This is about modern China and Mao Zedong.
We could say that if Mao Zedong had not led China into communist revolution, there would be no people’s republic of China.
In Mao’s three decades of rule over China he transformed it from a pre-industrial nation into a nuclear power. Now China is the most is the third largest country in the world.
We want to understand how the Communists won power in 1949. One of the most important part of this victory was their relationship with the peasants. Another important part of the victory to be aware of is the terrible attacks the communists faced, they were from the government that was ruling at that moment in time the KMT (Kuomintang). Some of the time the communists and the Kuomintang worked together as you will see later on.
You will see how the communists managed to use every situation they were put in to their ultimate advantage. You should also know how powerless China was for a very long time.
China became weaker as the European countries modernised. As China was bullied by these countries her tiny neighbour Japan invaded and began to clae China as a growing empire.
The old Chinese Empire was one of the greatest in the world. The Chinese invented movable type, gunpowder, tea and paper. Chinese believed that they were the only civilised people and considered the rest of the world to be inhabited by barbarians.
At the start of the 20th century, China was still ruled by emperors. The dowager empress, Tzu Hsi, ruled from 1861 to 1908.
In the 1800s it became obvious that China was no longer a great nation. She had been so convinced of her superiority that the modernising in the west was a big surprise.
Lots of the Chinese were proverty-stricken peasant farmers. In China the population had increased tremendously but the same amount of food was not being produced. Villagers had less and less land on which to grow crops so they could sell it and then pay for rent and taxes. When drought and flood caused serious famine millions died. Land lords started to put the rent up regardless of the situation.
European countries wanted China to trade with them. They wanted tea, silk and porcelain and wanted to sell them cotton and other products to the Chinese markets. China was not interested in buying the Europeans goods. Then Europeans offed opium to the Chinese.
The Opium Wars:
The Europeans kept on selling the ‘deadly poison’ to the Chinese despite the Emperor wanted this trade to stop.
These wars proved China was weak and that ment that it was easier to gain power in China.
- China was forced to sing treaties that opened her up to foreign trade.
- The British took Hong Kong island.
- China was unale to defend herself and this is why they called them ‘unequal treaties.’
- China’s situation only got worse. The Russians invaded from the north and her tiny neighbour, defeted China in 1895 and the took land.
Concessions:
- Europeans that lived in China did not have to obey by China’s law.
- Christian missionaries were free to travel and preach in China.
- The opuim that was destroyed the Chinese had to pay for it and then had no choice but to allow the drug to be inported.
The Boxer rebellion:
In 1899, the peasants rebelled even though there were terrible punishments.
There were floods in China and then the following year there was drought this caused terrible famine everwhere in China.
Some Chinese were so fed up they started their own anti-foreigner secret society. There was a notice put up all around China saying how the christians were to blame for all the floods and famine.
The Empress realised that she could use the rebellion to her advantage. The Boxer leaders were convinced by the Empress that it was a good idea to attack the foreginers living in Peking.
55-days in the Boxers were smashed by the foreign army which had about 45 000 soldiers.
Local warlords.
Warlords were powerfull land lords with their own private armies. They fought against the KMT and made their own little empires. Nearly everyone in the armies were poor peasants who were only in them to earn money. Babies were left by the road to die because there was no food to feed them. Life was a lot worse since the revolution.
The Japanese.
One of the other serious threats to Chia was Japan. The Japanese were more moden then the Chinese. They had threatened to takeover the west of China. The Japanese need to conqure China because her island was small and crowded. In 1895 the Japanese had won the island of Taiwan and then in 1910 they took the mainland country of Korea.
The war against Japan.
When war broke out, Mao Zedong had all ready earned the trust of the peasants. When the KMT had retreated Mao and the Red Army were left to fight the Japanese. During the war a relationship began to develop between the peasants and tyhe communists. The Chinese army was treated well by the village people and they got help from the children they spyed on the Japanese. The Red army cut telegraph wires which were needed by the Japnaese. They also blow up the railways that were needed by the Japaneses to bring in food. The Japanese army’s soon learnt that the empty villages were dangerous. The villages were given their own land and saw how the read army were risking their lives to help them.
In 1945 Mao had taken contol over the countryside, and in doing that the Japanese had to stay in their bases.
The Japanese attacked the American naval base in 1941. This ment that the Chinese war was now part of the Second World War. The American navie gave money to the Chinese to crush the Japanese.
In 1945 the Americans droped two atomic bombs on Japan. The Sceond World War was over when the Japanese government surrendered.
The Americans tried to get the Japanese and the Chinese to agree with each other on who should rule china, and by doing this it created anouther war in China : the Civil war.
The Civil war in China was a final struggle between the KMT and the CCP. ( it was over who would rule China.) The KMT stood a good chance of winning because:
- Chiang Kai-Shek was being supported by the american government.
- Chiang even had the stalin on his side.
- His army’s out number the CCP’s by about four to one.
- Chaiang also had modern air force.
But:
- Chiang’s army was not prepared as well as the CCP’s army.
- Chiang allowed his party to become corrupt.
