Knowra April Revolution April Revolution The April Revolution was a 1960 South Korean uprising led by students and joined by other citizens. It forced President Syngman Rhee to resign and ended the First Republic.
South Korean presidential election, 1960 : A South Korean election held on March 15, 1960, in which widespread fraud helped secure victory for Syngman Rhee’s government. Its rigging triggered protests that grew into the uprising.
April 19 Revolution protests : The mass demonstrations in Seoul and other South Korean cities on April 19, 1960, met by lethal police force. These protests became the uprising’s decisive confrontation.
Resignation of Syngman Rhee : Syngman Rhee’s resignation from the South Korean presidency on April 26, 1960, following nationwide protests. It was the uprising’s immediate political victory.
April 19 National Cemetery : A memorial cemetery in Seoul honoring people killed in the April Revolution and other related events. It commemorates those whose deaths gave the movement enduring public significance.
Kim Ju-yul : A South Korean high school student whose body was found in Masan after he disappeared during protests in March 1960. News of his death and the discovery of a tear-gas canister in his eye renewed outrage.
South Korean student movement : A tradition of student activism in South Korea that challenged colonial rule, authoritarianism, and political injustice. Student networks supplied the organizers and crowds that sustained the revolt.
Second Republic of Korea : South Korea’s parliamentary republic established in 1960 after the April Revolution and ended by the 1961 military coup. It was the constitutional settlement that followed Rhee’s fall.
Gwangju Democracy Movement : A 1980 popular uprising in South Korea against military rule, centered in the city of Gwangju. Later democracy movements invoked the April Revolution as an earlier struggle against authoritarian power.
Masan protests : Demonstrations in the South Korean port city of Masan against the rigged March 1960 election. The early protests there set the uprising in motion.
South Korean National Assembly : South Korea’s national legislature, which operated under the constitutional system of the First Republic. Legislators faced mounting pressure to reject the fraudulent election and respond to the protests.
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