Late Qing

Defeat in the Opium War dragged China into "changes unseen in three thousand years". Power after power arrived; unequal treaties were signed one by one; the burning of the Old Summer Palace seared the country's memory.

The Chinese began to save themselves: Lin Zexu opened eyes to the world; the Self-Strengthening movement built ships and mills; the Hundred Days' reform tried to remake the state; Sun Yat-sen's Tongmenghui called for the end of imperial rule.

In 1911 a single shot at Wuchang was answered by province after province. Two thousand years of empire had reached their end.