What are the causes of the Xinhai Revolution of 1911?


1911 marked the end of the Ancien Regime for China. The Xinhai Revolution of 1911 put an end in to the institution that steered the country for more than a millennium. Though ideas of emperors remained alive, it had no hopes of restoration. However, what caused the Xinhai Revolution?

Qing Dynasty Mismanagement

Centuries after capturing Beijing from the Ming, the Manchus of Northern China established their Qing Dynasty that brought peace and prosperity to the empire for more than a century. However, when the world witnessed revolutionary changes in the 18th century, their weakness emerged and the whole Empire began to falter. Thus, began the Century of Humiliation that eventually caused the Xinhai Revolution.
Qianlong Emperor
From 1644, the Manchu Qing Dynasty ruled over China, but during the last years of Emperor Qianlong (r. 1735 – 1796), corruption grew in the court. The high ranking official Heshen epitomized this corruption with his ill-gotten wealth amounting to more than the Empire’s 12 years of revenue. After which no Emperor attempted to enact reforms in taxation or purge the government of corruption as the practice already infected the highest members of the government, military, and the imperial family. Thus, the coffers of the Empire remained depleted.

This terrible financial and moral state of the government contributed to the decline of the Qing and what brought the Xinhai Revolution alongside by rapidly changing international developments. Before the 19th century, East Asia secluded itself from the rest of the world at ease. Western colonial powers lacked the ships, supplies, and willpower to directly establish relations with China. Only a handful of intrepid westerners successfully visited China, mostly travelers, traders, and missionaries. China on the other hand closed its borders to foreigners except for Canton and Macau which served as a foreign enclave and a window of China to the outside and vice versa. 

The industrial and scientific revolution, however, delivered groundbreaking developments in transportation. Steam-powered ships allowed travel for greater distance. Furthermore, the opening of the Suez Canal cut the journey from Europe to Asia. The conquest of India and the expansion of the British East to Southeast Asia provided the necessary bases for supplies for a journey to China. Europe, in particular the British, then began to import massive oriental goods from China, especially tea. British merchants spent their silver to China to buy these highly-priced dried leaves. But the trade sparked a debate that today remained a hot topic – trade imbalance. Britain imported greater than it exports to China draining the country’s silver from which its currency relied on for value. Furthermore, Canton already seemed too small to handle the rising number of merchant ships wanting to trade with China. Thus, began western encroachment to China for trade balance and new ports to settle accounts.

China unfortunately refused to expand trade with westerners inciting the British to unleash their most diabolic plan to open up the Middle Kingdom – the addiction of the Chinese population to a hallucinogen substance abundantly planted in India, opium. Opium solved Britain’s trade balance at the cost of tremendous social and moral upheaval in China. When Qing Emperors attempted to stop the trade of this malignant substance, the west resorted to war: the First Opium War (1839 – 1842) and the Second Opium War (1856 – 1860). These wars resulted in a humiliating defeat of the Qing Empire and forced it to sign unequal treaties that made foreigners more powerful in China than the Chinese and the Manchus.

Such a dark period went on with bloody rebellions further weakened the Qing militarily and financially. The Taiping Rebellion (1850 – 1864), Nian Rebellion (1851 – 1868), Pathay Rebellion (1856 – 1873), the Da Cheng Rebellion (1855 – 1864), the Dungan Revolt (1862 – 1877)  among others exhausted the Qing who luckily quelled each and every single revolt.

The rebellions exposed the country’s poverty and corruption. The local administration had become corrupt and abusive. The imperial government-supported elements of reform and modernization under the Self-Strengthening Movement, however, conservatism remained strong and entrenched. Even with Japan’s victory in the Sino-Japanese War (1894 – 1895), most in the court remained stubborn. Its stubbornness manifested further in 1898 when the Conservatives won through a coup supported by the Empress Dowager Cixi crushed any hope of reform led by the young Guangxu Emperor (r. 1875 - 1908) who hoped to improve China’s condition.

