CHINA’S ROAD TO COMMUNISM

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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.