1912年民国肇造到1949年中华人民共和国成立，中国知识分子渐进接受民族国家理念，他们除书写列强的历史外，对世界弱国也进行了大量研究，其中以朝鲜、越南、印度、阿富汗、土耳其、波斯（伊朗）、埃及、阿比西尼亚（埃塞俄比亚）、波兰、南斯拉夫、罗马尼亚、匈牙利、保加利亚、希腊共14个国家为主要关注对象。他们在书写这些民族国家形成史时，对其民族独立、民族复兴进程总结出规律性、普遍性的认识，是为探索中国路径的重要思想资源。

第一章对中国共产党人的弱小民族国家兴亡史的长时段研究进行梳理。毛泽东的学生曹绍濂是第一个从冰期气候角度解读埃及文明在早期一枝独秀的学者，李达《社会进化史》以马克思主义探析了古埃及、古希腊的阶级结构与文明衰亡。中国共产党人对西方古典文明持开放态度，恽代英、李大钊等人论述了希罗多德在西方史学界的地位。田汉、萧军等人分别将希腊文明与希伯来文明、中华文明予以对比研究。除研究古希腊史外，中国共产党人对近现代希腊史也有深入研究与观察，周恩来从外交角度对希土战争前后局势有精辟分析。抗战胜利前夕，毛泽东更是反复以希腊内战告诫全党，要警惕帝国主义支持下反动政权收割革命果实。

第二章，研究近代国人对弱小民族国家形成期核心人物的历史书写之异同，以说明各党派如何以弱国史作为自己施政路径的佐证，阿曼努拉·汗、礼萨·汗、海尔·塞拉西一世、铁托是主要研究对象。就外交而言，对阿富汗与英国关系，国共都能进行客观叙述。就世俗化改革而言，知识界从政治、军事、教育、生活、女性等多方面阐释阿曼努拉·汗的改革，但对于改革失败原因，双方分析则有区别。国民党认为阿富汗改革失败最主要原因是没有一支强有力的可以保卫改革果实的军队，共产党认为阿富汗没有发动农民，没有搞土地革命才导致失败。

1935年10月至1936年5月进行的阿比西尼亚（埃塞俄比亚）抗意战争吸引了全球目光，处于长征途中的中国共产党对这场战争予以全方位研究，他们从列强19世纪以来的东非博弈史、世界各殖民地弱小民族联合瓦解殖民体系、阿比西尼亚的阶级结构、意阿双方的军事战略战术、意大利的战时经济体制等多方面论述，并以此推演日后中日全面战争期间中国的抗战战略。

第三章，亚非欧弱国史事与中国政治。学界对中国共产党关于亚非弱小民族独立史的研究主要集中于万隆会议后，实则早在1921年建党之后不久中国共产党人就已经开始关注并研究亚非民族独立。其中，李达、吴泽等人批判西方学者提出的地理决定论，论证“东方”通过自主选择适合的政治经济模式可以实现民族独立。恽代英、邹韬奋等人从政治、外交、经济、军事、医疗等不同角度总结土耳其、印度等国独立的经验与教训。对于尚未实现独立的民族，中国共产党人提出一系列具体解决方案和路径，如外交上各弱小民族的无产阶级联合革命，军事上利用有利地形搞游击战，经济上在发展民族资本主义、城乡协调保护农民利益之间实现协调和统一。

抗战时期，中国知识分子借鉴波兰、土耳其的经验，以语言为民族认同纽带，并对此加以改进，探索适合中国的文字改革方案。教育方面，林语堂、顾颉刚等人以波兰为镜鉴，批驳丁文江的精英教育理念，主张启发大众民智，让民众参与到革命洪流方能构建民族国家。外资方面，中国因外债创巨痛深，故借鉴土耳其招商引资的理念，推崇国家资本主义的经济模式。外交方面，“弱国无外交”实为亡国之音，土耳其、匈牙利在列强间的纵横捭阖给予国人很大启发，中国共产党人更是深入剖析复杂国际局势中的图存路径。民族问题方面，知识分子借鉴南斯拉夫，批判波兰，主张对内民族团结，对外世界各弱小民族大联合，以中国为核心，组建“民族国际”。在书写弱小民族独立史时，中国知识分子有很强前瞻性，他们在1948年就已经能推演出未来半个多世纪中国与印度人口生育率的发展演变情况。

