A protest calling the government to resist the humiliating treatment of the Treaty of Versailles against them

Causes:

• Resentment of foreign control

  • the consequences of the Boxer Uprising, the railways

• Yuan Shikai’s actions + the descent into the warlord era

• The ‘New Tide Movement’(s) ‘New Youth’ magazine

  • challenged traditional Confucianism + the subservient role of women

  • favoured left-wing ideas to reform China

• The Treaty of Versailles

  • German concessions in Shandong would go to Japan

  • Woodrow Wilson’s principle of self-determination (allowing people to rule themselves) wasn’t applied to China

Events:

• 10,000 students from Beijing University protested in Tiananmen Square => demanded the government refuse to sign the ToV

• Anti-Japanese boycotts in Beijing + Shanghai

  • demonstrations + strikes in over 100 towns and cities

  • peasants, workers and middle class took part

• Government initially refused the ToV

  • but signed in 1923

Consequences:

• Many believed further revolution had to occur to end foreign influence + revive an independent China

• Re-organisation + growth of the GMD

• ‘New Tide’ turned to Marxism for a solution

  => creation of the CCP