MODERN HISTORY OF CHINA

Objective chronological listing of significant events leading up to modern China.

• January – The Twenty-one Demands. In exchange for support of Yuan Shikai, Japan secretly delivers twenty-one demands to Beijing. These demands include de facto Japanese economic control of Manchuria and cession to Japan of German rights in Shandong province. Japan will take virtual control of Shandong and Fujian provinces. Other political and economic demands would severely infringe on China’s sovereignty and put China under Japanese control.
  
• February – Beijing government begins negotiations with Japan on the Twenty-One Demands.
  
• February – 30,000 Japanese troops land in Manchuria, Shandong province and the city of Tianjin.
  
• May – Japan issues an ultimatum to Beijing to accept most of their demands.
  
• May – China signs treaty with Japan. Japan’s influence extends to the Yangtze River, Shandong and Fujian provinces, in addition to Manchuria and Mongolia.
  
• June - Treaty among China, Russia, and Outer Mongolia. Outer Mongolia becomes an autonomous region.
  
• August – Formation of an organization in preparation for Yuan Shikai to become emperor.
  
• September - Chen Duxiu founds the Youth magazine (later renamed New Youth). Confucianism is depicted as a major cause of China's backwardness.
  
• December – Yuan Shikai declares his intention to become emperor.
  
• December – A National Protection Army rises up in Yunnan province in opposition to Yuan Shikai.
  

1915

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