History, at its fundamental root, is in itself a long story that stretches many chapters, featuring a wide variety of characters and plots that arise and then fade away at each turning of the page. Turn the page and another tale begins. And this was the way it was when ancient peoples first started telling the stories of the past in order to remember them, revealing to the curious future generations the good times and the bad times as well as the wisdom of old and the glory long gone. As a very human creation, history is the essence of human memory - vast yet limited, detailed yet subjective.
In tradition, the long and complex tale of Korea begins with the foundation of the semi-legendary kingdom of Gojoseon and the rise of its enigmatic founder, Dangun, in the year 2333 BCE. While the history is relatively obscured as many things have been lost or muddled through the mists of time, the figure of Dangun and the culture of Gojoseon has been regarded and still is regarded as the precursor of all Korean civilization. What is known about the Gojoseon, however, reveals a history of development, contact, and frequent conflict among powerful and dubious neighbors, trends that would repeat throughout much of Korean history.
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