Sun Yat-sen: The Father of The Chinese Republic

            Yuan’s effort to reinstate the monarchy in 1916 failed after a multiple southern states revolted with the help of Sun’s followers. After the fall of Yuan, China was controlled by multiple warlords for four years, in which Sun retreated from politics for that time, but rather wrote multiple articles on the “basis of government and people.” In 1920, when Canton was taken by warlords, Sun visited to Canton and planned the fall of the government with a rival campaign that would bring in foreign support and be used as an armed base. In April 1921, the Cantonese Parliament established a new government and elected Sun as their leader. After forming an alliance with several northern warlords, Sun fled Canton after Chen, a warlord, recaptured the city. Sun came out and continued his plans to liberate Canton and made an alliance with the Soviets to help unify China.   The USSR agreed to give the KMT financial, political, and military aid on the condition that Chinese communists were allowed in the Kuomintang. With the Kuomintang, Sun created a constitution for China which molded the new party to Soviet wishes. After negotiations with the warlords collapsed in Nanjing, Sun found out that he had incurable cancer. Spending his last days in his hometown, Sun died on March 12th, 1925.

            Sun Yat-Sen’s hard work paid off in the end. China was eventually unified by the Communists, who modeled the government after the works of Sun. The three ethics of “Democracy, Nationalism, and People’s livelihood” are some of Sun’s greatest legacies, which both the KMT and the Chinese Communists followed.  Sun Yat-Sen was an influential revolutionary, and brought his country out of the desperate times of imperialism and dynasties. He was the first leader of the Republic of China, and should be known as “Father of the Nation” to all Chinese.