1839-42 Opium War with defeat of China by Western powers, Treaty of Nanjing and start of "Unequal Treaty System" and "100 years of humiliation" imposed by imperialist powers

1894-95 Sino-Japanese War ends in China's defeat, Taiwan becomes colony of Japan, "spheres of influence" established by imperialist powers

1900 Boxer Rebellion: an anti-foreign terrorist movement seized control of part of Beijing and was put down by an international strike force

1901 Due to the Boxer Rebellion the western powers virtually disarmed China and imposed heavy fines (333 million)

1911 Nationalist Revolution led by Sun Yat-sen, demise of imperial rule

1912 Establishment of the Republic of China, Yuan Shikai as President

1916-28 Warlord Period, descent into military and political chaos

1919 May Fourth Incident - a student initiated demonstration in Beijing against the dismissive treatment of China by the Western Powers at the Treaty of Versailles and against the seeming inadequacy of their own government to asset itself internationally - after this the new intellectuals of China became disillusioned with Western ideas

1921 The Chinese Communist Party (CCP), led by Chen Dexiu and Li Dazhao, is founded

1924-27 The First United Front between the Nationalist (Guomindang) and CCP parties is formed to create the National Revolutionary Army and subdue the last of the warlords with aid from Soviet Russia

1925 Death of Sun Yat-sen, replaced by Chiang Kaishek as leader of the GMD

1928 Nationalist Government established in Nanjing by Chiang Kaishek; United Front broken after Kaishek kills all CCP members in his army

1927-34 Red base area held in Jiangxi province by Mao Zedong

1931 Establishment of Chinese Soviet Republic in Juijin

1930-34 Five "Encirclement Campaigns" by Chiang against the Communists

1934-35 Communist "Long March," Mao emerges as leader of CCP

1936-45 CCP headquartered in Yenan Province

1936 Xian Incident: Chiang Kaishek arrested (kidnapped), agrees to form Second United Front with CCP to fight the Japanese (who were invading Manchuria as Kaishek focused on wiping out the CCP)

1937-45 Second Sino-Japanese War, Nationalist Government retreats to Chongqing, (World War II); The façade of the Second United Front is ineffective at stopping the Japanese invasion which is only halted after their defeat in WWII

1945-49 Civil war between Nationalists and Communists ends with the establishment of the People?s Republic of China (PRC); Chiang Kaishek and Nationalist Government flee to Taiwan

1958-60 The Greap Leap Forward: a campaign intended to quickly accomplish the ecomonic and technical development of China to help increase China's dropping agricultural and industrial output

1963 In the face of widespread starvation the CCP returns the land to the peasants - end of land reform

1962-65 Socialist Educational Reforms

1966-76 The Cultural Revolution: thousands of supposed subversive CCP members sent to labor camps or factories, Mao wanted to force the younger generation to become visionaries and to reawaken revolutionary sentiment in the older generation; for ten years members of the CCP were called to purge "rightist tendencies" of the party

1976 The death of Mao Zedong - the end of the Cultural Revolution