Revolutionary groups

Revolutionary groups

1. reformist gentry

   • government actions
     • 'Outline of a Constitution' August 27 1908
       • put off convocation of Parliament for 9 years
         • shortened to 1913 in Nov 1910
       • executive judicial powers remaind with the throne
       • May.09 1910 > The Imperial Court announces that a National Assembly will convene Oct.03; half of its members are to be appointed rather than elected; consultative body
       • Dec.18 1910 > The Imperial Court rejects the National Assembly’s call for replacing the Grand Council with a responsible cabinet
       • May.08 1911 > The Regent replaces the Grand Council with a cabinet dominated by the Imperial family
     • provincial assemblies organized in October 1909
       • franchise = 0.42% of population
       • 90% of members had old imperial degrees
     • Prince Chun ordered Yuan Shikai to retire on 2 Jan 1909
       • regime's most competent modernizer
     • July 15 Chun announces himself commander-in-chief of both the army and navy, independent of the War Minister
   • wanted a parliament
   • action taken
     • provincial assemblies, chambers of commerce and Overseas Chinese banded toghether
     • August 11 1908 PA sent delegation to Beijing calling for immediate convoc of Parliament - refused
     • 2nd petition for constitution
       • 300,000 signed
       • over a fifth of total gentry numbers
       • showed alienation of a class that had beena major prop for regime
       • June 22 1910
     • formed 'Friend of the Constitution' political party
       • November 1909
       • delegates from 16 provinces
     • 3rd petition for immediate parliament
       • Oct 3 1910
       • 25 mill. signatures
       • support from high provincial officials

2. conservatives

   • end to railway construction
   • disbandment of the New Army
   • closure of modern schools
     • 100,000 by 1911
   • Jan 1906 civil service exams abolished

3. new armies

   • reforms
     • relaunched by 1901 decree in 8 provinces
     • forces = 175,000 of 600,000 soldiers in China
     • the best trained and equipped
     • 35 military schools opened
   • attracted a better, more educated class
   • became seedbeds for reformist ideas
   • Beiyang army
     • led by Yuan
     • largest, best equipped and best trained military force in China
     • personal loyalty to Yuan, even after dismissal
     • 2/3rds of the Chinese Army

4. business class

   • government action
     • stringent top-down control of business
       • led to corruption
       • at the local level entrenched interests ruledand officials used their positions to move in on enterprises.
       • Plundering ofbusiness by state functionaries was reported in Guangdong, Jiangsu, Zhili and Guangxi.
     • weak commercial legislation
       • In 1907, the Shanghai General Chamber of Commerce said the weakness of commercial legislation was 'enough to make our entire circle of merchants cry'
     • rights to foreigners
       • 93% of China's railroads foreign dominated by March 1911
       • May 20 1911 pledged the rights to operate Sichuan-Hankou and Hankou-Guangdong railway rights to foreigners in exchange for a £10 million loan
         • repaid in custom duties and salt taxes
         • selling rail rights + money to pay debts
       • May 9 1911 nationalized railroads
     • response to protests
       • ordered G-G of Hubei + Hunan to reinforce Sichuan troops from Hubei
       • diversion of troops weakened defnses in Wuhan
   • actions
     • SIchuan-Hankou Railway Company
       • development
         • established 1905
         • sold shares to the public
         • land owners given shares
         • much of Sichuan gentry and merchant class became shareholders
         • 2.5 million taels in investment
         • special tax of 3% levied on populatio
       • ineffectiveness
         • corruption and mismanagement by govt. appointed administrators
         • 10 miles of track laid by 1911
         • Qing govt returned to foreign lenders
       • discontent
         • investors only partially compensated; govt bonds rather than silver
         • June 17 Sichuan PA organizes the Railway Protection League
     • protests
       • Chengtu
         • August 11-13 10,000 protesters held a rally
         • Sep 7, fired on protesters, 32 deaths
         • Sep.08 > Tens of thousands of protesters gather near Chengtu to form the Railway Protection Army - ~the rural revolts in Szechwan intensify
       • merchant strike
       • September 1, the Sichuan-Hankou Railway Company adopted a shareholders' resolution calling on the Sichuan public to withhold the payment of grain taxes to the Qing Government.

5. peasants

   • grievances
     • offered services to landlords who could determine how much they were paid
     • young men could only expect to be hired for agri work for 30-40 days a year
     • prace of wheat, barley, sesame oil, wine and pork doubled from 1898 to 1908
     • rising taxes
       • state expenditure was 25% above revenue
       • In Sichuan, the governor was forced to raise taxes on tobacco,wine, salt and opium, introduce a lottery and mint coins to pay for reforms
       • burden fell disproportionately on the poor
       • due to reforms
         • - in Kiangsi in 1904 there was a riot against a new tax on indigo, theoretically intended to finance a new education program; indigo was main industrial crop
     • only 15-20% of land for cultiv
     • natural disasters
       • Sep 12, lower Yangtze overflowed
       • 100,000 drowned
       • 100,000 starved
   • actions
     • formed secret societies
     • riots
       • 113 peasant riots in 1909 and 285 in 1910
       • caused by increase in the price of salt, the production and distribution of which was a state monopoly
       • scarcity of rice; rice riots in Changsha (capital of Hunan) in May 1911
       • Layiang, Shantung riots broke out in June 1910 against excessive taxation, and a whole district revolted; troops called in, cost 40,000 lives

6. workers

   • bad working conditions
   • Shanghai had fifteen stoppages in 1904-06
     • 24 in 1909-11
   • In Hankou 9000 workers at a tea-brick factory went on strike for pay rises, attacked rival Russian plant
   • in 1900 SHnghai industrial work = 76,000
   • nationalism
     • handicrafts big source of employment; threatened by foreig imports
     • Tatsu Maru 1908
       • Japan imposed 5 demands on CHina over the detaining of a Japanese ship by China
         • ship had been an arms shipment for Revolutionary Alliance
       • merchants in Canton launch boycott of Jap goods
         • spreads through China
       • ==Mar.21-22 > Under pressure from Japan, the Imperial government orders the anti-Japanese boycott to end
     • foreign pressure = govt supress radicals
       • Dec.29 1909 > A Shanghai court arbitrarily permanently closes the radical paper The People’s Sigh under Japanese pressure - angry protests by Chinese progressives
       • end.Mar > The Shanghai radical paper The Alarm Bell is shut down under German pressure