The Revolution of 1911 was a Chinese bourgeois democratic revolution which broke out on October 10, 1911.
Just before the revolution, the decadent Qing Dynasty was in terminal decline and had become basically a flunky of the imperialist powers. There was a large degree of social chaos in China at this time. A number of resistance movements launched popular rebellions. The bourgeois revolutionary party was also gathering mass support.
In 1894, Sun Yat-sen founded the first bourgeois revolutionary society -the Society for Regenerating China. In 1904, the Society for the Revival and Restoration of China was established. In 1905, the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance was established in Tokyo. Its political platform was “to expel the Tatar barbarians and to revive Zhonghua, to establish a republic, and to distribute land equally among the people”. It fought fierce battles against the bourgeois reformists and set up revolutionary organizations both at home and abroad. It launched many armed revolts, preparing the way for the Revolution of 1911.
In 1911, the Qing government gave away the right to build railways to foreign enterprises, a decision which caused widespread anger among Chinese people. The Qing Dynasty was obviously in terminal decline. The revolutionaries were about to launch an uprising in Wuhan.
Wuhan was located in the middle reaches of the Yangtze River; it was the second largest city in China after Shanghai. It was also the area with the conflict was most intense between the revolutionaries and the anti-revolution party.
On September 14, 1911, with the support of the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance, the Literary Society and the Co-progress Society entered the anti-Qing alliance, thus establishing a united front which could drive forward the uprising. They decided to launch the uprising on October 10. However, the activity of the revolutionaries aroused the attention of the Qing court. The Governors-general of Hunan and Hubei held a meeting to discuss defence on October 3, and decided to impose martial law. Since the Qing army was well prepared and the major leader of the Chinese Revolutionary Alliance Huang Xing couldn’t get to Wuhan, the uprising was temporarily postponed.
On October 9, an explosion occurred unexpectedly when a revolutionary called Sun Wu was making bombs. This shocked the government. The Qing government began to arrest the revolutionaries. Given these new circumstances, the revolutionary forces in Wuchang decided to take action immediately.
On the evening of October 10, the soldiers of the revolutionary army met with the military officers who were supposed to suppress the revolution. Facilitated by the collaboration, the revolutionaries attacked and occupied the armoury at Chuwangtai, launching the Wuchang Uprising. The revolutionary army fired at the yamun of the governor-general. After a night of fierce fighting, the revolutionary army occupied Wuchang and established the Hubei Military Government on October 11. On October 12-13, the revolutionary army also occupied Hanyang and Hankou. Thus, the three towns of Wuhan were all occupied by the revolutionary army.
After the success of the Wuchang Uprising, many provinces in China responded quickly. Within two months, 14 provinces including Hubei, Hunan, Shaanxi and Jiangxi had declared independence. The Qing Dynasty rapidly disintegrated.
Sun Yat-sen returned to China in December and was recommended as temporary president at a meeting attended by representatives of 17 provinces. He was sworn in as president in Nanjing on January 1, 1912 and established the provisional government of the Republic of China. On February 12, the Qing emperor was forced to abdicate. The rule of the Qing Dynasty had ended. However, under imperial and foreign feudal pressure, Sun Yat-sen was forced to resign in April and the cunning Yuan Shikai became leader.
The Revolution of 1911 overthrew the Qing government and the feudal monarchy which had lasted for more than 2,000 years in China. China entered into a new historical stage.
