Background
Late 19th century
Sun Yatsen led revolt which overthrew the Qing in 1911 and established a Republic in 1912,
Starts Chinese Nationalist Party
he based his rule on three principles:
1) nationalism (overthrow of Qing and recovery of trade rights from western powers)
2) democracy, liberal representative government
3) industrial socialism and land reform
Despite Yatsen’s republic, rule
quickly disintegrated into rule by Local Warlords and former bandits. One of
these warlords was the actual ruler of
Meanwhile the Chinese
eagerly awaited the completion of the Paris Peace conference and had high hopes that the Treaty of Versailles would break the
unequal treaties and imperialism which had embarrassed them since the Opium
Wars. They were severely disillusioned by the outcome.
May Fourth Movement (1919)
disillusionment with west who gave
into demands of
forced government not to sign Treaty of Versailles which favored Japanese interests
Youth mobilized, Chinese Communist Party begins, nationalism grows stronger.
Sun Yatsen goes to
Northern Expedition
The CNP, aided by the CCP, marched to the north and
conquered Warlords, brought more unified rule to
But the reverse happened. The CNM expelled all members of the CCP and killed as many of them as possible.
Massacres in 1928 ended communist resistance,
they had to go out into countryside. The
Nationalists hunted them down, Mao Zedong leads the Long March to gather
all communists and regroup in
Settled in the poorest region of the north, Mao gains large peasant support and declares a Chinese communist Republic. However, in this agricultural area there are no urban workers, no proletariat which Marx believed was necessary for revolution. Mao alters Marxism to hold that the revolution will come from the peasants, not the urban workers.