ABSTRACT
The constitutional history of the late Qing Empire is mostly understood as a history of reception, i.e., of how Chinese political and intellectual actors adapted the Japanese model set by the Meiji Constitution of 1889, which in turn was based on various European models, mainly, although not exclusively, of German origin. Since Vladimir Lenin drew a line between the Russian Revolution of 1905 and those of Persia, the Ottoman Empire, and China, which supposedly lead to the progress of ‘hundreds of millions of people', research has been plentiful in identifying revolutionary movements on a global level. The Russo-Japanese War of 1904/05, in which a large non-constitutional European power was defeated by a much smaller, but upcoming and constitutionalised Asian country, is often treated as a turning point in China's constitutional history. The war had a wide-reaching impact not only in the affected regions, but throughout Eurasia and even globally.
