Wuchang Uprising

Revolt in Imperial China that began with the dissatisfaction of the handling of a railway crisis, in which the Qing government announced that it would nationalize certain railway lines, that were previously paid for by local private investors. This led to a massive strike as well as rallies, which escalated and caused revolutionary groups to rise up against Qing government officials. Preparing for a revolt, an accidental explosion that wounded an insurgent and alerted the Qing government, triggered a rebellion in the city of Wuchang (武昌) on 10 October 1911, in which sympathizers of the revolutionaries within the New Army, i.e. the modernized Qin Army founded in 1895 and trained and equipped according to Western standards, staged a coup against their own authorities. The uprising served as a catalyst to the 1911 Xinhai (Hsin-Hai) Revolution, which is named after the year it occurred in (辛亥), i.e. the 8th (辛) of the Ten Celestial Stems and the last (亥) of the Twelve Terrestrial Branches according to the Chinese calendar. The events ultimately led to the collapse of the Qing Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China, which was founded on 1 January 1912 in Nanjing, and led by Dr. Sun Yat Sen/Sun Yat-sen (fig.) as the provisional president of the republic (fig.). See also CHINESE CALENDAR. 回