The historical era of
Tibet from 1912 to 1951 is marked following the collapse of the
Qing dynasty in 1912, and lasted until the
incorporation of Tibet by the
People's Republic of China. The Tibetan
Ganden Phodrang regime was
under Qing rule until 1912, when the
Provisional Government of the Republic of China replaced the Qing dynasty as the government of China, and signed a treaty with the Qing government inheriting all territories of the previous dynasty into the
new republic, giving
Tibet the status of an "
Area" with extremely high levels of
autonomy as how it was treated by the previous dynasty. However at the same time, several Tibetan representatives signed a
treaty between Tibet and Mongolia proclaiming mutual recognition and their independence from China, although the
Government of the Republic of China did not recognize the legitimacy of the treaty. With the high levels of autonomy and the "proclaiming of independence" by several Tibetan representatives, this period of Tibet is often described as "
de facto independent", especially by some
Tibetan independence supporters, although most countries of the world, as well as the
United Nations, recognized Tibet as a part of the
Republic of China.