The history of South Korea formally begins with the Japanese surrender on September 2, 1945. Noting that, South Korea and North Korea are entirely different countries, despite still being the same people and on the same peninsula . Korea was administratively partitioned in 1945, at the end of World War II.

South Korea's history has been marked by alternating periods of democratic and autocratic rule. Historians have conventionally numbered civilian governments from the First Republic of Syngman Rhee to the contemporary Sixth Republic. The First Republic, arguably democratic at its inception, became increasingly autocratic until its collapse in 1960.

South Korea's recent history is one of amazing progress. Annexed by Japan early in the 20th century, and ravaged by World War II and the Korean War, South Korea lapsed into military dictatorship for decades.

People in southern Korea adopted intensive dry-field and paddy-field agriculture with a multitude of crops in the Early Mumun Period (1500–850 BC). The first societies led by big-men or chiefs emerged in the Middle Mumun (850–550 BC), and the first ostentatious elite burials can be traced to the Late Mumun (c. 550–300 BC).