Editing Henan (section)

===Modern era===
The Qing dynasty was overthrown by the 1911 Revolution and then the Republic of China was established in 1912,<ref>{{Cite web |title=纪念辛亥革命100周年 |url=http://www.cppcc.gov.cn/zxww/xinhai100/jlmg/index.shtml |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=www.cppcc.gov.cn}}</ref> during which a man from Henan, [[Yuan Shikai]], played an important role and thus he became the first president of Republic of China.<ref>Shan, Patrick Fuliang (2018). ''Yuan Shikai: A Reappraisal'', The University of British Columbia Press. {{ISBN|9780774837781}}</ref> The construction and extension of the [[Pinghan Railway]] and [[Longhai Railway]] had turned [[Zhengzhou]], a minor county town at the time, into a major transportation hub. Despite the rise of Zhengzhou, Henan's overall economy repeatedly stumbled as it was the hardest hit by the many disasters that struck China in its modern era.

Henan suffered greatly during the [[Second Sino-Japanese War]]. In 1938, when the [[Imperial Japanese Army]] captured Kaifeng, the government led by [[Chiang Kai-shek]] bombed the [[Huayuankou, Henan|Huayuankou]] dam in Zhengzhou in order to prevent Japanese forces from advancing further.<ref>{{Cite web |title=花园口:抗战岁月里的黄河之殇-新华网 |url=http://www.xinhuanet.com/politics/2015-08/25/c_1116368992.htm |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=www.xinhuanet.com}}</ref> However, this caused massive flooding in Henan, [[Anhui]], and [[Jiangsu]] resulting in hundreds of thousands of deaths. In 1942 Henan was hit by [[Chinese famine of 1942-43|a great famine]] resulting from a mix of drought, locusts and destruction caused by the war.<ref>{{Cite book |last=宋 |first=致新 |title=1942: 河南大饥荒 |publisher=湖北人民出版社 |year=2005年 |isbn=9787216043229 |pages=171 |language=Chinese |trans-title=1942: Henan Famine}}</ref>

In 1954, the new government of the People's Republic of China moved the capital of Henan from Kaifeng to [[Zhengzhou]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=【解密档案】开封到郑州省会大搬迁-手机大河网 |url=https://4g.dahe.cn/news/20180405293804 |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=4g.dahe.cn}}</ref> as a result of its economic importance. The PRC had earlier established a short-lived [[Pingyuan Province]] consisting of what is now northern Henan and western [[Shandong]] with [[Xinxiang]] as its capital. This province was abolished in 1952.<ref>{{Cite web |title=观察丨河南和山东之间的"平原省"为什么被撤销了？_澎湃号·政务_澎湃新闻-The Paper |url=https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_3850018 |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=www.thepaper.cn}}</ref>

In 1958, Yashan in [[Suiping County]], Henan, became the first [[people's commune]] of China, heralding the beginning of the "[[Great Leap Forward]]".<ref>{{Cite web |title=河南省 旅遊 - Henan Tour |url=http://cntour.weebly.com/9679-278272133530465-2605336938---henan-tour.html |access-date=2024-04-01 |website=大陸旅遊網China Tour Travel Website |language=zh}}</ref> In the subsequent famines of the early 1960s popularly attributed to the Great Leap Forward, Henan was one of the hardest hit and millions of people died.<ref>{{cite news|url=http://www.boxun.com/hero/dangshi/21_1.shtml|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20091121045710/http://www.boxun.com/hero/dangshi/21_1.shtml|title=党史资料：中国大陆五十年非正常死亡调查|date=30 September 2002|url-status=dead|archive-date=21 November 2009|work=[[Boxun.com]]}}</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=January 2016}} Suffering under famine and economic chaos caused by the Great Leap, locals in Henan offered low-level resistance mostly through banditry.{{sfnp|Rummel|1991|pp=247–248}} In 1959, however, [[Spirit Soldier rebellion (1959)|a full peasant uprising]] erupted and was only defeated after twenty days of fighting.{{sfnp|Smith|2015|p=346}}

A destructive flooding of the [[Huai River]] in the summer of 1950 prompted large-scale construction of dams on its tributaries in central and southern Henan.
Unfortunately, many of the dams were not able to withstand the extraordinarily high levels of rainfall caused by [[Typhoon Nina (1975)|Typhoon Nina]] in August 1975. Sixty-two dams, the largest of which was the [[Banqiao Dam]] in [[Biyang County]] collapsed; catastrophic flooding, spread over several counties throughout [[Zhumadian]] Prefecture and further downstream, killed at least 26,000 people.<ref name=yi>Yi Si, "The World's Most Catastrophic Dam Failures: The August 1975 Collapse of the Banqiao and Shimantan Dams", in: Dai Qing ''et al'', [https://books.google.com/books?id=R9w2RfP-mtQC&pg=PA36 The River Dragon Has Come!: The Three Gorges Dam and the Fate of China’s Yangtze River and Its People] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160207041824/https://books.google.com/books?id=R9w2RfP-mtQC&pg=PA36 |date=7 February 2016 }}, pp. 25–38.</ref><ref name="After 30 years, secrets, lessons of China's worst dams burst accident surface">{{cite news|url=http://english.people.com.cn/200510/01/eng20051001_211892.html|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060103183714/http://english.people.com.cn/200510/01/eng20051001_211892.html|title=After 30 years, secrets, lessons of China's worst dams burst accident surface|url-status=live|date=1 October 2005|archive-date=3 January 2006|work=[[People's Daily Online]]}}</ref> Unofficial human life loss estimates, including deaths from the ensuing epidemics and famine, range as high as 85,600,<ref name=yi/> 171,000<ref name=osnos>[[Evan Osnos]], "[http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/evanosnos/2011/10/faust-china-and-nuclear-power.html Faust, China, and Nuclear Power] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160313134654/http://www.newyorker.com/news/letter-from-china/faust-china-and-nuclear-power |date=13 March 2016 }}". ''New Yorker'', 2011-10-12</ref> or even 230 000.<ref name=yi/> This is considered the most deadly dam-related disaster in human history.<ref name=yi/>

By the early 1970s, China was one of the poorest countries in the world, and Henan was one of the poorest provinces in China.<ref>{{Cite book |last=完世伟 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i0OhEAAAQBAJ&q=%E6%B2%B3%E5%8D%97%E5%86%B3%E8%83%9C%E5%85%A8%E9%9D%A2%E5%B0%8F%E5%BA%B7%E8%AE%BA |title=河南决胜全面小康论 |date=2016-01-01 |publisher=[[Social Sciences Literature Press]] |isbn=978-7-5201-0258-2 |language=zh}}</ref> In 1978, however, when the communist leader [[Deng Xiaoping]] initiated the [[open door policy]] and embraced capitalism, China entered an economic boom that continues today. The boom did not reach inland provinces such as Henan initially, but by the 1990s Henan's economy was expanding at an even faster rate than that of China overall.

In July 2021, high amounts of rainfall caused [[2021 Henan floods|flooding]], killing 302 and damaging amounting to 82 billion yuan.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Davidson |first=Helen |date=2022-01-23 |title=Chinese officials arrested for concealing true scale of flood death toll |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/23/chinese-provincial-officials-concealed-scores-of-deaths-from-flood-disaster |access-date=2024-03-18 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}</ref>