Post on 01-Jan-2016
CHINA’S ROAD TO COMMUNISM
A Preview
Modern World History
1600’s - 1912
• Manchus (people of Manchuria – NE China) invaded China & seized power from the Ming Dynasty
• They took a Chinese name for their dynasty – Qing Dynasty
The Qing Dynasty
• Empress Dowager Cixi presented China with a weak central authority
• She died in 1908• Puyi, at age two, was
appointed the successor
• Puyi became the last emperor of China
• Dynasty will fall 1912
Sun Yixian(Yatsen)
• Sun Yatsen led the Nationalist Party (also called Kuomintang)
• The Nationalists wanted to modernize and democratize China
Goals of the Nationalists
• Rid China of foreign influence
• Set up a democracy
• Improve life for all Chinese
1912-1916• Sun lacked authority &
military support.• He turned over the
presidency to Yuan Shikai, a powerful general.
• Yuan betrayed the democratic ideals of Sun and became a dictator.
• Yuan died in 1916; military generals took control. Violence and peasant hardship continued in China.
AFTER WWI – The Nationalists
• Chiang Kai-shek (Jiang Jieshi) joins Sun and the Nationalist Party.
• Promoted economic development: built schools and roads
• Did little to improve living standards of the peasants
1925 – Sun Yatsen died
Funeral Procession Sun Yatsen TributeTiananmen Square
Nationalists Take Control
1925• Chiang Kai-shek
and the Nationalist army defeated the warlords (military generals) and took control of China.
Communists Organize
• Peasants revolted (sound familiar?)
• Communist Party [Mao Zedong –son of peasants] and Red Army made first attempt to take over Nationalist Party – they failed.
Nationalists vs. Communists
• Chiang Kai-shek began a series of military campaigns to crush the Communists.
• “Extermination Campaign” killed 6,000 suspected Communists in 3 days.
Communists Surrounded
1934• Chiang Kai-shek
and the Nationalist Army surround Mao and the Red Army.
THE LONG MARCH
• Mao and the Red Army retreated and began the Long March – one of greatest escapes in history.
The Long March• Retreated to North Central
China to escape the Nationalists
• 100,000 men, women and children
• 6,000 mile journey lasting 1 year
• Crossed 18 mountain ranges, dozens of rivers, and swamps
• Fought hunger and diseases while fighting off the Nationalists
• Approximately one-fifth of the marchers survived
World War II
• WWII – Japan invaded China.
• Mao and Chiang became uneasy allies against the Japanese (a common enemy).
• “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”
World War II Ends
• WWII ended (1945)• “Civil war”
between Chiang (Nationalists) and Mao (Communists) resumed.
SHAZAM!
Conditions in China Worsen
• China’s poverty worsened as a result of WWII.
• Many Chinese blamed bad conditions on Chiang and the Nationalists.
• Lacking popular support and weakened by corruption, the Nationalist Party collapsed.
• Chiang and the Nationalist government flee to off-shore island of Taiwan.
The People’s Republic of China
• October 1st, 1949• Mao Zedong,
Chairman of China’s Communist Party proclaims the new People’s Republic of China.