Wuchang Uprising - Aftermath

Aftermath

Sun Yat-sen himself played no direct part in the uprising in Wuchang. He was traveling in the United States, trying to drum up financial support from overseas Chinese. At the time he was in Denver at the foot of the Rocky Mountains. He received a telegram from Huang Xing that was one week old, but he couldn't decipher it because he didn't have the secret key with him. The next morning he read in the newspaper that the city of Wuchang was occupied by the revolutionaries. After the Wuchang Uprising, the revolutionaries telegraphed the other provinces asking them to declare their independence, and 15 provinces in Southern China and Central China did so.

Representatives from the seceding provinces met and declared the founding of the Republic of China on January 1, 1912. Sun Yat-sen would return to China in December of 1911 to be elected provisional president of the Republic of China. He eventually agreed to cede his provisional presidency to Yuan Shikai, in exchange for Yuan's help in pressuring the Last Emperor to abdicate. On February 12, 1912, Puyi, the Last Emperor, stepped down from the throne. The Qing dynasty could no longer govern itself, as it seemed to have forfeited the mandate of heaven. This brought an end to the imperial era.