G. Kraaijeveld 
The Taiping Heavenly Kingdom was a large-scale civil war and rival state that challenged Qing rule, resulting in one of the deadliest conflicts in human history and severely weakening imperial authority.
On 1 October 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the People’s Republic of China in Beijing, marking the establishment of Communist rule on the mainland after civil war victory.
Between 1953 and 1957, China implemented its First Five-Year Plan, restructuring land, industry, and finance along socialist lines and establishing centralized economic planning.
The Great Leap Forward was a nationwide campaign aimed at rapidly industrializing China through mass mobilization and rural collectivization, resulting in severe economic disruption and widespread famine.
The Xinhai Revolution overthrew the Qing Dynasty and ended over two millennia of imperial rule, leading to the establishment of the Republic of China.
Between 2002 and 2012, China was governed through a technocratic model emphasizing stability, managed economic growth, and incremental reform under collective leadership.
The Convention of Peking ended the Second Opium War and ceded the Kowloon Peninsula south of Boundary Street to Britain.
The Second Opium War expanded Western military pressure on Qing China, resulting in deeper treaty concessions, legalized opium trade, and intensified foreign presence in imperial affairs.
In June 1839, Chinese official Lin Zexu ordered the destruction of British opium stockpiles in Canton, sparking the First Opium War.
The Long March was a strategic retreat by Chinese Communist forces that ensured the survival of the CCP and elevated Mao Zedong as its dominant leader.
From its founding until the mid-1930s, the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) operated under strong ideological, organizational, and operational influence from the Soviet-led Comintern, shaping leadership struggles and strategy choices until a gradual break during the Long March era.
The First Sino-Japanese War exposed the failure of Qing modernization and marked the transfer of regional leadership in East Asia from China to Japan.
In 1979, a mass movement removed the Pahlavi monarchy and established the Islamic Republic, redefining Iran’s political and ideological system.
From 1997 to 2005, Iran experienced a reform era focused on civic openness, political participation, and institutional debate.
In 2009, large-scale protests challenged the presidential election outcome, marking one of the most significant political mobilizations since 1979.
