Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea in the context of "Syngman Rhee"

The Korean independence movement was a series of diplomatic and militant efforts to liberate Korea from Japanese rule. The movement began around the late 19th or early 20th century, and ended with the surrender of Japan in 1945. As independence activism on the peninsula was largely suppressed by Japan, many significant efforts were conducted abroad by the Korean diaspora, as well as by a number of sympathetic non-Koreans.

In the mid-19th century, Japan and China were forced out of their policies of isolationism by the West. Japan then proceeded to rapidly modernize, forcefully open Korea, and establish its own hegemony over the peninsula. Eventually, it formally annexed Korea in 1910. The 1919 March First Movement protests are widely seen as a significant catalyst for the international independence movement, although domestically the protests were violently suppressed. In the aftermath of the protests, thousands of Korean independence activists fled abroad, mostly to China. In April 1919, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (KPG) was founded as a self-proclaimed government in exile.

The United States Army Military Government in Korea (USAMGIK) was the official ruling body of the southern half of the Korean Peninsula from 8 September 1945 to 15 August 1948.

The country during this period was plagued with political and economic chaos, which arose from a variety of causes. The after-effects of the Japanese occupation were still being felt in the occupation zone, as well as in the Soviet zone in the north. Popular discontent stemmed from the United States' military government's support of the Japanese colonial government; then once removed, keeping the former Japanese governors on as advisors; by ignoring, censoring, and forcibly disbanding the functional and popular People's Republic of Korea (PRK); and finally by supporting United Nations elections that divided the country. The U.S. administration refused to recognize the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea, despite the South Korean government considering it their predecessor since 1987.

Prior to the establishment of the two Korean states in 1948, the Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea was established in Shanghai in September 1919 as the continuation of several governments proclaimed in the aftermath of March 1st Movement earlier that year coordinated Korean people's resistance against Japan during the Japanese occupation of Korea. The legitimacy of the Provisional Government has been recognised and succeeded by South Korea in the latter's original Constitution of 1948 and the current Constitution of 1988. Nine people have served twenty-four terms as heads of state (with varying titles) of the Provisional Government between September 1919 and August 1948.

The national flag of the Republic of Korea (South Korea), also known as the Taegeukgi (Korean: 태극기; Hanja: 太極旗), consists of three components: a white rectangular background, a red and blue taegeuk in its center, accompanied by four black trigrams, one in each corner. The predecessors to the current Taegeukgi were used as the national flag of Korea by the Joseon dynasty, the Korean Empire, as well as the Korean government-in-exile during Japanese rule. South Korea adopted Taegeukgi for its national flag in 1948.