Chinese Revolution Essay Research Paper The collapse

Chinese Revolution Essay, Research Paper

The collapse of the Chinese Imperial system in 1911 was an event that had been in the making since the mid 1850 s. Between 1850 and 1911 there were many uprisings and wars fought in China. These events compounded and eventually caused a Republican Revolution that forever changed the face of Chinese History. This paper will attempt to explain the causes and events that led to the Republican Revolution of 1911

In the 103 days from June 11 to September 21, 1898, the Quing emperor, Guangxu (1875-1908) ordered a series of reforms aimed at making sweeping social and institutional changes. This effort reflected the thinking of a group of progressive scholar-reformers that had impressed the court with the urgency of making innovations for the nations survival. Influenced by the Japanese success with modernization, the reformers declared that China needed more self-strengthening and that innovation must be accompanied by institutional and ideological change.

The imperial edicts for reform covered a broad range of subjects, including stamping out corruption, remaking the academic and civil service examination systems, restructuring the legal system, a makeover of government structure, defense establishment, and modernization of other government services. These edicts attempted to modernize agriculture, medicine, and mining and to promote practical studies instead of Neo-Confucian orthodoxy#. The court also planned to send students abroad for firsthand observation and technical studies. All of these changes were supposed to be brought about under a de facto constitutional monarchy.

Opposition to the reform was intense among the conservative ruling elite, especially the Manchus, whom in condemning the announced reform as too radical proposed instead, a more moderate and gradualist course of change. Supported by ultraconservatives and with the tactic support of the political opportunist Yuan Shikai (1859-1916), Empress Dowager Ci Xi engineered a coup d tat on September 21, 1898, forcing the young reform-minded Guangxu into seclusion. Ci Xi took over the government as regent. The Hundred Days Reform ended with the rescindment of the new edicts and the execution of six of the reforms chief advocates#. The two principle leaders, Kang Youwei and Liang Qichoa fled abroad to found the Baohuang Hui and to work unsuccessfully for a constitutional monarch in China

The conservatives then gave full backing to the antiforeign and anti-Christian movement of the secret societies known as the Yihetuan, which means the society of righteousness and harmony. The movement had been better known in the west as the Boxers had. In 1900 Boxer bands spread over the north China countryside, burning missionary facilities and killing Chinese Christians#. Finally in June 1900, the Boxers besieged the foreign concessions in Beijing and Tianjin, and action the provoked an allied relief expedition by the offended nations. The Qing declared war against the invaders, who easily crushed their opposition and occupied north China. Under the protocol of 1901, the court made to consent to the execution of ten high officials and punishments of hundreds of others, expansion of the Legation Quarter, payment of war reparations, stationing of foreign troops in China, an razing of some Chinese fortification#.

In the Decade that followed, the court belatedly put into effect some reform measures. These included the abolition of the moribund Confucian based examination, educational and military modernization, and as an experiment a half-hearted constitution and parliamentary government. The suddenness and ambitiousness of the reform effort actually hindered its success. One effect to be felt for decades to come was the establishment of new armies, which in turn gave rise to warlords.

Failure of reform from the top and fiasco of the Boxer Uprising convinced many Chinese that the only real solution lay in outright revolution, in sweeping away old order and erecting a new one patterned preferably after the example of Japan. The revolutionary leader was Sun-Yat-sen (1866-1925), a republican and anti-Qing activist who became increasingly popular among the overseas Chinese and Chinese students abroad, especially in Japan#. In 1905 Sun founded the Tongmeng Hui or United League in Tokyo with Huang Xing, who was a popular leader of the Chinese revolutionary movement in Japan. This party was to be the predecessors of the Kuomintang, and its platform became that of the later incarnation of the Nationalist Party. Sun formulated a plan for a revolution to take place in three stages. The first stage was military or government , the second a provisional constitution granting local self-government , and the third was a full constitional government under a republican system #. Sun s main objectives were to form stronger China to withstand the foreign powers currently occupying her. This movement generously supported by overseas Chinese funds, also gained political support with regional military officers and some of the reformers who had fled China after the Hundred Days Reform.

Suns political philosophy was conceptualized in 1897, first enunciated in Tokyo in 1905, and modified through the early 1920 s. It centered on the Three Principles of the People: nationalism, Democracy, and people s livelihood. The principle of Nationalism called for overthrowin