Chinese History - Chapter 35

Introduction to Chapter 35: China

  • Thematic focus: The last dynasties of China and the rise of political parties

    • Chapter 35's background color is thematic (red for China)

    • Significance of content to be covered in Chapter 35 rated from 1 to 10 (7 for the current lesson)

Historical Timeline of China

  • Last dynasty of China: Qing Dynasty

    • The Qing Dynasty is identified as the final dynasty before significant political changes

    • The timeline notes include:

    • Fall of the Qing Dynasty in 1911

    • Rise of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party)

      • Key leaders: Sun Yat-sen and Chiang Kai-shek

        • Correct spelling of Chiang's name:

What we went over in class

Timeline

  • 1911 - Nationalists (Guomindang) over-throw the emperor

    • Sun yat sen

    • Chiang kai Shek

  • 1934 - Long March → Zedong takes over communists

  • 1937/1945 - communists → Mao zedong

  • 1958 - Great Leap Forward begins → collectivization leads to famine

  • 1966 - cultural revolution begins → Goal - up communism

  • 1976 - Modernizations → capitalism

  • 1989 - rights democracy

 introduction

  • China, Vietnam abandon Confucian culture in favor of communist revolution

The struggle for china

  • 1912 - Fall of Qing dynasty

    • Military commanders (Warlords) dominated Chinese politics for the next three decades

      • Warlords formed alliances

  • China intervention of Western powers eager to profit from China’s divisions and weakness

    • From mid-1980s until 1945, Japanese were a major factor in the long and bloody contest for control of China

    • 1937 - japan invaded china

    • foreigners control parts of china

The May fourth movement and the Rise of the Marxist Alternative

  • Sun Yat-sen

    • Leader of the Revolutionary alliance opposed the Qing in 1911

    • 1911 - Elected president (by important military leaders), but warlords continued to dominate China

    • 1912 - lack of power, resigned in favor of northern warlord Yuan Shikai

  • 1912 - Yuan Shikai takes control of China (Fails to unify China)

    • Most powerful of the northern warlords

    • 1915 - plans to become Emperor failed

      • Rivalry with other warlords

      • Republican nationalists such as Sun caused problems

      • Growing influence of Japan in China

    • 1919 - Treaty of Versailles

      • Japan managed to solidify its hold on northern China by winning control of the former German concession in the peace negotiations

    • 1919 - May fourth movement (Against corrupt Chinese gov, * Foreign imperialism)

      • Students (Intellectuals) and nationalist politicians organized mass demonstrations in many chinese cities

      • upset about Treaty of Versailles ( Japan given Chinese land )

      • prolonged period of protest against Japanese

      • Expanded from marches and petitions to strikes and mass boycotts of Japanese goods

      • called for the abandonment of confucianism in favor of Western ideals

        • Democracy

        • Liberation of women

        • would ultimately lead to the rise of chinese communist party

  • Civil liberties, democratic elections meaningless in a China that was ruled by warlords

    • Chinese intellectuals, students, and some nationalist politicians turn to more radical solutions

      • 1920s - rise of communism

      • 1917 - Russia → communist

  • Li Dazhao - cofounder of Chinese communist party

    • called for a reworking of Marxist ideology to fit China’s situation

    • saw peasants, rather than the urban workers, leaders of revolutionary change

    • all of china exploited by the bourgeois (Property owners), industrialized west

      • Chinese unite and rise up against their exploiters

  • Mao zedong

    • Student of Li Dazhao

    • angered China’s betrayal by imperialist powers

    • Hostile to merchants and commerce, appeared to dominate west

    • Believed in an authoritarian state

  • 1921- Communist Party formed Mao become one of the main communist leaders

The seizure of power by the Guomindang, or Nationalist party

  • 1919 - Nationalist party (changed name of party to unify people), aka Guomindang

    • Rival Communist party for control

  • Sun Yat-sen - head of the party from 1911 until his death in 1925

    • militarize in order to drive out the warlords

    • unify China strong central gov

    • bring imperialist intruders under control

    • Introduced social reforms alleviate poverty of the peasants and oppressive working conditions of laborers in China’s cities → Failed

    • Welcomed advisors and material assistance Soviet Union → Bolsheviks encouraged the Chinese communist party to join with the larger and richer nationalist party in a common struggle to seize power

  • While the Nationalists were engaged in political and military organization, China was deteriorating

    • Failed to implement most of the domestic programs they proposed (including land reform)

    • Corrupt warlords and bureaucrats, allied to the Nationalist party

    • Big landlords and rich peasants amassed great landholdings

    • Millions of peasants died

      • Swept away by floods

      • famine

      • disease

      • Killed by local warlords army

Mao and the peasant option

  • Mao zedong

    • peasant background

    • influenced by Marxist thinkers

    • rebelled against father’s exploitation tenants, laborers

    • Late 1920s - Mao’s rise to leadership

  • Chiang kai-shek

    • 1925 - leader of the Nationalist party

    • eliminating military warlords

    • eliminated political rivals civil war broke out between the Nationalists and the communists in China

      • In changhai, his soldiers beheaded communist supporters

      • 1947 - civil war ends with communist victory