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Socio-economic Factors
China was ruled by the imperial Manchu dynasty, but there were political weaknesses because of the influence of foreign powers, (European imperialists powers) had humiliated and exploited China and this caused the destabilization of China´s Manchu Regime. On the other hand, China had been forced to sign unequal treaties that gave the imperialist power control over Chinese trade and territory. -
Socio-economic Factors
In 19th Century, the majority of the population were peasants and their life was hard, working the land, and most were extremely poor. Also, the peasants paid taxes to the Manchu Imperial Court, Unfortunately peasants would be driven to the cities by poverty, where there was already high unemployment due to improved technology. -
A Republic was created
China was in a desperate condition, so they decided that Manchu dynasty should be overthrown so that China could be Westernized. The ruling dynasty was overthrown in a revolution know as the Double Tenth. A republic was created, and the revolution began when the government lost control of the military. On the other hand, the inflation and corruption weakened the financial position of the Manchus. -
Dr Sun Yixian
The creation of the Chinese Republic was declared, but the impact of imperialism, anti-foreign sentiment and political weakness. And the Dr sun Yixian becomes president of the republic GMD, he wanted to modernize China. But the revolution was incomplete because there was no democracy. Yuan Shikai attempted to suppress the rebellion and made an agree with Sun. -
The rule of Yuan Shikai
Yuan ruled China as a military dictator from 1912 until 1915, on the other hand, regionalism continued under Yuan´s rule and became the key obstacle to a united China. Sun´s party reformed as the Guomindang and the 3 principles (socialism, people´s livelihood, and wealth). Sun agreed to Yuan´s rule in order to avert the possibility of China descending into a civil war. -
Political weakness: Regionalism- the warlords
In China was increasing lack of unity in the country and the regionalism and provincialism were playing a significant role on causing the war. China broke up into small states and provinces each controlled by a warlord and his private army, also they ran their territories independently, organizing and taxing the people in their domain, warlords who had their own laws and even their currencies, and it were the peasants who suffered more.The warlord period increased. -
The May Fourth Movement
Then, 2 political movements developed in response to both the warlords and foreign influence in China, the May Fourth Movement began in 1919, that students and intellectuals led a mass demonstration against warlords, traditional Chinese culture and the Japanese, it was dedicated to change and rebirth China as a proud and independent nation. -
Communists and Nationalists
After the death of Sun, a general took over leadership of the GMD; Jiang Jieshi had enthusiastically joined to GMD. Then, another revolutionary party emerged during the warlord period, the CCP conformed by intellectuals. So, they agreed to work with the GMD, it was also consistently encouraged to cooperate with the nationalists by the USSR. -
The First United Front
The GMD and the CCP wanted to unified China, they agreed that this was not get rid of the warlords and in 1922 formed the First united Front. Also they agreed that China needed to be free of the foreign imperialists powers. However, Jiang became increasingly anti-communist and began his leadership of the GMD by removing communists from the party, but first he must unified China. -
White Terror and Alliance Destroyed
But, the popular support for the communist was a reason that Jiang decided he could no longer tolerate them in the GMD. It seemed to Jiang that the CCP needed to be crushed before China could truly be unified under the GMD. He expelled the communist in the White Terror in April in Shanghai, where 5,000 communists were shot, so they carried out similar attacks in other cities, and the CCP was very nearly crushed by the end of 1927. The Civil war had begun.
