Republic of China (1912-1949)
| 中華民國 | |||||
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Zhōnghuá Mínguó |
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| Republic of China | |||||
| 1912-1949 | |||||
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| Official language | Mandarin | ||||
| Capital |
Beijing (1912–1927) Nanjing (1927–1949) |
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| Seat of government | Chongqing (1937–1946 alternative seat during the Second Sino-Japanese War ) | ||||
| Head of state | President of the Republic of China | ||||
| Head of government | Prime Minister (from 1928: President of the Executive Yuan) of the Republic of China | ||||
| surface | 10,132,200¹ km² | ||||
| population | 325 million (estimate based on the 1910 census for 1912) 439 million (estimate for 1928) |
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| Population density | 32 (1912) 43 (1928) 48 (1947) inhabitants per km² |
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| Population development | 2% per year | ||||
Gross national product
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1931-1936
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| founding | January 1, 1912 (proclamation of the Republic) | ||||
| resolution | The national government fled to Taiwan in 1949 and continues there to this day | ||||
| National anthem |
Qinyun lanxi (1912-1915) unknown, probably no hymn (1916–1921) |
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| National holiday | October 10 ( 1911 Wuchang Uprising ) | ||||
| Time zone | UTC + 5: 30 , UTC + 6 , UTC + 7 , UTC + 8 , UTC + 8: 30 | ||||
| License Plate | RC | ||||
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The Republic of China , also known as National China , was proclaimed in 1912. Until 1949 their national territory covered the whole of China , since 1945 including the temporarily Japanese Taiwan . After its defeat in the Chinese Civil War (1927–1949), the Kuomintang- led government withdrew to the island of Taiwan . In contrast, the People's Republic of China established itself on the Chinese mainland . To this day, however, the Republic of China continues to exist in Taiwan as a subject of international law recognized by only a few states .
history
Proclamation of the Republic and first years
Efforts have been made in China to overthrow the Manchu dynasty since the late 19th century . The driving forces of this endeavor came from abroad as well as from the intellectual classes educated to the west in the colonized areas such as Hong Kong , Canton and Shanghai . The collapse of the Chinese Empire occurred in 1911 in the course of what is now known as the Xinhai Revolution and the six-year-old heir to the throne, Puyi, who was forced to abdicate shortly thereafter .
On January 1, 1912, the Republic of China was proclaimed and the reformer Sun Yat-sen was elected interim president. China's Provisional Constitution , which came into force at the same time , declared the country a republic based on the American model. In the spring of 1912, Sun Yat-sen relinquished the office of president to former imperial administrator and officer Yuan Shikai .
The young republic was not granted political stability. The authoritarian Yuan Shikai banned the strongest political force, the National People's Party of China (Kuomintang) founded by Sun Yat-sen . Yuan Shikai changed the constitution and based his claim to rule mainly on the military. Within a few years he had gambled away his political credit: Yuan Shikai lost his support in the republican-minded military after he had appointed himself the new emperor of China. He also became unpopular with the population when he accepted the twenty-one demands of the Japanese government in the spring of 1915 , which should give Tokyo extensive territorial, economic and political rights in China.
Yuan Shikai died on June 6, 1916 in Beijing. After his death, China completely disintegrated into regional domains, which were ruled by various military leaders known as warlords (so-called Beiyang governments ). Educated citizens from different social classes sought ways out of this situation, who from 1915 onwards demanded a comprehensive cultural renewal in China . As the alleged cause of the crisis in China, the Confucian worldview should be replaced by new models, especially modern science, individual freedom and democracy.
Time after the First World War
Political dimensions took 1919 the movement of the May Fourth to as the victors of World War I , the German special rights in Shandong Province did not return (Kiautschou) to China, but in Japan transferred, although China in 1917 on the part of the Triple Entente had entered the war . The May Fourth Movement provoked nationwide protests and developed anti-colonial nationalism.
