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| Souvenir sheets |
Prestige
Stamp Booklet jointly issued by Macao
Post, China Post and Hong Kong Post
The Xinhai Revolution
(named for the Chinese year of Xinhai (1911), was the overthrow of China's
ruling Qing Dynasty, sometimes known as the Manchu Dynasty, and the
establishment of the Republic of China.
The revolution began with the armed Wuchang
Uprising and the spread of republican insurrection through the southern
provinces, and culminated in the abdication of the Xuantong Emperor after
lengthy negotiations between rival Imperial and Republican regimes based in
Beijing and Nanjing respectively, in 1900, the ruling Qing Dynasty decided to
create a modernized army, called the "New Army". At the time, the city of Wuchang, on the Yangtze
River in the province of Hubel, had the most modernized military industry, so
it became the site where weapons and other military equipment for the New Army
were manufactured. The revolutionary ideas of Sun Yat-sen extensively
influenced officers and soldiers of the New Army in Wuchang, and many
participated in revolutionary organizations.
The uprising itself broke
out largely by accident. Revolutionaries intent on overthrowing the Qing
dynasty had built bombs and one accidentally exploded. This led police to
investigate, and they discovered lists of revolutionaries within the New Army.
At this point elements of the New Army revolted rather than face arrest. The
provincial government panicked and fled. Initially, the revolt was considered
to be merely the latest in a series of mutinies that had occurred in southern
China, and was widely expected to be quickly put down. The fact that it had
much larger implications was due to the fact that the Qing dynasty delayed
acting against the rebellion, allowing provincial assemblies in many southern
provinces to declare independence from the Qing and allegiance to the
rebellion.
Sun Yat-sen himself had no
direct part in the uprising and was traveling in the United States at the time
in an effort to recruit more support from among overseas Chinese. He found out
about the uprising by reading a newspaper report.
A sense of the Qing Dynasty having lost the mandate of heaven may have contributed to the revolt. Evidence of the loss of the mandate of heaven, in China, often constitutes of natural disasters, such as fires and floods. The Yangtze overflowed its banks in 1911, and the revolting troops were, of course, situated near that river. Such a flood would have had a profound psychological impact on any government officials, rebels, peas-ants, and other Chinese in the vicinity, and the flood was a notable disaster, with 100,000 fatalities.
A sense of the Qing Dynasty having lost the mandate of heaven may have contributed to the revolt. Evidence of the loss of the mandate of heaven, in China, often constitutes of natural disasters, such as fires and floods. The Yangtze overflowed its banks in 1911, and the revolting troops were, of course, situated near that river. Such a flood would have had a profound psychological impact on any government officials, rebels, peas-ants, and other Chinese in the vicinity, and the flood was a notable disaster, with 100,000 fatalities.
The Qing government failed
to respond for a crucial few weeks. This gave the revolutionaries time to
declare a provisional government. Other provincial assemblies then joined the
revolutionaries. Within a month, representatives of the seceding provinces had
met to declare a Republic of China. A compromise between the conservative
gentry and the revolutionaries saw Sun Yat-sen chosen as provisional president.
Leaving the brilliant
impression on China modern history, the Xinhai Revolution is a great piece of
political affair shocked around the world, which is the first time to flag
Democracy republic on China. It overthrew the Qing dynasty and founded the
Republic of China. This emancipated the people from the rule of the feudal system.
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