Mahan was a tribal confederation in Iron Age Korea around the beginning of the Common Era. Along with Jinhan and Byeonhan, Mahan is considered one of the Samhan, or "Three Han." At its height, the Mahan confederation covered much of the modern-day provinces of Gyeonggi, Chungcheong, and Jeolla. Our primary source of information about the Mahan is the Chinese chronicle San Guo Zhi, which includes a list of the 54 tribes in Mahan. The Mahan tribes are also mentioned in the much later Korean chronicles Samguk Yusa and Samguk Sagi.
In the first and second centuries AD, the Baekje kingdom gained increasing power among the Mahan tribes, eventually absorbing or conquering all of them. Thus the Three Han gave way to the Three Kingdoms period.
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