Communal societies of prehistoric times -- Walled-town states and confederated kingdoms -- Aristocratic societies under monarchical rule -- Fashioning of an authoritarian monarchy -- Age of powerful gentry families -- Hereditary aristocratic order of Koryŏ -- Rule by the military -- Emergence of the literati --Creation of a Yangban society -- Rise of the neo-Confucian literati -- Emergence of landed farmers and wholesale merchants -- Instability of the Yangban status system and the outbreak of popular uprisings -- Growth of the forces of enlightenment -- Nationalist stirrings and imperialist aggression -- Development of the nationalist movement -- Beginnings of democracy.