e lethal weapons. As China was busy fighting off predators they had no extra time to keep up. As all of their iron factories were obsolete they had no cost, efficient method. Because of their military weakness they lost all of the Opium Wars which resulting in crippling economic losses. Thinking that things couldn't get worse internal upset led to the Taiping Rebellion, which resulted in the deaths of twenty million people. The loss was yet another drastically unfavorable blow to the Chinese economy. Shortly following the Taiping Rebellion the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-1895 further damaged China. The rest of the world was just waiting to take a piece of China at this point. The Boxer Rebellion only made their situation worse. The Chinese needed reform and fast. It wasn't until January first, 1912 that Dr. Sun Yat-sen was to be sworn in as the first president of the provisional government of China's new Republic.Crippling defeat during the Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95It was ignorant on China's part to assume that Europe wouldn't try to colonize their country. Had China not shut out the Western world they would have been able to keep advancing their army's equipment. As a result they might have been able to fight off the British and the French during the Opium Wars. The Russian's would have been happy to assist in return for a trading agreement. Fortunately China ended up with a new Republic and managed to maintain order and participate in the last years of the Industrial Revolution. In closing, had China not shut out the Western world as a means of defense they might have been one of the leading countries in the world today....
