The Qing dynasty had fallen in 1911 to the Xinhai Revolution, which marked the end of thousands of years of imperial rule over China. A new era of power, where power would be in the hands of the people, awaited. But China fragmented to warlords, who would rather look after their own wealth and power than the interests of the nation. The last figure who could be seen as the leader of China was Yuan Shikai, who lost all favour when he called himself "Emperor", and died soon afterwards in 1916. Ever since, Beijing has been not the centre of China, but yet another warlord.

Beijing was ran by Duan Qirui, leader of the Beiyang Army, the Anhui Clique and the internationally recognised leader of China, but a controversial figure, who kept quiet about Japan's incursions in China and financially relied on secret Japanese loans. These secret "Nishihara" loans became public knowledge as at the same time, Japan demanded Chinese Shandong - albeit taken from the Germans - at the Versailles Peace Conference. Meanwhile, not much earlier, Japan had recognised Mongolia's independence: a clear move to turn yet another part of China into a Japanese protectorate.

Inspired by the March 1st Movement in Korea and the Russian Civil War, and enraged by deals such as Japan's 21 Demands, the Occupation of Shandong and the Nishihara Loans, Beijing's streets flooded with protesters on April 4th, 1919. What started with a student strike, echoing Wilson's 14 Points and demanding democracy turned into a national movement in the following weeks, as students, factory workers and others went on strikes from Beijing to Shanghai. Although instigators were arrested, they were subsequently released as the Duan Qirui government and the Chinese economy were put under immense pressure.

Although there were no immediate shifts in power - Duan Qirui was still in charge by the end of April - the effects would last for years, if not decades, to come. Eight years after the Xinhai revolution, revolutionary fervour had been replaced with complacency. Now, the Chinese people made it clear that they would not be complacent: not under autocracy, not under warlords, not under Western indifference, and most of all, not under a Japanese heel!