PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Emperor Xuantong was the Emperor of the Qing Dynasty. He was forced to abdicate because of the Republic Revolution that occurred during his three year long reign under a regency.This put an end to the nearly 300 years that the Qing maintained control of China, and ended the 2,000 year long imperial system in China.
Dr. Sun Yat-sen was the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party, and he is also commonly recognized as the father of modern China. His contributions to the Republic include the role he played in ending the rule of the Qing dynasty. He also served a term as China’s first provisional president.
The new Chinese government after the revolution of 1911 was not stable because it did not unify the country as one adequately, which ultimately lead to another revolution 40 years later in 1949. The fall of the Qing dynasty also caused a power vacuum in certain clusters of China.
The term “unequal treaty” was created to describe the series of treaties created by the Qing Dynasty in China throughout the19th century. These treaties focused on military reform and various military activities.
China expected US to support the termination of the treaty system in order to restore the full Chinese sovereignty.
In 1905, the Japanese started to establish more formal control over South Manchuria by forcing China to give Japan ownership rights to the South Manchurian Railway. The Japanese used this opening to make further inroads into northeast China.
This was due to the increase in Japanese interference in China, which gave rise to the May Fourth Movement. The movement consisted of riots and protests against foreign interference, especially the Japanese peoples.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) was organized in 1921 in Shanghai. This group believed in divorce, opposed arranged marriages, and campaigned against the practice of foot binding. The anti-imperialist rhetoric of the Soviet leadership did not sit well with this party.
He did not have a vision for social revolution that involved the masses of China. He launched a political and military offense, the Northern Expedition, with the goal being to unify the Nation and bring China under the Guomindang rule. At the end of his rule, he turned against his former communist alliances, ending the CCP and the Guomindang.
The nationalists only controlled a small section of China, which left the remainder of the land under control of the Warlords. The communist revolution was also still a major threat. The Guomindang were also still dealing with Japanese aggression.
“Report On An Investigation of the Peasant Movement In Hunan”)
He came up with a Chinese form of Marxist-Leninism, an ideology based on the belief in the conviction that pheasants rather than urban proletarians were the foundation for a successful revolution. He believed that village power was critical in a country where most people were pheasants.
He wanted the Chinese Communist Party to have a close relationship with the peasants in order to strengthen the revolution. Peasants greatly outnumbered those above them and they were a great advantage to Mao’s cause.
