The Establishment of the Republic of China
The Wuchang
Uprising broke out on October 10,1911. On the night of October 10, the
first shots in the revolution rang out -the Wuchang Uprising had begun.
Wuchang was occupied after one night's fighting. On the 12th, the revolutionary
army also occupied Hanyang and Hankou, the other two towns, which with
Wuchang make up the city of Wuhan.
After the victory of the Wuchang Uprising, the revolutionary immediately
began preparations to set up a government. On January 1, 1912, Sun Yat-sen
took the oath of office and proclaimed the establishment of the Republic
of China.
The Provisional Government at Nanjing headed by Sun Yat-sen was the product
of a bourgeois democratic revolution.
The Provisional Government at Nanjing issued many laws relating to political,
social and economic reform. But because the government did not touch the
basis of the semi-colonial, semi-feudal society, it would not resolve
the immediate concerns of the people, especially the peasants' demand
for land, and so its mass base was very weak.
The imperialist powers both feared and hated the Chinese revolution, and
after the Wuchang Uprising they went to great lengths to support the Qing
and smash the revolution. With the rapid disintegration of the Qing the
imperialist powers then sought a new flunkey. Their choice fell upon Yuan
Shikai, a representative of landlord and comprador forces, and they put
pressure on the Qing court to appoint him to an important position.
Under pressure from reactionary forces inside and outside, the revolutionists
compromised and on January 15 agreed, on condition that the Qing emperor
abdicated and Yuan Shikai supported the republic, to hand over political
power to Yuan. On March 10, Yuan Shikai formally assumed office in Beijing
and established an anti-revolutionary regime representing the big landlords
and comprador class. The fruits of victory of the revolution had been
usurped by Yuan Shikai, an agent of the imperialist powers, and thus began
the rule of China by Beiyang warlords.
As a bourgeois democratic republic, the Republic of China made only a
brief appearance in history. It only overthrew a feudal emperor, but did
not overthrow the exploitation and oppression by imperialism and feudalism.
China was still a semi-colonial , semi-feudal society. Imperialist and
feudal forces continued to rule China, and the Chinese people's anti-imperialist,
anti-feudal democratic revolution was still far from being completed.