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Puyi was crowned Emperor of China in 1908 at 2 years old. He ruled by regency until 1912, meaning adult advisors made leadership decisions for him.

In 1912 Puyi was forced to abdicate, or give up, his position as emperor when the 1911 Revolution struck the Chinese government. Revolutionaries wanted to end the Mandate of Heaven and replace China's tradition of dynasties ruling for centuries with democratic practices. This means they wanted people to be able to vote for their leaders.

Puyi was the last emperor of China. The 1911 Revolution ended over 2,100 years of Dynasties ruling China.

After his abdication, Puyi spent the rest of his adult life as a pawn, manipulated by other leaders with their own goals because of his birthright. By 1959, Puyi had truly fallen from power: he worked as a street sweeper in Beijing, a citizen with no formal titles, perks or honors.

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Chiang Kai-Shek was China's first democratically elected president. 

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When the 1911 Revolution forced Puyi to abdicate, the Republic of China was created. China began to elect Presidents. Chiang Kai-Shek was elected in 1948.

As the leader of the Republic of China, Chiang sought to strike a difficult balance between modernizing China while also devoting resources to defending the nation against the Chinese Communist Party led by Mao Zedong, regional warlords, and the impending threats from Japan.

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Mao Zedong would become the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party in 1949. 

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In 1921 the Chinese Communist Party was created. Mao Zedong, a young librarian from Beijing, was a founding member.

The Chinese Communist Party believed the people, not the wealthy few, should hold power in China. Communists rallied peasants and workers and encouraged them to work together to demand higher pay. These groups formed by the Communists were called trade unions.

President Chiang Kai-Shek and the Republic of China was extremely threatened by the Chinese Communist Party's ideas and actions. The Chinese Communist Party was attacked in Shanghai and from then on forced to meet secretly.

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The Republic of China (Kai-Shek) and the Chinese Communist Party (Zedong) joined forces to fight Japanese invasion in 1936. 

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In 1936 Japan invaded Peking, China. Chiang Kai-Shek and Mao Zedong joined together to fight the Japanese, uniting the powers of both the Republic of China and the Chinese Communist Party. The war continued throughout World War II, ending in 1945.

The Second Sino-Japanese War was the largest Asian war of the twentieth century. It is estimated between 10 and 25 million Chinese civilians were killed and over 4 million Chinese and Japanese military personnel went missing or died from war-related violence and famine.

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When the Japanese surrendered in World War II in 1945, conflict between Chiang Kai-Shek's Republic of China and Mao Zedong's Chinese Communist Party resumed.

However, as the Chinese Communist Party reached out to more peasants across China, their power grew. They had strong support, superior military organization and morale, and large numbers of weapons seized from Japanese supplies.

In 1949 Chiang Kai-Shek fled to the island of Taiwan off the southeast coast of China. That same year Mao Zedong was named the Chairman of the Chinese Communist Party and the People's Republic of China was created. China was now a communist country.

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Full Speech of Mao Tse-Tung, October 1st 1949