100 Years of Revolution in China
As of October 10th, it has been 100 years since China became a republic. The Xinhai Revolution or Revolution of 1911 started with the Wuchang Uprising and ended as the revolutionaries overthrew the Qing Dynasty and established the Republic of China. Wenran Jiang of The Diplomat reports how the uprisings of 100 years ago and the dreams of Sun Yat-sen have not been fully achieved in modern China.
On Sunday, China celebrated the 100th anniversary of the Xinhai Revolution. A century is just a flash in the perpetual flow of history, but an age for individual human beings. When the republican revolution swept across China in 1911, overthrowing the Qing dynasty, the country had been in a miserable condition of mass starvation, internal rebellion and foreign invasion for much of the previous century.
Optimism accompanied the abolition of the 2,000-year-old imperial system. Sun Yat-sen, who led the revolution and the Nationalist party, set out three grand national goals: achieving independent nationhood through expelling foreign occupiers, establishing a democratic republic and restoring China to prosperity by nurturing the people’s welfare.
But the Chinese people had to struggle for generations more to realize elements of these dreams. Local warlords and their rivalries replaced the young republic weeks after the fall of the imperial system; foreign powers took advantage of the internal turmoil and strengthened their spheres of influence; Japan, the only Asian country to succeed in modernizing itself quickly, steadily and brutally occupied China and much of Asia in its own quest for empire. Sun passed away in 1925 with his dreams dashed. And one of the world’s oldest civilizations faced a pivotal crisis of survival.
Read More at 100 Years of Revolution in China | The Diplomat.
Ancient cannon found in Russian museum believed to be one of Japan’s oldest weapons
A cannon believed to be one of the oldest weapons from Japan was found in a Russian museum. It is thought that the cannon was stolen from Japan by the Russian while Japanese forces were deployed to Hokkaido for protections from the Russians. The Mainichi Daily News reports about the discovery.
An ancient cannon on display at Russia’s Military-Historical Museum of Artillery, Engineer and Signal Corps in St. Petersburg is presumed to have belonged to a 16th Century Japanese feudal lord, and be one of Japan’s oldest weapons, it was recently revealed.
The cannon is presumed to have belonged to Sorin Otomo (1530 – 1587), a Japanese feudal lord of the Bungo district (now Oita Prefecture), famous for being one of the few lords who converted to Christianity, and for being the first to produce European-style weapons in Japan.
The discovery was made by a group of researchers, including Takashi Kanda, the leader of an Oita Prefecture-based ancient artillery research society, during an investigation, conducted by Tokyo University’s Historiographical Institute in September 2011.
Read the rest of the article at Ancient cannon found in Russian museum believed to be one of Japan’s oldest weapons – The Mainichi Daily News.
Drone finds ancient royal burial sites in Russia
The Scythians were ancient nomadic groups dwelt within the Pontic-Caspian steppe north of the Black Sea. They were famously known for their archery expertise while on horseback. As reported on MSN News, archeologists have discovered ancient burial mounds using drones in remote areas.
Archaeologists have created a 3-D model of an ancient burial mound in Russia after a miniature airborne drone helped them in capturing images of the site.
The drone tested in a remote area in Russia called Tuekta which sits in the Altai Mountains bordering China, Kazakhstan and Mongolia.
According to the researchers, the burial mounds they have discovered are believed to be 2,300 to 2,800 years old and up to 250 feet in the area, LiveScience reported.
These burial mounds, called kurgans, probably belonged to chiefs or princes among the Scythians, a nomadic people known for their horsemanship, who once had a rich, powerful empire.
Excavations of some of these have revealed extraordinary treasures of gold and other artifacts well-preserved by permafrost. Nearly 200 burial mounds were found in Tuekta, the researchers reported in the Journal of Archaeological Science.
Archaeological sites are often found in remote and rugged areas. As they are hard to reach and map following the limited budgets, archaeologists are now using drones to extend their view into these hard-to-reach spots.
Read the rest of the article at Drone finds ancient royal burial sites in Russia
Samurai warriors examined by Japanese and British scientists
Gruesome evidence of medieval Japanese Samurai warriors being
decapitated, so that their heads could be taken as trophies by their enemies, is being examined by Japanese and British scientists.
In a bid to fully understand the nature of warfare in medieval Japan, Dr. Michael Wysocki, a specialist in forensic anthropology at the University of Central Lancashire, and Japanese scientists from Santa Marianna University, School of Medicine, near Tokyo, have been examining battle and decapitation trauma suffered by Samurai warriors in a 14th century Japanese civil war.
Read More at Samurai warriors examined by Japanese and British scientists – Archaeology, Science – The Independent.
Story by David Keys – The Independent; Photo by Felice Beato – Wikimedia Commons
US eyes Asia from secret Australian base
Deep in the silence of Australia’s Outback desert an imposing American
spy post set up at the height of the Cold War is now turning its attention to Asia’s growing armies and arsenals.
Officially designated United States territory and manned by agents from some of America’s most sensitive intelligence agencies, the Pine Gap satellite station has been involved in some of the biggest conflicts in modern times.
But its role in the wars in Iraq, Afghanistan and the Balkans, and in the hunt for Osama bin Laden, had been little recognised until one of its most senior spies broke ranks recently to pen a tell-all account.
Read More at AFP: US eyes Asia from secret Australian base.
Story by Amy Coopes – AFP
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