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Chinese Nationalists oust the last Qing emperor, Puyi
China had been humiliated by its inability to keep foreign nations from gaining control of the nation. In 1911, the Chinese Nationalist Party (Kuomintang), led by Sun Yixian, overthrew the last emperor of the Qing Dynasty. Sun then established the new Republic of China. -
World War I begins as Austria declares war on Serbia
Serbia had a large Slavic population and wanted to absorb all of the Serbs on the peninsula. Russia supported Serbian nationalism but Austria-Hungary opposed it. They thought it would stir a rebellion among their Slavic people. Austria annexed Bosnia and Herzegovina which both had a large Slavic population. The king of Austria, Archduke Franz Ferdinand, visited the capitol of Bosnia and he was killed by a memebrer of the Black Hand. Austria was so outraged that they declared war on Serbia. -
U.S. Enters the war
The US intercepted a telegram written by Germany’s foreign secretary which stated that Germany would help Mexico reconquer the land it lost to the US if Mexico allied with Germnay. The US was outraged and they felt a bond with England and had more economic ties with the Allies. So, on April 2, 1917 President Wilson asked congress to declare war on Germnay and they joined the war on the Allies’ side -
Armistice signed as Allies defeat Central Powers
After the second battle of the Marne, the central powers began to crumble and the Bulgarians and Ottomans surrendered. The German soldiers Mutinied and turned on Kaiser. Kaiser Wilhelm then stepped down and Germany became a republic. The new German government met with France and signed an armistice and agreed to stop fighting. -
Gandhi leads Indian camapaign of civil disobedience
After the massacre at Amristar, Gandhi began to emerge as a leader for the independence movement. The British refused to punish the officers responsible for the Amrisar massacre so we urged civil disobedience. Gandhi refused to buy british goods and made his own cloth. One of the demonstrations he lead was the Salt March where he and his followers marched 240 miles to collect their own salt. They were protesting the hated Salt Acts. -
Mustafa Kemal transforms Turkey into Republic
Mustafa Kemal was a commander who helped the Turkish nationalists fight aganst the Greeks. After he won, the nationalists overthrew the last Ottoman Sultan and he became the president of the Republic of Turkey. He started with a series of reforms including: separating church from state, abolish religious courts and created a new legal system based on European law, granted women the right to vote, and launched government-funded programs to industrialize Turkey and to spur economic growth. -
MaoZedong heads Long March
The Nationalists and Communists were fighting a bloody civil war and in 1933 Jiang gathered an army of 700,000 men and surrounded the Communists. So 100,000 communist forces fled and began a 6,000-mile-lng journey called the Long March. Thousands died from hunger,cold, exposure, and wounds. Eventually Mao and the seven or eight thousand survivors settled in caves.
