Editing Wuhan (section)

===Wuchang Uprising===
{{Main|Wuchang Uprising}}
[[File:辛亥革命武昌蜂起記念館.jpg|thumb|Wuchang Uprising Memorial, the original site of revolutionary government in 1911]]
[[File:Hankow 1915.jpg|right|thumb|Present-day Wuhan area in 1915]]
By 1900, according to [[Collier's]] magazine, Hankou, the Yangtze River boom town, was "the [[St. Louis]] and [[Chicago]] of China."<ref name="Chicago is all over the place" /> On October 10, 1911, [[Sun Yat-sen]]'s followers launched the [[Wuchang Uprising]],<ref name="tonsi86">{{cite book |last1=Dai |first1=Yi (戴逸) |last2=Gong |first2=Shuduo (龔書鐸) |year=2003 |script-title=zh:中國通史. 清 |publisher=Intelligence press |isbn=962-8792-89-X |pages=86–89}}</ref> which led to the collapse of the Qing state and 2,000 years of dynastic rule,<ref name="fenby">Fenby, Jonathan. [2008] (2008). The History of Modern China: The Fall and Rise of a Great Power. {{ISBN|978-0-7139-9832-0}}. pp. 107, 116, 119.</ref> as well as the establishment of the [[Republic of China (1912–1949)|Republic of China]].<ref name="Welland, Sasah Su-ling 2007 pg 87">Welland, Sasah Su-ling (2007). A Thousand Miles of Dreams: The Journeys of Two Chinese Sisters. Rowman Littlefield Publishing. {{ISBN|0-7425-5314-0|978-0-7425-5314-9}}. p. 87.</ref>

The Wuchang Uprising of October 1911, which overthrew the Qing dynasty, originated in Wuhan.<ref name="tonsi86"/> Before the uprising, anti-Qing secret societies were active in Wuhan. In September 1911, the outbreak of the protests in Sichuan forced the Qing authorities to send part of the New Army garrisoned in Wuhan to suppress the rebellion.<ref name="Wangke">Wang, Ke-wen(1998). Modern China: An Encyclopedia of History, Culture and Nationalism. Taylor & Francis Publishing. {{ISBN|0-8153-0720-9|978-0-8153-0720-4}}. pp. 390-391.</ref> On September 14 the Literary Society ({{lang-zh|labels=no|t=文學社}}) and the Progressive Association ({{lang-zh|labels=no|t=共進會}}), two local revolutionary organizations in Hubei,<ref name="Wangke"/> set up joint headquarters in Wuchang and planned for an uprising. On the morning of October 9, a bomb at the office of the political arrangement exploded prematurely and alerted local authorities.<ref name="gongtong6-3">{{cite book |last1=Wang |first1=Hengwei (王恆偉) |year=2006 |script-title=zh:中國歷史講堂 #6 民國. |publisher=[[Zhonghua Book Company]] |isbn=962-8885-29-4 |pages=3–7}}</ref> The proclamation for the uprising, beadroll and the revolutionaries' official seal fell into the hands of Rui Cheng, the governor-general of Hunan and Hubei, who demolished the uprising headquarters the same day and set out to arrest the revolutionaries listed in the beadroll.<ref name="gongtong6-3"/> This forced the revolutionaries to launch the uprising earlier than planned.<ref name="tonsi86"/>

On the night of October 10, the revolutionaries fired shots to signal the uprising at the engineering barracks of Hubei [[New Army]].<ref name="tonsi86"/> They then led the New Army of all barracks to join the revolution.<ref name="spence">[[Jonathan Spence|Spence, Jonathan D.]] (1990). ''[[The Search for Modern China]]''. [[W. W. Norton & Company]]. {{ISBN|0-393-30780-8|978-0-393-30780-1}}. pp. 250–256.</ref> Under the guidance of Wu Zhaolin, Cai Jimin and others, this revolutionary army seized the official residence of the governor and government offices.<ref name="Wangke"/> Rui Cheng fled in panic into the Chuyu ship. Zhang Biao, the commander of the Qing army, also fled the city. On the morning of the 11th, the revolutionary army took the whole city of Wuchang, but leaders such as Jiang Yiwu and Sun Wu disappeared.<ref name="tonsi86"/> Thus the leaderless revolutionary army recommended [[Li Yuanhong]], the assistant governor of the Qing army, as the commander-in-chief.<ref name="Harrison">Harrison Henrietta (2000). The Making of the Republican Citizen: Political Ceremonies and Symbols in China, 1911–1929. Oxford University Press. {{ISBN|0-19-829519-7|978-0-19-829519-8}}. pp. 16–17.</ref> Li founded the Hubei Military Government, proclaimed the abolition of the Qing rule in Hubei, the founding of the Republic of China and published an open telegram calling for other provinces to join the revolution.<ref name="tonsi86"/><ref name="Wangke"/>

As the revolution spread to other parts of the country, the Qing government concentrated loyalist military forces to suppress the uprising in Wuhan. From October 17 to December 1, the revolutionary army and local volunteers defended the city in the [[Battle of Yangxia]] against better armed and more numerous Qing forces commanded by [[Yuan Shikai]]. [[Huang Xing]] would arrive in Wuhan in early November to take command of the revolutionary army.<ref name="Wangke"/> After fierce fighting and heavy casualties, Qing forces seized Hankou and Hanyang. But Yuan agreed to halt the advance on Wuchang and participated in [[peace talks]], which would eventually lead to the return of Sun Yat-sen from exile, founding of the Republic of China on January 1, 1912.<ref name="Welland, Sasah Su-ling 2007 pg 87"/><ref name="Bergere">Bergere, Marie-Claire. Lloyd Janet (2000). Sun Yat-sen. Stanford University Press. {{ISBN|0-8047-4011-9|978-0-8047-4011-1}}. p. 207.</ref> Through the Wuchang Uprising, Wuhan is known as the birthplace of the Xinhai Revolution, named after the Xinhai year on the Chinese calendar.<ref name="tvbs">{{cite web |url=http://www.tvbs.com.tw/news/news_list.asp?no=yehmin20101010132707 |script-title=zh:雙十節是？ 陸民眾：「國民黨」國慶 |publisher=TVBS |language=zh-tw |access-date=October 8, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141110111857/http://www.tvbs.com.tw/news/news_list.asp?no=yehmin20101010132707 |archive-date=November 10, 2014 |url-status=dead }}</ref> The city has several museums and memorials to the revolution and the thousands of martyrs who died defending the revolution.