In nominal terms, the foreign powers viewed China as a unified state; in fact , they promoted disagreement through decentralization. In order to prevent national unity, the foreign powers increasingly supported various factions and warlords with money and weapons from 1919 onwards. In doing so, they repeatedly changed alliances, specifically forced coups and initiated civil wars , such as the Zhili-Anhui War of 1920, the First Zhili-Fengtian War of 1922, the Second Zhili-Fengtian War of 1924 and the Anti-Fengtian War of 1926.
In Manchuria , for example, the warlord Zhang Zuolin, alternately financed by Japan and the Soviet Union (USSR) , ruled . Generals Cao Kun , Sun Chuanfang , Wu Peifu received their war material from Great Britain and France and controlled the provinces of Zhili , Shandong , Henan and Hubei . In Guangzhou (Canton) the USA and the USSR supported the southern government formed by Sun Yat-sen, which did not recognize the legitimacy of the Beiyang government. The disagreement they initiated paid off for the foreign powers: by 1925 at the latest, China was number one in the world for arms imports. The “ military aid ” was financed through the international capital market by means of bonds that are unfavorable for China and by means of the assignment of rights of Chinese gold, coal or ore mines to foreign states and companies.
From the mid-1920s, the main external threat to the Republic of China came from the Soviet Union and Japan. In early 1924, against the resistance of the Communist International (Comintern), Josef Stalin pushed through the formation of an alliance between the Communist Party of China (CCP) and the Kuomintang. According to various historians, this “ first united front ” was formed on the part of the Soviet Union out of a lack of alternatives for the then powerless and weakly affiliated CCP. The stated purpose was "to carry out propaganda among members of the National People's Party in order to win them over to communism". In this way, the CCP made the breakthrough from an insignificant fighting group to a mass party: the membership increased from 57 in 1921 to 300 in June 1924; by January 1926 to 10,000 and by April 1927 to 58,000.
Chinese civil war
After Sun Yat-sen's death, the Kuomintang and the CCP under the leadership of Chiang Kai-shek began the northern campaign against the Beiyang warlords in the summer of 1926. This expedition was planned by Sun Yat-sen a long time beforehand. With the support of the Soviet Union, he founded the Whampoa Military Academy and the National Revolutionary Army in 1924 . The northern campaign turned out to be a great success. Within six months, the combined troops were able to advance to the Yellow River and several Beiyang troops, regarded as elite units, were smashed. During the Northern Campaign, the alliance between the Kuomintang and the CCP broke up. On September 11, 1927, the Comintern initiated the Autumn Harvest Uprising , which started the Chinese Civil War . Stalin, who like Great Britain always wanted a weak China, supported both the Chinese communists and the national Chinese with weapons, money and military advisers during the civil war.
Nevertheless, Chiang Kai-shek was able to merge the provinces and formally proclaim Chinese reunification in 1928. From that point on, the national government of the Republic of China had to wage a four-front war: against Japan, the Soviet Union, the Chinese communists and against Great Britain. In 1929 the USSR provoked the Soviet-Chinese border war , which ended with the defeat of the National Revolutionary Army. After this dispute, a power vacuum developed in the Chinese northern provinces. The aftermath of the conflict led to the Manchurian Crisis in 1931 and to the establishment of the Japanese puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932 .
In 1934 the Soviet invasion of Sinkiang took place and in the same year the British attempt to annex areas in the provinces of Cangyuan and Yunnan after the Banhong incident . After the Sino-Japanese War began in 1937, the forces of the National Revolutionary Army concentrated on repelling Japanese troops. Under pressure from the USSR, the Kuomintang again formed an alliance with the communists, the second united front . Stalin's disingenuous China policy became clear to both parties in 1941 after the conclusion of the Japanese-Soviet peace and friendship treaty , on the basis of which the Soviet arms deliveries to the national Chinese as well as to the Chinese communists came to a fundamental standstill. Support in the fight against Japan was almost exclusively given to China by the USA.
