China's Modern Period (1840-1919)
The Opium War of 1840 marked a turning point in
Chinese history. From early in the 19th century, Britain started
smuggling large quantities of opium into China, causing a great
outflow of Chinese silver and grave economic disruption in China.
In 1839, the Qing government sent Commissioner
Lin Zexu to Guangdong to put into effect the prohibition on opium
trafficking. When, in an effort to protect its opium trade, Britain
initiated the First Opium War in 1840, the Chinese people rose
in armed struggle against the invaders under the leadership of
Lin Zexu and other patriotic generals. But the corrupt and incompetent
Qing government capitulated to the foreign invaders time and
again, and finally signed the Treaty of Nanjing with Britain,
a treaty of national betrayal and humiliation. From then on,
China was reduced to a semi-colonial and semi-feudal country.
After the Opium War, Britain, the United States, France, Russia
and Japan forced the Qing government to sign various unequal
treaties, seized "concessions" and divided China into "spheres
of influence." To oppose the twin evils of feudal oppression
and foreign aggression, the Chinese people waged heroic struggles,
with many national heroes coming to the fore. 
The Revolution of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom
in 1851, led by Hong Xiuquan, was the largest peasant uprising
in modern Chinese history. The Revolution of 1911, a bourgeois-democratic
revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen, ended the
rule of the Qing Dynasty. The monarchical system that had been
in place in China for more than 2,000 years was discarded with
the founding of the provisional government of the Republic of
China.
The Revolution of 1911 is of great significance
in modern Chinese history. But the fruits of victory were soon
compromised by concessions on the part of the Chinese bourgeoisie,
and the country entered a period of domination by the Northern
Warlords headed by Yuan Shikai. The people lived in an abyss
of misery in this period.
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