Key takeaways
- The 1911 Revolution began with the Wuchang Uprising on 10 October 1911 and ended the Qing dynasty and, Wikipedia says, over two millennia of imperial rule.
- The Republic of China was declared on 1 January 1912 with Sun Yat-sen as president; the six-year-old Xuantong Emperor's abdication was promulgated on 12 February 1912.
- Yuan Shikai's failed restoration of monarchy in 1915–1916 and his death in June 1916 led to decades of warlordism.
- Wikipedia dates the Chinese Civil War from 1 August 1927 to the Nationalist retreat to Taiwan on 7 December 1949, with a Japanese war in between.
- The US Office of the Historian says Mao proclaimed the People's Republic on 1 October 1949, completing the upheaval begun in 1911.
The 1911 Revolution ended the Qing dynasty and, in Wikipedia's words, "over two millennia of imperial rule in China." It began with an army mutiny at Wuchang on 10 October 1911 and produced the Republic of China on 1 January 1912. But the republic never secured the whole country, and the next 38 years — warlords, a civil war between Nationalists and Communists, and the Japanese invasion — ended with a second revolution: the People's Republic of China, proclaimed by Mao Zedong on 1 October 1949. The US State Department's Office of the Historian describes 1949 as completing "the long process of governmental upheaval in China begun by the Chinese Revolution of 1911."
This page treats the two as one story.
Why the Qing fell
Wikipedia describes a dynasty that had long struggled to reform itself and resist foreign aggression; after 1900, conservatives at court thought the reform programme too radical and reformers thought it too slow. The humiliation of 1900 is in the Boxer Rebellion, and the earlier internal war in the Taiping Rebellion. Anti-Manchu feeling among the Han majority, Wikipedia adds, had never disappeared. In August 1905 Sun Yat-sen united several revolutionary groups in Tokyo as the Tongmenghui, the United League.
How long the Qing ruled is itself a small test of sources: Wikipedia's 1911 Revolution article calls it a "267-year reign" in one place and speaks of "268 years of rule" in another. The arithmetic depends on the start date chosen. The same article dates the preceding Ming dynasty to 1368–1644; counting from 1644 to the 1912 abdication gives 1912 − 1644 = 268 calendar years, while counting only completed years, if the start fell later in 1644 than February, gives 267. When two sources disagree, check what each is counting from.
1911–1916: a republic and a would-be emperor
| Date | Event |
|---|---|
| 10 October 1911 | Wuchang Uprising by members of the New Army; provinces renounce the Qing |
| 1 November 1911 | The court appoints Yuan Shikai, leader of the Beiyang Army, as prime minister |
| 1 January 1912 | Republic of China declared in Nanjing, with Sun Yat-sen as president |
| 12 February 1912 | Abdication edict of the six-year-old Xuantong Emperor |
| 10 March 1912 | Yuan Shikai sworn in as president |
| December 1915 | Yuan restores the monarchy as the Hongxian Emperor |
| March–June 1916 | Yuan abdicates in March and dies in June |
The deal was explicit: Sun resigned in favour of Yuan, who would become president if he secured the emperor's abdication. Wikipedia records that Yuan's failure to build a legitimate central government before his death "led to decades of political division and warlordism."
1921–1937: two parties, one front, then war
The Chinese Communist Party was founded in Shanghai in 1921. The Office of the Historian notes it began as a study group within the First United Front with the Nationalist Party, the Kuomintang, and that Communists joined the Northern Expedition of 1926–27 against the warlords. The alliance ended in the "White Terror" of 1927, when the Nationalists turned on the Communists, killing or purging them. Wikipedia dates the civil war from 1 August 1927.
Encircled in their Jiangxi base by a ring of Nationalist blockhouses, the Communists broke out in October 1934. Wikipedia describes a retreat lasting a year and covering what Mao estimated as 12,500 km — the Long March. Taking that estimate at face value, 12,500 km over about 365 days averages roughly 34 km a day; but it is Mao's figure, not a surveyed distance, so treat the average as rough.
The two sources date the next turning point differently. Wikipedia places the Xi'an Incident, when the generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek to force a truce with the Communists, on 12 December 1936. The Office of the Historian says a group of generals abducted Chiang "in 1937." Either way, it produced a Second United Front against Japan.
1937–1945: the war against Japan reshapes the balance
The Office of the Historian describes the Nationalists spending resources on containing the Communists rather than focusing entirely on Japan, while the Communists strengthened their position. US officials reported "a dictatorial suppression of dissent" in Nationalist areas, and wartime corruption weakened the government. The Communists, by contrast, had early success with land reform.
1945–1949: the second revolution
After Japan's surrender, Chiang and Mao met for talks in 1945, and US General George Marshall tried to broker an agreement. By 1946, the Office of the Historian says, the two sides were fighting an all-out civil war. It lists the Communists' advantages: grassroots support, superior organisation and morale, and weapons seized from Japanese stocks in Manchuria, against Nationalist corruption and mismanagement. Wikipedia adds land reform, the defection of large numbers of well-trained Nationalist troops, and Communist intelligence agents inside Nationalist operational planning.
The decisive campaigns came in 1948–49: Liaoshen, from 12 September 1948; Huaihai, which Wikipedia calls the largest military operation of the war; and Pingjin. Mao proclaimed the People's Republic on 1 October 1949, and the Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan on 7 December. Wikipedia notes that no armistice or peace treaty has ever been signed.
Holding 1911 and 1949 together
Read as a sequence, the period runs from dynasty to republic, to fragmentation, to party rule. Both governments that emerged, Wikipedia observes, claim to be the legitimate heirs of 1911. Chinese dynasties in chronological order gives the much longer background against which "two millennia of imperial rule" should be read.
World History Timeline Sim, our app, lets you browse events by country and year, which helps with a period this crowded. Its Time Travel Mode is alternate history, not a record of what happened, and the app supports coursework rather than replacing it. More guides are in education and brain training.
Good to know
Frequently asked questions
Why is the 1911 Revolution called the Xinhai Revolution?
Who was the last emperor of China?
Why did the Communists win the Chinese Civil War?
When did the Chinese Civil War end?
Sources
- The Chinese Revolution of 1949 (opens in a new tab)Office of the Historian, US Department of State — accessed
- 1911 Revolution (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
- Chinese Civil War (opens in a new tab)Wikipedia — accessed
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