Mao conditions rise to power

Main argument: peasant poverty and the CCP's economic appeal? (Conditions – Economic Factors P1)

Rural poverty gave the CCP its mass base – land reform turned peasant economic grievances into active support for the communist war effort

How much rent did many Chinese peasants pay? (Conditions – Economic Factors P1)

Around half their harvest, alongside heavy taxes and debts to landlords

Northern famine? (Conditions – Economic Factors P1)

1928–30 – killed millions; governments offered little relief

GMD Land Law? (Conditions – Economic Factors P1)

1930 – limited rents to 37.5% of the harvest; never enforced because the GMD depended on landlords

What won peasant support at Yan'an? (Conditions – Economic Factors P1)

Rent and interest reduction – won middle peasants as well as the poorest

Mark Selden? (Conditions – Economic Factors P1)

The "Yan'an Way" won genuine peasant loyalty

Outline Land Law? (Conditions – Economic Factors P1)

1947 – ordered full redistribution of landlords' land in CCP-held areas

Why did land reform make peasants support the PLA? (Conditions – Economic Factors P1)

Gave them something to lose if the GMD returned → supplied recruits, food and intelligence

Steven Levine? (Conditions – Economic Factors P1)

Land reform and mass mobilisation central to CCP victory in Manchuria, 1946–48

Chalmers Johnson (economic essay)? (Conditions – Economic Factors P1)

Peasants first backed the CCP for nationalist reasons during the war against Japan

Counter-argument: peasant poverty? (Conditions – Economic Factors P1)

existed for centuries without revolution, Johnson argues that peaseants first backed CCP during war against Japan, economic grievances only turned into support with war

Main argument: economic collapse under the GMD? (Conditions – Economic Factors P2)

1940s collapse destroyed GMD support, especially in the cities, leaving the CCP as the only alternative

Japanese seizure of the coast? (Conditions – Economic Factors P2)

1937–38 – coastal cities and industrial base lost; GMD cut off from main tax revenue

GMD wartime inflation? (Conditions – Economic Factors P2)

Printed money to pay for the war – inflation accelerated from around 1940

GMD land tax in grain? (Conditions – Economic Factors P2)

From 1941 – hit peasants hard, fuelled corruption among officials

Henan famine? (Conditions – Economic Factors P2)

1942–43 – worsened by GMD grain requisitioning; killed millions; discredited the regime

Post-war inflation? (Conditions – Economic Factors P2)

After 1945 inflation turned into hyperinflation

Gold yuan? (Conditions – Economic Factors P2)

August 1948 – citizens forced to hand over gold, silver and foreign currency; collapsed within months, wiping out middle-class savings

Chiang Ching-kuo's Shanghai campaign? (Conditions – Economic Factors P2)

1948 – against speculators; failed → GMD could not control the economy even in its own cities

Counter-argument: cause of the economic crisis? (Conditions – Economic Factors P2)

Largely caused by war – a result of the war against Japan rather than an independent cause

Lloyd Eastman (economic essay)? (Conditions – Economic Factors P2)

GMD corruption and incompetence turned economic problems into collapse – political weakness the deeper cause

Main argument: rural class division? (Conditions – Social Divisions P1)

Landlord–peasant divide was the foundation of Mao's strategy – CCP turned rural class conflict into a mass revolutionary base

Rural class structure? (Conditions – Social Divisions P1)

Small landlord elite owned much of the land; many peasants paid ~half their harvest in rent + heavy taxes and debts

Report on the Peasant Movement in Hunan? (Conditions – Social Divisions P1)

1927 – Mao argued peasants, not urban workers, would be the main revolutionary force

Jiangxi Soviet? (Conditions – Social Divisions P1)

1931–34 – CCP confiscated landlords' land and redistributed it to poor peasants

Civil war land reform classifications? (Conditions – Social Divisions P1)

Landlords, rich, middle or poor peasants; violent "struggle sessions" against landlords

Effect of land reform on poor peasants? (Conditions – Social Divisions P1)

Gave them a stake in CCP victory → encouraged them to join the PLA

Counter-argument: Yan'an moderation? (Conditions – Social Divisions P1)

CCP switched from land confiscation to rent reduction to win middle peasants and even some landlords

Judgement on rural class division? (Conditions – Social Divisions P1)

Gave the CCP its base, but Mao succeeded partly by playing it down when unity served him better

Main argument: urban and wider social division? (Conditions – Social Divisions P2)

GMD's narrow social base alienated workers, students and intellectuals, isolating it from urban society

GMD's social base? (Conditions – Social Divisions P2)

Landlords, businessmen and a small circle of powerful families; accused of nepotism and corruption

May Fourth Movement (social essay)? (Conditions – Social Divisions P2)

1919 – radicalised students and intellectuals

Kunming killings? (Conditions – Social Divisions P2)

December 1945 – four students killed after protests against the civil war

Wen Yiduo? (Conditions – Social Divisions P2)

Poet and critic assassinated by GMD agents, July 1946

Effect of GMD repression on the educated? (Conditions – Social Divisions P2)

Pushed many educated Chinese towards the CCP or into neutrality

Conditions of urban workers? (Conditions – Social Divisions P2)

Long hours and low wages, e.g. in Shanghai

Shanghai Massacre? (Conditions – Social Divisions P2)

1927 – GMD crushed the urban labour movement; turned workers against it and forced the CCP to the countryside

Chalmers Johnson (social essay)? (Conditions – Social Divisions P2)

CCP support came mainly from nationalism against Japan – united Chinese across class lines rather than dividing them

Counter-argument: urban groups? (Conditions – Social Divisions P2)

Most did not actively support the CCP – they simply abandoned the GMD

Judgement on wider social division? (Conditions – Social Divisions P2)

