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1616
The Qing dynasty begins in Manchuria. Manchu influence spreads to Korea and China throughout the rest of the 1600s. -
1711
The British East India Company establishes a trading post in Guangzhou. -
1793
The first British envoy to Beijing, Lord Macartney, is appointed. -
1807
The first Protestant Christian missionary, Robert Morrison from the London Missionary Society, arrives in China. -
1814
The first recorded conversion of Chinese people to Christianity. The number of Christian converts in China grows steadily through the 1800s. -
1839-42
The First Opium War with Britain. The war ends with a comprehensive Chinese defeat and a treaty that permits an increased British trading and military presence. -
1851-64
The Taiping Rebellion. A Westernised Christian-based group in south-eastern China, calling itself the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom, engages in a long civil war with the Qing rulers. This leads to some perceptions that the Qing dynasty was losing its Mandate of Heaven. -
1856-60
The Second Opium War with Britain and France. Another defeat for the Qing results in a treaty forcing the legalisation of opium and Christianity. This humiliating defeat gives rise to the Self Strengthening Movement, an attempt to industrialise China and increase her capacity for self-defence. -
1866
November 12th: Sun Yixian is born to an affluent middle class family in Guangdong province. -
1875
June 12th: The death of the Tongzhi Emperor. The infant Guangxu Emperor ascends to the throne, aged three. He is adopted by Dowager Empress Cixi, who becomes his regent. -
1887
October 31st: Jiang Jieshi is born in Zhejiang province. -
1893
December 26th: Mao Zedong is born to a peasant family in Hunan province. -
1894
August 1st: The outbreak of the first Sino-Japanese War, caused by disputes over territorial control of Korea.
November 24th: Sun Yixian forms the Revive China Society in Hawaii. Its membership consists of Chinese nationalist expatriates and exiles. -
1895
April 17th: The first Sino-Japanese War ends after seven months, the outcome a humiliating defeat for China which is forced to cede control of Korea and Taiwan.
October 26th: Sun Yixian leads an anti-Qing uprising in Guangzhou. It is quickly defeated and Sun is forced into exile in Japan. -
1905
July: The Qing court decides to send two missions abroad to study foreign political systems, suggesting that it is considering political and constitutional reform.
August 20th: In Japan, Sun Yixian and others form the Tongmenghui or ‘Chinese Revolutionary Alliance’.
September: Imperial examinations are abolished, part of the late-Qing reforms. 1906
September: Under pressure from the provinces, the Qing government agrees to consider constitutional reform. -
1897
November 1st: A ground of anti-foreign bandits storm a German precinct in Juye, Shandong province and kill two German missionaries. This incident is a forerunner to violence by the Boxers in subsequent years. -
1898
January: Kang Youwei holds meetings with mandarins of the imperial court and proposes social and political reforms.
March 5th: Zhou Enlai is born in Jiangsu province.
June 11th: The Guangxu Emperor issues his first reform edict, marking the beginning of the Hundred Days of Reform.
September 21st: Conservatives, soldiers and Empress Dowager Cixi collaborate to remove the Guangxu Emperor from power.
September 28th: Six liberal reformists are beheaded. Kang Youwei manages to escape to Japan. -
1899
March: The Fists of Righteous Harmony movement, or Boxers, begin significant anti-foreign activity against Germans in Shandong province, attacking a church.
September 6th: Seeking entry into Chinese commerce, the United States proposes the Qing rulers adopt an ‘open door’ trade policy. -
1900
January 11th: Dowager Empress Cixi issues edicts expressing support for Boxers, drawing protests from foreign governments.
April: Fearing a massacre of foreigners in China, Western navies begin increasing their presence off the Chinese coast.
June 13th: Boxer forces reach Beijing. The Boxers and sections of the Qing Imperial Army begin attacking foreign legations in Tianjin and Beijing. -
1901
September 7th: The Boxer Protocol is signed by the Eight-Nation Alliance and three other nations. It imposes severe restrictions and reparations on the Qing government. -
1902
January: Dowager Empress Cixi and the Imperial Court return to Beijing. -
1911
May: The Qing government unveils its first ‘constitutional cabinet’. It is dominated by Manchu and royalty, which disappoints reformists.
May 9th: The Qing government orders that locally funded railways be nationalised and transferred to foreign banks. This was done to fund reparations imposed by the Boxer Protocol.August: The nationalisation of the railways gives rise to various Railways Recovery movements. Thousands of nationalists, students and local investors rally in defiance of the Qing go