After World War II, when Korea became independent, several kwans arose.

These kwans were:

• Chung Do Kwan
• Moo Duk Kwan
• Yun Moo Kwan
• Chang Moo Kwan
• Oh Do Kwan
• Ji Do Kwan
• Chi Do Kwan
• Song Moo Kwan

The Kwans united in 1955 as Tae Soo Do. In the beginning of 1957, the name Taekwondo was adopted by several Korean martial arts masters, for its similarity to the name Tae Kyon.

 General Choi Hong-hi required the army to train Taekwondo, so the very first Taekwondo students were Korean soldiers. The police and air force had to learn Taekwondo as well. At that time, Taekwondo was merely a Korean version of Shotokan   Karate. In 1961 the Korean Taekwondo Union arose from the Soo Bakh Do Association and the Tae Soo Do Association. In 1962 the   Korean Amateur Sports Association acknowledged the Korean Taekwondo Union and in 1965 the name was changed to Korean   Taekwondo Association (K.T.A.). General Choi was president of the K.T.A. at that time and was asked to start the I.T.F.  as the international branch of the K.T.A. The southern government was overthrown in 1961. General Choi Hong-hi left for America and established I.T.F. (International Taekwondo Federation) Taekwondo, as a separate entity, two years later.

Demonstrations were given all over the world. It took a while before real progress was made, but eventually, in 1973, the World Taekwondo Federation (W.T.F.) was founded. In 1980, W.T.F. Taekwondo was recognized by the International Olympic Committee (I.O.C.) and became a demonstration sport at the Olympics in 1988. In the year 2000 taekwondo made its debut as an official Olympic sport. There were several attempts to unify I.T.F. and W.T.F. Taekwondo, but unfortunately, these failed.

ITF VS WTF

  General Choi established ITF-Taekwondo (which practices a   more traditional form of taekwondo) while WTF-Taekwondo   (which has a strong emphasis on sparring) became an Olympic sport in 2000.

A goodwill trip to North-Korea in 1966 caused General Choi to fall in disgrace in the eyes of the South-Koreans. Choi resigned as president of the K.T.A. and founded the I.T.F. on March, the   22nd of that same year. The headquarters of ITF was established in Canada.

ITF started concentrating on the forms developed by General   Choi, while the KTA (which later, on May 28, 1973, became the WTF) concentrated on the Palgwe’s. Later the WTF abandoned the Palgwe’s and started concentrating on Taeguks. Slowly, the WTF emphasis turned to sparring. This is also the reason why a lot of people call (WTF) Taekwondo a ‘Martial Sport’ rather than a ‘Martial Art’.

The American Taekwondo Association (ATA) is a smaller organization, and has many similarities to the ITF. The ATA has a copyright on the forms of the organization, so these forms cannot be used on competitions by non-members. There are many organizations, but the three mentioned above have the most members.

ITF practices the so-called ‘semi-contact’ part of Taekwondo, while WTF practices the so-called ‘full-contact’ part. ITF focuses more on the ‘traditional way’ of taekwondo. Since the break-up, there have been many attempts to reunite WTF and ITF, so-far without success. There probably will never be a union within Taekwondo.