For its role in supporting the Boxer movement and failing to protect foreigners in China, foreign powers hit the Qing state with punitive measures and costly reparations. In September 1901, the Qing government, represented by foreign minister Li Hongzhang, ratified the Boxer Protocol. The collapse of the Qing dynasty came a decade after the failed Boxer Rebellion. This deal placed power in the hands of Shikai, who was more interested in furthering his own ambitions than Chinese republicanism. In the end, Sun Yixian reached a compromise with powerful military leader Yuan Shikai, whose intervention forced the abdication of infant emperor Puyi.
These men, led by Sun Yixian, were determined to create a Chinese republic – but they lacked the means to force the Qing to surrender power. Their rebellious spirit spread to surrounding regions, igniting a tinderbox of revolutionary sentiment.īy the end of 1911, nationalist revolutionaries were assembling to form a new government. The flashpoint for revolution came in October when a republican-minded army unit mutinied in Wuchang, Hubei province. The 1911 Revolution had seemingly benign origins, beginning with disputes and protests over railway ownership in Sichuan province and surrounding areas.
It is also known as the Xinhai Revolution, after the Chinese calendar year in which it occurred. The 1911 Revolution was the spontaneous but popular uprising that ended the long reign of the Qing dynasty. A frieze commemorating the Wuching uprising of 1911