What Happened to the Last Emperor of China? (Short Animated Documentary)

China's history is one of emperors and dynasties until it wasn't that is when in 1911 the Chinese Revolution so the millennia rolled Imperial way of government completely upended and replaced with the Republic but what happened to the man at the top what happened to the last emperor of China well to start with the man was a boy when Sun yat-sen the leader of the Chinese Revolution put a permanent tent to the Ching dynasty Zhang Qing Emperor was six years old now the establishment of a republic didn't see him dragged outside and killed like many Emperor's and Kings had been before him instead the ranting Emperor proper name a single roku he was allowed to remain inside the forbidden palace was given a massive yearly stipend and would retain his titles houyi would stay in the Forbidden City for twelve years during which he was briefly restored as emperor in 1917 during a rebellion against the central government his second reign lasted for just shy of two weeks and the rebellion was defeated and he was again removed from power in 1924 the Republican government decided that Puyi should go and so evicted him from his palace and he subsequently moved to the city of Tianjin in the following decade puyi attempted to bargain with the numerous warlords throughout China which was in a near permanent state of civil war to support his restoration they all said no in 1931 Japan occupied Manchuria and set up the puppet state of Manchukuo which had near zero international recognition and thus needed some legitimacy fortunately for Japan there was a former Chinese Emperor able to take the helm and he was happy to do so and so took up the position of chief executive of Manchukuo in 1932 he was appointed as the emperor of manchu coup in 1934 but he was simply a figurehead of the government there and most of the governing was done by the Japanese military so in 1937 a small regional conflict broke out between the Empire of Japan and the Republic of China and Puyi saw an opportunity here to be restored as the Emperor of all China or though we'd have to do without Mongolia this time because you know communist revolution and to keep him in line the Japanese consistently reminded him of his pending restoration there was one interesting thing about this Japanese promise it was a lie the Japanese were working with the collaborationist government in China to establish a Republican puppet state and they determined that Puyi was going to remain in Manchuria all of this discussion was meaningless though because Japan lost the war and during the closing bumps the Soviet Union conquered Manchuria and captured puyi now he was quite worried at this point because axis leaders had a tendency of getting Nuremberg he wasn't and instead he was held in Siberia but to the Allies to spare him since the republican government in china wanted to shoot him as a collaborator in 1949 the Chinese Communists won the Civil War and as an act of good faith he was extradited there the next year now you think that this was only going to end one way for Puyi but in fact Mao wanted him extradited specifically so that he could spare him who Yee spent 10 years in prison and was subsequently released as not only a regular private citizen but also as a fully fledged communist which for Mao was exactly what he'd wanted you see the Russians had shot their former emperor an axe which had become a black mark on its regime whereas Mao had spared the former Chinese emperor which certainly made Chinese communism look a lot better in comparison the last Chinese emperor had after his removal from power been a puppet Emperor a prisoner a street cleaner and an editor before he died in 1967 and with him died the last of a 2000 year old system of government I hope you enjoyed this episode and thank you for watching with the special thanks to my patreon supporters James Bazar neck calling Castleman danny Maloney Marvin Castle Rob Waterhouse John BJ's Mo Aaron the white Michael Reynolds James Castaneda Gustav Swann Marcus Ozma Jordan Longley James Castaneda Gustav Swann Marcus Ozma Jordan Hong Lei Gareth Turner mr. show Rashid Ali spinning three crates filled to oink-oink David Silverman is he Winston Cawood Maggie packs Kowski Alexei Schwinn Spencer Lightfoot Kelly moneymaker Robert Wetzel Skye Chappelle and Anthony Beckett

Channel: History Matters

Views: 1,821,231

Keywords: History, Matters, Short, Animated, Documentary, China, Qing Dynasty, Republic of China, Revolution, 1911, Emperor, Last, of China, Puyi, Manchuria, Machukuo, Japan, What, Happened, life of

Id: K22KBJSiOhQ

Length: 3min 33sec (213 seconds)

Published: Fri Feb 07 2020