The Chinese Revolution Essay, Research Paper
After Marco Polo traveled to China in the early 1200’s the Chinese called westerners “hairy, white barbarians”. Portuguese “barbarians” then named what is now Taiwan Formosa in the 1590’s. In 1644 the Manchu people invaded China and established the Qing dynasty. They were the last dynasty. In 1793 King George III of Britain send lord Macartney to negotiate a more open trading system with China. In 1796 there was a rebellion because of political dishonesty. It lasted until 1804. CiXi started to rule in 1839 because of the death of Hsien Fong. In that same year the Qing government made laws against opium trade which happened to be a profitable product for British merchants. Chinese authorities in Canton destroyed billions of dollars of British opium. This touched off the Opium War. In 1842 the Treaty of Nanjing ended the War. It is believed to be the first of many unequal treaties. In 1851 a group called the Taipings rebelled against the Qing dynasty and Confucianism. After 14 years Chinese officials organized new armies which defeated the Taipings. In 1860 the Sino-Russo treaty gave Britain South Kowloon and Ngong Chauas permanently leased land from the Qing Court. In 1894 a war broke out between China and Japan over predominance in East Asia. Japan seized Taiwan and S. Manchuria. The war ended in 1895 it was named the Sino-Japanese War. In 1898 the Yihequan started the Boxer Rebellion against the spread of Japanese and Western influence. The Open
Door policy was instituted in 1899. Allowing merchants to trade freely and preventing China from splitting into “spheres of influence”. The Boxer Rebellion ended on September 7, 1901 with the Boxer Protocol. Pu’Yi took over the Qing dynasty in 1908. His rule was short lived because in 1911 the Republican Revolution was sparked by an army revolt. On October 10, 1912
the Qing dynasty collapsed. Sun Yat’sen became president of Republic of China only to resign six weeks later to General Yuan Shi k’ai.
The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) formed in 1921. In 1923 Chiang Kai-Shek took command of the Kuomintang (KMT) party. This was the same army that had ousted the Qing dynasty. In 1927 Kai-shek killed the leaders of the labor unions and Communist party. This caused the split of the KMT and CCP. The KMT started a violent war against the communists known as the Autumn Harvest Uprising. In 1934 the CCP started the Long March to Shaanix because the KMT forced them out of their bases. During the march Mao Zedong became the leader of the Chinese Communist Party. In 1949 the CCP took over mainland China and established the People’s Republic of China. The significance of October 5, 1999 is that it marks the 50th anniversary of the Communist Party.