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Taiping Rebellion
It was the beginning of the separation from centralized control. This was a rebellion which extended throughout southern China. It began in 1850 and lasted 14 years. Repression and massacres by the regional armies ended the lives of millions of Chinese. This rebellion exposed, once again, the deficiencies of the Manchu Dynasty. Years later, this resulted in the Warlord Era. -
The Self - Strenghtening Movement
This was a period of reform in China, which lasted from 1861 to 1895. Several concessions were being made due to the Manchu's lack of control over the country. Mainly, this movement wanted to promote nationalism and opposition to the Western and Japanese influence in China. This was a cause for the Boxer Rebellion in 1899. -
Boxer Rebellion
It was a movement against western and japanese spheres of influence in China, which turned into one of the bloodiest historical events in the history of China. It also had religious connotations to it, due to an anti-Christian feeling from the Boxers. Nonetheless, it failed due to the poor weaponry chinese people had, and of course, the weak government they were having at the time, the Manchus. -
Manchu Dynasty Overthrow
For centuries, people in China lived in the worst conditions due to the poor Manchu empire; the vast majority of this population were peasants, who had a hard working life, paying inmense taxes and passed through starvations, floods or droughts. Furthermore, the Manchu Dynasty had been proved weak once again when China was defeated by Britain in the Opium Wars. Those conditions led to a revolution called "Double Tenth", and the rise of figures like Dr. Sun Yixian and Yuan Shikai. -
Rule of Yuan Shikai and the creation of the GMD
After the overthrown of the Manchu Dynasty, delegates of the independet provinces declared the creation of a Chinese republic. Dr.Sun Yixian, a political exile, was invited to be the first president of it. Due to his lack of influence in the north, Dr.Sun Yixian allied with the general of the Northern Army Yuan Shikai for him to be the president. Nonetheless, he ruled as a dictator from 1912 to 1915, and opposition to him rise: the creation of the GMD, ironically, with Sun Yixian as the leader. -
The May Fourth Movement
It was a movement initiated by students of Beijing to show their discontent against warlords, foreign influence (specially Japan) and traditional Chinese culture. This was ignited by the Versailles Settlement, that gave Japan Germany's concessions in Shandong, China. Chinese were humiliated by this and were seeking for a rebirth of China. This also started to create an alliance between two different factions: communists and nationalists. -
Regionalism and the Warlords
Finally, Yuan abdicated; China was again in a crisis,breaking up into small provinces controlled by the so called warlords. These people ran their territories independently, commiting several crimes and asking for huge taxes to the chinese population. They lived by their own laws. Once again, rural areas and its workers were severely exploited. A sense of nationalism rised one more time amongst the chinese, who were desiring to get rid out of the influence of both the warlord and the foreigners. -
The Creation of the CCP
After the May Fourth Movement, communist ideology was vastly spread; another party rised to ally with the GMD, with the objective of eliminating the warlods: the Chinese Communist Party. By the time, Jiang Jieshi was the new leader of the GMD, and he was seeking for further help with southern influence. The CCP gave aid and assitance to the GMD, and finally, both agreed to work together to recover control/stability of the country. They started to cooperate by creating the First United Front. -
Northern Expedition
After the creation of the First United Front, the GMD and the CCP set out the Northern Expedition, which crushed the warlords and their influence over the different regions of China. By 1927, both parties had captured Hangzhou, Shanghai, Nanjing, and finally, in 1928, Beijing. Nonetheless, the parties splitted after this, and the GMD announced that they were the legitimate government of China, displeasing the CCP. The CCP started to plan how to take out the GMD of the government. -
White Terror
After the rupture of the parties' alliance, local peasants started to support the communists, while industrial workers supported the nationalists. Jiang Jieshi expelled all of the communist politicians from the GMD, and the White Terror began. A series of massacres under Zhou Enlai killed more than 5,000 communists. The CCP almost disappeared, but fled to the mountains of Jiangsi to survive. The Chinese Civil War begun.
