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In 1912 the Nationalist party or the Kuomintang overthrrow the las emperor of the Quing Dynasty, ending their two hundred rule. Sun Yixian, the Nationalist leader, becomes presidente of the new Republic of China.
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After six weeks of government Sun Yixian turns over his presidency to Yuan Shikai, a powerful general. He turned down the democatric ideals and start a military dictatorship, which caused local revolts in which even his generals refused to shot the rebels. It ended when he died in 1916.
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During World War I the Chinese believed that the Allies (Beijing) would return control of China to the Chinese, instead they gave Japan the territories and privilages that had previosly belonged to Germany. When these news reach China, 3,000 angry students protest in Beijing. Mao Zedong, a schoolteacher supported the students. The demostration spread and workers, manufacters, shopkeepers and professionals joined the cause.
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The communists viewed the Soviet Union under Lenin as a model for political and economic change, they were young intellectuas. One of his founders was Mao Zedong. Meanwhile Sun Yixian and his Nationalist Party accepted an offer from the Soviets who began to sending military equipment and advisers to them.
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When Sun Yixian died, Jiang Jieshi became the new leader of the Nationalists. In April 1927 his troops and army moved into Shanghai killing all the Communists, only a few survived who escaped. In 1928 Jiang became the president of the Nationalist Republic of China.
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Jiang had promised democracy and political rights to all Chinese, but his government became more corrupt, so the peasants threw their support to the Communists Party. Mao divided land that Communists won among local farmers to have more support of peasants.
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The Nationalists and Communist were fighting a bloody civil war.
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Japan saw that China was weak beacuse of all the internal struggles they had, so they attack Manchuria. In 1937 the Japanese had an all-out invasion of China, bombing villages and killing millions of Chinese. By 1938 Japan held control of a large part of China, which made the Communist and Nationalists to stop fighting each other and join to fight the Japanese.
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Jiang gathered an army surrounding the Communists mountain stronghold, the communist leaders realize they faced defeat so they fled, beganing a 6,000 mile journey. The Red Army began with 1000,000 people who after crossing rivers, mountains and fighting small battles, only 30,000 reach northwestern China.
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When the war ended the Civil war between the Nationalist and Communist continue. The Nationalists had a great advantage at first because their army was much bigger than the Communists, and the U.S provided nearly $2 billion in aid. Their problem was that they didn't do anything to have popular support, so many soldiers deserted to the Red Army along other villages. The Red Army had good guerrilla warfare and were moved by the promise of the return of the land to the peasants.
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Mao gained control of the country, he proclaimed it the People's Republic of China. Jiang and other Nationalist leader retracted to Taiwan. In 1950 the Chinise and Soviets signed a treaty of friendship which maded U.S anti-communist feeings to grow because they believed they were trying to conquer the world.
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China had split into two nations, the Nationalist China which was in Taiwan and the People's Republic of China. After Jiang flew to Taiwan the U.S help him to set a Nationalist government in that island, which they called the Republic of China. The Soviets gave financial, military and technical support to the Communist Republic of China.
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Control of Inner Mongolia, Tibet and India. When they were getting control of the Tibet, they promise autonomy to Tibetans. but when Chinas control tightened, the Dalai Lama (their leader) flew to India , who welcome them after their failed revolt, which grew the resentment between India and China.
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Mao was determined to reshape China's economy based on Marxist ideas. Between 1953-57 the government forced peasants to join collective farms, made woman equal in the home and in the workplace, insititude state-sponsored child care, divided land among peasants and also transformed industry and business.
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Communes were overly large collective farms, in which 25,000 people lived there. Under the leadership of squad leader they worked the land, ate in communal dining rooms, slept in communal dormitories, and raised chidren in communal nurseries. They owned nothing, so the peasants had no incentive to work hard.
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The bound between the Soviet Union and China began to fade and after the failure of the Great Leap Forward, Maos reduced his role in the government. So the other leaders moved away from the strict socialist ideas.
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Mao disapproved Chinas new economic policies, believing they were against the goal of social equality. So he began a new campaign for young people to "learn revolution by making revolution". The students responded to his call, creating the Red Guards.
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The Red Guards led a major uprising called the Cultural Revolution. Their goal was to establish a society of peasants and workers in which all are equal. They shut own schools and colleges because they saw them as threats.
