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Person1878 – 1938

Ahn Chang-ho

Founder of the Sinminhoe and the Heungsadan; as Interior Minister of the Provisional Government he set up the yeontongje network

Known as Dosan, he was born in Gangseo, South Pyeongan. He joined the Independence Club and made his name as a speaker at the people's assembly in Pyongyang. In 1902 he went to America, where he looked after Korean labourers and founded the Gongnip Association; returning in 1907, he founded the secret Sinminhoe with Yang Gi-tak, Yi Seung-hun and others. He set up the Daeseong School in Pyongyang and book and ceramics businesses, urging Koreans to build their strength through education and industry.

Going abroad in 1910, he founded the Heungsadan to train young leaders in San Francisco in 1913. In 1919, as Home Minister and acting Premier of the Provisional Government in Shanghai, he built the secret liaison network (yeontongje) and communications offices linking it with Korea. In 1923 he led the National Representatives' Conference to unite the movement, without success.

Arrested in Shanghai after Yun Bong-gil's attack in 1932, he was imprisoned in Korea, jailed again in the Suyang Dong'uhoe Incident of 1937, released when gravely ill, and died on 10 March 1938. He left the call "Build our strength" and the creed of earnest practice without falsehood. He was posthumously awarded the Republic of Korea Medal in 1962.

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4 related events

  1. 1
    1907 – 1911Sinminhoe (New People’s Association)leader

    Ahn Chang-ho, Yang Gi-tak and others founded the secret New People’s Association, aiming to recover sovereignty and build a modern republic by fostering education and industry and setting up independence bases abroad.

  2. 2
    1911 – 1913Case of the 105related figure

    Japan fabricated a plot to assassinate Governor-General Terauchi and arrested some 600 people, many from the Sinminhoe. 105 were convicted at first instance, giving the case its name.

  3. 3
    1919Founding of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korealeader

    After the March First Movement, on 11 April 1919, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was founded in Shanghai, the first Korean government to adopt a democratic republic. In September it merged the several provisional governments.

  4. 4
    1923National Representatives' Conferenceleader

    Delegates of the independence movement at home and abroad met in Shanghai to decide the future of the Provisional Government. The "creation" and "reform" factions clashed and the conference broke up.

Related works

  • TV episode: Naked Korean History Episode 121: How Did Dosan Ahn Chang-ho Become the Superman of Koreans?TV episode · 2024 · tvN STORY

People who appear alongside

  • Yang Gi-tak1871 – 1938

    Co-publisher of the Daehan maeil sinbo who led the National Debt Repayment Movement and the New People’s Association

  • Yi Seung-hun1864 – 1930

    Sinminhoe member who founded the Osan School in Jeongju, was jailed in the Case of the 105 and was a Christian representative in the March First Movement

  • Yi Dong-nyeong1869 – 1940

    Sinminhoe member who helped found the Sinheung school in western Jiandao and served as Speaker of the Provisional Assembly and head of the Provisional Government

  • Syngman Rhee1875 – 1965

    First President of the Provisional Government, who worked through diplomacy in the US; later first President of the Republic of Korea

  • Kim Gu1876 – 1949

    Known as Baekbeom; founded the Korean Patriotic Organization and led the Liberation Army as Chairman of the Provisional Government

  • Terauchi Masatake1852 – 1919

    Last Resident-General and first Governor-General of Korea, who ruled through the military police

  • Yi Dong-hwi1873 – 1935

    Vice-president of the Korean Gwangbokgun Government and first Premier of the Provisional Government; founded the Korean Socialist Party

  • Yeo Un-hyeong1886 – 1947

    Founded the New Korea Youth Party in Shanghai and in 1944 the underground Korean Founding League at home

Themes this person appears in

  • Republican China and Imperial Japan1912 – 1949

    The age when the Republic of China, born of the 1911 Revolution, passed through warlord division, the May Fourth Movement, the United Front and the Northern Expedition, fought Japan’s invasion and split in civil war — as Japan moved from Taishō democracy through the Manchurian Incident and military coups to the war in China and the Co-Prosperity Sphere, and colonized Korea resisted through the March First Movement and armed struggle

  • Pyongyang194 BC – 2007

    From Wanggeom-seong of Gojoseon to the inter-Korean summits — capital of Goguryeo, Western Capital of Goryeo, the great city on the Taedong