yuan shikai was the first formal president of the republic of china after the overthrow of the qing dynasty.
who was the first formal president of the republic of china after the overthrow of the qing dynasty?
yuan shikai
a self-proclaimed monarchy is established when a person claims the monarchy without any historical ties to a previous dynasty. there are examples of republican leaders who have proclaimed themselves monarchs: napoleon i of france declared himself emperor of the french and ruled the first french empire after having held the title of first consul of the french republic for five years after he seized power in the coup of 18 brumaire. president jean-bédel bokassa of the central african republic declared himself emperor of the central african empire. yuan shikai, the first formal president of the republic of china, crowned himself emperor of the short-lived "empire of china" a few years after the republic of china was founded.
monarchy
some of the revolutionaries who sought to overthrow qing rule desired to establish a state independent of the qing dynasty within the bounds of the eighteen provinces, as evinced by the eighteen-star flag they used. others favoured the replacement of the entire qing dynasty by a new republic, as evinced by the five-striped flag they used. some revolutionaries, such as zou rong, used the term "zhongguo benbu" (中国本部) which roughly identifies the eighteen provinces. when the qing dynasty fell, the abdication decree of the qing emperor bequeathed the entire empire to the newborn republic of china, and the latter idea was therefore adopted by the new republic as the principle of five races under one union, with five races referring to the han chinese, manchus, mongols, muslims (uyghurs, hui etc.) and tibetans. the five-striped flag was adopted as the national flag, and the republic of china viewed itself as a single state encompassing all five regions handed down by the qing dynasty. the people's republic of china, which was founded in 1949 and replaced the republic of china on the mainland, has continued to claim essentially the same borders, with the only major exception being the recognition of independent mongolia. as a result, the concept of china proper fell out of favour in china.
china proper