The Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea is established.
The Korean Provisional Government (KPG), formally the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, was a partially recognized Korean government-in-exile based in Shanghai, China, and later in Chongqing, during the period of Japanese colonial rule in Korea.
On 11 April 1919, a provisional constitution providing for a democratic republic named the "Republic of Korea" was enacted. It introduced a presidential system and three branches (legislative, administrative and judicial) of government. The KPG inherited the territory of the former Korean Empire. The Korean resistance movement actively supported the independence movement under the provisional government, and received economic and military support from the Kuomintang ("Chinese Nationalist Party"), the Soviet Union, and France.After the surrender of Japan on 15 August 1945, figures such as Kim Gu returned. On 15 August 1948, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was dissolved. Syngman Rhee, who was the first president of the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, became the first President of the Republic of Korea in 1948. The current South Korean government claims through the 1987-amended constitution of South Korea that there is continuity between the KPG and the current South Korean state, though this has been criticized by some historians as constituting revisionism.
The sites of the Provisional Government in Shanghai and Chongqing (Chungking) have been preserved as museums.