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Socio-economic Factors & Political weakness
China hah been exploited and humiliated by foreign imperialist powers and this caused the destabilization of China´s ruling Manchu regime. Also China had been forced to sign unequal treaties that gave the imperialist powers extraordinary controls over Chinese trade, territory and ultimately sovereignty. -
Socio-economic factors
In the 1900s, Cina was ruled by the imperial Manchu dynasty, unfortunately, the majority of the population were peasants, and their life was hard, working land, and most were extremely poor. These peasants migrated to urban areas because of the unemployment. -
The overthrow of the Manchu Dynasty
In the beginning of the 20th Century, China was in a desperate condition, however everyone wanted that the ruling Manchu dynasty should be overthrown, so that China could be Westernized. But in 1911 the ruling dynasty was overthrown in a Revolution called the Double Tenth, and a Republic was created. -
The Dr Sun Yixian
Time after, Dr Sun Yixian was invited to be China´s first President, and leader of the GMD, he wanted to modernize China by adopting Western political and economic methods. But, he agreed for Yuan Shikai to be president of the new Republic, in exchange for the end of Manchu rule. However, the revolution was incomplete because there was no real introduction of the democracy. -
The Rule of Yuan Shikai
Yuan ruled China as a military dictator from 1912 to 1915, but regionalism continued under Yuan´s rule and became the key obstacle to united China. On the other hand, Sun´s party reformed as the Guomindang declared itself a parliamentary party. But later, Sun attempted to undermine Yuan´s power by moving him from his power base in Beijing to the south to set up a new government, Yuan refused to leave. -
Regionalism & The Warlord Era
Yuan´s finally declared himself Emperor in 1916, however he lost the support of the military and stood down, he died 3 months later. But there were consequences, China lost the only figure that had maintained some degree of unity. And later China broke up into small states and provinces, each controlled by a warlord, these warlords had their own laws and even their own currencies, and it were the peasants who suffered more. Warlord period increased the sense of humiliation felt by many Chinese. -
May Fourth Movement
During this period, two political movements developed in response to both warlords and foreign influence in China, students led a mass demonstration in Beijing against the warlords. This was a dedicated change and the rebirth of China as a proud and independent Nation. Then communists and nationalists were to come together in an alliance in 1922 -
Communists & Nationalists
Sun died, but a general took over leadership of the GMD, Jiang Jieshi, who was a committed nationalist and had joined to the GMD. Later, another revolutionary party emerged during the warlord period, CCP, its membership was mainly intellectuals, then, the CCP agreed to work with the GMD. -
Attempt to unify China: First United Front
CCP and the GMD wanted to unified China, so they decided to get rid of the warlords, and formed the First United Front, in order to China needed to be free of the foreign imperialist powers. However Jiang was not a communist, he became anti-communist and began his leadership of the GMD by removing communist from key positions in the party. -
The GMD attacks the CCP- Began of the civil war
GMD and the CCP had destroyed the power of the warlords and the GMD announced that it was the legitimate government of China. However, China was not unified because of the supports of the communists, and this was a key reason that Jiang decided he could no longer tolerate them in the GMD,so he expelled the communist from the GMD and his attacks on the communists reached a peak in Shanghai "White Terror" where 5000 communists were shot.The CCP was nearly crushed by the end of 1927.Civil war began
