The Chinese Revolution marks one of the most significant historical milestones that has a great influence to the social-economic and even political journey that China has had to follow to date. The 1911 Revolution spelled the fall of the long reign of the imperialist system of the Qing Dynasty. The spontaneous uprisings that are also referred to as the Xinhai Revolution started with increased calls for unification of China, constitutional reforms and protection against foreign incursion sparked protests started in Wunchan province and the neighboring provinces. In this paper we will focus on the events surrounding the Revolution and how it has contributed to the political arrangement in today’s Peoples Republic of china.
China has had a long and rich history going back four millennium ans as such many imperialist dynasties ensured that it remained as a unified state throughout this period. Before the imperialist dynasties collapsed in the beginning of the 20th century, it was the Qing dynasty that was at the helm of leadership in the country. The Manchus are known to have founded the Qing dynasty in the year 1644 after they successfully conquered the expansive mainland China. The Qing dynasty however collapsed in 1912 after nearly three centuries of continued rule over China. It imperialist system had began to decay due to external and internal influences which led the Chinese people to discredit its leadership.
Historians and other scholars provide that the decline of the leadership powers of the Qing dynasty in China was greatly affected by the fact that its rulers failed or possessed an inability to understand and thus pro actively adapt to changes brought about by modern technology at the end of the 19th and 20th century. Another major cause which led to the collapse of the Qing industry was the massive growth of the Chinese population during the rule of the Qing industry. It estimated that the Chinese population increased by four times during the Qing dynasty which resulted in great pressures and eventual shortcomings with regard to the use of increasing limited government resources. At the beginning of the 20th Century, the only country that could compete with western countries in terms of economic and industrial modernization in Asia was Japan. As such, only Japan could cope with tremendous population growths in Asia and have the national resources to sustain the population increase in the beginning of the 20th Century.
This led call for social, political and economic change. This was spearheaded by a number of Chine scholars and political activists who supported for a new political and administrative dispensation. This was especially the case through out the final years of the 19th Century and the early years of the 20th century. These outstanding scholars sought to see a modernized China which could compete in the global arena with other developed western powers such as the US and Great Britain. Also the numerous wars with western powers had led for people to call for better military mechanism in mainland china that could protect the country from external aggression. One of the most recognized scholars at this time was Sun Yat-Sen who lived from 1866 to 1925 and was at the for front in calling for a unified china and major reforms in the country's political, social and economic industries. He was born in Canton, raised in Hawaii and studied medicine in Hong Kong by 1892. His vision for a unified, modern, and strong Chinese Republic saw him venture into politics in 1894. as such, he clearly understood that to attain this he had to formulate a strong and unbreakable scheme to overthrow the already weak Qing dynasty.
Another Chinese leader who actively paid a significant part in ensuring that Sun Yat-Sen realized his vision was a Chinese national known as Charlie Soong who also lived in the Unitred states from about 188 and later returned to Shanghai and operated as a very successful business man.
It’s important to note that Soong’s children played significant political roles. He had two daughters who went on to receive American education, after which Ch'ingling got to married Sun Yat-sen, while the other daughter May ‘ling got married to Chiang Kai-shek. Soong's only son, Teseven went on to study at Harvard then to Columbia Universities and later became Chiang's Minister of finance.
The Xinhai Revolution is a major historical event that occurred in China at the turn of the 20th Century which led to the founding of the Peoples Republic of China. Also referred to as the 1911 Revolution, the Xinhai Revolution served to realize the founding of the Republic of China and an end to the imperialist system under the Qing Dynasty (Office of the Historian, 2014). At the end of the 19th Century, the Qing Dynasty began to decline due to challenges to it authority over parts of Chinese territories by a number of foreign countries. Japan and Great Britain through wars claimed Chinese territories causing frustrations among the Chinese people thus undermining the authority of the foreign government of Manchu (Office of the Historian, 2014). The Chinese people desired to have a unified China once more and this brought about a call for nationalism as revolutionary ideas spread throughout the country.
The Qing Empire was struggling to tackle the challenges it faced especially in the 19th century. The challenges include foreign incursions into the territory of china that for instance led to the loss of Hong Kong from its territory. During this incursion that was fueled by the Opium war against western influence that was championed by Great Britain, treaty ports were opened to aid international trade especially in major cities. It will be acknowledged that these were a series of events that led to the Imperial China loosing much of its territory for instance, in the Sino –Japanese War that occurred between 1894 and 1895, China lost Taiwan and parts of Manchuria and lost control over Korea. Still, between 1904 and 1905, in the Russio-Japanese War, where china lost control over much of the northeastern part to japan thus weakening the Qing Dynasty. In essence, the 1911 revolution was fueled by the widespread inability for Qing Empire to counter foreign incursion on china territory and the imperialist demands by Japan and the Western nations, the frustrations observed with the Qing court system and the need to see more unified china with less violence in both rural and urban regions in China.
