L31 - The Fall of the Empire

The failures of reform efforts gave rise to more radical forces, and agitation for the overthrow of the imperial system grew through the 1890s and the first decade of the 20 th century. The revolutionary movement to create a Chinese republic was led by Sun Yatsen and had broad support among educated Chinese who wanted to save their country through modernization. In 1911, a military mutiny led to the collapse of the Qing dynasty, and China appeared to be on the way to a republican system. But corrupt military strongmen soon subverted this process, and by the middle of the 1910s, China descended into a decade of fragmentation, as warlords carved up the former empire into local satrapies.