International Encyclopedia of Revolution and Protest

Extract

The Revolution of 1911 in China signaled the end of the Manchu (also known as Ching/Qing) dynasty and the establishment of the republican form of government in China. It was also called the Hsin-hai revolution because 1911 is a Xinhai year in the sexegenary cycle of the Chinese lunar calendar. Three distinct phases are discernible in this revolution, as different social forces and political groups played their role in it – the new gentry, western-educated intellectuals, reformists, the later-Ching reformers, constitutionalists, secret societies, toiling people, overseas Chinese students and, above all, the revolutionaries who assembled under the leadership of Sun Yat-sen . From the 1890s, reformist ideology had been gaining ground among the western-educated professional and commercial people who resided in China's partially westernized port cities. The national sentiment of the Chinese people was hurt at the aggressive war waged by the French imperialists during 1884–1885 and the humiliating treaty that China was compelled to sign. Sun Yat-sen, along with others, presented conventional proposals for reform, known as the “Petition to Li Hung-chang,” one of China's most influential exponents of modernization. Three measures were prescribed as essential means of bringing wealth to the nation and well-being to the people. They were: full utilization of the nation's talents, better ... log in or subscribe to read full text