ABSTRACT
The revolution had broken out in central China and it was the central and southern provinces that had first rallied to the new republic. A republican government was organized in Nanjing at the beginning of 1912 with Sun Yat-sen (Sun Yixian) as provisional president. Sun declared himself ready to vacate the presidency in favour of Yuan Shikai, but stipulated that Yuan must leave Beijing for Nanjing. Yuan, however, was not prepared to move from his power-base in north China. When a delegation arrived in Beijing from Nanjing to escort the President southwards, Yuan arranged for his troops to mutiny. They looted shops in the Chinese City, the richest commercial area, and removed silver from banks and mints. Several thousand people were killed. The Nanjing delegates fled to the safety of a hotel in the Legation quarter. Yuan visited them there and it was agreed that it was clearly impossible for him to leave Beijing at this critical time. As he would not go to the new government, it had to go to him. Before the end of April, it was meeting in Beijing. In August, regulations for the election of a parliament of two chambers were enacted. The elections followed in December. Several of the revolutionary parties amalgamated to form the Nationalist Party (‘Guomindang’, also romanized ‘Kuomintang’) in advance of the elections. Yuan Shikai formed his own party, the Republican Party. To Yuan’s chagrin, the Nationalist Party won a substantial victory, taking more than half the seats in the lower chamber and being the largest party in the upper.
