A republic was formally established on 1 January 1912 following the Xinhai Revolution, which itself began with the Wuchang Uprising on 10 October 1911, successfully overthrowing the Qing dynasty and ending over two thousand years of imperial rule in China.[8] From its founding until 1949 it was based on mainland China. Central authority waxed and waned in response to warlordism(1915–28), Japanese invasion (1937–45), and a full-scale civil war (1927–49), with central authority strongest during the Nanjing Decade (1927–37), when most of China came under the control of the Kuomintang (KMT) under an authoritarian one-party military dictatorship.[9]

In 1912, after over two thousand years of imperial rule, a republic was established to replace the monarchy.[8] The Qing dynastythat preceded the republic experienced a century of instability throughout the 19th century, suffered from both internal rebellion and foreign imperialism.[13] The ongoing instability eventually led to the outburst of Boxer Rebellion in 1900, whose attacks on foreigners led to the invasion by the Eight Nation Alliance. China signed the Boxer Protocol and paid a large indemnity to the foreign powers: 450 million taels of fine silver (around $333 million or £67 million at the then current exchange rates).[14] A program of institutional reform proved too little and too late. Only the lack of an alternative regime prolonged its existence until 1912.[15][16]

The establishment of the Chinese Republic developed out of the Wuchang Uprising against the Qing government on 10 October 1911. That date is now celebrated annually as the ROC's national day, also known as the "Double Ten Day". On 29 December 1911, Sun Yat-sen was elected president by the Nanjing assembly with representatives from seventeen provinces. On 1 January 1912, he was officially inaugurated and pledged "to overthrow the despotic government led by the Manchu, consolidate the Republic of China and plan for the welfare of the people".[17]

An attempt at a democratic election in 1912 ended with the assassination of the elected candidate by a man recruited by Yuan. Ultimately, Yuan declared himself Emperor of China in 1915.[19] The new ruler of China tried to increase centralization by abolishing the provincial system; however, this move angered the gentry along with the provincial governors, usually military men. Many provinces declared independence and became warlord states. Increasingly unpopular and deserted by his supporters, Yuan gave up being Emperor in 1916 and died of natural causes shortly after.[20][21]

China declined into a period of warlordism. Sun, forced into exile, returned to Guangdong province in the south with the help of warlords in 1917 and 1922, and set up successive rival governments to the Beiyang government in Beijing; he re-established the KMT in October 1919. Sun's dream was to unify China by launching an expedition to the north. However, he lacked military support and funding to make it a reality.[22]

Meanwhile, the Beiyang government struggled to hold on to power, and an open and wide-ranging debate evolved regarding how China should confront the West. In 1919, a student protest against the government's weak response to the Treaty of Versailles, considered unfair by Chinese intellectuals, led to the May Fourth movement. These demonstrations were aimed at spreading Western influence to replace Chinese culture. It is also in this intellectual climate that the influence of Marxism spread and became more popular. It eventually led to the founding of the Communist Party of China in 1921.[23]

The Warlord Era in China

The Zhili-Anhui War

Beiyang Government

The abdication of Pu-Yi, last Emperor of China

Chinese Labor Corps

The Xinhai Revolution

Song Jiaoren

Honmenghui

Koumintang

Zhang Zongchang

The Xinhai Revolution(Chinese: 辛亥革命; pinyin: Xīnhài Gémìng), also known as the Chinese Revolution or the Revolution of 1911, was a revolution that overthrew China's last imperial dynasty (the Qing dynasty) and established the Republic of China (ROC). The revolution was named Xinhai (Hsin-hai) because it occurred in 1911, the year of the Xinhai (辛亥; "metal pig") stem-branch in the sexagenary cycle of the Chinese calendar.[2]

History seems to have packed hundreds of years of happenings into a single 20-year period starting approximately in the year 1900.

The world was a very different place. It was predominantly ruled by a nobility who were drastically interrelated. They held their autocratic prerogatives closely feeling that the common people were not sophisticated enough to rule themselves. In Europe, ethnic groups were restless and longed for their own countries based on similar religions, languages and cultures. In Africa, India, China and the Far East these European powers struggled with each other to hold on to colonies for raw materials and cheap labor. Meanwhile, the major powers such as Britain, France and the United States were rapidly industrializing. People were moving from the countryside to the cities looking for work in factories and living wherever they could afford and preyed upon by a criminal class. There were no restrictions on child labor, safety codes to protect workers in mines, mills or manufacturing. Trade unions were organized and politicized. And there was no standardized education or required years in school. The rich sent their children (mostly the boys) to private preparatory schools and then off to college and the poor by 1906 sent their children off to free primary and secondary schools set up to create workers for industry. Most children dropped out by age 12.

