Background To Tibetan Uprising (twentieth Century History)

In the early years of the twentieth century, China was largely a backward country. The economy was largely agrarian, but the political structure was imperialistic in nature. There was widespread internal disenchantment. Tribal leaders asserted some levels of control, and government began to loose control.

Frustrated by the Qing court’s resistance to reform, young officials, military officers and students began to advocate the overthrow of the Qing dynasty-( a succession of related rulers), and creation of a republic.

On October 10, 1911, there was a revolutionary military uprising which led to the abdication of the last Qing monarch. This uprising was being inspired by the revolutionary ideas of Sun Yat-sen, who is frequently being referred to as the father of the Chinese nation, as a result of being instrumental to the overthrow of the Qing dynasty in October 1911, the last imperial dynasty of China.

In the mid 1920s, some Chinese patriots began moves at changing the backward state of China. It was at this stage that Sun Yat-sen established a new revolutionary base in South China, and set out to unite the fragmented Chinese nation. With the Soviets assistance, Sun Yat-sen organized the Kuomintang (KMT) or “Chinese Nationalist People’s Party” along Leninist lines, and extends into an alliance with the fledgling Chinese Communist Party (CCP). The Kuomintang had three cardinal principles namely; democracy, social welfare and progress.
After Sun’s death in 1925, one of his Protégés, Chiang Kai-Shek seized control of the Kuomintang, and succeeded in bringing most of south and central China under his rule.

Under Shek’s leadership, irreconcilable differences grew within the Kuomintang. Many members of the party followed the communist ideology led by Mao Tse-Tung. Civil war ensued between Chiang’s Kuomintang and the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) led by Chairman Mao.

After the Japanese have been defeated at the end of the Second World War, Sino- Japanese war ended too with the surrender of Japanese Emperor Hirohito, and the hostilities between the Kuomintang and the CCP resumed. At the beginning of the year in 1949, Mao’s Communist Party took Beijing, and controlled the entire country by the end of the year. The Communist troops became repressive to the minorities especially the Tibetans.

In 1950, Communist China overran the territory of Tibet, and annexed it. The Tibets began acts of insurrection against Chinese Government. Pockets of resistance against China were frequent in the mountainous region of Tibet. China used its troops to crush them, but the Tibetan militants were not moved as they continued forming different militant formations, religious monks, and civilian volunteers. Tibetan Movements created external wings. The Tibetan Brigade was formed in Diaspora and received logistics support and arms supply from the US government, but they could not make much impact due to disadvantages associated with geography.

Tibetan Movements fizzled out in the 1980s when China and US government established some form of understanding.

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