Can Someone Please Briefly Describe The Taoism History to Me?

I Know The Important Facts Of It But I Am Still Confused On The Whole Taoism Religion And The History.
I.e How Did It Start & When?
& The Dynasty's?

My explanation would not be enough to do it justice, but here is a link to Wikipedia.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Taoism

If you would like a better understanding, you might try checking out 'Tao Te Ching' by Lao-Tzu.

Taoism was first articulated in verse, the Tao Te Ching, about 500 BC during the late Chou Dynasty. The Tao Te Ching seems in part to be a politically inspired work as well as a religious one. The rulers of the Chou Dynasty seem at first to have been wise and capable but over time became corrupt and oppressive. The poems of the Tao Te Ching lament the loss of the "mandate of heaven" which just and apt rulers held and urges the current, corrupt rulers to return to the "Way".

Inscribed tortoise shell and animal shoulder blade bones used in divination rites dating to much earlier times give some indication that at least some of the basic belief system predates the 81 poems of the Tao Te Ching by perhaps a thousand years or more.

Little is known about the founder of Taoism. Some say he was born in 604 BC, others say 570 BC. Some say he was born old, with white hair, a long white beard, and wrinkly old skin. Others say his mom named him Plum-Tree-Ears because he was born under a plum tree and had long ears. Imagine trying to get a date with a name like that. But his followers call him Lao-Tzu, old philosopher. Apparently he worked for the Chinese government as a curator of the imperial archives.

But Lao-Tzu soon was disgusted with the mean rulers and the idea of government itself, so he quit. He believed men should live simple lives without a hierarchy of honor and without trying to gain a bunch of knowledge. This idea was pretty cool to a lot of people, so he began to have followers because of his ideas. So to get away from the fame he tried to leave the city, but at the border the guards wouldn't let him pass. They told him that his teachings were so great that he had to write them down to share with others, and until then he could not pass.

So Lao goes home and spends three days writing all he knows. He comes out with a little book called the 'Tao Te King' or 'The Way and Its Power.' No one is sure what happened to him. One story says that he got on the back of a water buffalo and rode off into the sunset never to be seen again. Another says that the guard read the little book and decided to do with him. Either way, no one ever saw him again.