kakchu-chong) constructed in the dynasty Koguryo between 3-427 A.D. to the south of Manchuria, represent two young men in positions of combat.
 Therefore, the evidence indicates that the Koreans developed a primitive form of martial native art a long before Bodhidharma was coming to China and there was developing the Kung Fu of the temple Shaolín (500 A.D.) and it was penetrating in Korea.
It is believed that, proceeding from the temple Shaolín, yes that penetrated later in Korea a hand style China and the combat of foot Kwon Bop. During the Dynasty Sung and Ming, also it is believed that it penetrated the nei-chua (Kung Fu's internal method) and the wai-chua (external method).
 Also there exist evidences of primitive forms of martial arts in Paekje's kingdom (18 B.C. - 660 A.D.), as well as in the kingdom of Chair (57 B.C. - 935 A.D.). It was in the latter where the martial art of Korea reached his higher level.
KOGURYO (37 B.C. - 668 A.D.) But it was in Koguryo's kingdom, placed to the north of Korea bordering on the hostile Chinese tribes, where they had his origin the most former Korean technologies, being born the most former Tae-Kyon as an exercise based on kicks practised by a warriors' body named Sonbae (" man of virtue who never avoids a combat ")
SILLA (57 B.C. - 935 A.D.) The Taekyon was popularized in Koguryo and also it came up to the kingdom of Chair where there was developed, perfected, and renamed as Soo-Bak for the Hwa Rang Do, military, educational and social organization for the young persons of the nobility of Chair, influenced by the discipline of the Buddhism.
 In 668 A.D., Chair unified three kingdoms, graces largely to the influence of the Hwarangdo. The code of honor of the Hwarangdo represents the vertebral philosophical column of the martial Korean arts still today:
 a) Loyalty to the nation
 b) Respect and obedience to the parents
 c) Loyalty to the friends
 d) Value and courage in the battle
 e) Justice and prudence in the use of the violence.
DYNASTY KORYO (918 A.D. - 1392 A.D.) During the Dynasty Koryo (918 A.D. - 1392 A.D.), that reunified the Korean peninsula after Chair (935 A.D.), a great interest developed for the Martial Arts and especially for the Soo Bak Do, as martial art and as sport organized for spectators.
DYNASTY CHOSON (1392 A.D. - 1910 A.D.) The Dynasty Choson (1392 A.D. - 1910 A.D.), also named by Japan like dynasty Yi during the occupation, there was founded on the ideology of the Confucianism (replacing to the Buddhism) that was promoting the reading of the classic Chinese, the poetry and the music, and he was despising to the Martial Arts.
Nevertheless and lucky for the later generations, in 1790 the King Chongio took a great interest as the arts martial native of Korea, and it ordered the teachers Lee Dok Mu and Park Jae Ga to compile all the present forms of martial art in Korea in a classic illustrated book that was called " Muye Dobo Tongii ", which was including the Soo Bak as one of the most important chapters, and that consists of four texts:
 a) The Art of the lance: Chang
 b) The Art of the sword: Kom
 c) The Art of the long stick: Bong Sul
 d) The technologies without weapon: Kwongop
JAPANESE OCCUPATION (1910 - 1945) In 1910, with the Japanese occupation of Korea, the martial Korean arts that they had been declining during the dynasty Yi suffered a mortal blow. The Japanese government suprimió all the cultural activities, including the team sports and the martial Korean arts, in an attempt for destroying the Korean identity. In the Korean schools there was imposed the study of sports Japanese forms as the Judo and the Kendo.
The Japanese Karate and several Chinese forms (Shaolín) got in Korea and were mixed by the Korean forms. A new hybrid form developed stocks on the Subak with Shaolín's technologies and Karate, and there was called he Tang Soo Do (or Kong Soo Do).
TO THE PRESENT DAY
After the liberation of Korea in order the second world war in 1945 and after years of discussions, the leaders of some of the principal schools of martial Korean arts (Chung Do Kwan, Moo Duk Kwan, Yun Muge Kwan, Chang Moo Kwan, Ji Doo Kwan, Song Do Kwan, Oh Do Kwan...) they associated to create the only name that he was identifying to what in West was known then by Korean Karate. The first name that was chosen was Tae Soo Do (" the art of the Chinese hand ") in 1955, though in 1957 it changed definitively for Tae Kwon Do (" the way of the fight of the foot and the fist "), name more similar to the former Tae Kyon.
In 1961 there is founded the Korean Taekwondo Association (KTA) being chosen to Hong Hi Choi as President, but the major gymnasium of Korea (Chung Do Kwan) together with the association Chi Do Kwan there decides to separate and to create the Association Soo Bak Do, great rival of the KTA.
 When in 1962 the Korean Government takes sides for the KTA, many martial artists join then her, TaeKwonDo's name is accepted also by the thickness of the Korean people, and begins his international expansion.
 Tang Soo's associations Do changed the new TKD except the Moo Duk Kwan that registered the Tang Soo Do as official association.
In 1966, because of one " politically unfortunate demonstration " in North Korea, Choi loses the support of the Government of South Korea and must resign the presidency of the KTA. In an attempt for supporting the control on the Taekwondo out of Korea, Choi founds the International Taekwondo Federation (ITF) being established in Canada.
In 1971, one Yong Kim he is elected a president of the KTA, the Korean Government declares the National Taekwondo Deporte and also one declares official headquarters to the Kukkiwon, building constructed in Seoul.
The 1 º Taekwondo's World Championship (bianual) is celebrated in Seoul On May 25, 1973 where there took part approximately 200 competitors of 7 nations. On May 28, 1973 one organizes the World Taekwondo Federation (WTF) with A Yong Kim also to the front.
 The WTF leaves the Hyongs and begins to use the traditional forms Palgwe, and little later the modern forms Taeguk, all that to approach the traditional martial Korean inheritance and to drift apart from the Japanese and Chinese influence (the ITF also retired in the nineties the Hyongs for the Tuls).
From then the expansion of the Taekwondo like Martial Art and especially as Sport follows an enormous development worldwide to the present day, being included in 2 Olympic Games as sport of exhibition (Seoul 1988 and Barcelona 1992) and already as official sport in Sydney 2000 (medal of silver for Gabriel Esparza), Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.