Timeline of Events

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appendix 2 Timeline of Events

1839–42 First Opium War. 1850–64 Taiping Rebellion. 1853–54 Commodore Perry shells the Japanese harbour town of Uraga. Signs Con- vention of Kanagawa between United States and Japan. 1856–60 Second Opium War. 1866 Korea executes French missionaries and many Korean Christians. US armed merchantman General Sherman is destroyed near Pyongyang. French punitive expedition against Korea. 1868 Meiji Restoration begins Japan’s modernisation. 1871 US punitive expedition against Korea. 1876 Japan-Korea Treaty of Amity and Commerce. 1882 United States-Korea Treaty of Peace, Amity, Commerce and Navigation. 1883–85 Sino-French War. 1884 Kapsin coup by Korean reformers, supported by Japan, suppressed by Chi- nese troops. 1894 Tonghak Uprising in Korea, government asks China for help. Outbreak of Sino-Japanese War. Sun Yat-sen forms Revive China Society. 1895 April: Treaty of Shimonoseki ends Sino-Japanese war. China cedes Taiwan and the Liaodong Peninsula to Japan. Triple Intervention by Russia Ger- many and France forces Japan to return Liaodong. October: Japanese minister in Korea organises the assassination of the Korean Queen. 1898 Scramble for Concessions in China. Russia takes Port Arthur, Britain takes Weihaiwei, Germany takes Qingdao and France takes Guangzhouwan. Fail- ure of the Hundred Days Reform movement in China. Kang Youwei and Liang Qichao flee China. Beginning of the Boxer Uprising. The United States annexes Hawaii and seizes the Philippines and Guam in the Spanish- American war. 1899 The United States begins a three-year counterinsurgency campaign in Phil- ippines that claims 200,000 lives. US Secretary of State, John Hay, an- nounces the Open Door Policy in diplomatic notes to the major powers. 1900 Occupation of Beijing by Eight-Nation Alliance. Looting of Summer Pal- ace. 1902 Anglo-Japanese Alliance signed. 1904–05 Russo-Japanese War. Japan imposes protectorate on Korea. Sun Yat-sen forms Tongmenghui. 1905 Revolution in Russia.

1905–11 Korean Righteous Armies revolt against Japanese rule. Revolt strengthened by influx of army officers after Japan disbands the Korean army in 1907. 1910 Japan annexes Korea. 1910–11 Japan Treason Trial. Twelve radicals hanged for alleged plot to assassinate the emperor. 1911 Chinese Revolution overthrows last emperor. Mongolia declares independ- ence under the Bogda Khagan. 1912 August: Kuomintang formed in Beijing. December: Kuomintang wins national assembly elections. 1913 Yuan Shikai organises the assassination of Kuomintang leader Song Jiaoren and disperses parliament. 1914 On the outbreak of World War One, Japan seizes Qingdao and the Yap archipelago from Germany. Henk Sneevliet and others form Indies Social Democratic Association, forerunner of the Indonesian Communist Party. 1915 Japan presents 21 demands to China. 1917 February–October: Russian Revolution. April: United States enters the World War. July: Coup in Beijing briefly restores Qing dynasty. August: China declares war on Germany and Austria-Hungary. December: Bolshev- iks issue appeal to the Muslims of Russia and the East. 1918 January: Woodrow Wilson sets out his Fourteen Point Peace Plan in a speech to Congress. March:Treaty of Brest-Litovsk is signed. May: Revolt of Czech Legion in Siberia. July–September: Rice riots in Japan lead to resig- nation of government. Arrival of Intervention forces in Russia. November: Kiel Mutiny, outbreak of the German Revolution, Kaiser abdicates. 1919 January: Spartacist uprising in Germany. Rosa Luxemburg and Karl Lieb- knecht murdered. March: First Comintern Congress. March First Move- ment in Korea. May: May Fourth Movement in China. June: Versailles Treaty signed. July: Soviet foreign minister Karakhan renounces Tsarist-era unequal treaties with China. October: Mongolian Revocation of Autonomy, Chinese Army retakes Urga. Sun Yat-sen re-launches Kuomintang. 1920 February: Capture and execution of Admiral Kolchak. April: American Expeditionary Force leaves Siberia. Formation of Far Eastern Republic. Comintern agent Grigory Voitinsky travels to China for discussions with Chen Duxiu on establishing a communist party. May: Indies Social Demo- cratic Association changes name to Communist Union of the Indies and appoints Semaun party chairman. July: Second Comintern Congress adopts Lenin’s theses on the national and colonial questions. 1920–21 White General Roman von Ungern Sternberg occupies Mongolia. 1921 March: Defeat of March Action in Germany. Kronstadt rebellion. New Eco- nomic Policy approved. June: Free City Incident, clash between Korean