| 1842 | Opium War with Great Britain ended in China’s defeat and the Treaty of Nanjing opening up 5 cities–Canton, Fuzhou, Xiamen, Ningbo, and Shanghai–to residency by British subjects for the purpose of trade |
| 1851-64 | Taiping Rebellion led by Hong Xiuquan as Heavenly King against the Qing government; |
| 1860 | Anglo-French expedition entered Peking, plundered and destroyed the great imperial palace: Yuanming Yuan |
| 1860-70 | Reform Movement led by people such as Kang Youwei, Liang Qichao, Tan Sitong, and later Sun Zhongshan |
| 1898-1901 | Boxer Uprising, backed by the Empress Dowager who declared war against “all foreigners in the world;” second expedition by the Allied forces (of 8 nations: Britain, The United States, Russia, Japan, France, Germany, Italy and Austria) entered Peking; the Imperial Court fled to Shanxi; Peace Treaty signed |
| 1904-5 | Russo-Japanese War; Japan received Russian rights in Liaodong Peninsula; Lu Xun in Japan 1902-09 |
| 1911 | October 10: outbreak in Wuhan of Chinese Revolution; national day for Republic of China |
| 1912 | Founding of Guomindang, (GMD); abdication of last emperor, young Xuantong; empire and royal dynasties ended; Yuan Shikai became president of the Republic of China |
| 1919 | Versailles Treaty; students’ protest against the treaty; May Fourth Movement broke out from Peking and spread to major Chinese cities; this new cultural movement was characterized by its anti-traditionalism; |
| 1921 | Founding of Chinese Communist Party (CCP) in Shanghai |
| 1926 | Beginning of Northern Expedition against warlords; during 1924-27, first united front of CCP and GMD |
| 1927 | Shanghai Massacre; the GMD crack down on Shanghai communists and expel CCP and Soviets |
| 1928 | Nan Chang Military Uprising, instigated by CCP; the birth of the Red Army |
| 1931 | Japan’s invasion of Manchuria; five “encirclement campaigns” were launched by GMD to stamp out CCP forces |
| 1934 | Long March of the Red Army began, led by Mao Zedong, elected chairman of Central Committee of CCP |
| 1936 | Red Army reached Shaanxi soviet base; Yan’an Border Government; Xi’an incident in which Jiang Kai-shek as commander-in-chief of the army and the chairman of GMD was kidnapped by his subordinates urging him to fight the Japanese |
| 1937 | Japanese bombed and occupied Shanghai; 2nd United Front formed between GMD and CCP |
| 1938 | Japan occupied north, central and south coastal Chinese areas; the rape of Nanking; GMD government moved to Chongqing |
| 1941 | China declared war on Japan, Germany, and Italy, and became formally a member of the allied nations in the world war |
| 1945 | End of Pacific and Sino-Japanese War, immediately followed by Civil War between the CCP and GMD |
| 1946 | Japanese pulled out from Taiwan, a colony of Japan for half a century |
| 1949 | People’s Republic of China formally established by CCP; the defeated GMD nationalist troops fled to Taiwan |
| 1950 | 3-anti- (corruption, waste, bureaucracy) 5-anti- (bribery, tax-evasion, fraud, do shoddy work and inferior material, steal economic secrets) campaigns; Korean War; |
| 1953 | First Five-Year Plan began |
| 1957 | Anti-Rightist Movement; Great Leap Forward; agrarian collectives (communes) formed; campaign to eliminate four harmful insects: rats, sparrows, mosquitoes, flies |
| 1959 | Sino-Soviet alliance collapsed; Indian Border Wars |
| 1961-63 | Three-Year difficult period: famine and paying debts to U.S.S.R after the Sino-Soviet rift |
| 1966-76 | The Proletarian Cultural Revolution began; under his theory of “uninterrupted revolution,” Mao’s Red Guards were mobilized against “Capitalist Roaders;” national economy paralyzed; education came to a halt; high school and college students by the millions went to countryside to be “re-educated” |
| 1972 | Nixon visited China in February; |
| 1975 | Education Reform toenroll “workers, peasants, and soldiers” as college students; |
| 1976 | Premier Zhou Enlai died; Tiananmen Square demonstration; Mao died; “Gang of Four” arrested |
| 1978 | Deng Xiaoping, exonerated, emerged as top party man; approved economic reform programme; Four Modernizations; diplomatic relation with the U.S. formalized; “Democracy Wall” appeared in Beijing to voice dissending opinions |
| 1979 | Deng visited the United States; Deng opened the door for 10,000 students going abroad; crackdown on “democracy Wall” dissidents; China-Vietnam 14-day war |
| 1980 | The trial of “Gang of Four;’ |
| 1984 | Urban reform programme introduced |
| 1986 | Reform campaign and cultural thaw |
| 1987 | Anti-bourgeois liberalism campaign; further price reform postponed |
| 1988 | Spiraling inflation and panic buying leads to the State Council slamming brakes on further economic reform; the Great Cultural Debate |
| 1989 | Mikhail Gorbachev visited China; Tiananmen Pro-Democracy protest of one million people demanding Premier Li Peng resign and martial law be withdrawn; and June Fourth massacre |
| 1997 | Deng died; Hong Kong handed over to Chinese administration |
| 1999 | Macao handed over to Chinese administration |
[similetimeline]