The middle classes were reading and organizing, seeking either no government (called anarchy) or a government of the people. Impatient for change from the rigid social structures of their times, some turned to violence hoping to spark the immediate overthrow of the owners of businesses and the upper classes. Others worked to get the ability to vote in democratic governments to end their disenfranchisement. 

It was a time of rapid change of fashion, literature, dance, music, journalism and cultural mores. Yet, for the Jews, it was a time of isolation, impoverishment in some areas liberation and new citizenship in other areas, but major anti-semitism worldwide.

In 1900, a snapshot of state leaders is all that is needed to understand how entrenched and encrusted with privileges this world was and that it all came tumbling down by 1914 by "The War to End All Wars":

• China: Emperor Puyi (1908-1912); Premier Yikuang, Prince Qing Prime Minister of the Imperial Cabinet (1903-1911)
• Japan: Emperor Mutshito (1867-1912); Prime Minister Katsura Tarõ (1908-1911)
• Korea: Annexed by Japan on August 29, 1910.
• Ottoman Empire: Emperor Mehmed V (1909-1918); Grand Vizier Huseyin Hilmi Pasha and then Ibrahim Hakki Pasha (1909-1911)
• Austria-Hungary: Emperor Franz Joseph (1848-1916)
• Bulgaria: Tsar Ferdinand I (1887-1918); Premier Aleksandar Malinov (1908-1911)
• France: President Armand Fallières (1906-1913); Prime Minister Aristide Briand (1909-1911)
• Germany: Emperor Wilhelm II (1888-1918); Chancellor Theobald von Bethmann-Hollweg (1909-1917)
• Italy: King Victor Emmanuel III (1900-1946); Prime Minister Sidney Sonnino and then Luigi Luzzatti (1909-1911)
• Norway: King Haakon VII (1905-1957); Prime Minister Gunnar Knudsen and then Wollert Konow (1908-1912)
• Romania: King Carol I (1866-1914); Prime Minister Ion I.C. Brâtinanu and then Petre P. Carp (1909-1912)
• Russian Empire: Tzar Nicholas II (1894-1917); Prime Minister Pyotr Stolypin (1906-1911)
• Spain: King Alfonso XIII (1886-1931); Prime Minister Segismundo Moret and then José Canalejas (1909-1912)
• United Kingdom: King Edward VII (1901-1910) and then George V (1910-1936); Prime Minister H.H. Asquith (1908-1916)
• Mexico: President Porfirio Diaz (1884-1911)
• Canada (British Dominion Beyond the Seas): Governor General Albert Grey, 4th Earl Grey (1904-1911)
• South Africa Founded May 31, 1910 (British Dominion Beyond the Seas): Governor General Viscount Gladstone (1910-1914)
• The United States of America: President William Howard Taft (1909-1913) and then Woodrow Wilson (1914-1924)
• Australia (British Dominion Beyond the Seas): Governor General William Ward, 2nd Earl of Dudley (1908-1911)

A sampling of events that happened in the year 1910 portrays the richness of cultural and technological developments and the seething violence beneath the surface:

• January 13: The first public radio broadcast.
• February 20: Boutros Ghali, first native-born Prime Minister of Egypt assassinated.
• March 10: Slavery in China declared illegal.
• June 22: DELAG Zeppelin dirigible Deutschland makes its first passenger flight.
• June 25: Igor Stravinsky's ballet, The Firebird, commissioned by Diaghilev's Ballets Russes, is premièred in Paris
• March to July 24th: Albanian revolt against The Ottoman Empire.
• August 28: Montenegro is proclaimed an independent kingdom under Nicholas I.
• August 29: Emperor Sunjong of Korea abdicates and the country's monarchy is abolished.
• October 5: October 5th Revolution declares the first Portuguese Republic in Lisbon and King Manuel II flees the country.
• November 7: The first commercial cargo air flight in the United States by the Wright Brothers Company from Dayton, Ohio to Columbus, Ohio.
• November 20: Mexican Revolution begins
• December: Pneumonic plague spreads in northeastern China killing more than 40,000 people.
• December 3: Neon lighting is demonstrated by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show.

