The late 19th and early 20th century brought economic disorder, political upheaval, and episodes of mass starvation to China. It also brought Westerners who carried opium, guns, religion, and ideologies alien to East Asia. This time period in Chinese history has been given a label: The Century of Humiliation. Both Chiang Kai-Shek and Mao Zedong promised to end this era, revive China, and bring it to the world stage. These two men would wage a war, both politically and on the battlefield, in order to be the one to bring life to China. In this episode explore the political setting in China before the rise of Chiang Kai-Shek and Mao Zedong. We'll take a look at the last decades of the Qing Dynasty, it's Empress Cixi and her road to China's imperial throne, the two Opium Wars which China fought against the British, and the Taiping Rebellion which claimed at least 20 million lives and was the bloodiest war of the 19th century.