by 1920, there was basically no one in charge of china: two parties were competing: nationalists (sun yat-sen) and chinese communists

communists from beijing university formed the cc party, and the allied with the nationalists to drive warlords/imperial powers out of china in 1923

northern expedition: 1926 joint campaign that marched north and took control of all of china south of the yangtze

once sun yat-sen died, his successor chiang attacked the communists in the shanghai massacre, ending the alliance

chiang founded the new republic in 1928 and spent more time getting rid of communists than getting rid of japanese

communists tried to revive the party in hiding in shanghai

some fled to jiangxi, led by mao zedong. believed that a communist revolution would be led by the peasants. by 1931 most party leaders joined him in jiangxi. attacked, but used guerilla warfare and didn’t die

1934: communist base was surrounded, they broke through and tried to make it to the river and most of them died. but they made it! (long walk)

chiang decided to follow sun’s program, and started a transition period to switch to a republican government. educated people about issues while also being dictators and industrializing.

tried to bring together western values into a confucian nation. didn’t work. no one liked him and also the great depression

most of the wealth was in the hands of the “four families”