During the Paris Peace Conference in the aftermath of World War I, anti-Japanese, as well as anti-foreign sentiments were prevalent in China. The Chinese people believed that their country’s interests were being ignored by the Allied powers in the ongoing Paris Peace Conference. In particular, the Chinese were outraged that the Allies would award Shandong Province to Japan. Starting on May 4, 1919, a series of massive protests and demonstrations broke out in Beijing, which soon spread to many other cities across China.
(Taken from China (1911-1928): Xinhai Revolution, Fragmentation, And Struggle for Reunification – Wars of the 20th Century – Twenty Wars in Asia – Volume 5)
Background By the early 20th century, the Qing dynasty of China was floundering. It had ruled China for over 2½ centuries (since 1644), but several unsuccessful wars against European powers and Japan not only destroyed its reputation as a great military nation, but the victors imposed onerous territorial, economic, and social demands on China. By forcing what were called “unequal treaties”, the foreign powers forced China to cede territory, pay war reparations, open ports to trade (China had an isolationist foreign policy), and grant foreigners in China immunity from Chinese laws (extraterritoriality).
By the early 1900s, China appeared on the brink of being partitioned, as Britain, France, Germany, Russia, and Japan established spheres of influence in Chinese territories (Figure 25), in regions which they controlled and imposed their own laws, and police and military forces. Then in 1901, following the Boxer Rebellion (previous article), the Qing imperial court was allowed to return to power, but was required to pay war reparations to the victorious Eight-Nation Alliance (Britain, France, Germany, Russia, United States, Japan, Italy, and Austria-Hungary). China’s military impotence was manifested glaringly in the 1904-1905 Russo-Japanese War (separate article), where Russia and Japan fought for control of Manchuria (China’s northeastern territory), with the powerless Chinese forces taking no part in the conflict.
Furthermore, in the 19th century, China’s long period of internal peace under the Qing government ended. Many local and regional uprisings broke out: among these were the various Muslim rebellions (1856-1896) and Nian Rebellion (1861-1868), and the calamitous Taiping Rebellion, where 30 million people perished.
Then in the 1890s, a new anti-Qing movement emerged in the south. Influenced by Western ideas of nationalism, democracy, and republicanism that were creeping into China, its adherents advocated the overthrow of the Qing dynasty through revolution, the end of the monarchy, and the formation of a democratic republic for China. This nationalist movement was led by the ethnic majority Han (which comprise 90% of the Chinese population), who regarded the ruling Qing as “foreigners/barbarians”, since the ruling court was composed of ethnic Manchu, a demographically small ethnic people from China’s far north.
This nationalist movement and its anti-Qing sentiment grew as China’s military position weakened, and because of the Qing’s failure to implement badly needed reforms to solve China’s many problems. Emerging as the most prominent among many groups in the nationalist movement was the Tongmenhui (United League), formed in 1905 and led by a Western-trained physician, Sun Yat-sen, who campaigned abroad, including in the United States, Europe, Japan, and Southeast Asia, to raise funds and gain diplomatic support for his organization. The nationalist movement comprised predominantly Western-influenced activists, such as young educated elite who had studied overseas, as well as businessmen and gentry, and even reformist ex-Qing officials who were forced into exile abroad.
In the first decade of the 20th century, many localized uprisings in the provinces were breaking out, many initiated by different militant groups, including Sun’s Tongmenhui (nine revolts occurred in 1907-1908). Qing forces violently quelled these uprisings. Then in May 1911, the Qing government nationalized private railway projects in order to sell them to foreign investors, and then use the proceeds to pay down China’s war reparations from the Boxer War, particularly to Britain, Germany, France, and the United States. The order to nationalize the railways was resisted fiercely in central and southern China by local businessmen who had invested heavily in the railway projects. They would lose their investments if the railways were nationalized. The government had promised them some compensation, but only an amount that was less than their original investments.
