Early history
The ancient history of Nanjing spans 10 dynasties. It has served as
the political center of the country several times, most recently as
capital city of The Republic of China.The city has been renamed on
many occasions. It first served as a capital in 229AD, during the
Three Kingdoms Period, and was named Jiankang. It was during
the Ming Dynasty that the city first adopted its present name of Nanjing.
Historians reckon that this period was one of the most important in
its development - it was then that Nanjing truly expanded, flourished, and needed a city wall.
Qing Dynasty
During the Taiping Rebellion against the Qing dynasty government
(1851-1864), Nanjing was captured by rebel forces in 1853. The
Taipings renamed the city Tianjing (Heavenly Capital), and it remained
their political headquarters until the Qing Dynasty army regained
control of it in 1864 after a three-day battle in which a staggering number
of people -reportedly 100,000 lost their lives. After the fall of the Qing
Dynasty and the establishment of the Republic of China, Nanjing was
made national capital by the interim government. Its final stint as capital occurred from 1946 to 1949, under
the control of KMT forces until their civil war defeat.
Capital of the Republic
The Xinhai Revolution led to the founding of the Republic of China in January 1912 with Dr. Sun Yat-sen as
the first provisional president and Nanjing was selected as its new capital.
In 1937, Japan again invaded China, beginning the Second Sino-Japanese War. A few days before the fall
of the city, the National Government of China was relocated to the southwestern city Chungking (now Chongqing)
and resumed Chinese resistance. In 1940，a Japanese-collaborationist government known as the "Nanjing
Regime" or "Nanjing Nationalist Government" led by Wang Jingwei was established in Nanjing as a rival to
Chiang Kai-Shek's government in Chongqing. In 1946, after the Surrender of Japan, the KMT relocated its central
government back to Nanjing.
People's Republic of China
On April 23, 1949, the People's Liberation Army conquered Nanjing. After the establishment of the People's
Republic of China in October, Nanjing was initially a province-level municipality, but very soon became and
today remains the provincial capital of Jiangsu.
