What was China Called Before 1949?

who had effective control of the Beiyang Army, the most powerful military force in China at the time. To prevent civil war and possible foreign intervention from undermining the infant republic, Sun agreed to Yuan's demand for China to be united under a Beijing government headed by him. On March 10, in Beijing, Yuan Shikai was sworn in as the second Provisional President of the Republic of China.

The republic which Sun Yat-sen and his associates envisaged evolved slowly. Although there were many political parties vying for supremacy in the legislature, the revolutionists lacked an army, and soon Yuan Shikai's power began to outstrip that of parliament.

Yuan revised the constitution on his own and became dictatorial. In August 1912 the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) was founded by Song Jiaoren, one of Sun's associates.

. It was an amalgamation of small political groups, including Sun's Tongmenghui. In the national elections held in February 1913 for the new bicameral parliament, Song campaigned against the Yuan administration, whose representation at the time was largely by the Republican Party, led by Liang Qichao. Song was an able campaigner and the Kuomintang won a majority of seats.

The overthrow of the old imperial regime in 1911 produced a surge in Chinese nationalism, an end to censorship, and a demand for professional, nation-wide journalism.[8] All the major cities launched such efforts.

. Special attention was paid to China's role in the World War. to the disappointing Paris Peace Conference of 1919, and to the aggressive demands and actions of Japan against Chinese interests. Journalists created professional organizations, and aspired to separate news from commentary.

At the Press Congress of the World conference in Honolulu in 1921, the Chinese delegates were among the most Westernized and self-consciously professional journalists from the developing world.

By the late 1920s, however, there was a much greater emphasis on advertising and expanding circulation, and much less interest in the sort of advocacy journalism that had inspired the revolutionaries

Song was assassinated in March. Some people believe that Yuan Shikai was responsible, and although it has never been proven, he had already arranged the assassination of several pro-revolutionist generals. Animosity towards Yuan grew.

Continuing my series on the most interesting facts about China, I’d like to look at a few of my favorite pieces of trivia involving China’s history as well as its culture and traditions.

In April he secured a Reorganization Loan of 25 million pounds sterling from Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany and Japan, without consulting the parliament first. The loan was used to finance Yuan's Beiyang Army.

China boasts a history of over 5,000 years, all of which I’ve captured in my Chinese History Timeline. Below are some of my favorite China history facts.

On May 20 Yuan concluded a deal with Russia that granted Russia special privileges in Outer Mongolia and restricted Chinese right to station troops there. Kuomintang members of the Parliament accused Yuan of abusing his rights and called for his removal.

The oldest form of the Chinese written language was found in the Oracle Bone inscriptions carved on tortoise shells and mammal bones during the Shang dynasty (c 1600-1100 BC).

which was composed of constitutional monarchists and supported Yuan, accused the Kuomintang of fomenting an insurrection. Yuan then decided to use military action against the Kuomintang.

Today, Chinese (Mandarin) is the most widely spoken language in the world, with about 850 million native speakers (and about 1.34 total speakers worldwide).

Humanoids have lived in China for hundreds of thousands of years. As part of China’s pre-history period, a group of fossil specimens—collectively known as “Peking Man”—were discovered in Zhoukoudian cave near Beijing. These specimens of Homo erectus (a relative of Homo sapiens) lived between 780,000 and 300,000 years ago and could make fire and used primitive stone tools. In Liujiang in southern China, the first modern human skull was discovered and is estimated to be about 67,000 years old.

The Chinese started cultivating rice and millet as early as 7500 BC, according to scientist and author Jared Diamond (Guns, Germs, and Steel). However, the first signs of settled agriculture in China started around 5000 B.C.

The Chinese name for “China” is “Zhong Guo” –which translates as “Central Nation” or “Middle Kingdom”—reflects their ancient worldview that China was at the center of the world.

The first use of the modern word “China” in the West was in 1555

This use was derived from the Chinese Qín, after the First Emperor Qin Shi Huangdi of the Qin Dynasty, which first unified China under a single Emperor in 221BC.

Throughout China’s history, China’s modern capital “Beijing” was once known as Yanjing, Dadu, Beiping, and most recently Peking. Beijing is translated literally as “Northern Capital” and is one of China’s “Four Great Ancient Capitals of China.”

Interesting Chinese translation of foreign countries: The Chinese names of other countries were mostly derived by phonetically translating the Western names into similar sounding Chinese characters, with some interesting results.

Ying Guo or “Hero Country”). Some names are translated literally or descriptively, including Iceland (Bing Dao or “Ice Island”) and Montenegro (Hei Shan or “Black Mountain”).

Under the First Emperor Qin, the Qin Dynasty built two of China’s most famous tourist attractions: the first version of the Great Wall of China and the Terracotta Army. The construction of both involved hundreds of thousands of men who conscripted into years of forced labor.