Year/event Event
1911 Fall of the Qing Dynasty and
establishment of the First
Chinese Republic. Abdication of
Pu Yi (last emperor)
1915 Yuan Shihkai declared himself
Emperor
1916 War-lord Era starts
1919 May the Fourth Movement:
student demonstration in Beijing
Description
China had been divided by colonial powers in
the 19th century (Britain, France, Russia,
Germany and Japan)
The colonial powers’ take-over led to internal
trouble in China. Young Chinese who had
studied abroad returned with revolutionary ideas
that challenged the empire. For example the
establishment of the Guomindang party in exile
in 1894 under Sun Yixian.
The 1911 revolution, which started with a
rebellion in Wuchang, was the last straw that
toppled the Imperial government.
After the revolution in 1911, a general, Yuan
Shihkai, became president of the republic. The
returned leader of the nationalist party, Sun
Yixian, at first supported him. However, Yuan
ruled as a military dictator from 1912 and finally
declared himself Emperor in 1915. This led to
him losing all support. He died in 1916.
After Yuan’s death, the Chinese central
government lost all control. China fragmented
into hundreds of autonomous states, ruled by
different military leaders who often fought each
other.
Student demonstrations both against the
warlords, but also the humiliating treatment of
China at the Paris Peace Conference after the
First World War, since Japan had been allowed
to occupy former German territory in China.
The movement believed that Chinese traditional
culture was to be eradicated and replaced by a

1921 Communist Party founded. Mao
was among the founding
members.
1924 First United Front formed
1926 The Northern Expedition
1927 Split between the Guomindang
and the communists=outbreak of
the Chinese Civil War
1928 Guomindang formed a
government in China
1931 Mao was elected Chairman of
the Central Executive
Committee of the Communist
Party (CCP)
1931 Japanese invasion of Manchuria
1934 Long March: GMD armies were
about to destroy the CCP. The
communists escaped and
100,000 communists set out on
the 6000 mile march to the
North of Chiba where they
new form of Chinese nationalism based on
science and democracy.
Inspired by the May fourth movement.
Alliance formed between the Guomindang Party
(GMD) and the Communists (CCP), as an
alliance against the warlords
Military campaign against the warlords in order
to reunify China, under leadership of Jiang Jieshi
(GMD) in cooperation with the Communist
Party (CCP)
Jiang decided to end the alliance between his
GMD party and the communists, as he feared the
latter were becoming too popular. The GMD
launched a campaign of terror against the
communists (the so-called White Terror).
Final victory for GMD in the fight against the
warlords, when Beijing was taken.
After the communist breach with the GMD, Mao
was largely responsible for changing the
Communist strategy
No resistance from the Chinese government led
by Jiang Jieshi, who was more interested in
fighting the communists at home.
The GMD party carried out several
‘extermination campaign’s’ against the CCP
between 1930-1934
 formed a new base (Yanan
Soviet).
1936 Jiang was taken prisoner by his
own troops: The Manchurian
troops in the GMD army were
angry with lack of resistance to
the Japanese invasion.
1937 Full scale war with Japan started
when Japan invaded mainland
China. The Second United Front
between the GMD and CCP was
formed.
1945 Japanese Defeat in the Pacific
War. The civil war started again.
1949 Mao proclaimed the new
People’s Republic of China
Jiang had decided to continue in his campaign
against Mao and the communists rather than
resist the Japanese
Under pressure from his own army, Jiang
pledged to form an alliance with the CCP and
fight the Japanese. There was a truce in the civil
war between the two parties, GMD and CCP.
The war against the Japanese finally came to an
end. Mao’s leadership of the CCP was total. The
CCP party had grown in popularity due to the
effective guerilla tactics they used against the
Japanese army during WW2, while the GMD
armies had become increasingly unpopular due
to their failures.
GMD armies began to disintegrate under the
direct challenge of the now large Communist
armies.
In 1948, the CCP took Beijing, and Jiangs troops
fled to Taiwan, leaving Mao in control of
mainland China.