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Opium War
Armed conflict between China and Britain in which the foreing power was victorious. The Chinese Empire was carved up into spheres of influence by Europeans, Americans and by Japan. Also China was forced to sign unequal treaties which created anger amoung the citizens because this gave them control over Chinese trade, territory and sovereignty. This event was terrible for China because it showed his political weekness. -
Taiping Rebellion
Religious and part political reform movement. It last about 14 years , took millions of chinese deaths. This event altered the Qing Dynasty which was the aim of the citizens, who were really anger about the circumstances in their country -
Self-Strengthering Movement
Was during the Qing Dynasty and was an organized reform that had as an objective the modernization of China in order to fix the results of many defeats. It does not work as it was expected, Manchus did not support reform. China faced humilliation again due to his weakness. -
First Sino-Japanese War
Was a conflict between Japan and China. The main objective was Korea because of the location and the coal and iron resources that this area had. China was defeated and the Qing Empire loss prestige. Also Qing Empire recognized the total independence of Korea which was not good for China. -
Socio-economic factors
China was ruled by the Manchu Dynasty. The life was hard, most of the population were extremely poor. Peasants were the most affected by floods and droughts because this ocasionated famine.The population number was more than the number of food that was grown. All these circumstances made China week. -
The Double Tenth Revolution
Was a revolution against the Manchu dynasty that began when the government lost control of the military; soldiers in Wuchang revolt. The people overthrown the dynasty and most provinces then declared themselves independent of Beijing. This leaded consequences in :the impact of imperialism, anti-foreign sentiment and political weakness. -
May Fourth Event
It was a Student´s mass demostration in Beijin against warlords, traditional Chinese culture and the Japanese. The main significance of this movement is that it was dedicated to change and rebirth China as an independent and proud nation. -
Set up of the CCP
Chinese Communist Party was set up and was mainly made by intellectuals and it had no military strength. The most important aspect about this event is that CCP agreed to work with the GMD for some shared aims. -
First United Front
GMD and CCP agreed that they wanted to unify China and in order to accomplish this, they needed to get rid of the warlords. They set up different strategies such as the Northern Expedition , in which they crushed the warlords of Central and Northern China. (They defeated the warlords)
It is important to mention that their main aim was the "People´s Livelihood" -
White Terror
CCP and GMD break up their relationship due to their different ideologies. GMD believed that they needed to crush CCP before China could truly be unified under the GMD. They started to attack communists that later become a part of a purification movement. About a quarter of million people were killed.
