China Test Terms Sheet Flashcards
(34 cards)
Qing Dynasty
The last dynasty of China that ended in 1911 starting with the Opium Wars and ending with the 1911 Revolution.
Opium War
Chinese officials wanted to ban British trade of opium to china, and confiscated/destroyed opium from trade warehouses. The Chinese were no match for the British navy which destroyed many costal Chinese forts. The Chinese were forced to surrender and sign the Treaty of Nanjing: extraterritoriality, 5 ports to Britain, most favored nation. Began century of humiliation.
Hung Xiuquan and the Taiping Rebellion
Civil war in China between 1850-1864 against the Qing Dynasty. The leader of rebellion was Hung Xiuquan, who believed he was the brother of Jesus. It took the Qing 14 years and foreign aid to suppress the rebellion.
The Boxer Rebellion
This violent anti-foreigner movement took place in China between 1899 and 1901. Colonial foreigners and native holders of local power provoked widespread rural violence. The rebels first targeted missionaries and native converts to Christianity. It quickly grew into an all-purpose anti-Christian and anti-foreign war pitting the Qing Dynasty and the rebels against eight foreign powers and their Chinese sympathizers.
Empress Dowager Cixi
She was from the Manchu clan, unofficially controlled the Qing dynasty for 47 years. She spent lavishly even as China’s influence waned. By every indication, she had the real emperor poisoned just before she died so that he could not take power when she was gone.
Hundred Days Reform
These efforts by the Emperor Guangxu were an attempt to fix the weaknesses of the Chinese government, the last significant attempts by the Qing to make changes to modernize the country.
Sun Yatsen and the Three Principles of the People
He founded the Republic of China, developed the Three Principles of the People: (nationalism-of the people, democracy-by the people, and People’s livelihood-for the people), and established the National Party.
General Yuan Shikai
A Chinese general and politician, he was born into a military family and thrived in physical fitness. He was the military general who led the Revolution against the Qing Dynasty and quickly succeeded Sun Yatsen as president of the new Republic of China.
1911 Revolution
Groups of revolutionaries in southern China, inspired by Sun Yatsen’s ideas, led a successful revolt against the Qing Dynasty. When Yuan Shikai used his military influence to defeat the Qing authorities, the dynasty fell and the Republic of China was established with Sun Yatsen as its leader.
The May 4th Movement
An anti-imperialist cultural and political movement led by students in Beijing, specifically protesting the Chinese response to the Treaty of Versailles because the Japanese were allowed to hold on the territories in Shangdong. This protest was the cause of future national protest and marked an increase in Chinese nationalism.
Guomindang / Nationalist Party
The only large-scale organized political party that existed in China in the years after the 1911 Revolution. This party was founded on the ideas on Sun Yatsen’s Republican Revolutionary (3 Principles of the People) movement and transformed from a small group of conspirators to a party with a large social base with a modernized army. The party’s political-social base was located in Canton.
Warlord Period
1916 to 1928 led by militarist leaders of local areas in China who were determined to maintain their power. After the February Seventh Massacre, which was ordered by and joined by these men, Guomindang and Communist leaders all recognized the need to eliminate these leaders and work to unify China (united front)
Northern Expedition
In 1926-1927, the GMD and CCP joined forces in this effort designed to eliminate warlords of the north and unite the country under one central government.
Mao Zedong
A Chinese communist revolutionary, founder of the People’s Republic of China from its establishment in 1949, Chairman of the Communist Party of China.
Chiang Kaishek
This GMD militarist would later become the leader of a GMD-controlled Chinese state. He led the United Front during the Northern Expedition and then turned on his Communist partners during the “White Terror.”
Mao’s wives (Yang Kaihui, He Zizhen, Jiang Qing)
- Chairman Mao’s first wife, the young daughter of Mao’s favorite professor at Beijing University. She joined the CCP in 1921 and was one of its earliest members. She was held captive and tortured in 1930, and was eventually executed because she would not publicly renounce Mao and the CCP.
- She was the second wife of Mao Zedong, an advocate of communism, and an active and admired revolutionary. She earned the nickname “the Two-Gunned Girl General.”
- She was the third and last wife of Mao Zedong. She was also a film actress in China at this time.
Changsha Disaster
The result of the reluctant obedience of Mao to follow an order to attack a city held by the Nationalists; the attack failed and communists remaining in the city were captured and, usually, killed, among them Mao’s first wife, Yang Kaihui, and his sister. After this episode, the urban proletariat largely avoided pro-communist political activism.
Extermination Campaigns
The CCP attacks on Changsha sparked fear in Chiang Kaishek. He launched the first one 1931 and 3 more afterwards. All were aimed at the “communist bandits” and all of them failed at a great expense to the Nationalist army.
Manchukuo
State in northeast china that was captured by Japan. The “puppet” ruler was the last Qing dynasty ruler Puyi.
The Long March
After the Nationalists defeated the Jiangxi Soviet, ninety thousand Jiangxi people escaped from the Nationalists encirclement. They proceeded on this trek to find a new place to live. On what ended up to be a yearlong “odyssey,” fewer than 10,000 of the original escapees survived.
(In the game, to Yan’an, Determination and commitment, Suffering and sacrifice, source of pride, hope, peasants protect and guide the revolution, humility, confirmed Mao was to lead CCP)
Yan’an
This is where Mao and his army went as a result of the Long March. Here, Mao was able to develop a socialist, non-hierarchal society which became a model of his ideal Chinese society. He incorporated communal agriculture and state-owned industries in order to make Yan’an “self-sufficient”.
Xi’an Incident
Even though the Japanese were attacking China, Chiang Kaishek refused to believe that they were a bigger threat than the communists. This disagreement happened when General Zhang kidnapped Chiang and held him hostage until he agreed to focus on the Japanese.
Japanese Surrender
In August of 1945, the Chinese prepared themselves to fight against one of their mutual enemies. Rural areas were organized and an alliance between the GMD and CCP was formed (2nd United Front). By using weaponry and their 4,000,000 soldiers, China won the war they were fighting.
Chinese Civil War
Two wars from 1927-1936 and 1946-1950 between the Nationalists (backed by Truman) and the Communists (backed by Stalin). They took place in Manchuria after political talks failed due to pressure from outside powers. It ended in a decisive victory for the Communists as Mao began a new era for China.
