1911 Chinese Revolution

• 19th century, spread of revolutionary ideas
  • Nationalists
  • Get rid of foreign Ching dynasty
  • Get rid of spheres of influence
  • Peasants
  • Bring back Chinese tradition
  • Dynasty founded on peasantry
  • Commercialists
  • Stood to lose wealth based off of government actions
  • Urban intellectuals
  • Advocated modernity + Westernism
    • Government, thinking, social structures, technology, industry, etc
• 1900, Boxer Rebellion -> government made reforms towards Westernism
  • 1901, schools reformed
  • Girls added
  • Curriculum less on classic and confucian studies -> more math, science, engineering, geography
  • Civil service exams changed to match school reforms -> abolished 1905
  • Youth sent to other countries to study economics, sciences, etc
  • New military style under Yuan Shih-kai
  • Western discipline/organization
  • Military became an official job
  • Loyalty to commander, not emperor
• 1911, revolution begins in Szechwan
  • Government planned to nationalize railway
  • Wealth investors didn’t want to lose money
  • Sun Yat-sen had been building revolutionary Western ideas
  • Protests started with conservatives + wealthy gents
    • Wanted financial concerns met -> ended up wanting to overthrow the government when they denied
• Sun Yat-sen = leader of revolution
  • Educated in the West
  • Chinese United League (1905) = Sun’s “three-in-one” revolution
  • Nationalist -> expel Manchu dynasty
  • Democratic -> set up democratic Chinese republic
  • Social -> equalize land rights + wealth
• End of 1911 reforms
  • ⅔ of China seceded from Ching empire
  • Declared China republic
  • Sun = provisional president
• Imperial government was struggling -> appointed Yuan Shih-kai
  • Governor-general of Hunan + Hupeh
  • Two provinces that did not secede
  • National Assembly (Beijing) appointed prime minister
  • Did not like Manchus -> had terms
  • Inaugurate a national assembly
  • Pardon the revolutionaries
  • Full power of military
  • Lift ban on political parties
• 1-3-1912, Yuan agrees to abdicate Ching if he would be president of the republic
  • Gets over 50 generals on his side -> Ching give in
• 2-13-1912, official republic with Yuan as the leader
  •  Immediately betrayed it -> gave cronies important jobs, revolutionaries unimportant jobs
• Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) = Sun’s new party
  • Won majority of parliament seats
  • Yuan used force to make party support him -> got impeached
• “Second Revolution” to leave the new republic -> Yuan kept them in line
• Yuan forced parliament to reelect him -> dissolved parliament + became dictator
  • Sun fled to Japan, Kuomintang was expelled
• Yuan become emperor -> became opposed by anti-monarchist governors and military leaders
  • Provinces began to secede -> went back to dictator -> still seceded
  • Yuan dies -> end of imperial China
• Period of Warlordism, 1916-1927
  • Many independent provinces -> fought over everything
• Sun Yat-sen tries to organize theories on unifying China -> Chinese Nationalist Party
  • Established republican government in Canton
  • Tried to overthrow warlord government -> died before he finished
  • Chiang Kai-shek, devoted follower, finishes it in 1928 -> Nationalist government in Nanking

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