Unit 4 AoS 1 Chinese Revolution - Short Flashcards VCE History Revolutions

Early 20th Century

• Major philosophy/religion

• Confucianism: Promotes respect

• Daotism: Values the ‘Three Treasures': Compassion, moderation and humiity

• Buddhism: The four truths

1. Life entails suffering

2. Suffering is due to attachment

3. Suffering can be overcome by giving up attachment

4. Living a disciplined life is the key to giving up attachment

• The Mandate of Heaven: Concept that heaven placed an emperor/ruler on the throne, so heaven could approve any action

• Hierarchy

• Emperor

• Royal family

• 0.001% Shenshi (government officials)

• 80% peasants

• 13% artisans and town workers

• 5% soldiers and merchants

• Actors, prostitutes and gravediggers

• Population growth:

• 1700: 200 million in China to over 430 million by 1850s (due to peace under Qing rule)

• 94% of all Chinese people lived in the country’s 800,000 villages

• 60% of land was in the hands of wealthy Chinese

• Life expectancy was at 25 years

L2: Yuan Shikai and Sun Yixian

Pre-AOS1:

• Prior to 1898: China lost several Opium Wars, forcing China to open several cities to foreign trade and placed heavy debts on China

• 1895: Defeat of China in the Sino-Japanese War resulted in the loss of Taiwan and a one-sided trade treaty, and foreign powers tried to gain control over China

• 2 November 1899 - 7 September 1901: Boxer Rebellion, a rebellion against all things foreign (backed by the government) prompted intervention from the Eight Nation Aliance, resulting in the Boxer Protocol that devastated the Chinese ecnomy with a 450 million silver dollar debt

• 1901-1909: The New Government Reforms were made to modernise China (it was similar to the 100 Days of Reform that Cixi, wife of former emperor, had suppressed (1898)

• Reforms in education (emphasis on overseas study), government (modern ministries formed, Edict of August (1908) promising a national parliament by 1917 and Provincial Assemblies created in 1909) and miitary (“New Armies” formed with higher paid and updated weapons that put more power in the hands of Yuan Shikai)

• Sun Yixian (1866-1925)

• 1894: Founded a revolutionary group known as the “Revive China Society” in Hawaii to adopt Western practices in China

• 1895: Attempted to start an uprising in Guangzhou, but failed, forced into exile in Japan

• During exile, he studied Marxism and raised funds for his revolutionary movement (from Chinese migrant communities)

• Early 1905: Sun created his ‘Three Principles of the People (Nationalism, Democracy and People’s Livelihood)

• Late 1905: Sun unified serveral revolutionary groups into a revoutionary alliance known as the Tongmenghui (precursor to the Guomindang)

• 1908-1911: Tongmenghui funded 5 rebellions against the Qing dynasty, but all failed

L4: Sun and Yuan’s Roles in the 1911 Revolution

• 10 October 1911: A military plot to start a revolt was discovered by Qing oficials in Wuchang, the plotters being a small group of radical New Army officers connected to the Tongmenghui and they chose to rise up against the Qing, the revolt spreading throughout military units in major provinces (South China)

• 29 December 1911: A Provisional Government of the first Republic of China was created in Nanjing

• 1 January 1912: Sun was made Provisional President of the Republic

• Qing (Dynasty) put Yuan Shikai as supreme command of Qing military forces, helping the rebellion’s march north (to caputre Beijing) to halt

• Yuan betrays the Qing, forcing the Qing to hand power to the Republican Government on the conditions Yuan was made president

• 12 Febuary 1912: Yuan secured abdication of Puyi

• 14 Feburary 1912: Sun Yixian stepped down as President

• 10 March 1912: Yuan was sworn in as the new president

• Tibet and Mongolia declare themselves independent

L5: Yuan Shikai and Challenges to the Early Republican Era

• 20 August 1912: Tongmenghu was renamed to the Guomindang (The Nationalist Party)

• January 1913: GMD won China’s first elections, with 123/274 seats in the Senate and 269/596 in the House