The Boxer Rebellion in 1900 discredited the Conservatives allowing reforms to proceed. These included the abolition of foot binding and civil service examinations. It seemed, however, too little too late.
Empress Dowager Cixi
A Fed up People

With the catastrophic handling of the Qing Government of the situation, the Chinese people grew fed up of the foreign Manchu rule. Sick and tired of the humiliation, many Chinese discussed ways to change the government and ideas of a new China. Eventually, international developments contributed once again to this growing tide of descent which the Qing Dynasty faced.

The Chinese began to discuss ideas of a new China. Until 1898, intellectuals such as Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao believed in reforms led by the Qing Dynasty. But the fall of the Guangxu Emperor killed any attempts of cooperation between Reformists and the Qing court forcing many including Liang to turn to more extremist views. Words of ending the Qing Dynasty began to be cried louder and louder by the year. Liang Qichao even had the idea of Destructivism that called for the destruction of old tradition to build new ones – an idea later inspired the most successful Chinese radical in the 20th century, Mao Zedong. Dr. Sun Yat-sen traveled abroad to raise funds for anti-Manchu movements in China. Zou Rong, on the other hand, galvanized most of the Chinese people with his 1803 tract The Revolutionary Army. It touched the racial aspect of the problem. He called the Manchu Qing as inferior thus causing the humiliation of the country. He called for the Chinese people to “lead the heroes of the Middle Plain to win back our rivers and hills.” Intellectuals stirred up ideas of regime change and the argument became ever stronger with development overseas.

Dr. Sun Yat-sen
1905 had been marked by the Japanese as a glorious year, but also an inspirational year for the Chinese. The Russo-Japanese War ended in 1905 with a stunning victory for Japan. This victory reverberated across Asia showing that Asians could defeat a towering western imperial power. For the Chinese, the Japanese success displayed the effects of modernization and reform. Many then looked up to their neighbor as an example they wished to follow. As the Japanese back then looked to the Shoguns as their Ancien Regime, the Chinese viewed the Qing as theirs and their fall a sign of great changes. However, some Chinese remained adamant about removing the Qing outright. In Russia in the same year, the defeat in the hands of the Japanese also revealed the need for reform which they did with a Revolution that forced the establishment of a constitution and a legislature making the Romanovs Constitutional Monarchs. Kang Youwei remained hopeful for such a situation for China.

Intellectual discourse and international examples furthered the ideas of regime change in China. These ideas began to turn into action with a series of developments in the late 1910s.

Weakness and Opportunity

As the Qing looked to re-establish its authority and credibility, political succession became an opportunity for changes and for some revolution.

The Qing Dynasty enacted reforms in the 1900s aimed at re-establishing control over the country. Infrastructure and economic reforms became a means of strengthening the central government. By then, most of the country already mistrusted the government and began to exercise their autonomy. A desire for autonomy and greater power became even more vocal with the establishment of local assemblies and a national assembly originally meant to welcome back reformist into the fold but instead became a hotbed of regionalism. Any encroachment of Beijing to local affairs became a source of tensions with the local elites fanning further flames of discontent.

The Qing Government further weakened as it faced succession. In 1908, the Guangxu Emperor passed away, but more importantly, the de facto ruler of the country the towering figure Empress Dowager Cixi also succumbed to death. Worst, the Empire’s throne fell to an infant boy Puyi who reigned as the Xuantong Emperor. A regency council ruled the country, but it lacked the same power and strength as the late Empress Dowager, hence rendering it weak and vulnerable for a revolution.
Puyi
In 1911, revolutionaries already infiltrated military units. An explosion in Hankow, however, unveiled a clandestine plot for a revolution launching prematurely a mutiny which grew to become the Xinhai Revolution. The Xinhai Revolution saw the establishment of a Provisional Republican government under Sun Yat-sen and finally saw the abdication of the emperor and end of the imperial order.

Summing Up

A series of events dating back to the start of the 19th century made the Xinhai Revolution of 1911. Government corruption and mismanagement in reaction to foreign developments made the Qing weak. Their lack of openness to change led to a century of humiliation for the Chinese who then lose trust in the dynasty. This led to an increase in discussion and ideas for change that spread fast within the population. The ideas further gained momentum with proof from international developments such as the case of Japan. Thus, inspired by ideas with living proofs, the Chinese fed up with the Qing looked for the opportunity to finally burst their frustrations out into a revolution in 1911.

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