Xinhai Revolution
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The Xinhai Revolution or Hsinhai Revolution (Template:Zh-cp), also known as the 1911 Revolution, was a republican revolution which overthrew China's ruling Qing Dynasty, which was also known as the Manchu Dynasty, and the establishment of the Republic of China. The revolution had ended the monarchy which had a history for 4000 years in China and replaced it with a republic, with democratic ideals. The ensuing revolutionary war lasted from October 10, 1911 and ended upon the formation of the Republic of China on February 12, 1912. Since 1911 is a Xinhai Year in the sexagenary cycle of Chinese calendar, Xinhai Revolution had got its present name.
The revolution began with the armed Wuchang Uprising and the spread of republican insurrection through the southern provinces, and culminated in the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor after lengthy negotiations between rival Imperial and Republican regimes based in Beijing and Nanjing respectively.
The Revolution inaugurated a period of struggle over China's eventual constitutional form, which saw two brief monarchical restorations and successive periods of political fragmentation before the Republic's final establishment.
Today, the Xinhai Revolution is commemorated in Taiwan as Double Ten Day (雙十節). In addition, numerous overseas Chinese also celebrate Double Ten Day and events are usually held in Chinatowns across the world.
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Background
Self-Strengthening Movement
The First Opium War is generally considered the starting point of Chinese modern history, whiting a full stop for the long period isolation of China. Some Chinese officers and intellectuals started to realise that it was not feasible to deal with the new challenges that China had seen without any transformation. The self-Strengthening Movement from the 1860s to 1890s, which focused on studying Western science and production modes in an attempt to strengthen national power by means of establishing industry and commerce, was a reformation by the Qing dynasty itself. However, the defeat in the First Sino-Japanese War reflected that the changes in the technological level cannot fundamentally improve the condition of old feudal China.
Hundred Days' Reform
After 1895, it started to appear the fashion of concerning national affairs among non-government circles, leading to some requestment to more deep reformation from intellectuals. Some of them such as Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao advocated the imitation of Japan and Russia about the improvement inside the political and social system under the imperial power. The reformation, so-called Hundred Day's Reform due to its short duration, got the support of Guangxu Emperor, and executed on 1898. 103 days later, the reformation aborted due to the coup d'état from the conservative in the dynasty. Some of the reformers were exiled, still advocated remaining the imperial family, practicing the constitutional monarchy similar to the United Kingdom and returning the political power to the democracy government.
Abolishment of the imperial examination
After the strike of Boxer Rebellion and Eight-Nation Alliance, the Qing government leaded by the Empress Dowager Cixi started to carry out the refoms advocated by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao in the Hundred Days' Reform. Among the changes, the one with greatest influence was the abolishment of the imperial examination on 2nd, September, 1905. The government started building modern college, having a number of 60000 before the Xinhai Revolution. After the abolishment, many traditional literati who attempted to get government posts by taking the examination become no way out.
Constitutionalism campaign
The Qing government anounced an outline of the Constitutionalism campaign on 1st September, 1906. Constitutionalists with high social status from each provinces urged the government to form the cabinet. On May, 1911, the prime minister of the newly formed cabinet was amazingly anounced to be Prince Qing. Moreover, 9 of the 13 members of the cabinet were Manchu, while 7 of them were from the imperial family, making the Constitutionalists totally disappointed. As a result, constitutionalists from different provinces changed their ground into supporting revolution instead of constitutionalism campaign to save the nation.
Formation of new armies
Image:Beiyang Army.jpg In the last years of the Qing dynasty, the old type armies from the Eight Banners had lost their strength. The quelling of Tàipíng Tiānguó mainly relied on the township force (local elites' militias). After the first Sino-Japanese War, on account of the dated troops, the Qing government had planned to practice 36 modern armies to replace the old type. Among the 36 armies, 6 of them were the Beiyang Army controlled by Yuan Shikai. To foster new officers, many military schools were built in each province. Some new armies appointed many overseas students to be officers; In contrast, Beiyang armies rarely emploied overseas students.
Anti-Manchurian stream
The conflict between Manchu and Han Chinese were nearly forgot in the middle of the Qing dynasty due to the long period peace under the rule of Qing government. However, with the decline of Qing government, the Manchu-Han problem had begun to surface again after the Taiping Rebellion. After 1890, writings concerning repulsion with the Manchus revived. Books left from the last years of Ming dynasty guided the important thought stream of comtemporary intellectual. Many revolutionists even promoted revolution by taking advantage of Manchu repulsive thought. Although some revolutionists like Sun Yat-sen mentioned political and economical reformation other than only racial revolution, the main revolutional forces in the early of 20th century were full of Manchu repulsive thought. After the overthrow of Qing government, the slogan of revolutionist was changed from "exiling the Manchus" to "harmony among different races" in an attempt to unify the country in fragments.
See also
de:Xinhai-Revolution es:Revolución de Xinhai fr:Révolution chinoise de 1911 ko:신해혁명 he:מהפכת שינהאי ja:辛亥革命 no:Xinhairevolusjonen pt:Revolução Xinhai fi:Xinhai-vallankumous sv:Xinhairevolutionen zh:辛亥革命