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Chinese Nationalists oust the last Qing emperor, Puyi
The Kuomintang, or the Nationalist Party, finally overthrew and deposed the last Qing emperor, Henry Pu Yi, and took over. The first leader of the Nationalist Party was Sun Yixian, and he had three principles called "The Three Principles of the People" which consisted of nationalism, people's rights, and people's livelihood. Sun Yixian considered nationalism the most important thing that China needed, however, he eventually stepped down as leader, due to not being a military leader. -
World War I begins as Austria declares war on Serbia
The crown prince of Austria-Hungary was Archduke Franz Ferdinand, who had gone to visit Sarajevo, the capital of Bosnia, in order to make sure that Bosnia stayed under Austro-Hungarian rule. However, he was shot and killed by a Serbian teenager, named Gavrilo Princip. So, Austria gave Serbia an ultimatum to do certain things by a certain deadline in order to pay for the prince's death. However, since Serbia could not fulfill all the demands, Austria declared war on Serbia, leading to the war. -
The U.S. enters the war
The United States did not decide to enter the war until near the end of the war in 1917. However, due to escalating tensions between the U.S. and Germany and the desire to help the British, the U.S. entered the war. The tensions with Germany started after the sinking of the Lusitania, a ship with 128 U.S. citizens in it. Due to unrestricted submarine warfare, Germany had sunken the Lusitanita, but the U.S. did not enter the war still until their discovery of the Zimmermann Telegram. -
Armistice signed as Allies defeat Central Powers
Communist leader Vladimir Lenin of Russia insisted in stepping out of the war, so Russia signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany in order to get rid of Russia's involvement in the war. Russia's withdrawal meant that Germany only had to attack the Western Front, however, Germany eventually surrendered due to the rest of the Central Powers begin to weaken and signed an armistice, or an agreement to stop fighting with a French Commander. -
Gandhi leads Indian camapaign of civil disobedience
After World War I, India was furious because they had thought that they would be paid with independence from the British if they had helped the British in the war. Instead, the British continued to rule over the Indians. The British enforced cruel laws, like the Rowlatt Acts that allowed the government to jail protestors without trial for as long as two years. So, Gandhi protested peacefully through events like the Salt March and boycotting to finally achieve limited self-rule of India. -
Mustafa Kemal transforms Turkey into Republic
After World War I, the Ottoman Empire was extremely weak and small, from giving up almost all of its territories except Turkey. Greeks began to invade Turkey and tried to take over their land, but lost due to Turkey's commander, Mustafa Kemal. The nationalists then deposed the Ottoman sultan and instated Kemal as president of the Republic of Turkey. Kemal's main goal was to modernize and secularize Turkey. In fact, Kemal was named Ataturk, or "Father of the Turks." -
Mao Zedong heads Long March
A civil war was raging in China between the Communists and Nationalists. The revolutionary leader of the Communist party in China was Mao Zedong, an assistant librarian at Beijing University. He believed that the peasants and farmers could be the true revolutionaries just as well as anyone else and led the Communist party. However, 100,000 Communists had to flee due to Nationalists and went through a journey called the Long March to an area in northwestern China.
