Mao

• Mao Zedong is born in Shaoshan, Hunan province, the son of a wealthy farmer


  1893
• The Xinhai Revolution (Double Ten) in China occurs as a military uprising in Wuchang spreads to others provinces, each declaring independence from the Qing court


  1911
• Sun Yat-sen is elected as provisional president by revolutionaries of the newly proclaimed Provisional Government of the Republic of China in Nanjing


  1912
• Yuan Shikai was elected as Provisional President


  1912
• The Guomindang (Chinese Nationalist Party) is formed by Sun Yat-sen through the merger of the the Tongmenghui (Alliance League) and five other smaller parties


  1912
• The first National Assembly elections are held, with the GMD led by Song Jiaoren winning a majority


  1913
• Song Jiaoren is assassinated at Shanghai railway station with evidence pointing to the involvement of Yuan Shikai


  1913
• Parliament is dissolved by Yuan Shikai after forcing it to elect him President


  1914
• Yuan passes the Constitution Compact which replaces the provisional constitution, giving him unlimited powers over government


  1914
• Japan presents the Twenty-One Demands to China which sought to extend Japanese control of Manchuria and the Chinese economy


  1915
• Yuan Shikai is enthroned as Emperor Hongxian in an attempt to restore imperial authority over China


  1916
• Yuan Shikai was forced to step down in the face of near total opposition to his attempts at restoring the monarchy


  1916
• The Warlord Period begins as Yuan Shikai dies aged 56 from uremia


  1916
• China declares war on Germany, sending 95,000 labourers to the Western Front of which 20,000 died

  1917
• Mao Zedong moves to Beijing, where secures a job at Peking University as assistant to university librarian Li Dazhao


  1918
• The Paris Peace Conference takes place

  1919
• The May Fourth Movement breaks out in China in protest against Japanese demands at the Paris Peace Conference


  1919
• The Treaty of Versailles is signed, confirming the loss of Shandong to Japan


  1919
• The Guomindang of China is re-established in Shanghai as Sun Yat-sen relaunches the nationalist movement, establishing his HQ in Canton


  1919
• The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) is founded with Russian Comintern support


  1921
• The Sun-Joffe Manifesto is signed between Sun Yat-sen and Soviet ambassador to China, Adolph Joffe


  1923
• The First United Front between the CCP/GMD is official formed at the 1st National Congress of the GMD


  1924
• The Whampoa Military Academy is established in Guangzhou to train the new National Revolutionary Army (NRA)


  1924
• The Peasant Movement Training Institute is founded in Guangzhou and led by Peng Pai, CCP member and Secretary of the Peasant Department of the GMD Central Committee


  1924
• Sun Yat-sen dies and a power struggle ensues between the right-wing of the party represented by Chiang Kai-shek, and the left-wing led by Wang Jingwei

  1925
• The Canton Coup occurs as Chiang Kai-shek declares martial law and launches a purge of the GMD after believing his life was in danger


  1926
• The Northern Expedition, led by Chiang Kai-shek as Commander-in-Chief of the NRA, begins with over 100,000 men


  1926
• The Ninghan Separation occurs as Wang Jingwei declares Wuhan to be the new capital of the national government and party headquarters of the GMD


  1927
• The Shanghai Massacre and White Terror is launched as Chiang Kai-shek attempts to purge the GMD of left-wing and communist influences


  1927
• Chiang declared a new Nationalist Government in Nanjing to rival the communist-tolerant government of Wang in Wuhan

  1927
• The Nanchang Uprising begins as communist forces numbering 20,000 led by He Long and Zhou Enlai attempt to capture the city of Nanchang and ferment a peasant uprising


  1927
• The Autumn Harvest Uprising led by Mao Zedong begins in an attempt to take control of the city of Changsha


  1927
• The Guangzhou Uprising begins as communist forces attempt to take over the city, but are defeated within days


  1927
• The Red Army is formed as Communist forces under Mao Zedong meet up with units led by Zhou Enlai and Zhu De in the Jinggang Mountains


  1928
• The Second Northern Expedition begins as Chiang renews the attack on Zhang Zoulin after previous defeats in the autumn of 1927


  1928
• The Nationalist Government of the Republic of China is announced after Beijing is captured by the NRA and is renamed Beiping, with the capital moving to Nanjing, marking the start of the Nanjing Decade


  1928
• The Red Army led by Mao Zedong, Zhou Enlai and Zhu De move south to set-up a new base area in the town of Ruijin, which would eventually form the capital of the brief Jiangxi Soviet


  1929
• The Gutian Congress of the CCP was held. Chaired by Mao Zedong, the Gutian Congress Resolution was passed, asserting Mao's political control over the Red Army


  1929
• The Futian Incident occurs as Mao Zedong launches a purge of Red Army troops, in which estimates vary between 700 and 4,000 soldiers tortured and executed on Mao's orders


  1930
• The Japanese Invasion of Manchuria occurs. Planned by Lieutenant General Ishiwara Kanji of the Kwantung Army, a bomb was exploded in Manchuria on the Japanese-owned South Manchurian Railways, giving a pretext for its takeover by the Japanese Kwantung Army

  1931