Contents: Foreword -- Introduction: China, from empire to nation -- The Opium War -- The Taiping rebellion -- The period of imitation of western methods -- The reform movement: the first step -- The reaction to the reform movement -- Revival of the reform movement -- The struggle between the revolutionary and the constitutional movements -- Revolutionary versus constitutional movement, 1908 to 1911 -- The overthrow of the Manchu government and the establishment of the Republic of China -- The struggle between the Kuomintang and the Peiyang military clique -- Monarchical and antimonarchical movements -- Internal dissension of the Peiyang military clique, and the war lords in South China -- A federal government movement and melee among the war lords -- Reorganization of the Kuomintang and the end of the Peiyang war lords.