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