中国近代史简述英文版

Modern Period

（

1840-1919

）……

……

The Opium War of 1840 marked a turning point in Chinese history. From early in the 19th

century

，

Britain started smuggling large quantities of opium into China

，

causing a great outflow

of Chinese silver and grave economic disruption in China. In 1839

，

the Qing government sent

Commissioner

Lin

Zexu

to

Guangdong

to

put

into

effect

the

prohibition

on

opium

trafficking.

When

，

in an effort to protect its opium trade

，

Britain initiated the First Opium War in 1840

，

the Chinese people rose in armed struggle against the invaders under the leadership of Lin Zexu

and other patriotic generals. But the corrupt and incompetent Qing government capitulated to

the foreign invaders time and again

，

and finally signed the Treaty of Nanjing with Britain

，

a

treaty of national betrayal and humiliation. From then on

，

China was reduced to a semi-colonial

and semi-feudal country.

After the Opium War

，

Britain

，

the United States

，

France

，

Russia and Japan forced the

Qing government to sign various unequal treaties

，

seized

，

the

Chinese

people

waged

heroic

struggles

，

with

many

national

heroes

coming

to

the

fore.

The

Revolution of the Taiping Heavenly Kingdom in 1851

，

led by Hong Xiuquan

，

was the largest

peasant uprising in modern Chinese history. The Revolution of 1911

，

a bourgeois-democratic

revolution led by Dr. Sun Yat-sen

，

ended the rule of the Qing Dynasty. The monarchical system

that had been in place in China for more than 2

，

000 years was discarded with the founding of

the

provisional

government

of

the

Republic

of

China.

The

Revolution

of

1911

is

of

great

significance

in

modern

Chinese

history.

But

the

fruits

of

victory

were

soon

compromised

by

concessions

on

the

part

of

the

Chinese

bourgeoisie

，

and

the

country

entered

a

period

of

domination

by

the

Northern

Warlords

headed

by

Yuan

Shikai.

The

people

lived

in

an

abyss

of

misery in this period.

New Democratic Revolution

Period

（

< br>1919-1949

）

Under the influence of the October Revolution in Russia

，

China's May 4th Movement arose.

During this great anti-imperialist

，

anti-feudal revolutionary movement led by patriotic students

，

the

Chinese

proletariat

for the

first

time

mounted

the political

stage.

The

May

4th

Movement

marked the change of the old democratic revolution to the new democratic revolution. It enabled

Marxism-Leninism to further spread and link up with the Chinese people's revolutionary practice

，

and prepared the ideology as well as the cadres necessary for the founding of the Communist

Party of China. In 1921

，

Mao Zedong

，

Dong Biwu

，

Chen Tanqiu

，

He Shuheng

，

Wang Jinmei

，

Deng Enming and Li Da

，

representing the communist groups in different places throughout the

nation

，

held the First National Congress in Shanghai

，

founding the Communist Party of China

（

CPC

）

. In 1924

，

Sun Yat- sen

，

pioneer of China's democratic revolution and the founder of the