Western invasions (1839-1900)

• Opium War (1839 - 1842)• The Second Opium War (1856 - 1860)• Russia’s territorial gains

– Northeast China (1858 - 1860)– Northwest China (1881 - 1884)

• Sino-French War (1883 - 1885)• Sino-Japanese War (1894 - 95)• 8-nation forces (1900)

Weakness fully exposed

• Sino-Japanese War of 1894 - 1895– Chinese navy destroyed– Taiwan ceded to Japan– large indemnity– most-favored-nation– more treaty ports– Korea

• start of Japanese empire

The scramble for concessions

The Boxer Uprising in 1900

• Peasants in Northern China• support from high officials of Qing court• destruction of anything foreign• siege of the legation quarter in Beijing

8-nation forces invaded Beijing

• Harsh settlement• station troops in Beijing• huge indemnity• Russian troops in

Manchuria– until 1905

Radicalization of politics

Qing court Reformers

Peasants Revolutionaries

status quo

pre-1841 China

modern monarchy

republic

Marxism? nationalism?

Revolution of 1911

The Revolution of 1911

• 1911-10-10, Wuchang Uprising– Qing dynasty was overthrown

• 1912-01-01, China became a republic

Sun YatSen (1866 - 1925)

• 1st President of the Republic of China• founder of the Nationalist Party (GMD)• The Three Principles of the People

– nationalism– people’s rights– people’s livelihood

Yuan Shi Kai returned to politics and replaced Sun Yat Sen who had no power base. Sun became minister of transport hoping to modernise China.

Yuan was a general and an autocrat however and wanted to become emperor of China. He caved in to Japanese pressure and was opposed by other generals. He died in 1916 but set a precedent for generals to try to seize power. China was to enter one of its darkest periods, the War Lord Period.

Warlords (1913-28)

Era of the Warlords (1916-1926)

Local concentrations of power emerge

military leaders & local gentry take control of the provinces.

Warlord armies terrorize the countryside.

Millions of peasants die of famine & disease.

Peasants’ desire for land went unresolved; landless grew

The Warlords

They fought for control of Beijing, to be recognised as the official government of China . The effects were disastrous, particularly on the peasants who were raped and pillaged and forced to pay taxes up to 30 years in advance, for their “protection and safety”.

Li Yuanbong Zhang Zuolin Yan Xishan Feng Yuxiang

Frustrated nationalism

• China’s previous efforts to borrow from the West to achieve wealth and power all failed– military hardware and related technologies– economic institutions and organization– science, scholarship, and education– government, political processes and

organizations

Frustrated nationalism

• China became weaker and poorer– continuous civil wars between warlords– Western privileges in China

• humiliated and abused in the world

Radical urban intellectuals

• multiplication of ism’s

World War I (1914-18)

• Beijing government– joined the

Allied forces– sent laborers to

Europe

World War I (1914-18)

• Japan drove German forces out of Qingdao• Paris Peace Conference in 1919

High expectations in Beijing

Treaty of Versailles (1919)

• All German privileges in China’s Shandong Peninsula were “transferred” to Japan

Student protests in Beijing

May Fourth Movement: May 4, 1919

students protest in Peking.

slogan: ‘Down with the Imperialists’

1. Spreads to other cities

becomes a nationalist movement:

2. Nationalism & anti-imperialist sentiment grow.

Spread of the movement

• Boycott Japanese products• demand release of arrested students• workers and merchants joined in• Shanghai, Nanjing, etc.• Paris, California, etc.

May Fourth Movement: May 4, 1919

Outcome: Create broad based coalition.

Force release of imprisoned students

dismissal of Japanese officials from govt.

reformers turn against Sun Yat-sen’s belief in western democracy.

Following the Russian revolution the GMD turned to Russia for help.

The Comintern sent Mikhail Borodin (left) to organise the new Chinese Communist Party and to assist the GMD to unite and overthrow the warlords.

New political parties

• Nationalist Party (GMD) was established– Sun Yat-Sen died in 1925– Chiang Kai-Shek was the military leader

• Communist Party was established in 1921– Mao ZeDong was one of its founding members

Unfotunately Sun died in 1925 before his plans could come to fruition. His funeral train is seen with his picture on the front.

