Presented By: Ryan Solomon (100709524)
Presented To: Dr. R. Amore
Week 2, Early Formation (Origins)
of the Chinese Communist Party and the Long March
Origins of the Kuomintang
Dr. Sun Yat-sen, considered the spiritual head of modern China
Devoted most of adult life to
advocating republicanism and opposing the various cliques and regimes in charge
Set up governments twice in
Canton (1917, 1920)
Sun Yat-sen
attempted a campaign to the north against the ruling clique and it’s allies; failed
Recuperated in Shanghai,
gathering forces and coin
Canton in Janurary
1923 to mid- 1926: the first organizational phase of the KMT begins:
Created a dynamic
revolutionary movement, gained actual control over internal revenue, create a
subservient and reliable military force to protect the southern base.
HQ in Shanghai, main branch in
Canton, lodges around the world, But only a few thousand members in the
rest of China
KMT leaders experienced at revolutionary
activities
Soviet Russia began to support
KMT under COMINTERN policies:
-aided financially, sent
advisors, induced Chinese Communist Party to join KMT, reformed KMT army
-but
also tried to transform the KMT into an anti-imperialist, anti-feudal, agrarian
- backed revolt
Sun Yat-Sen
dies in March 1925; successors take over, one of which is Chiang Kai-Shek
May 30th
Incident: General strikes, marches,
demonstrations, looting
As a result, Great Britain,
Japan, France, America, and the other foreign powers change their policies
toward China
But relations never the same
KMT became hugely popular: only
party in China promoting nationalism, anti-foreign (“anti-imperialist”)
policies
Great Northern Expedition: KMT conquers
half of China in 9 months
KMT began taking in defectors
to enlarge their armies, resulted in a tremendously bloated KMT, reduced in
quality
1926-27: KMT\CCP split - Growing split between the KMT and the CCP over administering the new
territory
Chiang set his forces to destroying the Shanghai CCP apparatus and
established an anti-Communist government at Nanjing
in April 1927; ejected Russian advisors and cancelled COMINTERN deal - CCP decides on a general uprising; crushed
But public opinion began to
turn against Chiang at this point due to his dictatorial actions and orders
April 12th, 1927 KMT crackdown with a feast of heads.
1928-1930
All of China was at least
nominally under Chiang's control, received prompt international recognition as
the sole legitimate government of China.
CCP and Red Army began to
regroup, and turned from an urban proletariat movement to an agrarian based
peasant’s movement
Soviet areas were established
in several southern and eastern Chinese provinces
Mao Tse-tung
(Zedong) Had boundless faith in the revolutionary
potential of the peasantry.
CCP was founded in 1921, Mao
was a founder. Originally called the Kungch’antang, the “Share Production Party”
Chinese Revolution should
focus on them rather than on the urban proletariat, as prescribed by the Soviet
Union and orthodox Chinese.
In collaboration with military
commander Zhu De, Mao turned the local peasants into a politicized guerrilla
force.
Mao's prestige rose steadily
after the failure of the Comintern-directed urban
insurrections.
In 1931 he proclaimed the
establishment of the Chinese Soviet Republic under his chairmanship with Chou
En-lai
Central Committee was finally
forced to move it’s headquarters from Shanghai to
Mao’s areas. Mao-Chu
(En-lai) win leadership of
the CCP
1928-1934
In the winter 1930, Chiang
Kai-Shek began the 1st of 5 Annihilation
Campaigns
By the 5th Campaign, General Von Seeckt
moved the KMT troops forward very slowly and then built concrete reinforced
blockhouses and pillboxes This allowed the KMT to control every path and road. The
Red Army was now under the leadership of Otto Braun (a Soviet advisor) and Zhou
Enlai, after Mao was removed from power because of
the campaigns. After a year of terrible losses and disastrous battles, the CCP
lost both men and territory.
Long March:
On October 16th, 86,000 men and woman began the trip that would last
until October 19, 1935, 6000 miles to the north. The leaders of this march would become the
future leaders of China for the next 30 years, and would be celebrated as
heroes.
The first major battle was a disaster. By the time they reached their
first destination, Zunyi, a month later, the Red Army
had about 30,000 troops left. A portion of the Red Army had to be left behind, under
future marshal Chen Yi
Otto Braun was becoming discredited with the losses. To avoid more KMT troops, they wheeled south
into Guizhou Province to draw off forces guarding the
Yangzi River crossings. By January 7th they had taken
and occupied Zunyi.
At Zunyi a conference took place that would forever
change the face of China. Mao emerged
from the conference as the leader of the Communists Party and overall commander
of the Red Army. Otto Braun was out.
Red Army intelligence reported that the KMT had crack troops poised to
block such an attempt. As the Red Army left Zunyi to
the north Mao had about 35,000 troops including many he had just recently
recruited.
