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The Republic of China (ROC), or simply China, was a sovereign state based on mainland China from 1912 to 1949 prior to the government's relocation to Taiwan, where it continues to be based today. The ROC was established on 1 January 1912 during the Xinhai Revolution against the Qing dynasty, ending the imperial history of China. The Republican government was ruled by the Kuomintang (KMT) as a one-party state based in Nanjing from 1927, until its flight to Taipei on 7 December 1949 following the KMT's de facto defeat by the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in the Chinese Civil War. The CCP proclaimed the People's Republic of China on 1 October 1949, while the ROC retains control over the "Free Area", with the political status of Taiwan remaining in dispute to this day. The ROC was formally declared on 1 January 1912, before Puyi, who had reigned as the Xuantong Emperor of the Qing dynasty, abdicated on 12 February 1912. Sun Yat-sen, the ROC's founder and provisional president, served only briefly before handing over the presidency to Yuan Shikai, the leader of the Beiyang Army. Yuan quickly became authoritarian and used his military power to control the administration, which consequently became known as the "Beiyang government". Yuan even attempted to replace the Republic with his own imperial dynasty until popular unrest forced him to back down. When Yuan died in 1916, the country fragmented between the various local commanders of the Beiyang Army. This began the Warlord Era defined by decentralized conflicts between rival cliques. The most powerful of these cliques, notably the Zhili and Fengtian cliques, at times used their control of Beijing to assert claims to govern the entire Republic. Meanwhile, the nationalist KMT under Sun's leadership attempted multiple times to establish a rival national government in Guangzhou. Sun was finally able to take Guangzhou with the help of weapons, funding, and advisors from the Soviet Union. As a condition of Soviet support, the KMT formed the "First United Front" with the Chinese Communist Party. CCP members joined the KMT and the two parties cooperated to build a revolutionary base in Canton. Sun planned to use this base to launch a military campaign northwards and reunify the rest of China. Sun's death in 1925 precipitated a power struggle that eventually resulted in the rise of General Chiang Kai-shek to KMT chairmanship. Thanks to strategic alliances with warlords and help from Soviet military advisors, Chiang was able to lead a successful "Northern Expedition" from 1926 to 1928. By 1927, Chiang felt secure enough to end the alliance with the Soviet Union and purged the Communists from the KMT. In 1928, the last major independent warlord pledged allegiance to the KMT's Nationalist government in Nanjing. While there was relative prosperity during the following ten years under Chiang Kai-shek, the ROC continued to be destabilized by the Chinese Civil War, revolts by the KMT's warlord allies, and steady territorial encroachments by Japan. Although heavily damaged by the purge, the CCP gradually rebuilt its strength by focusing on organizing peasants in the countryside. Warlords who resented Chiang's attempts to take away their autonomy and incorporate their military units into the National Revolutionary Army repeatedly led devastating uprisings, most significantly the Central Plains War. In 1931, the Japanese invaded Manchuria. They continued a series of smaller territorial encroachments until 1937, when they launched a full-scale invasion of China. World War II devastated China, leading to enormous loss of life and material destruction. The war between China and Japan continued until the surrender of Japan at the end of World War II in 1945, which led to Taiwan being placed under Chinese administration. In the aftermath of World War II, civil war resumed between the areas liberated by the KMT and those liberated by the CCP. The CCP's People's Liberation Army managed to defeat the larger and better-armed National Revolutionary Army due to better military tactics and corruption of the ROC leadership. In 1949, the ROC repeatedly moved its capital to avoid the Communist advance—first to Guangzhou, followed by Chongqing, Chengdu, and lastly to Taipei. In October 1949, the CCP established the PRC. Remnants of the ROC government would hang on in mainland China until late 1951. The ROC was a founding member of the League of Nations and later the United Nations (including its Security Council seat) where it maintained until 1971, when the PRC took over its membership in the United Nations General Assembly Resolution 2758. It was also a member of the Universal Postal Union and the International Olympic Committee. With a population of 541 million in 1949, it was the world's most populous country. Covering 11.4 million square kilometres (4.4 million square miles) of claimed territory, it de jure consisted of 35 provinces, 1 special administrative region, 2 regions, 12 special municipalities, 14 leagues, and 4 special banners. Name The Republic of China's first president, Sun Yat-sen, chose Zhonghua Minguo (Chinese: 中華民國; lit. 'Chinese people's state') as the country's official Chinese name. The name was derived from the language of the Tongmenghui's 1905 party manifesto, which proclaimed that the four goals of the Chinese revolution were "to expel the Manchu rulers, revive China (Zhonghua), establish a republic (minguo), and distribute land equally among the people." However, the conventional Chinese translation of republic was gongheguo (Chinese: 共和國; pinyin: Gònghéguó), not minguo (lit. "people's state"). On 20 October 1923, Sun said that Zhonghua Minguo means a state "of the people". Both the "Beiyang government" (from 1912 to 1928), and the "Nationalist government" (from 1928 to 1949) used the name "Republic of China" as their official name. In Chinese, the official name was often shortened to Zhongguo (Chinese: 中國; lit. 'middle country'), Minguo (Chinese: 民國; lit. 'peoples' country'), or Zhonghua (Chinese: 中華; lit. 'middle and beautiful'). The country was in English known at the time as "the Republic of China" or simply "China". In China today, the period from 1912 to 1949 is often called the "Republican Era" (simplified Chinese: 民国时期; traditional Chinese: 民國時期), because from the Chinese government's perspective the ROC ceased to exist in 1949. In Taiwan, these years are called the "Mainland period" (大陸時期; 大陆时期), since it was when the ROC was based on the mainland. History Overview A republic was formally established on 1 January 1912 following the Xinhai Revolution, which itself began with the Wuchang uprising on 10 October 1911, successfully overthrowing the Qing dynasty and ending over two thousand years of imperial rule in China. From its founding until 1949, the republic was based on mainland China. Central authority waxed and waned in response to warlordism (1915–1928), a Japanese invasion (1937–1945), and a full-scale.... Discover the Tim Shek popular books. Find the top 100 most popular Tim Shek books.