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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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.
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| 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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