ABSTRACT
Revolution in China began almost tentatively, sputtered and apparently died a* er a few years, and + nally broke out in full force only a* er nearly 50 years of false starts and setbacks. & ere were perhaps revolutionary aspects to the Taiping Rebellion from 1850 to 1864; there was a brief, abortive e% ort at change from the top by a few far-sighted o' cials in the last half of the nineteenth century. All revolutions have their antecedents, but China’s was particularly slow in the making. China had + rst to develop a national political consciousness and a political organization that could pursue revolutionary change rather than just another phase in the dynastic cycle. Radical change was something
CHINA
INDIA
that most Chinese feared and distrusted, but by the twentieth-century the traditional model had lost its ability to deal with the now-overwhelming problems of mass poverty, technological backwardness, and political weakness.
