China
9
British
[30]
under the 1842 Treaty of Nanking. The First Sino-Japanese War (189495) resulted in Qing China's loss
of influence in the Korean Peninsula, as well as the cession of Taiwan to Japan.
The Qing dynasty also began experiencing internal unrest in which millions of people died. In the 1850s and 1860s,
the failed Taiping Rebellion ravaged southern China. Other major rebellions included the PuntiHakka Clan Wars
(185567), the Nien Rebellion (185168), the Miao Rebellion (185473), the Panthay Rebellion (185673) and the
Dungan revolt (186277).
In the 19th century, the great Chinese Diaspora began. Losses due to emigration were added to by conflicts and
catastrophes such as the Northern Chinese Famine of 18761879, in which between 9 and 13 million people died.
[31]
In 1898, the Guangxu Emperor drafted a reform plan to establish a modern constitutional monarchy, but he was
overthrown by the Empress Dowager Cixi in a coup d'tat. The ill-fated anti-Western Boxer Rebellion of 18991901
further weakened the Qing Dynasty. The Xinhai Revolution of 191112 brought an end to the Qing Dynasty and
established the Republic of China.
Republic of China (19121949)
Sun Yat-sen, the father of modern China (seated
on right), and Chiang Kai-shek, later President of
the Republic of China
On 1 January 1912, the Republic of China was established, and Sun
Yat-sen of the Kuomintang (the KMT or Nationalist Party) was
proclaimed provisional president.
[32]
However, the presidency was
later given to Yuan Shikai, a former Qing general who in 1915
proclaimed himself Emperor of China. In the face of popular
condemnation and opposition from his own Beiyang Army, he was
forced to abdicate and reestablish the republic.
[33]
After Yuan Shikai's death in 1916, China was politically fragmented.
Its Beijing-based government was internationally recognized but
virtually powerless; regional warlords controlled most of its
territory.
[34][35]
In the late 1920s, the Kuomintang, under Chiang
Kai-shek, was able to reunify the country under its own control with a
series of deft military and political maneuverings, known collectively
as the Northern Expedition.
[36][37]
The Kuomintang moved the nation's
capital to Nanjing and implemented "political tutelage", an
intermediate stage of political development outlined in Sun Yat-sen's San-min program for transforming China into a
modern democratic state.
[38][39]
The political division in China made it difficult for Chiang to battle the Communists,
against whom the Kuomintang had been warring since 1927 in the Chinese Civil War. This war continued
successfully for the Kuomintang, especially after the Communists retreated in the Long March, until Japanese
aggression and the 1936 Xi'an Incident forced Chiang to confront Imperial Japan.
[40]
The Second Sino-Japanese War (19371945), a theater of World War II, forced an uneasy alliance between the
Kuomintang and the Communists. Japanese forces committed numerous war atrocities against the civilian
population; in all, as many as 20 million Chinese civilians died.
[41]
An estimated 200,000 Chinese were massacred in
the city of Nanjing alone during the Japanese occupation.
[42]
Japan surrendered unconditionally to China in 1945.
Taiwan, including the Pescadores, was put under the administrative control of the Republic of China, which
immediately claimed sovereignty. China emerged victorious but war-ravaged and financially drained. The continued
distrust between the Kuomintang and the Communists led to the resumption of civil war. In 1947, constitutional rule
was established, but because of the ongoing unrest, many provisions of the ROC constitution were never
implemented in mainland China.