The modern history of China is the history from the first Opium War (1840) to the relocation of Nanjing Kuomintang regime to Taiwan Province Province (1949) and the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC). The semi-colonial and semi-feudal society in China gradually formed and disintegrated after the late Qing Dynasty, the provisional government of the Republic of China, the northern warlords and the national government.

The modern history of China can be divided into two stages. The first stage was from the Opium War in 1840 to the eve of the May 4th Movement in19/9, which was the stage of the old democratic revolution. The second stage is from the May 4th Movement in 19 19 to the eve of the founding of People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, which is the stage of new-democratic revolution.

In modern history, there are two major social contradictions in China: the contradiction between foreign capitalism and the Chinese nation, and the contradiction between feudalism and the masses. The former is the most important contradiction. However, in the course of history, these two contradictions show a complicated and ups and downs relationship. The two contradictions stipulate that the historical theme of modern China is to overthrow foreign capital-imperialism, get rid of the rule and oppression of feudalism and bureaucratic capitalism, and strive for national liberation, national prosperity, social progress and people's happiness. In other words, the fundamental task of modern China was to thoroughly oppose imperialism and feudalism, realize national modernization and change the semi-colonial and semi-feudal social nature of modern China.

Extended data

At the beginning of the 20th century, Liang Qichao divided the historical evolution of modern China in recent 50 years into three periods from the perspective of modernization, which respectively represented the three levels of China's transformation from tradition to modern society. First, from the Opium War to the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895, the theory of practical application and the movement of self-improvement were the beginning of modernization at the object level; Second, from the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 to the May 4th Movement, the Reform Movement was a modernization reform at the institutional level. Third, it began with the May 4th New Culture Movement-the May 4th New Culture Movement and the New Literature Movement, that is, cultural modernization.

Since the end of 1970s, modernization has become a major concern of the country and people due to the policy of reform and opening up and focusing on economic construction, and the idea of China researchers taking modernization as the theme in the study of modern history of China has been put forward again.

Many scholars clearly believe that modernization is the theme or basic clue of China's modern historical development. They believe that examining the historical process since the Opium War with a modern historical view not only covers the revolutionary struggle against imperialism and feudalism for a hundred years, but also covers many social reform movements such as the Reform Movement of 1898 and the New Deal in the late Qing Dynasty, which can more comprehensively reflect the historical development and be closer to the historical truth.

Moreover, the historical research with modernization as the basic clue can take whether it is beneficial to modernization as the main standard, and can examine the complex and extensive historical content as an organic whole, and clarify the status and role of various historical events in the process of modernization.

Baidu Encyclopedia-Modern History of China (History of China)