1931—1945年，中国知识分子对于亚非国家中被帝国主义和本国男权双重压迫的女性有着系统书写，包括古埃及结婚证中的女权，印度寡妇殉夫的历史渊源，南非的印度女性在反抗英国的非暴力不合作中起到的作用，伊朗礼萨汗、土耳其凯末尔在解放女性过程中的举措，阿富汗的世俗化改革如何因为解放女性而被扼杀，阿比西尼亚女性在抗意战争中的军事行动。中国共产党倾向站在阶级立场论述女权，国民党则在抗战建国的维度论述女权，各界以亚非被压迫女性史作为提出中国女性参与民族国家建构举措的弹药库。

总体而言，民国时期国人在书写弱国史时，大多没有掉入西方的话语陷阱，也能逃出中国旧世界观的话语想象窠臼。中国知识分子在书写弱国史时，逐渐意识到不应照搬西方模式，而应在世界弱国的改革与衰亡经验教训中建构一种与西方对等的模式，从而找出一条适合中国自身的现代化谱系，引导中国走出亡国危机、走向现代化民族国家的道路。这才是研究近代国人书写弱国史的目标所在。

From the founding of the Republic of China in 1912 to the founding of the People's Republic of China in 1949, Chinese intellectuals gradually accepted the concept of nation-state. In addition to writing the history of the Great Powers, they also conducted a lot of research on weak countries, including North Korea, Vietnam, India, Afghanistan, Turkey, Persia (Iran), Egypt, Abyssinia (Ethiopia), Poland, Yugoslavia, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Greece has a total of 14 countries as the main focus. When they wrote the history of the formation of these nation states, they summarized the regular and universal understanding of their modernization process, which is an important ideological resource for exploring the path of Chinese path to modernization.

The first chapter combs the long-term research of the CPC on the rise and fall of weak countries. Mao Zedong's student Cao Shaolian was the first scholar to interpret Egyptian civilization from the perspective of glacial climate. Li Da's “History of Social Evolution” explored the class structure and decline of civilization in ancient Egypt and Greece using Marxism. People of the CPC have always maintained an open attitude towards western classical civilization. Yun Daiying, Li Dazhao and others discussed Herodotus's position in western historiography. Tian Han, Xiao Jun and others respectively compared and studied Greek civilization with Hebrew civilization and Chinese civilization. In addition to studying the history of ancient Greece, the people of the CPC also have in-depth research and observation on the history of modern Greece. Zhou Enlai made a penetrating analysis of the situation before and after the Greek-Turkish War from the diplomatic perspective. On the eve of the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Mao Zedong repeatedly warned the entire party with the Greek Civil War to be vigilant against the reactionary regime under the support of imperialism reaping the fruits of the revolution.

The second chapter studies the similarities and differences in the historical writing of core figures in the formation of weak ethnic states by modern Chinese people, in order to illustrate how various parties, use the history of weak states as evidence for their governance paths. Amanula Khan, Reza Khan, Haile Selassie I and Tito are the main research subjects. In terms of diplomacy, Both the KMT and the CPC can objectively describe the relationship between Afghanistan and the United Kingdom. As far as the secularization reform is concerned, the intelligentsia explains the reform of Amanula Khan from politics, military, education, life, women and other aspects, but there are differences in the analysis of the reasons for the failure of the reform. The KMT believes that the main reason for the failure of Afghanistan's reform is the lack of a strong army to defend the fruits of the reform. The CPC believes that Afghanistan did not mobilize farmers and did not engage in a agrarian revolution, which led to the failure.

