China: Components of the Pre-Revolutionary Crisis

The constitutional-monarchist, near-bourgeois and bourgeois circles, headed by Zhang Jian, demanded not an ostentatious but real modernization of China in the spirit of the demands of the provincial advisory committees of 1909-1911. The fear of the liberal circles for the fate of the homeland, the Russian-Japanese war of 1904-1905, taking place on Chinese soil, the tragic example of Korea, which was annexed by Japan in 1910, the protracted conflict between the constitutional opposition and the unwilling to surrender its positions by the Manchu despotism created the first component of the pre-revolutionary Crisis.

The second component of it was the revolutionary-democratic movement, led by the outstanding Chinese revolutionary Sun Yatsen. In 1894, they created the "Union of the Renaissance of China" with the aim of overthrowing the Manchu domination. By 1905, several revolutionary organizations were already operating in China. Under the influence of the first Russian revolution of 1905 and the era of the "awakening of Asia", opened by her, the revolutionary anti-Manchurian mood began to grow rapidly. The national liberation movement in China entered a new stage. In 1905, under the leadership of Sun Yatsen and Huang Sin, various revolutionary organizations merged into the United Union. China: components of the pre-revolutionary crisis ...

The third component of the pre-revolutionary crisis was the sharp increase in the "old Chinese riots", that is, spontaneous and scattered anti-Manchurian, anti-tax rebellions and hunger (rice) riots, often led by secret societies. These massive and all growing movements significantly shook the Ch'ing regime.

The fourth component of the maturation of the revolutionary situation was the "economic" movements of the bourgeoisized shenshi, the landlords and the bourgeoisie themselves against the domination of foreign capital. From 1905 to 1911, a series of anti-foreign boycotts (1905-1908) took place in the country, a struggle for the return of rights to the mining concessions captured by foreigners (1906-1910), against foreign loans for railway construction and for the purchase of railway concessions (1907-1908) ). Mass campaigns were held in support of domestic enterprises, especially for the construction of the Chinese means of the Huguana railways, and then - "the protection of railways" (1911). The nationalization of the private railway companies of the Huguana Road by the Qing government caused a September-October 1911 uprising in Sichuan, the first phase of the Xinhai Revolution. October 10, 1911 in Wuchang there was an uprising of the "new army" units, led by revolutionaries. A military government was established in the city, which proclaimed the overthrow of the Ch'ing monarchy and the establishment of the Chinese Republic.

Subsequently, 14 provinces announced their independence from Beijing. Having failed with the suppression of the revolutionary movement, the Tsins transferred the real power in the capital to General Yuan Shikai - the protégé of internal reaction and the imperialist powers. In December, delegates from independent provinces who met in Nanjing elected Sun Yatsen president and head of the Nanking government. As a result, there was a "dual power" - the reactionary North opposed the revolutionary South. The hostility of the local reaction and the powers to the Nanking government, as well as the transition of the constitutional liberals to the side of Yuan Shikai, created a preponderance in favor of the North. Sun Yatsen had to cede the post of president to this general in exchange for the abdication of the Manchu dynasty in 1912. After the fall of the Qing monarchy, President Yuan Shikai received from the powers the so-called Reorganizational "loan to strengthen his power." In the summer of 1913, he sank in the blood directed against him the movement in the central and southern provinces.

China: components of the pre-revolutionary crisis