From 1942 at the latest, the CCP was reclaiming lost ground behind the backs of its cooperation partner. While the Kuomintang army bore the brunt of the war with Japan and was largely wiped out, the communist associations saved their weapons and forces for the later "revolution". The second united front officially broke up in the spring of 1946. After the Second World War , at the request of its allies , the USSR had to undertake to recognize the Kuomintang as a regular Chinese government. The Soviet recognition of the national government also meant the obligation to support it alone.
In fact, as early as the beginning of 1945, Stalin again provided the Chinese Communists with substantial financial assistance. The money and arms deliveries to the CCP were carried out by the Soviet leadership with maximum secrecy, as this was a blatant violation of the treaty that Stalin had signed with the Allies. Influenced by the Soviet Union, the CCP instigated innumerable guerrilla wars across China , which ultimately led to the victory of the People's Liberation Army in 1949 . As a result of the civil war, two separate Chinese states still exist today: on the one hand, the socialist People's Republic of China and, on the other hand, the Democratic Republic of China (Taiwan), which is recognized by only a few states as an independent .
Foreign policy
The Republic of China's foreign policy has been hampered by a lack of internal unity. This was intensified by external influences, as Japan, the United Kingdom , France, Italy , Russia and, from 1920, the Soviet Union laid claim to large parts of China. During the founding period of the republic, all major powers recognized the " warlord government " of Yuan Shikai in Beijing. For this, the republic was forced to give up its claims to Outer Mongolia . The republic was still the overlord of this province, but Russia was largely given a free hand in Mongolia. In 1918 the republic sent representatives to sign the Versailles Peace Treaty, to which the Chinese people responded with the May Fourth Movement .
After the victory of the Kuomintang, the new national government in Nanjing achieved worldwide recognition. This recognition lasted until the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949, the only exception being the Japanese puppet government , which was recognized by the Axis powers . During the Second World War, the Republic of China was on the side of the Allies and was the founding member of the United Nations and a permanent member in the UN Security Council .
economy
During the first half of the 20th century, the economy of the Republic of China, that is, all of China, was capitalist with great international economic interaction. However, development was hampered by constant wars and internal and external battles. The government tried to boost the economy by founding the Industrial Bank of China ( Banque Industrielle de Chine ) with a secondary seat in Paris. Further effects were negligible due to high inflation , as the government printed money for the 1928 war against the Soviet Union and from 1937 for the war against Japan. Foreign debts also made it possible for the economy to be influenced by the international market. Nationalists like Yuan Shikai were indebted to the US through borrower's note loans.
China barely had its own industry until 1945. Due to the open door policy, the country was subject to semi-colonial structures. The population consisted largely of groundless tenants and a few large landowners.
literature
- Dieter Kuhn: The Republic of China from 1912 to 1937: Draft for a political history of events . Würzburg Sinological Writings, Edition Forum, Heidelberg, 2007, ISBN 3-927943-25-8 ( PDF )
- Rana Mitter: A Bitter Revolution: China's Struggle with the Modern World . Oxford University Press, Oxford / New York, 2004, ISBN 0192803417 .
- Thomas Weyrauch : China's neglected republic. 100 years in the shadow of world history. Volume 1: 1911-1949 . Longtai 2009, ISBN 978-3-938946-14-5 .
- Thomas Weyrauch: China's neglected republic. 100 years in the shadow of world history. Volume 2: 1950-2011 . Longtai 2011, ISBN 978-3-938946-15-2 .
- Thomas Weyrauch: China's Democratic Traditions from the 19th Century to the Present in Taiwan. Longtai 2014, ISBN 978-3-938946-24-4 .
- Susheng Zhao: Power by Design: Constitution-Making in Nationalist China . University of Hawaii Press, Honolulu, 1996, ISBN 978-0824817213 .
