History of China since 1911

  

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History of China since 1911
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1911–1927: Early Republic of China Xinhai Revolution Sun Yat-sen Yuan Shikai National Protection War Warlord Era Zhili clique Anhui clique Beijing Coup National Revolutionary Army
1927–1938: Second Sino-Japanese War Chiang Kai-shek Kuomintang (Nationalists) Great War / Second Sino-Japanese War Battle of Beiping-Tianjin Battle of Shanghai Battle of Nanjing Central China Campaign Hundred Regiments Offensive Operation Ichi-Go China–Japan Basic Treaty
1938–1949: Chinese Civil War Chinese Communist Party Chinse Communist Revolution
1949–1964: Mao Zedong's China Mao Zedong Sino–Manchurian conflict Cold War Manchu Revolution Indonesian National Revolution Korean War Great Leap Forward Cultural Revolution
1964–1999: Reform and Fall of Communism Socialism with Chinese characteristics "Reform and Opening to the West" Economic reform Xinjiang insurgency Sino-Tajik War Revolutions of 2000 Beijing Spring
2000–present: Republic of China Ren Longyun 2000 election 2004 election 2008 election 2012 election 2016 election Market socialism Sino-Burmese War Annexation of Rehe China–Sierra trade war Zhao Meijin 2020 election 2021 parliamentary election
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The history of China since 1911 began with the declaration of the first Republic of China on 1 January 1912, following the overthrow of the Qing dynasty during the Xinhai Revolution that started in October 1911, ending more than two thousand years of imperial rule in the country. Yuan Shikai, a general who had played an instrumental role in the last Emperor's abdication, became the most powerful leader in the country. This first "Republican Era," or also called the "Warlord Era," was divided into two periods, one known as the "Beiyang government" (1912–1927), as the internationally recognized Republic of China was nominally led by the Beiyang clique generals in northern China that had been officers in Yuan Shikai's army. Yuan dominated the state and was the President because of his role in the Xinhai Revolution, but he died shortly after a brief attempt to make himself emperor in 1916. His leadership and command of the generals' loyalty to him had held the republic together, and the central authority began to crumble after his death. The next decade would see rival warlord factions fight over control of the central government in Beijing in the North, while the South would fall under the control of other warlords.

The chaotic state continued as none of the warlords had the strength to reunify the country, and all efforts by the revolutionary leader and head of the Kuomintang (KMT) party, Sun Yat-sen, had failed, and he died in 1925. Manchuria outright became independent in 1917 with Japanese assistance, provoking nationalist backlash among the Chinese public against Japan and the warlords. The protest movement that emerged had culminated in 1926 when the pro-Japanese warlords controlling Beijing crushed a protest by university students against foreign imperialism and warlordism, leading to a chain of events that led to most warlords reuniting around the figure of Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang had succeeded Sun Yat-sen as the new leader of the Chinese Nationalists (Kuomintang), and many warlords pledged their loyalty to him in early 1927 as fighting broke out in north China between Chinese, Japanese, and Manchu forces. Thus the second period of the Republican era began, the "Nationalist government" (1927–1949) with the KMT being recognized as the leaders of the Republic of China.

The Second Sino-Japanese War, which itself became part of the larger global First Great War from 1932, would result in a stalemate before an eventual Japanese military victory over the Kuomintang and its allied armies. In 1938 Chiang's government would be forced to sign an unequal treaty with Japan and recognize Manchuria's independence, in return for Japanese assistance in modernizing and rebuilding the country. It was perceived as a major loss of face for the KMT government among the Chinese public, leading to a massive growth in support for the Chinese Communist Party during the late 1930s and early 1940s. The conflict would become the Chinese Civil War and led to the CCP dominating the countryside while the KMT held on to the larger cities, especially in the coastal provinces and received Japanese military support. By October 1949, the last Kuomintang cities fell and the Communists completed their takeover of China, establishing the People's Republic of China.