The Abyssinia (Ethiopia) War of Resistance against Italy from October 1935 to May 1936 attracted global attention. The CPC, on the way to the Long March, made a comprehensive study of the war. They reviewed the history of East African games since the 19th century, the collapse of the colonial system by the weak ethnic groups in the world's colonies, the class structure of Abyssinia, the military strategies and tactics of Italy and Abyssinia, Italy's wartime economic system and other aspects are discussed.  Based on this, China's anti-Japanese strategy during the comprehensive war between China and Japan in the future is deduced. In terms of military affairs, the CPC learned from the lessons of Abyssinia and successfully handled the relationship between advancing and attacking together, concentrating superior forces to fight battles of annihilation, and dispersing troops to preserve the revolutionary forces. Economically, many of the trade war strategies proposed by the CPC were adopted by the National Government, laying the economic foundation for the victory of the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression.

The third chapter studies the relationship between the history of weak countries in Asia, Africa, and Europe and Chinese politics. The academic research on the CPC's history of the independence of weak and small ethnic groups in Asia and Africa was mainly concentrated after the Bandung Conference. In fact, the CPC began to pay attention to and study the independence of Asian and African nations shortly after the founding of the Party in 1921. Among them, Li Da, Wu Ze and others criticized the geographical determinism put forward by western scholars, and demonstrated that "the East" can achieve national independence by independently choosing a suitable political and economic model. Yun Daiying, Zou Taofen and others summarized the experience and lessons of independence of Turkey, India and other countries from different perspectives, such as politics, diplomacy, economy, military and medical care. For the ethnic groups that have not yet achieved independence, the CPC has proposed a series of specific solutions and paths, such as the proletarian joint revolution of the weak and small ethnic groups in diplomacy, the military use of favorable terrain to engage in guerrilla warfare, and the economic coordination and unity between the development of national capitalism and the coordination between urban and rural areas to protect the interests of farmers.

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chinese intellectuals learned from the experience of Poland and Turkey to use language as the link of national identity, and improved it to explore a language reform program suitable for China. In terms of education, Lin Yutang, Gu Jiegang and others took Poland as a mirror to refute Ding Wenjiang’s idea of elite education, and advocated that people should be inspired to participate in the revolutionary torrent in order to build a nation state. In terms of foreign capital, China's foreign debt caused great pain, so it learned from Turkey’s concept of attracting investment and praised the economic model of state capitalism. In terms of diplomacy, “weak countries have no diplomacy” is actually a voice of national subjugation. Turkey and Hungary's manoeuvre among the powerful countries has greatly inspired the Chinese people. The CPC people have even further analyzed the path of survival in the complex international situation. In terms of ethnic issues, intellectuals drew inspiration from Yugoslavia, criticized Poland, advocated for internal ethnic unity, and advocated for the grand alliance of weak and small ethnic groups in the external world, with China as the core, to form the “National International”. When writing the history of the independence of weak ethnic groups, Chinese intellectuals have strong foresight. They were able to deduce the development and evolution of population fertility rates in China and India over the next half century in 1948.

During the War of Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, Chinese intellectuals had a systematic description of women in Asian and African countries who were oppressed by imperialism and domestic male power, including the women's rights in ancient Egypt's marriage certificate, the historical origin of Indian widows dying for their husbands, the role of Indian women in South Africa in their nonviolent cooperation against Britain, and the measures taken by Iran's Reza Khan and Turkey’s Kemal in the process of liberating women, How the secularization reform in Afghanistan was strangled because of the liberation of women, and the military action of women in Abyssinia in the war of resistance against Italy. The CPC tends to talk about women's rights from a class standpoint, while the KMT talks about women's rights from the dimension of the War of Resistance against Japan and the founding of the country. All circles use the history of oppressed women in Asia and Africa as the ammunition depot for proposing Chinese women's participation in the construction of the nation state.

Overall, during the Republic of China period, most Chinese people did not fall into the discourse trap of the West when writing the history of weak countries, and were able to escape the discourse imagination of China's old worldview. When writing the history of weak countries, Chinese intellectuals gradually realized that they should not copy the Western model, but should construct an equivalent model from the experiences and lessons of the reform and decline of weak countries in the world, in order to find a modernization genealogy suitable for China itself and guide China out of the crisis of collapse and towards a modern nation state. This is the goal of studying the history of the weak state written by modern Chinese people.