Key Individuals
This “father of the modern Chinese nation” came from a peasant family, was educated in Hawaii, and believed China must overthrow the imperial system and become a Western-style republic.
Who is Sun Yixian?
Formalised through the Sun-Joffe Declaration, this coalition of two Chinese political parties was overseen by Comintern.
What is the First United Front?
Revived in 1917 and based in Guangzhou, this nationalist party championed Sun’s Three Principles and became the ruling party of the Nanjing government in 1928.
What is the Guomindang?
Formulated by Sun Yixian, this set of principles called for nationalism against foreign powers and Manchus, people’s livelihood through social reform, and democratic republican government.
What are the Three Principles of the People?
He lived in the Forbidden City after his abdication, and eventually became a gardener in communist China
Who is Puyi?
This general modernised the Beiyang Army, negotiated the abdication of Puyi in February 1912, and became provisional president after Sun Yixian stepped down.
Who is Yuan Shikai?
This early Republican leader initially stabilised China with legal, currency and education reforms and a ban on foot-binding, but increasingly ruled through military governors and personal authority.
Who is Yuan Shikai?
Founded in 1905 by Sun Yixian, this “Revolutionary Alliance” united anti-Qing groups and later evolved into the Guomindang.
What is the Tongmenghui?
Emerging during World War I, this intellectual movement led by students and young thinkers questioned Confucianism and sought to redefine what it meant to be Chinese in a modern world.
What is the New Culture Movement?
The amount of concubines Yuan Shikai had
What is nine concubines?
After consolidating control over much of China in 1928, this “generalissimo” became chairman of the Nationalist government in Nanjing, ruling a formally unified but warlord-infiltrated state.
Who is Jiang Jieshi?
Starting in 1916 after Yuan Shikai’s death, this period saw political authority fragment, Beijing change hands repeatedly, and regional military strongmen sign their own treaties.
What is the Warlord Era?
Officially founded in 1921 out of New Culture ideas and May Fourth disillusionment, this small party of 57 members initially worked within the United Front
What is the CCP?
Sparked by the Treaty of Versailles decision to give Shandong to Japan, this 1919 student protest movement began in Beijing and spread nationwide through strikes and boycotts of Japanese goods
What is the May Fourth Movement?
"One loved China, one loved money, one loved power". Who were they?
Who are the Soong sisters?
Soong Ailing - married powerful banker (money)
Soong Chingling - married Sun Yixian (China)
Soong Meiling - married Jiang Jieshi (power)
This Whampoa Academy commandant became commander of the National Revolutionary Army in 1925, led the Northern Expedition from 1926, and used it to build his authority in the Guomindang.
Who is Jiang Jieshi?
Formally launched in July 1926, this National Revolutionary Army campaign used Soviet aid and Communist agitators to defeat warlords and dramatically expand the GMD’s military strength
What is the Northern Expedition?
This Soviet organisation sent Mikhail Borodin and other advisers to China, promoting an alliance between the GMD and CCP to strengthen revolutionary forces.
What is Comintern?
This movement’s circulation of new ideas (including Marxism), combined with disillusionment with Western powers after Versailles, helped create the conditions for the founding of the CCP in the early 1920s.
What is the May Fourth Movement?
Known as the "Dragon Lady" in the last years of Imperial China, she was seen as the power behind the throne
Who was Dowager Empress Cixi?
This person was involved tangentially in the New Culture Movement, was present at the first official meeting of the Chinese Communist Party in 1921, and had a seat on the Guomindang's non-voting CEC
Who is Mao Zedong?
On 12 April 1927, this violent event saw the Green Gang and Nationalist forces kill thousands of Communists and unionists in a city where workers’ strikes had aided the NRA.
What is the Shanghai Massacre?
This three-way alliance, formalised in the 1923 Sun–Joffe Declaration, linked the GMD, CCP and Soviet advisers around goals of national unity and independence.
What is the First United Front?
This protest, sparked by British soldiers firing on protesting textile workers in Shanghai, inflamed grievances of the May Fourth Movement
What is the May 30 Atrocious Incident? (1925)
(not a key event, but useful to know)
The general who was pulled from under his bed to reluctantly lead the 'Double Tenth' uprising