What was the Chinese government before communism?

Answer 1

A rough overview...

China used to be ruled by Emperors...e.g the last dynasty was the Qing dynasty which began in 1644 and ended in 1912.

Emperor was the only person allowed to wear yellow and they lived in the forbdden city.

The had a mandate of heaven which was their justification of a dynasty's authority, lost if there was natural disaster.

The terracota army was built by the first emperor of the Qin dynasty in 200bc and was only found in 1970.

By 1793 China regarded themselves as the greatest country in the world.

The dynasty's (and China) became weaker, as the rest of the world evolved e.g. Briatin overtook China during the industrial revolution, followed by the rest of Europe.

With the weakened Dyansty and natural disasters, there was room for a rebellion.

Then came the Boxer Rebellion where, guess what; the Chinese peasents rebelled against the Emperor, Pu Yi who was only about 3 at the time.

The Gourmindang (or Kourmintang) ruled China, a capitalist based party run by Sun Yat-sen, the Yuan Shikai then Chiang Kai-shek. However, Chiang Kai-shek was a weak leader who lost the civil war to the communist party.

Mao Zedong was head of the Communist party until his death in 1976.