revolusi chinese of 1911

one leader who advocated revolutionnary change was Dr. sun yatsen. in 1894 he founded a small secret society among overseas chinese for purpose of overthrowing the decaying Manchu dynasty. as a revolutionary with a price on his head, much of the time sun wan forced to operate and organize abroad. after many years of hard work southeast asia, japan and hawai, sun's movement took hold among educated young chinese aboard. in 1905, 400 of sun's followers gathered in japan to form the first viable revolutionary movement, the tung meng hui. the members took a solemn oath to bring down the alien Manchu empire and replace it with a chinese republic. ten different attempts were organized and financed by the group, headquartered variously in tokyo and hanoi, to strike down the vulnerable Manchu rule by assassinating imperial officials. as these revolutionary attempts failed, one by one, and more revolutionaries lost their lives, the movement became demoralized and ran low on funds. on october 10, 1911 an eleventh attempt was made. it resulted in a successful uprising by discontented and dissatisfied provicial officials, merchants, and imperial army commanders. the manchu emperor abdicated, and shortly thereafter the chinese imperial dynasty system was ended.

while Dr. sun's revolutionary movement, comprised largely of students youths, and overseas chinese, gave impetus and momentum to the revolution, it was not the force which brought down empire. it was the new imperial army, headed by yuan shikai, that forced the abdication. under an agreement with Dr. sun who had little bargaining power. yuan shihkai assumed the power of goverment immediately after the abdication and stayed on to become the first preisdent of the chinese republic. the new republic floundered from start. very few chinese had any real understanding of western democracy. all the chinese political traditions and institutions were designed for impererial rule and, therefore were ill suited for constutional democracy. uan shihkai increasingly disregarded the constituiton, and finaly attempted to establish himself as emperor. the chinese nation disintegraded as the new goverrment proved incapable of comanding allegiance from the people in the midst of mountig domestic problems and the constant meddling in chinese internal affairs by european powers and japan. yuan's death in 1916 marked the final collapse of the central goverment's effective authority.