Republic of China History#

Overview#

The history of the Republic of China began with the Xinhai Revolution in 1911. On January 1, 1912, the Provisional Government of the Republic of China was established in Nanjing[Note 1], with Sun Wen as the first provisional president. On February 12, 1912, the Qing Emperor Puyi abdicated, and the Republic of China legally inherited the Qing dynasty's territory. In its early years, it was governed by the Beiyang government led by warlords, with continuous political struggles, while democratic and various academic thoughts developed relatively freely.

In 1923, Sun Yat-sen proposed the "military government, tutelage, and constitutional government" three-step approach to enter a democratic republican constitutional system, and formally established the "National Government Founding Outline" in 1924. After the Northern Expedition ended on June 3, 1928, the Beiyang government was replaced by the National Government established by the Chinese Kuomintang. The National Government implemented a tutelage system of party-led governance, focusing on promoting economic and cultural modernization. The Republic of China experienced the Golden Decade of development. At the same time, the Kuomintang was caught in political and military conflicts with the Chinese Communist Party, remaining warlords, and Japan. In 1937, full-scale war broke out between China and Japan, until Japan surrendered in 1945 and Taiwan was taken over. At the end of 1947, the National Government formally promulgated the Constitution of the Republic of China, reorganizing the National Government into the constitutional Republic of China government. At the same time, full-scale civil war broke out with the Chinese Communist Party. After defeat, it retreated to Taiwan on December 7, 1949, governing only the Taiwan-Penghu-Kinmen-Matsu region, forming a situation of divided rule across the Taiwan Strait with the People's Republic of China established by the Chinese Communist Party.

Historical Timeline#

1 Early Republic 1.1 Xinhai Revolution 1.2 Founding of the Republic 2 Beiyang Government 2.1 Revolution and Legal System 2.2 Hongxian Monarchy and National Protection War 2.3 Changes in Beiyang Power 2.4 May Fourth Movement 2.5 Military Expedition to Outer Mongolia 2.6 Constitutional Split 2.7 First Kuomintang-Communist Cooperation 2.8 National Government's Northern Expedition 2.8.1 Ning-Han Split 2.8.2 Breakdown of Kuomintang-Communist Cooperation 3 National Government 3.1 Nominal Unification 3.2 Golden Decade 3.3 External Resistance and Internal Pacification 3.3.1 Internal Pacification 3.3.2 External Resistance 3.4 War of Resistance Against Japan 3.5 Post-war Demobilization and International Relations 3.6 Taking Over Taiwan and the February 28 Incident 3.7 Implementation of Constitutional Government 3.8 Second Chinese Civil War