May Fourth demonstrations

During the Boxer crisis, the Qing court issued a declaration of war against foreign powers. The subsequent multinational invasion and occupation of Beijing culminated in the Boxer Protocol. This...

The Qing government signed the Boxer Protocol with foreign powers after the 1900 intervention. The agreement imposed a large indemnity and further military and diplomatic concessions. Its burden...

The Wuchang Uprising began the Xinhai Revolution, bringing down the Qing dynasty and ending imperial rule. The republic that followed faced regional militarization, foreign concessions, and uneven...

Sun Yat-sen took office as provisional president in Nanjing as the republic replaced the Qing imperial system. Republican leaders sought national unity and sovereignty, but warlordism, foreign...

Japan delivered demands seeking expanded rights and influence in China, including in Shandong and Manchuria. The episode intensified Chinese nationalism and highlighted how imperial rivalry threatened...

Delegates convened in Shanghai (and later moved to Jiaxing) for the founding congress of the Chinese Communist Party. The party’s later victory reshaped China’s state and its position in the world....

Police in Shanghai fired on demonstrators protesting the killing of a Chinese worker and foreign-controlled labor conditions. The resulting strikes and boycotts became a major anti-imperialist...

Chiang Kai-shek’s forces and allied groups violently suppressed Communist and labor organizations in Shanghai. The purge ended the first United Front and drove the Chinese Communist Party toward armed...

Communist forces rebelled against the Nationalist government in Nanchang. Although militarily defeated, the uprising became a founding reference for the People’s Liberation Army and the Communist...

Communist representatives proclaimed a Soviet republic in Ruijin, Jiangxi, as Nationalist encirclement campaigns intensified. The experiment built institutions and mobilized rural constituencies,...