Syngman Rhee

Where they went

19 related events

1. 1
   1919Founding of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Koreaparticipant

   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.

2. 2
   1921 – 1922Washington Naval Conferencerelated figure

   At America’s invitation the powers met in Washington to limit naval armaments and settle Pacific and Chinese questions, creating the Washington system that held Japanese expansion in check in Asia and the Pacific.

3. 3
   1923National Representatives' Conferencerelated figure

   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.

4. 4
   1945 – 1946Anti-Trusteeship Movementparticipant

   Kim Gu, Syngman Rhee and the right opposed trusteeship; the left at first opposed it too, then switched to supporting the Moscow decision.

5. 5
   1945 – 1950Disposal of Vested Propertyrelated figure

   The US military government and the Syngman Rhee government sold off to private hands the factories, land and houses left behind by the Japanese.

6. 6
   1946 – 1947US–Soviet Joint Commissionrelated figure

   The US and the Soviet Union met twice to form a provisional government but could not agree on which groups to consult, and the talks broke down.

7. 7
   1946Syngman Rhee's Jeongeup Speechleader

   After the first US–Soviet Joint Commission adjourned, Syngman Rhee proposed at Jeongeup, North Jeolla, that a provisional government be set up even if only in the south.

8. 8
   1948May 10 General Election and the Constitutionparticipant

   Korea’s first election by universal suffrage formed the Constitutional Assembly, which drew up a constitution promulgated on 17 July.

9. 9
   1948Establishment of the Republic of Korealeader

   The National Assembly elected on 10 May drew up a constitution, and on 15 August 1948 the government of the Republic of Korea was established.

10. 10
    1948 – 1949Special Committee for the Investigation of Anti-National Actsrelated figure

    The Constitutional Assembly passed a law punishing collaborators and set up a special committee to investigate them, but it lasted less than a year.

11. 11
    1950North Korean Invasionrelated figure

    North Korean forces attacked across the whole 38th parallel, took Seoul in three days and drove south to the Nakdong River.

12. 12
    1952Excerpt Amendmentleader

    In the provisional capital Busan, the Rhee government declared martial law and pushed a constitutional amendment for direct presidential elections through the Assembly.

13. 13
    1953Korean Armistice Agreementrelated figure

    After more than two years of talks, the armistice was signed at Panmunjom, fixing the Military Demarcation Line and the Demilitarized Zone.

14. 14
    1953ROK–US Mutual Defense Treatyrelated figure

    After the armistice, South Korea and the US signed a mutual defence treaty, the legal basis for stationing US troops in Korea.

15. 15
    1954Rounding-Off Amendmentleader

    An amendment lifting the term limit for the first president failed by one vote, but the government and Liberal Party declared it passed by rounding off.

16. 16
    1958Progressive Party Incidentrelated figure

    Cho Bong-am of the Progressive Party, which called for peaceful unification, was executed on espionage charges and the party dissolved; he was acquitted on retrial in 2011.

17. 17
    1960Rigged Election of 15 Marchrelated figure

    A large-scale rigged election to make Lee Ki-poong vice president set off protests in Masan.

18. 1960April Revolutionrelated figure

    Protests by students and citizens against the rigged election of 15 March 1960 peaked on 19 April and brought down the Syngman Rhee government.

19. 18
    1960 – 1965Resignation and Exile of Syngman Rheerelated figure

    Forced out by the April Revolution, Syngman Rhee left for Hawaii and died in Honolulu in 1965.

Related works

People who appear alongside

• Kim Gu1876 – 1949

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

• Ahn Chang-ho1878 – 1938

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

• Yi Si-yeong1869 – 1953

  Younger brother of Yi Hoe-yeong who went into exile with his brothers, helped found the Sinheung school, served the Provisional Government as Minister of Justice and Finance and became the first Vice President of the Republic of Korea

• Kim Il Sung1912 – 1994

  Leader of North Korea (1948–1994): chairman of the Provisional People’s Committee, then premier and president. Purged rivals after the Korean War and built one-man rule

• Lee Ki-poong1896 – 1960

  Second man of the Liberal Party regime and Speaker of the National Assembly, declared vice president in the rigged election of 15 March 1960; he and his family died after the April Revolution

• Kim Ju-yeol1944 – 1960

  Student who disappeared after the Masan protest of 15 March 1960 and was found dead in Masan harbour; his death spread the protests nationwide into the April Revolution

• 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

• Changing Unification Policies1948 – 2018

  From “march north” to the Panmunjom Declaration — inter-Korean relations from confrontation to dialogue, through joint statements and agreements to summits (up to 2018)

• 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

• The Great Depression and Totalitarianism1919 – 1939

  From the Washington Conference to the invasion of Poland — two decades in which the age of international cooperation collapsed in the Depression, fascism, Nazism and Stalinism rose, and the world slid into war again

• GaeseongAD 901 – 2003

  From Wang Geon, lord of Songak, to the Kaesong Industrial Complex — Gaegyeong, Goryeo’s capital for five centuries, and home of the Song merchants

• Seoul18 BC – 1988

  From Hanseong Baekje to the June Democratic Struggle — the Han River land every kingdom fought for, and Joseon’s capital for five centuries

• Busan1443 – 1979

  Port of the Japan House and of the 1876 opening — Korea’s gateway to Japan, and wartime capital in the Korean War