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A provisional government is an emergency or interim government set up when a political void has been created by the collapse of a previous administration or regime. A provisional government holds power until elections can be held or a permanent government can otherwise be established. Provisional governments often occur as the result of a revolution or in wartime when an occupied nation or territory has been liberated or, conversely, when a government has been deposed by an invading army. Examples of provisional governments include, in chronological order:

• Métis Provisonal Government (1870), established between British and Canadian control of the Northwest Territories
• Provisional Government of Hawaii (1893), established when a committee of American businessmen overthrew the Kingdom of Hawaii and its queen, Liliuokalani.
• Administration for Western Armenia (1915), established in Van Province.
• Provisional Government of India (1915), established in Kabul.
• Provisional Government of the Irish Republic (1916), a title adopted by the leadership of the short-lived Easter Rising.
• Russian Provisional Government (1917), established as a result of the February Revolution which overthrew the emperor Nicholas II.
• Ukrainian Provisional Government (1918).
• South West Caucasian Republic (1919), established in Kars.
• Provisional Government of the Republic of Korea (1919), established in exile based in Shanghai, China and later in Chongqing, during the Japanese occupation of Korea.
• Provisional Government of Southern Ireland (1922), established by agreement between the British government and Irish revolutionaries, in order to pave the way for the establishment of the Irish Free State in the same year.
• Provisional Government of Lithuania (1941), established when Lithuanians overthrew the Soviet occupation during the Lithuanian 1941 independence. It functioned briefly until Nazi Germany annexed the country.
• Provisional Government of Free India (1943-1945), established by Indian nationalists in Axis controlled Indian territory in southeast Asia. It had diplomatic relationships with nine countries.
• Flensburg Government (1945), established following the suicides of Adolf Hitler and Joseph Goebbels during the closing days of the Third Reich.
• Provisional government of Israel (1948-49), established after Israel's declaration of independence and in place until after the first Knesset elections.
• Provisional Government of the Syrian Arab Republic (1949), established by national consensus to draft a new constitution and reintroduce civilian rule after a series of military governments.
• Provisional Revolutionary Government of the Republic of South Vietnam (1969-1976), established as an alternative Communist (Marxist-Leninist) government. It ruled South Vietnam between the fall of Saigon to North Vietnamese troops in 1975 and the creation of the Socialist Republic of Vietnam in 1976.
• National Council of Government (1986-1988), interim ruling body of Haiti, after the departure of Jean-Claude Duvalier
• National Salvation Front (1989), after the overthrow of Nicolae Ceauşescu's regime in the Romanian Revolution of 1989.
• Eritrea has had a transitional government.(1993)
• Coalition Provisional Authority, the Iraqi Interim Governing Council, the Iraqi Interim Government and the Iraqi Transitional Government were all provisional authorities established following the 2003 invasion of Iraq to govern pending the adoption of a permanent constitution.

Provisional governments were also established throughout Europe as occupied nations were liberated from Nazi occupation by the Allies. The Provisional Government of the French Republic was established by the Free French Forces under Charles de Gaulle after the liberation of France from Nazi Germany. The government led France from 1944 until the establishment of the Fourth Republic in 1947.

Although not formally designated a "provisional government," the Second Continental Congress served as the de facto provisional government of the United States from the adoption of the Declaration of Independence in July 1776, until the ratification of the Articles of Confederation effective March 1, 1781.