How the system was created
In 1964 when I began to learn Bridge the good players in Germany played 4-card-mayors (Acol) . Some tried Roman- or Neapolitan-Club the Italian Blue-team (Belladonna, Garozzo, Forquet ...) played. The little old ladies in our local club played a five 5-card-mayor-system called "little Club".

I had the great luck to meet R.F. Schorling, who taught me the System KS invented and played by great American players Edgar Kaplan and Alfred Sheinwold. This system was the basis for my bidding my whole bridge life.
Be happy and buy at once if you find a copy of their book from 1962.
"How to play winning bridge" by E. Kaplan/A. Sheinwold.
It is great, even if you decide not toplay KS or my system.

When I began to start Bridge again after I retired, the world of bidding had developed tremendously. There were a lot of good and new ideas and I adopted them from Marty Bergen. I recommend you to buy and read these books too.
But be aware there are described many alternative conventions. You must discuss with your partner, which of them you'll play.
"Better bidding with Bergen 1" Uncontested auctions
"Better bidding with Bergen 2" Contested auctions

In preparing for these lessons I found Shep's wonderful site. I guess you all know great Shelagh Paulssen from Canada. She is one of the teachers in BIL too.
Shep made very comprehensive and particularized notes on her 2-1-System. I recommend you to study these notes and the remarks in detail. I'm sure, you'll learn a lot.
I found many things identical with my system but I found some new and very useful conventions too, which I adopted.
(i.e. the artificial raise of openers mayor after a stayman response: 1NT 2 2 3 or 1NT 2 2 3)