In Sichuan Province, local railway investors, who comprised wealthy businessmen and high-ranking provincial officials, organized the Railway Protection Movement to oppose railway nationalization. In August 1911, they launched protest actions in Chengdu, the provincial capital, which were attended by thousands of their supporters. In September 1911, the Qing national government arrested the leaders of the Railway Protection Movement and closed down the organization, which sparked even larger demonstrations. Violence then broke out, when government troops opened fire on a crowd of demonstrators, killing dozens of people. Local revolutionary militias took advantage of the disturbance to launch attacks on government forces. In response, the Qing government transferred units of the New Army (as Chinese provincial military commands were called) from Hubei Province to Sichuan, which now appeared on the brink of a full-scale rebellion, with many armed groups comprising tens of thousands of fighters putting enormous pressure on local government forces.
Xinhai Revolution However, the Hubei New Army command was infiltrated by revolutionary elements, and many of its soldiers had joined local clandestine insurgent groups. Since early 1911, these rebel soldiers had been preparing to launch an uprising in Hubei. Encouraged by the escalating turmoil in nearby Sichuan, the Hubei revolutionaries hastened to launch their uprising. On October 9, 1911, one of the mutinous soldiers accidentally set off an explosive at a weapons stockpile in a Hankou building near Wuhan, the provincial capital. Qing authorities investigating the incident soon learned of the revolutionary plot and the identities of the rebel soldiers. Preempting their arrest, these soldiers launched their rebellion on the evening of November 10, 1911 in Wuchang, located southeast of Wuhan.
By the morning of October 11, the revolutionaries had defeated Hubei provincial forces, expelled local administrators, and seized control of Wuhan. They then declared the province’s independence and secession from the Qing government. This incident, called the Wuchang Uprising, catalyzed revolutionary fervor across much of China – in 6 weeks, 22 local rebellions broke out, and 14 of the 18 provinces seceded from the Qing government. Many of these uprisings involved local groups under Sun’s Tongmenhui, which worked together with mutinous New Army units and other revolutionary groups, as well as with defecting Qing officials.
In large part, the Xinhai Revolution (so-called because it occurred on the year Xinhai (the Chinese calendar year equivalent to 1911) succeeded because of the Qing government’s difficulty to suppress the original revolt in Wuchang. On October 18, 1911, or one week after the start of the Wuchang uprising, the Qing court sent the powerful loyalist Beiyang Army to Hubei. In the ensuing 41-day Battle of Yangxia, the loyalist forces dealt the revolutionaries two decisive defeats at Hankou and Hanyang. But the lengthy battle allowed other provinces to launch their uprisings and secede from the Qing government. When the fighting in Hubei Province ended in early December 1911, central and southern China had seceded (Figure 29). In these regions, revolutionary groups took over the local governments, and also pledged allegiance to Sun’s Tongmenhui. Only parts of northern China, including Manchuria and the regions around Beijing, remained under Qing control. Mongolia and Tibet, vassal states of the Qing court, also proclaimed independence, but not allegiance to the Tongmenhui.
In December 1911, General Yuan Shikai, the Beiyang Army commander, announced a ceasefire and did not attack the rebels at Wuchang. Yuan, who would play a major role in the immediate post-revolutionary period, had agreed to lead the loyalist forces after repeated requests by the Qing court for him to return to Beijing and take the position of Prime Minister. Now, however, the politically ambitious Yuan was determined to let the recent events play into his hands.
Meanwhile, in late November 1911, nationalist representatives from the revolutionary councils from 11 provinces met to decide the formation of a provisional government for a new state, which was agreed to be a democratic republic. On December 2, with their capture of Nanjing, the revolutionaries agreed to make Nanjing the new republic’s capital. On December 25, 1911, Sun Yat-sen returned to China from the United States, where he had been raising funds for the Tongmenhui. He had played no direct part in the revolution, although his organization was instrumental in the revolutionary triumphs in many provinces.
On December 29, 1911 in Nanjing, delegates from the seceding provinces convened and elected Sun as provisional president of the new republic. On January 1, 1912, Sun proclaimed the founding of the Republic of China.