[1] A combination of factors, including economic hardship and failure to resist Western imperialism, led many in China to be unhappy with the Qing government.

When a new program to settle Mongolia with ethnic Han and assimilate the natives was unveiled, it was met with resistance that resulted in a relatively bloodless separation from the Qing Empire.

[3] A disintegrating economy, growing debt, and increasing tax demands were ingredients of social and political unrest in Mongolia.

They were certainly not the first non-Han people to rule all of China, but the fate of previous dynasties had always been the same: they invaded; they governed; they assimilated; and eventually they merged, more or less becoming Chinese themselves.

[citation needed] The early Qing rulers enacted various laws to isolate Manchuria from China proper (Eighteen Provinces) and Mongolia.

Qing rulers came to believe that the continued survival of their state as an integral entity depended on the effectiveness of their frontier serving as a protective "shield" (in the language of the time) for China proper.

[5] In early 1910, the Qing government appointed Sando (or Sandowa), a Mongol himself and former deputy lieutenant governor of Guihwa, as viceroy of Mongolia in the capital city of Urga (modern Ulaanbaatar), to implement the New Administration.

He immediately set about organizing twenty offices to oversee such matters as the military, taxation, police, government and commerce.

Sando demanded that the Jebzundamba Khutuktu (variously spelled), the spiritual leader in Urga of the Mongolians, surrender a particular lama believed to be the ringleader of the incident.

[8] Other incidents followed, all underscoring the diminished authority of Sando: a minor noble, Togtokh Taij, with a small band, had with the connivance of local Mongolian officials plundered several Chinese merchant shops in eastern Mongolia.

And the prince of the khoshuun which Togtokh had raided refused Sando's demand to pay compensation to the plundered Chinese merchants.

To avoid suspicion, he used as a pretext the occasion of a religious festival, at which time the assembled leaders would discuss the need to reapportion taxes among the khoshuuns.

Russia wanted to include Outer Mongolia in its sphere of influence and as a buffer state offering protection from China and Japan, but never planned to make it a part of her empire.

[11] The Russian government decided to support, by diplomatic rather than by military means, not full independence for Mongolia, but autonomy within the Qing empire.

[12] The Russian minister in Beijing was then instructed to inform the Qing government that the Mongols had sent a delegation to St. Petersburg complaining of Chinese immigration, military build-up, and administrative reorganization.

He stated that Russia could not but be concerned about these developments, in view of the common boundary shared with Khalkha, and cautioned that China would have to bear the consequences if this warning were ignored.

Sando immediately summoned the head of the Khutukhtu's ecclesiastical administration (Ikh shav'), the Erdene Shanzav, and demanded an explanation.

Sando then ordered the Mongolians to have no further contact with the Russian consulate, threatening in case of disobedience to bring an additional 500 troops to Urga and to arm the Chinese population in the city.

In the meantime, the Mongolian delegation to Russia secretly returned, and reported the results of its trip to a group of princes and lamas.

Two days later, Sando received a letter, signed in the name of the nobles and lamas of Khalkha, stating that they had heard of a secessionist movement in China, and that Chinese troops of the "revolutionary party" were preparing to march on Urga from Inner Mongolia.

The letter went on to state that, in view of the benefit obtained by the Khalkhas from the Qing in the past, the Khutuktu had ordered the mobilization of 4000 troops to advance on Beijing to defend the Emperor.

Abandoning this thin deception, a delegation of nobles and lamas visited the amban's office, and informed him of their decision to declare independence and to install the Khutuktu as emperor.

On the following day, his soldiers were disarmed by Mongolian militiamen, as well as Russian Cossacks of the consular convoy under command of Grigory Semyonov, future Ataman.

[21] On December 1, the Provisional Government of Khalkha issued a general proclamation announcing the end of Qing rule and the establishment of a theocracy under the Jebtsundamba Khutuktu.

At the end of the month, on December 29, the Khutuktu was formally installed as the Bodg Khaan ("Great Khan", or "Emperor") of the new Mongolian state.

The movement for independence in Outer Mongolia was to a large extent the reaction to the new Qing policies aimed at assimilating the Mongols by Han Chinese.