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Sun Yixian, the leader of the Kuomingtang (China's nationalist Party ), overthrows the last Qing Emperor. He becomes president of the New Republic of China. He only rules for six weeks and eventually gives control to Yuan Shikai,a powerful general.
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Yuan Shikai betrays the democratic ideals of the revolution and becomes a military dictator.The people start rioting against the dictatorship and Yuan has no one to support him.
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Yuan dies and China is divided as rival groups fight each other for control. Provincial warlords became powerful, the Kuomingtang weak.
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The government in Beijing declare war against Germany in hopes of getting back the territories that Germany had in China. These, however, are given to the Japanese.
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Over 3,000 angry students get angry at the Europeans for giving Chinese territory to the Japanese. Later on, workers, manufacturers, shopkeepers, and professionals joined the cause.
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Small groups of young intellectuals start meeting together and discusing Marx's ideas. The Chinese Communist Party is created.
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Sun sides with the Communist Party, Lenin included, due to the fact that no Western powers aided him. Lenin starts sending military advisors and equipment to support China.
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Sun Yixian dies, and Jiang Jieshi becomes the leader of the Kuomingtang. He successfully fights off the warlords with help from the communists but immediately turns against them.
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Nationalist troops and armed gangs march into Shangai and nearly wipe out the Communist party members. The few survivors went into hiding.
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Jiang becomes president. The U.S. and the U.K. recognize the new government.
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The Nationalists begin fighting the Communists, which are established in South China. Mao recruits farmers to fight alongside him.
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Jiang gathers an army of 700,000 men and attacks the communists. They are outnumbered and surrounded.
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The defeated communists flee north in what is now known as the Long March, a 60,000 mile-long journey where about 70 percent of the Communist Party dies. They arrived to Northwest China and settled in caves. They quickly regained power.
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The Japanese launch an all-out invasion on China. Nationalists are forced to join with the Communists to repell the attack .
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By teaching literacy and improving food production, Mao earns the loyalty of the peasants. He trains them in guerilla warfare to fight the Japanese, and already has control over much of North China.
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The Communists, with a much smaller army and less resources than the Nationalists, become popular and do better against the Japanese. Many Nationalist soldiers desert to the Communist Party. The Japanese eventually surrender, and the civil war continued. Mao, however, beats the Nationalists, which flee to Taiwan. Mao becomes president of the People's Republic of China.
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Mao rules China as head of state and chairman of the Communist Party. During this time, he invades Mongolia, Tibet, and India.
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Mao takes all the land that belonged to the rich and redistributed it among peasants. He then forces the peasants to join collective farms, where they share rooms, dining rooms, and nurseries. He also doubled most of China's output of resources.
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The Chinese and the Soviets sign a friendly treaty.
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The Soviet Union stops giving aid to China. High school and college students form militia units known as Red Guards. They want complete communism and eventually Mao had to stop them. Mao dies.