Mao changed course and the Red Army doubled back to the south and west.
Chiang tried to prevent Mao from escaping north across the Yangtze River;
Mao created feints
The KMT tried to respond but
were caught out of place, and smashed in several small engagements.
Red Army forces, down to 20,000 men, succeeded in opening a way for the
Red Army to cross the Yangtze.
Next was the crossing of the Luding Bridge,
about a 1,000 li to the north.
On May 29, 1935, the Red Army arrived here. Despite of the heavy gunfire
from the enemy troops stationed at the bridge and the fact that the KMT had
removed the planking, the Red Army forced the crossing.
Travel Habits - CCP paid for goods
Strict
Discipline. Death Penalty
included: Treason, murder, rape, flight
with arms, refusal to obey commands, giving Red Army secrets to prostitutes,
and looting from any poor man
Mao and the Red Armies were
well received by the population, and the CCP gained many recruits to sustain
their losses.
Great Snowy Mountains were next. The 14,000 and 15,000-foot heights would
kill many men who would just die for lack of oxygen. Halting at the top proved
to be fatal. It was terrible not to rest, but rest meant death. Many froze
Mao’s army met with Zhang Guotao of the Fourth
Army.
Little was trust between the two armies.
They joined forces to cross the Grasslands, a giant muddy swamp. With no people, no food, no firewood, Mao
lost more men the in the Grasslands than in the Snowies.
The Split with Zhang Guotao
Mao and Zhang Guotao had joined up together
after the grasslands, and disputed where the Red Army would go. Ye Jianying, relayed a secret message the message to Mao. Zhang was possibly trying to take over the
entire Red Army and oust Mao. Ye Jianying escaped
away with Mao and Mao's troops. Zhang considered sending his more powerful army
after Mao.
Future-Marshal Xu Xiangqian
disagreed, "Have you ever seen the Red Army attacking the Red Army?"
That was it. It was a dangerous moment in the history of the Party. Xu and Ye both got credit for stopping an open conflict.
Storming the Lazikou Pass
From prisoners they learned the KMT had built blockhouses at Lazikou. The pass at Lazikou was
very narrow.
A succession of night attacks failed with heavy casualties.
A band of experienced minority mountaineer troops assembled for a new
plan.
The mountain men had reached the peak and rained down grenades. Within
minutes, the KMT soldiers ran for their lives. The Red Army would not have to
return to the Grasslands.
The Red Army was home and began to regrow. Of the 86,000 who began, only 4,000 remained. The
Long March ended. They had marched 25,000 li -- 6,000
miles.
Aftermath
The Red Army, through it’s hardships and the example it set on the march, became
legendary among the peasantry.
Mao became the undisputed
political head of the CCP.
The Red Army’s entrenched
location farther north allowed them much mobility against the KMT forces
Also was in a prime position
to block the Japanese advances in the region later in the decade.
Sources:
Wilbur, C. Martin. The Nationalist Revolution in China,
1923-28. New York: Cambridge University
Press, 1983.
Smedley, Agnes: China’s
Red Army Marches. New
York, International Publishers, 1934.
Snow, Edgar. Red Star Over
China.
Noll, Paul. http://www.paulnoll.com/China/Long-March
Library of Congress: A Country Study: China lcweb2.loc.gov/frd/cs/cntoc.html
Schwartz, Benjamin. Chinese Communism and the
Rise of Mao. 1966: Cambridge Massachusetts, Harvard University
Press
Probert Encyclopedia www.probertencyclopaedia.com
Tse-Tung, Mao: Why Can
China’s Red Political Power Exist?: Peking:
Foreign Languages Press, 1963
The Chinese
Revolution
Week #3
Dan Beneteau
The Japanese Invasion
•
The Japanese began their full-scale invasion on
September 4, 1937
•
Early in 1937 the Japanese forces occupied the
coast of China and the islands of Hainan to Taiwan
•
The Nationalist government retreated and moved
its capital to Chongqing
•
The invasion helpful to the Communists for two
main reasons besides military experience
•
Ideologically because they came across as more
patriotic than the Nationalists
•
The Nationalists evacuated the north which meant
that if the population of the area wanted help against the invaders, the
Communists forces were their only hope
•
The Japanese forces mobilised in great numbers
and terrorized areas believed to hold Communists where they did Mop-Ups,
basically witch hunts that involved terrorizing the peasant populations
•
With the army the Communists were able to carry
out successful guerrilla operations against the Japanese Army which gave them
even more popular support
•
The Nationalists did not declare war against
Japan until after the attack on Pearl Harbour
•
When the war was over in August 1945 the
Communists held an area in the north with a population of about 100 million
The Second United Front
•
The Second United Front began on December 12,
1936 when two generals kidnapped the Nationalist leader, Chiang Kai-Shek
•
The generals got Chiang to agree to a truce with
the Communists in order that both parties could focus their energies against
