A Brief History
Chinese tradition names the first dynasty Xia, in 2100 B.C. The Qing Dynasty, which lasted until 1912, was the last dynasty in China. The many centuries in between these two significant periods were filled with chaos and warring factions, as one dynasty after another toppled under internal corruption or external domination (notably, the Mongols). In times of peace, however, China stood as a leading civilization, outpacing the rest of the world in the arts and sciences.
The Qing dynasty collapsed completely on January 1, 1912 as revolution ended two millennia of dynastic rule. (The last emperor ended up working at a machine repair shop before dying of cancer in 1967.)
Sun Yat-Sen, known as the Father of Modern China, became the first president of the Republic, and ruled as a one-party government. A nationalist-communist war began in 1927 until war with Japan interrupted it in 1939. Japan's campaign was defeated in 1945, marking the end of World War II, and China's full-scale civil war carried on until 1950. The Nationalists fled to Taiwan and the Communists took control of mainland China.
Today, Taiwan has a full, multi-party, representative democracy, while the Communists, under Mao Zedong and his successors , established an autocratic socialist system. This ensured China's sovereignty by imposing strict controls over everyday life, but has cost the lives of tens of millions of people over the years.
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