Here is a sampling of assasinations that occurred between the years 1900 and 1914:

• 1913: Franz Schuhmeier, a Socialist member of the Austrian parliament by Paul Kunschak
• 1916: Count Karl von Sturgkh, Minister-President of Austria y Friedrich Adler
• June 28, 1914: Archduke Franz Ferdinand and his wife Sophie in Bosnia and Herzegovina by Gavrilo Princip
• 1907: Dimitar Petkov, Prime Minister of Bulgaria
• 1904: Nikolai Ivanovich Bobrikov, Governor-General of Finland by Eugen Schauman
• 1905: Eliel Soisalon-Soininen, Attorney General of Finland by Lennart Hohenthal
• 1911: Valde Hirvikanta, President of Turku Court of Appeal in Finland by Bruno Forsstrom
• June 24, 1894: Marie François Sadi Carnot, President of France by Sante Geronimo Caserio, anarchist.
• July 30, 1914: Jean Jaures, pacifist politician in France by Raoul villain
• June 13, 1905: Theodoros Deligiannis, Prime Minister of Greece by Antonios Gherakaris
• March 18, 1913: King George I of Greece by Alexandros Schinas
• July 29, 1900: King Umberto I of Italy by Gaetano Bresci
• January 23, 1913: Mahmud Sevket Pasha, Grand Vizier of the Ottoman Empire
• February 1, 1908: King Carlos I and his son Luiz Filipe of Portugal by Manuel Buiça and Alfredo Luis da Costa
• April 8, 1902: Dmitry Sipyagin, Russian Interior Minister by Stepan Balmashov
• 1904: Vyacheslav von Plehve, Russian Interior Minister by Yegor Sazonov
• 1905: Grand Duke Sergei Alexandrovich Romanov, former Governor General of Moscow by Ivan Kalyayev
• September 14, 1911: Pyotr Stolypin, Prime Minister of Russia by Dmitry Bogrov
• 1917: Ivan Logginovich Goremykin, former Prime Minister of Russia by Konstantin X. Kotev
• July 16, 1918: Tzar Nicholas II and his family, Physician Eugene Botkin, Maid Anna Demidova, Footman Alexei Trupp and Cook Ivan Kharitonov by Cheka officers lead by Yakov Yurovsky
• July 18, 1918: Grand Duchess Elizabeth of Hesse, Grand Duke Sergei Mikhailovich, Princes Jon Constantinovich, Constantine Constantinovich and Igor Constantinovich, Poet and Prince Vladimir Paley and Nun Varvara Yakovleva by Cheka Officers of Russia
• 1918: V. Volodarsky, Russian revolutionary by Grigory Ivanovich Semyonov
• 1918: Wilhelm von Mirbach, German Ambassador in Moscow by Yakov Blumkin
• 1903: King Aleksandar Obrenovic of Serbia and Draga Masin, his Queen consort by Serbian army officers lead by Dragutin Dimitrijevic
• 1903: Prime Minister Dimitrije Cincar-Markovic of Serbia and Lazar Petrovic of Serbia as part of the May overthrow
• 1912: Prime Minister José Canalejas of Spain by Manuel Pardiñas

City of 72 Names looks at this time through the eyes of four very different people and how their lives intersected with all this change happening around them. Here are some of the large events that impacted our protagonists:

Important Events And Political Movements Worldwide

The Russian Revolution of 1905

Pu-yi

Sun Yat-Sen's Koumintang

Yuan Shikai (Chinese: 袁世凱; pinyin: Yuán Shìkǎi; 16 September 1859 – 6 June 1916) was a Chinese military and government official who rose to power during the late Qing dynasty, and tried to save the dynasty with a number of modernization projects including bureaucratic, fiscal, judicial, educational, and other reforms. He established the first modern army and a more efficient provincial government in North China in the last years of the Qing dynasty before the abdication of Xuantong Emperor, the last monarch of the Qing dynasty, in 1912. Through negotiation, he became the first official president of the Republic of China in 1912.[2]

This army and bureaucratic control were the foundation of his autocratic rule as the first formal President of the Republic of China. He was frustrated in a short-lived attempt to restore monarchy in China, with himself as the Hongxian Emperor (Chinese: 洪憲皇帝).