Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
was administered by the Portuguese. Attempts at self-strengthening - in-
volving attempts to produce armaments and Western-style military technology
- were dealt a brutal blow by the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95. Not only
was Chinese influence in Korea lost, but Taiwan was ceded to Japan.
One of the boldest proposals for reform, which drew heavily on the Japan-
ese model, was the program put forward in 1898 by reformers including the
political thinker Kang Youwei (1858-1927). However, in September 1898 the
reforms were abruptly halted, as the Dowager Empress Cixi, fearful of a coup,
placed the emperor under house arrest and executed several of the leading
advocates of change. In a major misjudgement, the dynasty declared in June
that it supported the Boxers (anti-Christian rebels opposed to the foreign pres-
ence in China) in their uprising. Eventually, a multinational foreign army forced
its way into China and defeated the uprising that had besieged the foreign
Legation Quarter in Beijing. The imperial powers then demanded huge finan-
cial compensation from the Qing.
The Cantonese revolutionary Sun Yatsen (1866-1925) remains one of the
few modern historical figures respected in both China and Taiwan. Sun and his
Revolutionary League made multiple attempts to undermine Qing rule in the
late 19th century, raising sponsorship and support from a wide-ranging com-
bination of the Chinese diaspora, the newly emergent middle class and tradi-
tional secret societies.
The end of the Qing dynasty arrived swiftly. A local uprising in the city of
Wuhan in October 1911 was discovered early, leading the rebels to take over
command in the city and declare independence from the Qing dynasty. Within
a space of days, then weeks, most of China's provinces did likewise. Provin-
cial assemblies across China declared themselves in favour of a republic, with
Sun Yatsen (who was not even in China at the time) as their candidate for
president.
