Wuchang Uprising
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The armed rising of revolutionary-organised New Army units at Wuchang in Hubei on 10 October 1911. By the next morning the rebels held Wuchang and set up the Hubei Military Government with Li Yuanhong as military governor, and on the 12th they took Hankou and Hanyang. Spreading into provincial declarations of independence, it began the 1911 Revolution that brought down the Qing dynasty; 10 October is the National Day of the Republic of China.
In depth
Background: in 1911 part of the Hubei New Army was sent to Sichuan to suppress the Railway Protection Movement, thinning the defences of Wuhan. Two revolutionary groups, the Literary Society and the Progressive Association, had taken root in the New Army, and on 24 September, with sixty delegates from its units, they set up a headquarters with Jiang Yiwu as commander and Sun Wu as chief of staff. The first date, 6 October, was postponed for lack of preparation.
Outbreak: on 9 October a bomb Sun Wu was making in the Russian concession at Hankou exploded, the membership lists fell into Qing hands and the Viceroy of Huguang, Ruicheng, began arrests. On the evening of the 10th Xiong Bingkun and others of the engineers rose first and units led by Wu Zhaolin attacked the viceroy’s residence. Ruicheng fled and by the morning of the 11th Wuchang was in revolutionary hands; more than 500 Manchu soldiers are recorded as killed.
Outcome: lacking a figure of standing, the revolutionaries made the New Army brigade commander Li Yuanhong military governor. Having confirmed that the foreign powers would not intervene, they raised the eighteen-star flag and called on the other provinces to follow. In the Battle of Yangxia that followed the Beiyang Army retook Hankou and Hanyang, but during 41 days of resistance thirteen provinces declared independence. Sun Yat-sen learned of the rising from a newspaper in the United States.