Despite the declining popularity of the Qing rule during the early years of the 19th Century, the Qing courts continued to maintain a significant degree of control over administrative affairs in the vast Chinese territory. However, the increased calls for revolution or constitutional reforms were received, especially from Chinese people living in foreign countries more so in South Asia and the United States of America.
It thus emerged that, Kang Youwei in collaboration with Liang Qichao led calls for establishment of a government based on constitutional monarchy. On the other hand, Sun Yat-sen had a contrary view. Together with an amalgam of groups, he advocated for the formation of a republican government. He thus became the leader of the Revolutionary Alliance (also known as Tongmenghui). Prior to the grand revolution in 1911, the Revolutionary Alliance had unsuccessfully made more than seven attempts to revolt against the Qing rul. Most of these revolts originated in South china but were countered by the Qing army.
The Xinhaj Revolution
In the autumn of 1911, the Qing court gave in to the demands for reforms where it agreed to change to the formation of a constitutional monarchy from the authoritarian imperial rule. Yuan Shikai was the preferred person to become the prier under the new rule. However, even before the change took effect, provinces in China started to support the Revolutionary Alliance under the leadership of Yat-sen.
Sun Yat-sen was a medical school graduate in Hong Kong and was forced into exile in 1885 for being a member of a secret group operating in mainland China. He completed his education in the United States' state of Hawaii. He was a revolutionist from his early years. While in exile, Sun had the opportunity to visit countries in Europe as well as the other states in America seeking for financial support to drive his political agenda in China. His ambition was to transform China into a strong nation and that would be able to reclaim all the lost territories. He also envisioned China as a strong world power that would advance its education systems and economic agenda and in essence obtain respect on the global arena. He advocated for elimination of the barriers to trade across all Chinese provinces and minimum restrictions on industry, (Macrohistory, n.d).
In October of 1911, a set of events resulted to a national revolt as a result of an uprising in the Southern China region of Wuchang (Office of the Historian, 2014). The Qing Dynasty's army suffered big losses which led the Qing Court to accept the revolutionary’s terms which included the establishment of a constitutional monarchy. The Qing Court chose Yuan Shikai as the Chinese premier, but before he could take back captured regions from the revolutionaries; some regions began swearing allegiance to the popular Revolutionary Alliance (Office of the Historian, 2014). One of the Revolutionary Alliance's leaders, Dr. Sun Yixian who had begun the cause for the destruction of the oppressive Qing Dynasty was elected temporary president of the newly established Republic of China (Office of the Historian, 2014). He however entered into talks with Yuan Shikai that if the Manzu Emperor abdicated, he would relinquish the presidency to him. These events led to the 1949 revolution which brought in new Chinese government and the founding of the Peoples Republic of China.
Founding of People’s Republic of China
On the first day of October 1949, Mao Zedong, the Chinese Communist leader declared the founding of the Peoples Republic of China (PRC) (Office of the Historian, 2014). This declaration ended a very costly civil war involving the Chinese Communist Party against the Nationalist Party. This civil war began immediately after the end of the Second World War. The two opposing Chinese parties had been in occasional conflicts since the 1920's. The founding of the PRC brought about n end to the long Chinese upheaval for an all uniting Chinese government which began with the Xinhaj Revolution of 1911 (Office of the Historian, 2014).
The Chinese Communist Party was formed in 1921 as a group working under the First United Front alongside the Nationalist Party. The two parties joined hand in attempting to rid China of warlords who were seen as a challenge to the forming of a firm central government. Known as the 1926-1927 Northern Expedition, the two parties moved as a single army to defeat all warlords in China (Office of the Historian, 2014). However, the 1927 White Terror ended this cooperation as Nationalist began killing Communists and forcing them out of the Nationalist party.
In 1931, the Japanese army invaded Manchuria and the then Government of the Republic of China was faced with a situation which was too much for it to bear. There was the Japanese invasion, returning of warlords and the revolt brought about by the Communists (Office of the Historian, 2014). The then Nationalist Leader Kai-Shek concentrated on dealing with internal threats instead of the external threat posed by the Japanese army. Some General from the Nationalist Party kidnapped Kai Shek and forced him to consider cooperating with the Communists to fight the Japanese. This formed the Second United front but was short lived as Nationalists had used up their armaments against the Communists instead of concentrating on the Japanese invaders while the Communists concentrated on gaining support from people in the rural society (Office of the Historian, 2014).
During the Second World War, Communists gained more support while the Nationalists got less support from their US friends due to their dictatorship. Japanese defeat ended the Second World War and this resulted in an all out Chinese civil war lasting from 1947 to 1949 (Office of the Historian, 2014).
References
Macrohistory (n.d). SunYAt-sen turns revolutionary. Macrohistory and world timelines. Retrieved http://www.fsmitha.com/h2/ch10-2.htm
Office of the Historan, (n.d). Milestones: 1899 – 1913- The Chinese revolution of 1911. US department of State, Office of the historian. Retrieved http://history.state.gov/milestones/1899-1913/chinese-rev