Isolated the GMD – weakened Jiang more than it actively strengthened Mao

Main argument: Sino-Japanese War? (Conditions – Impact of War P1)

The turning point – reversed the GMD–CCP balance; saved the CCP while destroying GMD armies, economy and legitimacy

Dates of the Sino-Japanese War? (Conditions – Impact of War P1)

1937–45

CCP's position in 1936? (Conditions – Impact of War P1)

Small, isolated force in Shaanxi after the Long March

Xi'an Incident? (Conditions – Impact of War P1)

1936 – with the Japanese invasion, forced Jiang into the Second United Front, ending his campaigns against the CCP

CCP growth during the war? (Conditions – Impact of War P1)

Membership ~40,000 (1937) → over 1 million (1945); controlled 19 base areas – via guerrilla warfare behind Japanese lines

Nanjing Massacre? (Conditions – Impact of War P1)

1937–38 – fuelled anti-Japanese nationalism

Rana Mitter (war essay)? (Conditions – Impact of War P1)

GMD did most of the fighting against Japan, which destroyed its best armies

Ichi-Go offensive? (Conditions – Impact of War P1)

1944 – Japanese offensive that shattered further GMD forces

Economic damage of the war to the GMD? (Conditions – Impact of War P1)

Loss of coastal cities 1937–38 cut tax revenue; printing money → inflation accelerating from ~1940

Henan famine (war essay)? (Conditions – Impact of War P1)

1942–43 – worsened by GMD grain requisitioning; killed millions; with forced conscription and corruption made the regime hated in the countryside

Balance of power by 1945? (Conditions – Impact of War P1)

CCP a mass party with a large army; GMD exhausted

Counter-argument: Eastman (war essay)? (Conditions – Impact of War P1)

GMD corrupt and dependent on landlords before 1937 – war accelerated its decline rather than causing it

Main argument: the civil war? (Conditions – Impact of War P2)

The decisive stage – CCP seized power through military victory, not compromise

Mao's quote on power? (Conditions – Impact of War P2)

"Power grows out of the barrel of a gun"

Dates of the civil war (final phase)? (Conditions – Impact of War P2)

1946–49

GMD army in 1946? (Conditions – Impact of War P2)

NRA several times larger and better equipped than the CCP's

Fall of Yan'an? (Conditions – Impact of War P2)

March 1947 – captured by the GMD; Mao abandoned it to preserve his forces and fight a mobile war

Effect of the Soviet occupation of Manchuria? (Conditions – Impact of War P2)

1945 – secure base + captured Japanese weapons → Lin Biao built a modern conventional army

Balance of armies by late 1948? (Conditions – Impact of War P2)

Roughly equal in size

Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin? (Conditions – Impact of War P2)

1948–49 – destroyed ~1.5 million Nationalist troops

Jiang's military mistakes? (Conditions – Impact of War P2)

Committed best troops to Manchuria before securing northern China; refused retreats → whole armies encircled and destroyed

GMD soldiers' behaviour? (Conditions – Impact of War P2)

Many forced conscripts; surrendered or defected in growing numbers, handing American equipment to the PLA

US aid to the GMD? (Conditions – Impact of War P2)

Billions of dollars – still collapsed through poor leadership and low morale

Counter-argument: was the civil war won on the battlefield? (Conditions – Impact of War P2)

Partly won before the fighting – PLA recruits came from land reform; GMD troops had lost faith in the regime

Main argument: collapse of central authority? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P1)

After 1911 no government could unite China or resist foreign powers → power vacuum

Collapse of the Qing dynasty? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P1)

1911 – did not produce a stable republic

Yuan Shikai? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P1)

Tried to make himself emperor 1915–16; his death in 1916 left no one able to hold China together

Warlord era? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P1)

1916–28 – China fragmented into regions with their own armies, laws, taxes and currencies

Signs of foreign domination? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P1)

Unequal treaties, foreign treaty ports, spheres of influence – governments could not defend sovereignty

Versailles and Shandong? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P1)

1919 – Germany's rights in Shandong given to Japan → May Fourth Movement; discredited the Republic

Founding of the CCP? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P1)

1921

Counter-argument: collapse of central authority? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P1)

Created opportunities for many groups (warlords, GMD, Japan) – explains China's vulnerability, not why Mao succeeded

Main argument: weakness of the GMD regime? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P2)

GMD failed to build an effective state after 1928 – the more direct political cause, leaving grievances unresolved

Nanjing decade? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P2)

1928–37 – GMD never fully unified China; many warlords only nominally accepted Jiang

Central Plains War? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P2)

1930 – against rival warlords; hundreds of thousands of casualties

Japan seizes Manchuria? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P2)

1931 – Jiang prioritised fighting the CCP over Japan, damaging his nationalist credibility

Why was the 1930 Land Law never enforced? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P2)

GMD relied on landlords and businessmen

What alienated workers, peasants and intellectuals? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P2)

Corruption, inefficiency and repression, e.g. the Shanghai Massacre (1927)

Eastman (political essay)? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P2)

GMD already failing during the Nanjing decade, before the war against Japan

GMD officials after 1945? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P2)

Seized property for themselves when reclaiming cities from Japan → alienated urban populations

What destroyed middle-class support in the cities? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P2)

Hyperinflation, incl. the collapse of the gold yuan in 1948

Counter-argument: timing of GMD failures? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P2)

Many of the worst came after 1937 – war turned an imperfect regime into a collapsing one

Judgement on weak political systems? (Conditions – Weak Political Systems P2)

GMD weakness more significant than the earlier collapse of central authority – CCP reforms faced no competition; but war was decisive: GMD army several times larger in 1946, roughly equal by late 1948