Chiang KaiShek

• Born in Zhejiang Province in 1887• studied Confucianism in his hometown• studied military in Japan 1907 - 1911• returned during the Revolution of 1911• became a follower of Sun YatSen• President of the Huangpu Academy

– 1924 - 1930

Sun Yat-sen’s son in law and leader of the new army Chiang Kai Shek quickly took command and established himself as leader moving against the War Lords in the successful Great Northern Expedition.

GMD soldiers in Guangzhou eat before departing for the North.

Northern Expedition• GMD & CCP

merged in 1924

• split in 1927• CCP was

decimated

Chiang Kai-shek

Break-up of KMT and CCP

1925

Chiang Kai-shek emerges as KMT leader

KMT & CCP forces successfully defeat the Warlords.

1927—Chiang fears CCP and its leaders.

KMT troops overrun Shanghai

Execute CCP leaders & union members.

“Purges” spread to other cities.

Surviving CCP leaders go into hiding.

The success of the Northern Expedition surprised everyone as many of the Warlords were defeated or made peace with the GMD.The march to Shanghai became a triumphal parade but left Chiang with a problem. He did not want to share power with his Communist allies, preferring the capitalist way of development which would ensure close ties with the USA.

He decided therefore to end the United Front which had been so successful in defeating the Warlords and to eliminate his communist allies. A bloody purge of the communists followed in Shanghai and in Guangzhou.

The massacre was successful and left Chiang free to march on Beijing and establish himself as China’s first strong ruler since 1911. He would be in a position to carry out Sun Yat Sen’s programme of modernisation of a united country.

Death in Shanghai

Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek Chairman Mao Zedong

Communists in rural areas

• revolutionary bases in Jiangxi Province• communist revolts in other areas• the “Long March” to Northwest China

1934-1935

The Encirclement Campaigns drove the communists to escape in the Long March. Mao is seen here with his second wife who accompanied him on the march.

The Long March 1934-35

Nationalism under Chiang

• Negotiated with Western powers and Japan– regained the sovereign right to set tariffs– abolished extraterritorial rights– abolished or revised “unequal treaties” with

Western powers of the Qing dynasty– recovered some of the “leased areas” from

Western powers

China soon came to know him as the ruler of the country. He liked to be called the Genralissimo. He was able to modernise China as the electric cables for street cars shown in this picture demonstrate. Generally cities, particularly Shanghai, made great progress, even in the harsh economic climate of the 1930’s Great Depression.

Nationalist Republic of China (1928-37)

Chiang Kai-shek becomes President. U.S. & Britain recognizes KMT government

Government becomes dictatorial and corrupt.

• Focuses on modernizing & developing cities.• Ignores the peasants—life does not improve

Chinese young men learning to type.

Western medicine became more popular.

Even Pu Yi the former boy emperor adopted Western ways

The cheong-sam became very fashionable as foot binding was finally eradicated as a custom.

Some people became very rich……..

Whilst others remained desperately poor.

Some communists escaped the purges like Mao and Zhou and took communism to the country side, starting the civil wars again.

Mao Tse-tung and the Peasants

Recognizes potential.

Organizing soviets to train peasants

Divides CCP land amongst peasants

Wins their loyalty

China under Chiang Kai-Shek

• Japanese encroachment– 1928, Shandong Province– 1931, Manchuria

• 3 provinces

– 1932, Shanghai– 1933, Northern China

• suburbs of Beijing

– 1937, full-scale aggression started• Beijing and Shanghai

The Japanese posed an even bigger threat,taking Manchuria and putting Pu Yi on the throne as a puppet. After 1937 they invaded and conquered the rich coastal plains and cities of China in a brilliantly successful but brutal campaign, culminating in the massacre at Nanjing where 300,000 civilians were slaughtered in an orgy of rape, pillage and execution.

Victorious Japanese troops at ShanghaiIt then became Chiang Kai

Shek’s turn to flee to the interior of China and resist as best he could in Chung king until the Americans arrived with help.