mao zedong

1893-1918

born into peasantry, rebellious son, studied chinese classics and confucianism, was a soldier in the republican army that overthrew qing dynasty, supported marxism

1920-1927

founded ccp in hunan, joined kmt to fight invaders, organized peasant unions and rose in positions, marxist ideas ISOLATED HIM!!

1925-1929

chaing kai-shek (kmt leader) battled ccp, ccp was defeated and left for countryside, improved his troops (red army) and defeated kmt, mao zedong rose in ranks

1934

long march, kmt surrounded ccp with million troops, ccp forced to flee 6,000 miles, zunyi conference held, where he rose in ranks

1931-1937

imperial japan invaded china during ww2, kmt and ccp joined to fight off japanese, red army success made mao zedong rise in ranks, began pushing critics out

1945-1949

japan lost ww2, kmt and ccp began fighting for control over china, ccp had larger, more trained army, and won in 1949, declared people’s republic of china (proc), mao modeled reconstruction over ussr (socialist ideals)

1950-1953, 1957

mao relied on ussr’s aid, allied w/n. korea, millions of chinese died, became enemies w/us, began to weed out traitors to unite china, hundred flowers movement—encouraged criticism, but became paranoid and executed or pushed out intellectuals

1958-1960; Great Leap Forward

land taken from peasants and turned into communes, built backyard furnaces to try and make iron tools, made bad iron and were unable to meet quota, so they lied; peasants starved from fear of punishment and millions died, close planting technique sabotaged farming as all the plants competed and died

1961

realized things weren’t working, gave 3 men (+ deng xiaoping) 5 yrs for economic recovery

1966

didn’t like how they had control → cultural revolution

1966-1976; cultural revolution

mao’s economic recovery task force supported but no longer agreed w/him, got radicals to start purging democracy supporters, created red guard (students), created mass propaganda (little red book), beat, tortured those who opposed him, lin biao was originally mao’s successor, but mao didn’t like how he had power, so he got rid of him

1976

brings back deng xiaoping, mao likes deng b/c economy was so bad, mao dies, gang of four are arrested, deng emerges as leader in 1977

1979

one child policy leads to uneven population balance, overloaded orphanages, smaller population growth, and controlled adoption policies

1989

civilian/student protest for democratic reform, army came in w/tanks and shot at tiananmen square, received global condemnation