ABSTRACT
This groundbreaking chapter traces the historical origins of the democratic republicanism of the Republic of Korea and the Korean Provisional Government of Shanghai by combining sociological imagination and historical records. Generally, Korean historians agree that the “Daedong Declaration of Solidarity,” issued in 1917, served as the catalyst for establishing the Shanghai Provisional Government in 1919. I argue in this chapter that from 1909, the Korean National Association led by Ahn Chang Ho advocated for the idea of establishing a provisional government that represented all Koreans abroad, and the Association directly influenced the Daedong Declaration of Solidarity. The Korean National Association (KNA) of North America Convention in December 1911 passed 21 articles of governance. During the 1911 convention, delegates established the KNA Central Council, which declared itself an “intangible government” of Korea. A new genealogy of the origins of the democratic republicanism of the Korean Provisional Government of Shanghai should be traced to the Korean National Association of North America Convention of 1911, held in Riverside, California.
