Causes of the chinese civil war Flashcards
(17 cards)
Political pre1900
Long term causes (pre 1900) Political:
Failure of central government/ruling dynasty
Taiping rebellion 1850 - 1864, 20 million dead
Nian rebellion 1851 - 1868
Du Wenixiu 1856-1873
Foreign influence/Imperialism
Opium wars 1839 - 1860s
Unequal treaties
Boxer rebellion 1899
Taiping rebellion:
Leader of the Taiping tries to set up a heavenly state in China and gains followers (biggest cult), China has to start a war.
Taiping lost due to western support and chinese warlords
Role of military in politics
Internal rebellions led to regional generals & warlords
Role in revolution 1911
Weaknesses of new republic:
Double tenth revolution in 1911 (10th october)
Dr sun yixian & chinese nationalist party (GMD)
Republic 1912 weak. Sun Yat sen hand power to general Yuan Shikai
Not really a government, regions have different warlords with armies and have they own rules
Political
Chinese delegation to Paris Peace conference - humiliation
May 4th student movement - nationalists/anti imperialist
GMD manifesto - land reform; democracy; removal of imperialism powers
Established CCP 1921
Both GMD & CCP want to crush militarists/warlords and create strong central government
Economic
Subsistence farming/land shortage
Lack of modernisation, development & industrialization
Urban workers, terrible conditions
Landowners and business elites
Taxation only taken from the poor/burden on peasantry
Warlords have separate tax
Social workers
Lack of education
Influence of foreign ideas and christianity
1920s
Both CCP & GMD wanted to unify China under a strong central government - 1st united front 1924. After the success of the northern expedition in 1926 against Warlords - GMD turned on the CCP.
Jiang Jeshi
wants to move the party to the right, landlords and business owners, no intention of sharing powers
2nd united front (1937-1945) to fight Japan
The CCP was encircled 5 times, 1st time moa and another used guerilla tactics to defend themselves from GMD
5th encirclement Jiang has support from Nazis and GMD tried to attack conventional, they almost got wiped out.
From 1927 - dec 1936
known as nanjing decade, the leader of GMD naming the CCP as bandits/terrorists The ccp was in retreat not really a civil war, CCP traverse china, the long march, filled with many myths - very few broke from encirclement and when GMD had to fight CCP, they were attacked with guerilla tactics
Every Guerrilla war has a clear unifying ideology with the people
Chinese population
In china 90% of the population are peasants, Mao rewrites marxism - Maos identifying the peasants are the revolutionary force, as japan has invaded manchuria and expand into china, the propaganda slogan of land is becoming as hollow, Jiang is doing nothing - killing other chinese rather than japanese, 1936 jiang is kidnapped by his own general to make a second united front, 2nd sino japanese war tarts july 1937,
Cause of chinese civil war short term
is WW2 and 2nd sino japanese war
Impact of second world war:
Military:
CCP strengthened during war with Japan, because Mao is only using 10% of CCP budget to fight japan, he is using attrition, Moa is putting effort to expanding territory and bases
GMD weakened because they use conventional tactics which cause great damage, loss of support due to Mao’s tactics, flooding of the yellow river
Impact of second world war:
Political/ideological:
Communism (maoism) vs nationalism - no more middle ground, throughout the war polarisation occurs
Impact of second world war:
Foreign influence:
US support GMD
USSR invasion of manchuria to hold possibly for CCP
Dixie mission 1944
supported by Stalin, US send high profile delegate to china to stop chinese civil war break out, attempts to negotiate a coalition government, Mao and jiang have no intention of doing this, Mao said political power grows out of a barrel of a gun.
End of ww2, GMD and CCP are preparing for a civil war, negotiations fail, June 1946 - chinese civil war begins
