Originally Posted by
eternalrag3
TKD is an amalgamation of about 9 or so martial arts schools that opened up in Korea following liberation in 1945 from Japanese occupation. During the occupation, the only martial arts allowed were karate, judo, and kendo. So yes, these nine schools that opened up were basically karate, which the founders of those schools picked up at universities.
About 10 years or so following the liberation, the Korean government felt a need to re-establish a "national Korean identity", so they did away with everything Japanese, including an attempt to merge the nine schools under the name "TKD". That's why sometimes these days you will see "Chang Moo Kwan TKD" or "Moo Duk Kwan TKD", these schools giving a shoutout to whichever lineage they spring from.
"Tang Soo Do" in Korean means the same thing as "Karate", but these days usually refers to the line of schools descending from the Moo Duk Kwan. The forms in this system are Anko Itosu's Heian/Pinan sets, as well as Bassai, Kusanku, Tekki, Lohai, etc, just given Koreanized names (Pyung Ahn, Bassai, Kong Sang Koon, Nai Han Chi, Rohai).
"Korean Karate" is a term popularized by servicemen and Koreans who came over to the US to spread korean martial arts. Since most of today's korean MAs (TKD, Tang Soo Do, Kuk Sul Won, Hwarangdo, etc) all stem from karate, this would be an accurate term.
None of today's modern Korean MA have a direct lineage to the Silla Dynasty, or the Hwarang, or ancient Korea in general. That is all bullshit propaganda to try and give korean MA's some sort of historical cred, which is stupid because take a look at their forms and you can see where exactly they hail from.
The only true Korean MAs these days are taekkyun and ssireum. Anyone who tells you otherwise is full of shit.