<P> "The atmosphere and political mood that emerged around 1919," in the words of Mitter (2004), "are at the centre of a set of ideas that has shaped China's momentous twentieth century ." Following the Xinhai Revolution in 1911, the Qing Dynasty disintegrated . This marked the end of thousands of years of powerful imperial rule, and theoretically ushered a new era in which political power rested with the people . However, the reality was that China was a fragmented nation dominated by warlords, who were more concerned with their own political powers and private armies than national interests . The Chinese Beiyang government was occupied with suppressing internal affairs and did little to counter the influence exerted by foreign powers . The March 1st Movement that happened in Korea (1919), the Russian revolution (1917), defeats by foreign powers and the presence of spheres of influence inflamed a sense of nationalism among the emerging middle class and cultural leaders . Leaders of the New Culture Movement believed that traditional Confucian values were responsible for the political weakness of the nation . Chinese nationalists called for a rejection of traditional values and the selective adoption of Western ideals of "Mr. Science" (賽 先生; 赛 先生; sài xiānsheng) and "Mr. Democracy" (德 先生; dé xiānsheng) in order to strengthen the new nation . These iconoclastic and anti-traditional views and programs have shaped China's politics and culture down to the present . </P> <P> China had entered World War I on the side of the Allied Triple Entente in 1917 with the condition that all German spheres of influence, such as Shandong, would be returned to China . Although in that year 140,000 Chinese labourers (as a part of the British army, the Chinese Labour Corps) were sent to France, the Versailles Treaty of April 1919 awarded German rights in Shandong Province to Japan . The representatives of the Chinese government put forth the following requests: </P> <Ol> <Li> abolition of all privileges of foreign powers in China, such as extraterritoriality </Li> <Li> cancelling of the "Twenty - One Demands" with the Japanese </Li> <Li> return to China of the territory and rights of Shandong, which Japan had taken from Germany during World War I . </Li> </Ol> <Li> abolition of all privileges of foreign powers in China, such as extraterritoriality </Li>

The may fourth movement began as a result of students protesting