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Compare the 1911 Revolution and the May Fourth Movement in Terms of Their Nature and Impact.

Decent Essays

The 1911 Revolution was an uprising initiated by the revolutionaries to overthrow the Qing Court, while the May Fourth Movement was anti-Japanese movement. In terms of their nature, they are quite similar; both of them are nationalistic, democratic, anti-government and anti-traditional. And in terms of their nature, both of them had made changes. They can be categorized into different aspects like politically, economically and intellectually.

Firstly, the 1911 Revolution and the May Fourth Movement are nationalistic in nature, even though their emphases are not the same. The 1911 Revolution was stressing on “Han Nationalism” while the latter stressed on anti-imperialism. For the 1911 Revolution, it emphasized on unifying the Hans and to …show more content…

However, there are still some differences between the two in terms of their nature. First of all, the 1911 Revolution was not really anti-imperialism. It put little emphasis on expelling foreign invasion. They only aimed at overthrowing the Qing Court. Throughout the whole revolution, revolutionaries did not do anything against imperialism; they only ensured the neutrality of the foreigners during the revolution. While in the May Fourth Movement, people took real action by initiating demonstration in order to urge the government to negotiate and take back Shandong. Secondly, the 1911 Revolution is not anti-warlordism. Basically, it was a pretty new problem in the early 20th century, after the death of Yuan Shikai. Warlord governments were autocratic and violent. Such warlordism had also led to numerous wars that threaten people’s lives. It would be a unique nature for the May Fourth Movement.

For the political aspect, the 1911 Revolution had a much greater impact. The 1911 Revolution had brought about a real achievement. A remarkable change took place after the 1911 Revolution. The form of government changes from a monarchy to a republic. For the May Fourth Movement, it did not achieve anything real. However, both of them made contribution in popularizing political ideologies. Both movements had aroused the attention of Chinese people, and raised their political consciousness. The 1911 Revolution had first introduced the Three

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