• 22 March 1913: Yuan organised assassinations to remove GMD Revolutionaries, like Song Jaioren who was killed

• April 1913: Yuan passed laws without consultation with the National Assembly

• Yuan passed the “Reorganisation Loan" (100 million dollars from foreign banks that was used to fund his army (as opposed to addressing the needs of people)

• It caused the Parliament to attempt impeaching Yuan, who surrounded the National Assembly with his troops

• Yuan invaded rebel provinces

• 4 November 1913: Yuan bans the GMD

• 10 January 1914: Yuan disbands the National Assembly

• 15 January 1915: Japan placed a list of demands on China in return for the loans that Japan granted China, included Japanese control over Machuria and Inner Mongolia

• Yuan agreed to thirteen of the Twenty One Demands

• 7 May 1915: The demands were signed, became known as a ‘Day of Shame,’ a day commemorated annually

• 1 January 1916: Yuan proclaims himself emperor, with his coronation ceremony and associated rites cost 1.8 million yuan (1.4 spent on imperial potsalone)

• 22 March 1916: As a result of generals joining in the declaration of independence of some provinces from his actions, Yuan gives up this claim

• 6 June 1916: Yuan died, causing a power vacuum where no individual had enough power. This meant Yuan’s generals (known as Warlords) would fight over control)

• 1916-1926: The Warlord Period

• 1916-1928: Beijing Government had 28 Prime Ministers and 9 Presidents

• Warlordism was a fialure of the 1911 Revolution to strengthen China

L6: The New Culture Movement

• 1915 onwards movement that was a flourishing of Western ideas (Beijing University was the centre of the movement)

• Chen Duxiu argued that Chinese intellectual life was dominated by Confucianism, meaning China was conservative

• 1915: Chen Duxiu founded the journal New Youth, publishing essays of ideas like Marxism

• Hu Shih pioneered Baihua (simplification of Chinese writing

• 1919-1927: Some 650 different periodicals published in Baihua

L7: May Fourth Movement

• 4 May 1919: ‘Day of Shame’ protests were originally scheduled for 7 May, however the news of the signing of the Treaty of Versailles was made public and the day was brought forward

• Warlord President Duan Qirui made a secret deal to give Japan control of Shandong (originally was Germany’s) in the Treaty of Versailloes

• 100,000 Chinese men had provided labour for the armies

• 3000 Beijing University students protested in Tiananmen Square

L8: The Foundation of the CCP

• From 1920 onwards: The Comintern (‘Communist Internationale,’ created to Russia to promote communism around the world) sent agens to China to help form the CCP

• 23 July 1921: CCP was established

• 12 delegates met for the First Congress of the Chinese Communist Party, representing 57 party members across China (Mao was a delegate)

• Chen was elected head of party, guided by orthodox Marxism-Leninism, however lacked ideological unity (eg. Li wanted peasants to revolt vs Chen who wanted the working class to revolt)

• Chen Duxiu (1879-1942): Born to a wealthy family; Party’s general secretary (1921-1927); Imprisoned by the Nationalists in 1933

• Li Dazhao (1889-1927): Born to a peasant family; elected to the Nationalist Central Executive Committee in 1924; captured during the White Terror and was executed shortly after

L9: The First United Front

• 1924-1927

• 10 September 1917: Sun and his GMD established a new government in Guangzhou, aligning his party with several warlords, however disunity caused its collapse in 1920

• 5 May 1921: Sun and his GMD established a second government again, aligning with Warlord General Chen. Another disagreement caused the government to end

• 26 January 1923: The Sun-Joffe Declaration was signed, forming an alliance with Soviet Russia’s Comintern

• Sun-Joffe Declaration allowed China to be provided with 3 million gold roubles, 100 military advisors and weapons to rain a National Revolutionary Army by Russia

• USSR’s Comintern forced (small) CCP to ally with the GMD, forming the First United Front to unify China

