1.5 The Development of the United Front

Question 1

Where and when was the Chinese communist party founded?

Answer 1

in June 1921, in secret at a girls school in Shanghai

Question 2

Who was elected the first leader?

Answer 2

Chen Duxui

Question 3

What were the initial figures for the party? which of the young leaders was important?

Answer 3

12 young leaders - Mao Zedong (a bookseller)

only had 50 members

Question 4

In what year did the communist party and the Guomindang army form the united front? why?

Answer 4

1923 - influenced and advised by the Russia soviets to defeat warlords. They could not ignore Russia as they provided 5000 dollars a year to fund their party

Question 5

What incident occurred in May 1925 and what is the effect?

Answer 5

A British commander in the International Settlement shot into a crowd of Chinese protesters and killed 12 people - this enraged the Chinese

Question 6

When did Chiang call the united front to join a battle to defeat the warlords and remove foreign influence? and what was his speech called?

Answer 6

1926 - the northern expedition

Question 7

how long did the northern expedition last?

Answer 7

(2 years) from 1926-28

Question 8

when was the GMD government set up and where?

Answer 8

Nanjing 1928

Question 9

Why was the united front successful?

Answer 9

good tactics, Russian help, treatment of peasants, weakness of warlords, bribery of warlords

Question 10

What happened in April 1927?

Answer 10

Chiang turned on his former allies when directing all GMD leaders to purge communists in Shanghai

Question 11

what happened on the 12th of april 1927?

Answer 11

GMD forces, aided by thugs and warlord militias (triads), attacked and executed CCP members and fired on those who protested

Question 12

What was the ‘White terror’?

Answer 12

the period of time where the GMD went round killing and communists in power

Question 13

How many were killed in Shanghai ?

Answer 13

5,000

Question 14

Where did attacks spread to, how many were killed?

Answer 14

Hunan, 250,000

Question 15

What happened to the CCP?

Answer 15

they went into hiding and mainly stuck to rural areas

Question 16

Who emerged as the leader of China?

Answer 16

Chiang

Question 17

What were the consequences of the Shanghai masacre?

Answer 17

5,000 killed in Shanghai alone, 250,000 elsewhere, CCP went into hiding, Wuhan gov collapsed Chiang became leader, end of united front and soviet support for GMD

Question 18

Why did the GMD overthrow the CCP?

Answer 18

the CCP were popular, had a good reputation in defeating warlords, gave land to peasants and had 2 mil people join the party in 26-27 - GMD no longer needed them as an ally as warlords had been (mostly) defeated

Question 19

Where did the escaped communists gather, and who lead their new party?

Answer 19

Mao - they fled to the mountains of Jiangxi

Question 20

Which new communist army was set up in 1930, how many recruits did it have?

Answer 20

Red Army - 11,000

Question 21

How did the communists gain support again?

Answer 21

many peasants supported them because they gave them land and had certain moral code about respect for peasants

Question 22

When did the extermination campaigns take place? how many were there?

Answer 22

30-34, there were 5

Question 23

Why did the extermination campaigns take place?

Answer 23

Chiang wanted to crush all communists

Question 24

How many campaigns were failures?

Answer 24

4

Question 25

when did the fifth extermination campaign take place?

Answer 25

Autumn 1933

Question 26

Why was the 5th campaign successful?

Answer 26

used new tactics introduced by a German military advisor, General Hans von Seeckt - he used ‘blockhouse’ techniques (essentially making trenches and building walls)

Question 27

what did the blockhouse techniques achieve?

Answer 27

prevented food getting in or out - communists isolated and close to starvation

Question 28

How successful was the 5th campaign? how can this be shown?

Answer 28

quite successful - the communists had lost 1/2 of their territory and 60,000 troops due to many small, unsuccessful battles