The Republic of China
Discover the Republic of China — the state that replaced the Qing dynasty in 1912, struggled through warlordism and invasion, and lost to communist revolution.
The Republic of China (1912–1949 on the mainland) was the successor state to two thousand years of imperial rule, founded after Sun Yat-sen's revolution overthrew the Qing dynasty. Its history is one of continuous crisis — warlordism, Japanese invasion, civil war — that ultimately ended in communist victory and the republic's retreat to Taiwan.
The republic's early years were chaotic. Sun Yat-sen's vision of a modern, democratic China was immediately undermined by the strongman Yuan Shikai and then by the Warlord Era (1916–1928), when regional military commanders carved China into competing fiefdoms. The Nationalist Party (Kuomintang) under Chiang Kai-shek nominally reunified China in 1928, but effective control over the vast country was never fully established.
Japan's invasion of Manchuria (1931) and then full-scale war (1937–1945) devastated China. An estimated 15–20 million Chinese died during World War II. The wartime alliance between the Nationalists and Mao Zedong's Communists collapsed into civil war after Japan's defeat. By 1949, the Communists had won, establishing the People's Republic, while Chiang retreated to Taiwan — where the Republic of China continues to this day.