• Sun captured Guangzhou, establishing a new government there

• 3/24 seats on the GMD Central Executive Committee were given to Communists (CCP)

• Huangpu Military Academy was established in Guangzhou to train officers and build a loyal Nationalist Army

• 1927: GMD reached 200,000 members, CCP reached 60,000 members

L10: Jiang Jieshi

• 1887-1975

• Born to a wealthy merchant family

• 1906: Joined Baoding Military Academy (western style)

• 1908: Joined the Tongmenghui

• 1911: Participated in the Wuhan Rising

• His most famous wife, Soong May-ling was the sister of Sun Yixian’s widow

• May 1926: After an 18 month power struggle, Jiang Jieshi becomes the new leader of the GMD

L11: The Northern Expedition and the Shanghai Massacre

• 1925: May 30 Atrocious Incident occurred where British troops fired on protesting workers in Shanghai and Guangzhou

• Northern Expedition (27 July 1926 - June 1928)

• Was justified by Jiang as he argued it would unite China and build on Sun’s Three Principles of the People

• 1926: The GMD army contained 85,000 professional soldiers and officers

• Many warlords were bribed into joining the GMD as Jiang promised senior positions for them

• GMD armies grew from 85,000 at the start of the Expedition to 700,000 12 months later

• 1927: Jiang established a new government in Nanjing and claims himself as chairman, ruling China until 1949

• Shanghai Massacre (12 April 1927)

• Jiang reached out to the Green Gang (organised crime organisation) and made promises related to opium in return for their support (caused by the CCP’s threat)

• Big Ears Du armed a 2000-man militia known as the China Mutual Progress Association

• 5000-10,000 Communists and trade unionists were killed

• Resulted in the White Purge

• CCP membership fell from 60,000 to 10,000

L12: Mao Zedong and Threats Faced by the CCP

• Mao Zedong (1893-1976)

• Born to a wealthy peasant family in Shaoshan village

• At age 13, he was placed in an arranged marriage with a 17 year old girl but he refused to acknowledge her

• 1921: He attended its founding meeting as a note taker and representative of Hunan

• During the United Front, he was Propaganda Secretary and head of the Farmers’ Movement Training Institute

• 1927: Mao’s Report on an Investigation into the Peasant Movement in Hunan saw him arguing that the CCP must take leadership of a peasant revolution

Threats

• Chen Duxiu took blame for the collapse of the First United Front and resigned as CCP secretary general

• Nanchang Uprising (1- 4 August 1927), where local people were indifferent to the CCP who only controlled Nanchang for four days before loyal Nationalist troops recaptured the city

• Autumn Harvest (7-13 September 1927, led by Mao) only had a mob of 1000 survivors who had to escape to Jingganshan after the failed uprising

• Guangzhou Commune (December 1927) failed as it only lasted two days as the workers of Guangzhou were not interested. Around 5700 people were killed as a consequence of the Guangzhou Commune

• 1932: CCP agents hid in the mountainous rural areas while the official leadership, headed by the “Twenty-Eight Bolsheviks” operated in Shanghai, detached from the situation in the countryside

• 1928: Mao retreated to the Jinggangshan Mountains with 1000 survivors from the Autumn Harvest Uprising

• Mao was joined by the Zhu De and 2000 soldiers from the failed Nanchang uprising

• Here, Mao and Zhu established the beginning of the Red Army and developed guerilla tactics, raising an army of 10,000 troops

L13: The Jiangxi Soviet

• January 1929 - 1935

• 7 November 1931: Jiangxi was proclaimed the Chinese Soviet Republic

• Land reform: Land was confiscated and redistrubted to the village, rents abolished, grain tax reduced to 15-20%

• Reading class introduced

• Women’s rights: Forced marriages banned, no-fault divorce, access to education, foot binding banned

• 1934: CCP had 300,000 party members, 500,000 Red Army soldiers, governed 3 million people

L14: The Red Army + Futian Purges

• The Red Army

• Strict discipline and respect was instilled through the Three Main Rules of Discipline and Eight Points of Attention

