History of Guangxi

The region officially became part of China in 214 BC, when the army of the Qin Dynasty claimed most of southern China. The name "Guangxi" can be traced to the Song Dynasty, which administered the area as a circuit called the Guangnanxi Circuit (literally "Guang-South West Circuit"). During the late Mongol Yuan Dynasty the name was revived again to name a province in the region, but it was shortened to "Guangxi", or "Guang-West". For the next six centuries, Guangxi was a province of China, until its conversion into an autonomous region by the People's Republic of China.

During the late Qing Dynasty, Guangxi was the site of the Jintian Uprising (金田起義), which occurred what is now Guiping county-level city in eastern Guangxi on January 11, 1851. On March 23, 1885, Zhennan Pass (now Youyi Pass) on the border with Vietnam was also the site of the Battle of Zhennan Pass (鎮南關戰役) during the Franco-Chinese War. During the battle, a French incursion was routed by Chinese forces under Feng Zicai (馮子才), an event that has been exalted by subsequent Chinese nationalism.

After the founding of the Republic of China, Guangxi served as the base for one of the most powerful warlord cliques of China: the Old Guangxi Clique. Led by Lu Jung-t'ing (陸榮廷) and others, the clique was able to take control of neighbouring Hunan and Guangdong provinces as well. The Old Guangxi Clique crumbled in the early 1920s, and was replaced by the New Guangxi Clique, led by Li Tsung-jen and Pai Ch'ung-hsi. Guangxi is also noted for the Baise Uprising (百色起義), a communist uprising led by Deng Xiaoping in 1929. Communist base areas were set up, though eventually they were destroyed by Kuomintang forces.

In 1944 near the end of World War II, Japan invaded Guangxi as part of Operation Ichigo (also known as the Henan-Hunan-Guangxi Campaign (豫湘桂戰役), in an attempt to seize the Hunan-Guangxi railway line and open up a land link to French Indochina. The Japanese succeeded, and most major cities in Guangxi came under Japanese occupation.

Being in the far south, Guangxi was conquered by communist forces rather late. The province changed hands in December 1949, two months after the founding of the people's republic. In 1958, Guangxi was converted into an autonomous region for the Zhuang, by recommendation of Premier Zhou Enlai. This decision was made because the Zhuang were one of the biggest minority groups in China, and were mostly concentrated in Guangxi; however, they form a minority of Guangxi's population.

For most of its history, Guangxi was landlocked. In 1952 a small section of Guangdong's coastline was given to Guangxi, giving it access to the sea. This was reversed in 1955, and restored in 1965.