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12 February 1912Primary source · 2 sourcesWell documented

The Xinhai Revolution Ends Two Thousand Years of Imperial Rule

A mutiny in Wuchang spreads into a nationwide revolt that abolishes the throne

On the timeline · around 12 February 1912 · Qing and Modern ChinaQing and Modern ChinaThe Xinhai Revolution Ends Two Thousand Years of Imperial Rule180018251850187519001925

Quick facts

Uprising begins
Wuchang, autumn 1911
Abdication
12 February 1912, Emperor Puyi
Key revolutionary leader
Sun Yat-sen
Imperial rule ended
After 2,133 years since Qin unification, 221 BCE

What happened

Weakened by the Boxer Rebellion's aftermath and by mounting reform and revolutionary pressure, the Qing government faced growing calls for either sweeping reform or outright revolution, championed on one side by constitutional monarchists Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao and on the other by Sun Yat-sen's Revolutionary Alliance, or Tongmenghui, which sought a republican government. In the autumn of 1911, a military mutiny in Wuchang escalated into a nationwide revolt as province after province declared against Qing rule. The Qing court, its military position collapsing, named the general Yuan Shikai as premier and offered constitutional reforms, but Sun Yat-sen instead promised Yuan the presidency of a new republic if he secured the throne's abdication. On 12 February 1912, the boy emperor Puyi abdicated, ending the Qing dynasty and more than two thousand years of imperial rule stretching back to Qin Shi Huang, and the Republic of China was established with Yuan Shikai as president.

Why it matters

The abdication closed a continuous line of dynastic emperors that, however many times it changed hands under the Mandate of Heaven, had run from Qin Shi Huang's unification in 221 BCE to 1912, more than two thousand years. The revolution's promise of stable republican government went unfulfilled almost immediately, since Yuan Shikai's death in 1916 opened a fragmented warlord era that lasted until the Nationalists and Communists fought their way toward the eventual 1949 resolution.

How we know

The abdication and the negotiations preceding it are documented in official records of the Qing court and the new republican government, alongside contemporary press accounts of the Wuchang uprising and its spread.

Sources

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