China and Korea (1910–1950)

Yuan Shikai — a former Qing general who took power, sidelined parliament, and later tried to make himself emperor.

It was seen as betraying the 1911 revolution; his own generals turned against him and he abandoned the plan, dying in 1916.

The period (roughly 1916–1928) when China fragmented into regions controlled by rival military generals rather than one central government.

Revolutionary leader who briefly served as the Republic's first provisional president and promoted the Three Principles of the People: nationalism, democracy, people's livelihood.

A list of demands from Japan for sweeping control over China's territory, economy and government; Yuan's government was forced to accept a reduced version.

An intellectual movement (c1915–1919) attacking Confucian tradition and promoting science, democracy and a simpler written Chinese language.

Germany's former territory in Shandong province was given to Japan instead of being returned to China.

Mass protests beginning 4 May 1919 in Beijing, spreading to merchants and workers nationwide, which forced China to refuse to sign the Treaty of Versailles.

It fused the New Culture Movement's ideas with real mass political action for the first time, and radicalised a generation, some of whom turned to Marxism.

National identity had grown strongly through May Fourth, but political unity had not — China remained fragmented under warlordism.

Disillusionment with Western democracies, which had failed to protect China's interests at Versailles, made socialist ideas more appealing.

Yuan's death (1916) left a power vacuum → warlordism spread → foreign humiliations (21 Demands, Versailles) continued → New Culture Movement ideas + anger → May Fourth protests (1919).

The 1937 alliance between the Guomindang and the communists to resist Japan's invasion, formed despite their rivalry.

The Guomindang fought costly conventional battles against Japan and lost many trained troops, while the communists used guerrilla tactics from Yan'an and expanded their rural support base.

Soviet forces defeated the Japanese Kwantung Army and handed over captured Japanese weapons to the communists, giving the PLA a major military boost.

Hyperinflation, which destroyed the savings and wages of the urban population and undermined trust in Guomindang rule.

1 October 1949, proclaimed by Mao Zedong in Beijing after the communist victory in the civil war.

Mass peaceful protests across Korea against Japanese colonial rule, crushed violently by Japan but followed by some policy easing.

Forced labour in mines/factories, military conscription of Korean men, and the forced sexual slavery of Korean women and girls known as "comfort women".

It was picked by US planners largely arbitrarily as a practical line for the US and USSR to divide responsibility for accepting Japan's surrender, not meant to be permanent.

A sustained crackdown under Jiang Jieshi's martial law in which thousands of real or suspected opponents of Guomindang rule, including many native Taiwanese, were arrested, imprisoned or executed.

A violent crackdown on Taiwanese protests against mainland Guomindang officials that killed thousands and deepened distrust, feeding into later martial law and the White Terror.

Two rival governments both claimed to be the legitimate China: the communist People's Republic of China on the mainland, and Jiang Jieshi's Nationalist Republic of China on Taiwan.

Weigh the political, economic and military factors against each other and argue which was most decisive (e.g. military collapse was the immediate trigger, but rooted in earlier political/economic weakness) rather than just listing causes.