XinHai+Revolution

=Xinhai[辛亥] Revolution[1911-1912]= The Xinhai Revolution, also known as Revolution of 1911 or the Chinese Revolution, was a revolution that overthrew China's last imperial dynasty, the Qing[清] Dynasty, and established the Republic of China[中華民國]. The revolution was named Xinhai because it occurred in 1911, the year of the Xinhai stem-branch in the sexagenary cycle of the Chinese calendar.The turning point of the revolution is the Wuchang Uprising on October 10, 1911.The revolution ended with the abdication of the "Last Emperor" Puyi[溥儀] on February 12, 1912, that marked the end of over 2,000 years of Imperial rule and the beginning of China's Republican era.Today both the Republic of China in Taiwan and the People's Republic of China on the mainland consider themselves to be successors to the Xinhai Revolution and continue to pay homage to the ideals of the revolution including nationalism, republicanism, modernization of China and national unity. October 10 is commemorated in Taiwan as Double Ten Day, the National Day of the Republic of China.

Background
After suffering its first defeat to the West in the First Opium War in 1842, the Qing court struggled to contain foreign intrusions into China. Efforts to adjust and reform the traditional methods of governance were constrained by a deeply conservative court culture where ethnic Manchu rulers did not want to give too much authority to the Han Chinese majority.Following defeat in the Second Opium War the Qing tried to modernize by adopting certain Western technologies through the Self-Strengthening Movement from 1861. In 1895 China suffered a serious defeat during the First Sino-Japanese War. This demonstrated that traditional Chinese feudal society also needed to be modernized if the technological and commercial advancements were to succeed. In 1898 Emperor Guangxu[光緒] was guided by reformers like Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao for a drastic reform in education, military and economy under the Hundred Days Reforms. The reform was a failure, as it was ended prematurely by a conservative coup led by Empress Dowager Cixi[慈禧].

Policy
Many revolutionaries promoted anti-Qing/anti-Manchu sentiments and revived memories of conflict between the ethnic minority Manchu and the ethnic majority Han Chinese from the late Ming Dynasty. Leading intellectuals were influenced by books that had survived from the last years of Ming dynasty, the last dynasty of Han Chinese. In 1904 Sun Yat-sen announced that his organizations goal was "to expel the Tatar barbarians, to revive Zhonghua, to establish a Republic, and to distribute land equally among the people." (驅除韃虜, 恢復中華, 創立民國, 平均地權). Many of the underground groups promoted the ideas of "Resist Qing and restore Ming"[反清複明] that has been around since the days of the Taiping Rebellion.Others like Zhang Binglin supported straight-up lines like "slay the manchus" and concepts like Anti-Manchuism[排滿主義].

Wuchang[武昌] Uprising[[image:http://imgsrc.baidu.com/baike/pic/item/72b19c0287345a7e4afb512a.jpg width="482" height="264" align="right" caption="The first gun of Wuchang Uprising"]]
Revolutionaries intent on overthrowing the Qing dynasty had built bombs, and on October 9 one accidentally exploded.Sun Yat-sen[孫中山] himself had no direct part in the uprising and was traveling in the United States at the time in an effort to recruit more support from among overseas Chinese. The Qing Viceroy of Huguang, tried to track down and arrest the revolutionaries.Squad leader and others decided not to delay the uprising any longer and launched the revolt at October 10, 1911[last year[2011] Oct.10 is the 100 years rememberance day of Wuchang Uprising and the 100th national day of Republic of people], at 7 pm. The revolt was a success; the entire city of Wuchang was captured by the revolutionaries on the morning of October 11. That evening they established a tactical headquarters and announced the establishment of the "Military Government of Hubei of Republic of China." The conference chose Li Yuanhong as the governor of the temporary government.After the success of the Wuchang uprising, many other uprisings occurred in other cities and towns in other provinces. Many of the uprisings were followed up with restorations. Some uprisings were more of a revolt for independence, and some were protests or rebellions against local officials, but the outcome was that basically all provinces in the country renounced the Qing dynasty and joined the Republic of China.

After Wuchang Uprising
On December 29, 1911 Sun Yat-sen was elected as the first provisional president. January 1, 1912 was set as the first day of the First Year of the Republic of China.On January 20 Wu Tingfang of the Nanking Provisional Government officially delivered the imperial edict of abdication to Yuan Shikai the terms for the abdication of Qing Emperor Xuantong[宣統] Puyi It was drafted by Zhang Jian, and was approved by the Provisional senate. On January 22, Sun Yat-sen announced that if Yuan Shikai supported the emperor's abdication,he would resign the presidency in favor of Yuan Shikai. After Yuan received this promise, he sped up the process.On February 3, Empress Longyu gave Yuan Shikai[袁世凱] full permission to negotiate the terms for the abdication of the Qing Emperor.Yuan then drew up his own version and forwarded it back to the revolutionaries on February 3.

Index
[|http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xinhai_Revolution#Wuchang_Uprising] [] []