Chinese Civil War Pt. 1 (Outline 3)

Long-term Causes of the Chinese Civil War

Socio-economic issues

• China was mostly made up of poor peasants

  • 80% of the population were farmers living in poverty

• Landowners (only 10% of the population) had a ton of land, and peasants had to pay super high rent to survive

• Widespread famine and natural disasters made things even worse.

• Modern industry barely existed

  • mostly concentrated in a few cities, and even there, working conditions were brutal

• No real middle class and definitely no social mobility

Political weakness + foreign influence

• China was basically getting carved up by foreign powers

  • spheres of influence from Britain, France, Japan, Germany, etc.

• Opium Wars and Unequal Treaties left a national humiliation vibe that fueled resentment

• Govt was corrupt and couldn’t resist foreign control, which made people lose faith

• Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1931 was a wake-up call

The fall of the Qing dynasty & Yuan Shikai

• The 1911 revolution booted out the last emperor and ended 2,000+ years of dynastic rule

• But the new leader, Yuan Shikai, just tried to make himself emperor again and failed miserably

• When he died in 1916, things fell apart, and warlords started running different regions like mini-countries

Short-term Causes of the Chinese Civil War

Political chaos & regionalism

• After Yuan’s death, China broke into chunks controlled by local warlords

  • no central authority

• The govt in Beijing was useless, and people were frustrated that there was no real progress toward unity

The May Fourth Movement (1919)

• Huge student-led protest sparked by the Treaty of Versailles giving Chinese land to Japan

• Started a major cultural awakening

  • people wanted to advance science, democracy, and national pride

• Showed how mad the public was about China being treated like trash internationally

GMD & CCP team up (then don’t)

• In 1924, the GMD (nationalists) and CCP (communists) tried to work together through the First United Front

• Goal: defeat warlords and unify China

• GMD wanted a centralized nationalist gov’t; CCP wanted revolution and land for peasants (different ideologies)

• Tensions kept bubbling under the surface

Immediate Cause: GMD Attacks CCP

• In 1927, Chiang Kai-shek turned on the CCP in the Shanghai Massacre

  • This broke the First United Front and kicked off the full-blown civil war

The Jiangxi Soviet (1931–1934)

• After being attacked, CCP set up a little communist zone in Jiangxi province

• They experimented with land reform and built up their Red Army under Mao

• GMD saw it as a threat and launched multiple campaigns to crush it

The Long March (1934–35)

• CCP had to bounce from Jiangxi after a brutal GMD campaign

• They trekked over 6,000 miles through mountains and rough terrain

  • Tens of thousands died

• Mao emerged as the top leader, survivors gained massive respect

• It was also a way for CCP to spread their message in rural areas