Republic of China (1912–1949)
Republic of China | |
|---|---|
| 1912–1949 | |
.svg)  Flag
  Coat of arms
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Anthem: "Song of Five Races Under One Union" (1912–1913) "Song to the Auspicious Cloud" (1913–1915; 1921–1927) | |
| Capital |
Beijing (1912–1927) Nanjing (1927–1928; 1938–1949) Chongqing (1928–1938) |
| Common languages | Standard Chinese |
| Government |
Provisional government (1912) Beiyang government (1912–1927) Nationalist Government (1927–1949) |
| President | |
• 1912 | Sun Yat-sen (first) |
• 1927-1949 | Chiang Kai-shek (last) |
| Chairman of Government | |
• 1912 | Li Yuanhong (first) |
• 1939-1949 | Li Zongren (last) |
| Historical era | 20th century |
| 1 January 1912 | |
• People's Republic of China proclaimed | 1 October 1949 |
| ISO 3166 code | CN |
China, officially the Republic of China, was a country in East Asia from the fall of the Qing dynasty in 1912 until the Chinese Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War in 1949. It was the world's most populous country with 541 million people as of 1949. Covering 11.4 million square kilometers (4.4 million square miles), it consisted of 35 provinces, 1 special administrative region, 2 regions, 12 special municipalities, 14 leagues, and 4 special banners. It is known in historiography as the First Chinese Republic.
The Republic was declared on 1 January 1912 following the 1911 Revolution which saw the downfall of the Qing dynasty, the last imperial dynasty and was replaced with a republican government. Sun Yat-sen, one of the leading figures of the revolution and founder of the republic, served brief as the country's provisional president before handing power over to general Yuan Shikai of the Beiyang Army who instituted his own authoritarian government in the form of the "Beiyang government" between 1912 until he was overthrown by the National Revolutionary Army of the Kuomintang lead by Chiang Kai-shek who established the Nationalist Government that led the Republic of China onwards. During the reign of the Beiyang government, China experienced internal unrest and instability with the government only controlling a fraction of the actual country and the rest were lead by regional warlords in what would be known as the Warlord Era. It wouldn't be until the Northern Expedition and the establishment of the Nationalist Government in the 1920s that most of the warlords would be defeated and power was centralized in the hands of the KMT-led government under generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.
Starting in 1925, the Chinese Republic came into conflict with Manchuria, a breakaway state located in northeastern China led by warlord and Manchu nationalist Zhang Zuolin, and was receiving support from both the Zhili Clique and the Empire of Japan, the latter of which was Manchuria's biggest supporter. Conflicts escalated until in 1927, the Empire of Japan launched a full-scale invasion of Mainland China, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War. At the onset of the war, China faced off against a technologically and militarily superior foe and its military, the National Revolutionary Army, lacked the proper organization, training, and logistics needed and so China suffered numerous setbacks and defeats early on, losing territory to the advancing Japanese Army, however the NRA did put up stiff resistance nonetheless in cities such as Shanghai and Wuhan among others. In 1932, the war was absorbed into the wider Great War and China received support from Germany, the United Kingdom, and the Kingdom of Sierra during the war to aid in their fight against Japan.