• A completely volunteer army

• December 1929: The Gutian Conference occurred, where Mao introduced the concept of the Red Army as a ‘mass propaganda organ’

• Guerilla warfare

• Futian Purges

• December 1930: Mao instigated a purge of Red Army units whose loyalty was questionable, where 4000 men were accused and 1000 executed

• October 1932: Mao lost leadership of the Red Army to Zhou Enlai, however remained Chairman of the Jiangxi Soviet

L15: The Nationalist Decade + The New Life Movement

• 1927-1937

• 10 October 1928: Jiang became president of the GMD

• His reliance on recruiting warlords during the Northern Expedition meant he lacked effective control

• The Blueshirts, a secret organisation whose members swore loyalty to Jiang, emerged from Huangpu Military Academy and would infiltrate the police, military and government

• Up to 300,000 Communists, unionists, jounalists and students killed throughout the Nationalist Decade

• Negotiated for 20/33 foreign concessions to be returned to China, improving Chinese sovereignty

• Introduced anti-opium campaigns coordinated by the Opium Suppression Bureau

• Provincial governors (former warlords) declared independence of the Nationalist government on 23 occasions

• 80% of government spending went towards the military

• Sichuan province collected taxes for 1971 in 1933

• Peasants in Gansu were forced to pay 44 different taxes with taxes often 11 times higher than official rate

• 1931-1937: 69,500 reports were filed of complaints about GMD administration officials but only 268 officials were found to be at fault + only 13 were fired

L16: The New Life Movement

• 19 February 1934: The New Life Movement was launched

• Aim: To give the population a sense of moral purpose and to provide an alternative ideology to Communism

• Promoted four main values: Social decency, honesty, right conduct and self-respect

• Built on 96 rules that identified ideal behaviours and behaviours to avoid

• Urban movement with little relevance for the peasantry, continued discrimination against women

L17: The Japanese Occupation of Manchuria

• 1931

• As a result of the 21 Demands and the chaos of the Warlord Period, Japanese economic control over Manchuria expanded greatly

• Zhang Zuolin, warlord of Manchuria, actively cooperated with the Japanese in exchange for military + financial aid

• However, Zhang switched his alliance to the GMD when he was defeated by the GMD during the Northern Expedition

• 4 June 1928: Zhang Zoulin was assassinated by the Japanese

• 18 September 1931: The Mukden Incident (where the Japanese military staged a bombing of the Japanese railway and blamed it on Chinese dissidents) occurred, justifying the Japanese Army’s decision to invade and occupy Manchuria

• Jiang dismissed the Japanese, the Japanese declared Manchuria independent and installed a puppet state led by Pu Yi called Manchukuo (18 February 1932)

• 1933: Jiang signed the Tanggu Truce, accepting Japanese claims

L18-19: The Long March

• Encirclement Campaigns (1931-1934)

• 1933: Fifth Encirclement Campaign occurred, where the Jiangxi Soviet was surrounded by 1 million GMD troops

• The Long March (16 October 1934-22 October 1935)

• 16 October 1934: Around 80,000 Red Army soldiers and 20,000 CCP staff began the Long March from Jiangxi to establish a new base

• Initially, the march was led by Bo Gu and Otto Braun, who favoured conventional warfare tactics

• Battle of the Xiang River (25 November-3 December 1934)

• Devastating encounter with GMD forces where the Communists lost around 70,000 soldiers (numbers dwindled from 100,000 to around 30,000)

• January 1935: Zunyi Conference was where Mao Zedong replaced Zhou Enlai as chairman of the CCP’s Military Affairs Committee

• Guerrilla tactics were introduced by Mao and he framed the march as a “march north to fight the Japanese” (propaganda)

• Battle of Luding Bridge (29 May 1935)

• Victory for the CCP at Luding Bridge became a powerful propaganda triumph

• Crossing of the Snowy Mountains and High Grasslands (1935)

• Extreme conditions reduced their numbers to 10,000

• Arrival in Yan’an (19 October 1935)