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b China. In: John Scott-Keltie (Ed.): The Statesman's Yearbook. Statistical and Historical Annual of the States of the World for the Year 1915 . 52nd ed., Macmillan & Co. Ltd., London 1915, p. 779 (English).
- ↑ China. In: Mortimer Epstein (Ed.): The Statesman's Yearbook. Statistical and Historical Annual of the States of the World for the Year 1935 . 72nd edition, Macmillan & Co. Ltd., London 1935, p. 754.
- ↑ Statistical Office of the United Nations (Ed.): Statistical Yearbook 1948 . 1st ed., United Nations, Lake Success 1949, p. 24 (English).
- ↑ Ta-Chung Liu : China's National Income, 1931-36. An Exploratory Study . Brookings Institution, Washington, DC 1946, p. 16.
- ^ Neil Anthony Parker, John Weeks: Registration Plates of the World 4th ed., Europlate, Taunton 2004, ISBN 0-9502735-7-0 , p. 16 (English).
- ↑ Thoralf Klein : Political History of China 1900-1949 . Federal Agency for Civic Education , August 7, 2008, accessed on December 29, 2017.
- ↑ Odorik Wou: Militarism in modern China. The career of Wu P'ei-Fu, 1916-1939. Australian National University Press, 1978, p. 349.
- ↑ Thomas Weyrauch: China's neglected republic. 100 years in the shadow of world history. Volume 1. Longtai Verlag Gießen, 2009, p. 99 f.
- ↑ Carl F. Nathan : Plague prevention and politics in Manchuria, 1910-1931. Harvard University Press, 1967, p. 66 f (English).
- ^ Federal Army of the Republic of Austria (Ed.): Austrian Military Journal. Volume 20. C. Ueberreuter, 1982, p. 408.
- ^ Andreas Steen: German-Chinese Relations 1911–1927. From colonialism to "equality". A collection of sources. Walter de Gruyter, p. 342.
- ↑ Sabine Dabringhaus : History of China 1279–1949. Walter de Gruyter, 2015, p. 122.
- ↑ Niclas Dominik Weimar: The reorganization of the Guomindang and the northern campaign. GRIN Verlag, 2005, p. 8 f.
- ^ Saskia Hieber: Political integration of a billion people; China. In: Stefan Köppl (Ed.): What holds societies together? An international comparison. Springer-Verlag, 2012, p. 180.
- ↑ Ulrike Eifler: Neoliberal Globalization and the Labor Movement in China. ibidem-Verlag, 2012, p. 89.
- ↑ Ulrike Eifler, p. 91.
- ^ Wolfgang Franke , Brunhild Staiger: China. Society. Politics. Country. Economy. Springer-Verlag, p. 141.
- ↑ Yutong Yang: Autumn Harvest Uprising (1927). In Xiaobing Li (ed.): China at War - An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara Press, 2012, p. 15 f (English).
- ↑ a b Boris Meissner : The Potsdam Agreement. Looking back after 50 years. Braumüller, 1996, p. 105.
- ↑ Felix Patrikeeff: Russian Politics in Exile. The Northeast Asian. Balance of Power 1924-1931. Palgrave Macmillan UK, 2002, p. 52 f. (English).
- ↑ John W. Garver: Chinese-Soviet Relations, 1937-1945. The Diplomacy of Chinese Nationalism. Oxford University Press, 1988, pp. 115 f. (English).
- ↑ Richard McGregor : The Red Apparatus. China's communists. Matthes & Seitz, 2012, p. 155.
- ↑ Christina Neder, Heiner Roetz , Ines-Susanne Schilling: China in its biographical dimensions. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 2001, p. 476.
- ↑ Jung Chang , Jon Halliday: Mao. The life of a man, the fate of a people. Chapter 27. The Russians are coming. Karl Blessing Verlag, 2014, p. 331.
- ↑ Martin Ewans: The Great Game. Britain and Russia in Central Asia. Routledge Shorton, 2004, p. 25 f (English).