the Japanese
•
Chiang agreed to this only because he was given
no other choice
•
From 1937 until 1941 the Communist armies were
integrated into the Nationalist army
•
The two main ones were the Eighth Route Army and
the New Fourth Army
New Fourth Army Incident
•
In December 1940, Chiang demanded the Communist
New Fourth Army evacuate the Provinces of Anhui and Jiangsu
•
On their way out they were ambushed by
Nationalist troops who gained victory in January 1941, an act that ended the
Second United Front
Terms of Peace With Japan
•
General Douglas MacArthur
designated Chiang as the sole power that could accept the surrender of Japanese
forces in China
•
Surprisingly the Soviet Union had a similar
agreement in place
Manchuria
•
Soviet forces quickly moved into the territory
after the end of the war to accept the surrender of the Japanese force and
equipment remaining there
•
The Soviets took most of the industries back to
Russia in order to rebuild because of damages done by the German forces during
the war
•
Manchuria was the only territory that the
Communist forces succeeded in seizing out of the territories formally occupied
by the Japanese
•
It becomes the base for the offensive of the Red
Army
Involvement of the United States
•
After the Nationalists declared war on Japan
they received plenty of assistance
•
However, the Americans were impressed by the
effectiveness of the Communist forces and began to give them weapons as well
•
Marshall was sent to attempt to negotiate a
peace between the Nationalists and the Communists with two immediate goals in
mind
•
A cessation of hostilities and the immediate
evacuation of Japanese troops
•
A national conference of representatives of the
major parties to develop a solution to the present internal conflict and unify
the country
•
The Marshall Mission was a total failure by the
end of January 1947
•
Shortly after this time the Chinese Civil War
began
•
The United States gave the Nationalists hundreds
of millions of dollars worth of military supplies left from the Second World
War
•
By the spring of 1949 the US saw that the war
was lost and offered a ceasefire which would have split China in two with the
Communists in control of the north and the Nationalists in the South, which the
Communists refused
The Soviet Union as an Ally?
•
Following the Soviet evacuation of Manchuria
both the Communists and the Nationalists took a portion of it
•
Stalin invited both sides to discuss the matter
in June 1946
•
Chiang refused the offer which resulted in a
change of policy from the Soviet Union
• From this point on Stalin backed Chinese Communist strength in Manchuria
•
When the civil war began Stalin only provided
the Chinese Communists with limited aid because he did not believe they had any
chance of winning
Mistakes of the Nationalists
•
Their biggest mistake was during the Japanese
invasion when they allowed the Communists to put up a much stronger resistance,
which led to more populace support for the Communists
•
A further mistake is that the Nationalist
demilitarized 1.5 million troops as a sign of support for the Marshall Mission
•
The Communists made no such moves with their
trained soldiers
•
Moreover, there was the horrible economic
situation China found itself in
•
Most sources blame this on massive government
corruption which led to immense hyperinflation that reached several thousand
percent per year after 1947
People’s Liberation Army
•
The People’s Liberation Army was created in July
1946, by the Communists
War of Liberation
•
Hostilities were initiated by the Nationalists
with sporadic fighting in 1946
•
In 1946-47 the Nationalists launched a series of
attacks in northern China against the Chinese Communists and managed to capture
Yan’an, the Communist capital, in March 1947
•
The Nationalists hardly lost any battles during
the early stages of the war
•
This was not because the Communists did not want
to fight back, but because Mao’s Ten Principles of War would not allow them
that option
•
By the middle of 1947 the Nationalists were
overextended and the Communist push began
•
By early November the Communists had conquered
Manchuria which gave them a strong military-industrial base
•
Between April and September 1948 took many
cities the northern provinces
•
On January 8, 1949 Chiang ask each of the four
major powers at the time, the US, Britain, France and the Soviet Union, to
mediate, but all four of them refused
•
In December 1948, Beijing was cut off from the
sea
•
In early January 1949, the Communist forces
began to shell the city with artillery
• On January 31, 1949, the Communists forces entered the city of Beijing without a fight from those that remained
•
On January 21, 1949, Chiang stepped down as the
leader of the Nationalists and was replaced by President Li Tsung-Jen
•
On April 20, the Communist forces crossed the
Yangtze River which led to a Nationalist withdraw to Taiwan
People’s Republic
•
On October 1, 1949, Mao stood at The Gate of
Heavenly Peace and read a proclamation announcing China’s New People’s Republic
•
The Soviet Union recognized the new regime
within hours