• 19 October 1935: After travelling approximately 9000 km, only 7000-8000 reached Shaanxii

L21: The Xi’an Incident and the Second United Front

• December 1936: The Xi’an Incident

• 1935: Jiang ordered his northern commander, Young Marshall Zhang Xueliang, to destroy the Yan’an Soviet

• Zhang was a former Manchurian warlord who supported the GMD, however he disobeyed these orders as he wanted Jiang to stop the Japanese invasion as opposed to defeating the CCP

• December 1936: Zhang signed a truce with the CCP, independent of Jiang

• 3 December 1936: Jiang flew into Xi’an to fore Zhang to start following orders again

• 12 December 1936: Zhang kidnapped Jiang, demanding he end his war with the CCP and instead prepare for war with Japan

• The CCP was then invited to negotiate with Jiang, where Jiang agreed to the demands (to fight against Japanese and form a Second United Front)

• The Second United Front (1937-1941)

• Yan’an Soviet was given independence from Nationalist China as an autonomous region

• Armies of the CCP were recognised as official Chinese Armies (the New Fourth Army and the Eighth Route Army), giving them GMD weapon stockpiles and eventually foreign military aid

• The Japanese defeated GMD forces and occupyed the North China Plain and all of China’s coastal cities until 1945, protecting the CCP indirectly as the Yan’an Soviet remained

• 1937-1945: During the Japanese invasion, 18 million Chinese civilians and 3 million Chinese soldiers (mostly GMD) were killed

L22: The Yan’an Soviet

• 1936-1947

• Yan’an was poor and old fashioned

Mao implemented land and tax reforms, including:

• Surplus land being taken from landowners and redistributed to poorer peasants and members of the Red Army

• Redistribution was carried out by Poor Peasant Associations

• Land rent was fixed at no more than 25% of a peasant’s harvest

• Interest on loans decreased from 18% to 1.5%

• Tax breaks were given to land owners who supported local industry or had a son in the Red Army

Social reforms included:

• Women’s associations set up to support women in abusive marriages/poverty

• Women were granted equal rights in marriage laws and were introduced to safe childbirth techniques and additional food rations for pregnant women

Education reforms:

• Schools established for children and night schools were introduced for adults, peasants and soldiers

• Literacy campagins helped raise literacy rates from 1% (1936) to 50% (1943)

Economic reforms:

• Soldiers contributed by tilling crops and making 40% of their own food

• Opium was farmed and exported to non-CCP controlled areas to raise the income of Yan’an

Democracy:

• Local governments were introduced

• They established more representation for the local population with 1/3 of members being part of the CCP, 1/3 who were from other leftwing parties and 1/3 made up from anyone except landlords, Japanese sympathisers and rightwing GMD members

• CCP mebers all had to engage in manual labour

• By 1945: CCP grew to 1.2 million members (from 40,000 in 1937), 860,000 Red Army soldiers (from 92,000 in 1937), 100 million people were governed by Yan’an Soviet

L23: Mao Zedong Thought (Maoism)

Mao Zedong Thought

• Mao established the principle of the Mass Line (CCP policy should be based on consulting the masses through democratic peasant associations

• He also established the principle of New Democracy (the belief that the CCP should lead a nationalist revolution that embraced the four revolutionary classes (workers, peasants, petty bourgeoisie and patriotic capitalists) in a united front against Japan

• The Yan’an Way (values of struggle, sacrifice, selflessness, diligence and courage) were essential to Mao

• He also believed in a continuous revolution (where revolution could never end) and be adaptable

Mao’s Rectification Campaign (1 February 1942 - 1944)

• Mao aimed to silence remaining Orthodox Marxists in the CCP

• CCP membered had grown to 860,000 in 1940 and an influx of intellectruals threatened his power

• Dissenters were subjected to struggle sessions where they had to criticise themselves and take criticism from their peers and manual labour

• 40,000 party members were expelled, 1000 arrested and 70 senior leaders suicided