The whole modern history is divided into two stages:
1840 the opium war to 19 19 the eve of the may 4th movement was the stage of the old democratic revolution.
From the May 4th Movement in 19 19 to the eve of the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, it was the stage of the new democratic revolution.
The modern history of China began with the Opium War in 1840, and ended with the collapse of the Nanking Kuomintang regime in 1949 and the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC). After the late Qing Dynasty, the provisional government of the Republic of China, the northern warlords and the national government, the semi-colonial and semi-feudal society in China gradually formed and collapsed.
The modern history of China is a history of the Chinese nation's anti-imperialism, anti-feudalism and striving for modernization.
The ideas and ideas of saving the country and the people put forward by various classes in modern China and the reasons for their failure are as follows:
Bourgeois reformists-saving the country through reform
Under the influence of the development of national capitalism, the serious national crisis and the early reform ideas, the bourgeois reformists headed by Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao combined western political theory with traditional Confucianism, and put forward the reform ideas with the establishment of constitutional monarchy, the development of capitalism and the study of western science and technology culture as the main contents, trying to save the nation from peril and develop capitalism, and developed this idea into a reform movement, and then carried out the Reform Movement of 1898, which played an enlightening role in society. Reasons for failure: reformists lack the courage to oppose imperialism and feudalism.
2. Peasant class-helping the Qing Dynasty to save the country
Facing the division of China by imperialism, the broad masses of peasants at the bottom of society put forward the slogan of "helping the Qing Dynasty to destroy the foreign countries" from the simple patriotic thought, and launched a vigorous boxer movement in an attempt to achieve the goal of "destroying the foreign countries" by "helping the Qing Dynasty" in order to save the nation from peril.
Reasons for failure: The peasant uprising was spontaneous and unclear about the nature of the Qing government, which was universal and exclusive, and finally ended in failure under the joint suppression of Chinese and foreign reactionary forces.
3. Bourgeois revolutionist-saving the country by revolution
With the development of national capitalism, the deepening of national crisis, the successive failures of reform and improvement, and the Boxer Movement of "helping the Qing Dynasty" to save the country, the revolutionaries gradually realized the essence of the Qing government. In order to open up the road of independent development of national capitalism, they publicized the idea of democratic revolution and put forward the idea of overthrowing the Qing government by violence. Due to the development of the situation, the revolutionaries finally launched the Revolution of 1911, overthrew the feudal monarchy, dealt a heavy blow to feudalism and imperialism, and created conditions for the development of national capitalism. However, because the bourgeois revolutionaries did not put forward a thorough revolutionary program, fully mobilized the masses, did not have a strong leadership organization, and did not establish revolutionary armed forces, they finally gave the fruits of the revolution to Yuan Shikai under the attack of imperialism and feudalism, and their desire to save the country was not realized.
4. Bourgeois industrial faction-saving the country through industry
The Revolution of 1911 overthrew the feudal monarchy and cleared some obstacles for the development of national capitalism. Nanjing Provisional Government promulgated a series of laws and measures, which stimulated the investment enthusiasm of the national bourgeoisie. During the First World War, because European imperialist countries were busy with war and temporarily relaxed their economic aggression against China, China's national capitalist industry gained a development opportunity between imperialism and feudalism, and a short spring appeared. This makes some national bourgeoisie have the idea of saving the country by industry, trying to achieve national prosperity by developing national economy. However, after the First World War, imperialism made a comeback, which made the national capitalist economy gradually decline, and the road of saving the country by industry was not feasible.
5. Bourgeois intellectuals, radical democrats-saving the country by thinking.
After the failure of the Revolution of 1911, due to the further spread of western enlightenment in China, the bourgeoisie demanded the implementation of democratic politics. Under this condition, the bourgeois radical democrats put forward two slogans, democracy and science, and set off a new cultural movement in the ideological and cultural field. This movement shook the dominant position of feudal thought and liberated people's minds unprecedentedly. However, because it was not combined with mass movements, it was impossible to change the semi-colonial and semi-feudal social nature of China society and truly achieve the purpose of saving the country.
From the five national salvation movements at the end of 19 and the beginning of the 20th century, we can easily see that it is impossible to realize the modernization of political democratization and economic industrialization in modern China without national independence. Due to its own limitations, neither the peasant class nor the bourgeois factions can lead the China Revolution to victory, so it is a historical necessity for the proletariat to lead the China Revolution.