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China became a republic
Sun Yat-sen overthrew the Qing Dynasty and formed the Kuomintang (National People's Party) who aimed to unite Chinese provinces under a democratic government. He became a provisional president of the Chinese Republic. -
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Chinese Revolution in 20th century
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Yuan Shikai became the next president of the Chinese Republic
Yuan Shikai was a dictator who banished the Kuomintang and outlawed democracy. He died in 1916. -
Warlord Era (The time when communism spread around in China)
Sun returned to China. He accepted support from the Soviet Communists in 1921. The ideas of communism were spreading around. -
Shanghai Massacre
Sun Yat-sen died in 1925. Jiang Jie Shi became the new leader of the Kuomintang. He launched a three-year purge ("White Terror") to kill the people who supported CCP. The KMT attacked and killed 300,000 communist supporters in the Shanghai Massacre. It started the Chinese civil war. -
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The First Civil War
CCP was supported by the people because they brought land reform and gave peasants more say in local government.
Kuomintang had corruption and imposed high taxes, therefore they lost people's trust. In 1937, both parties stopped fighting each other to fight the Japanese invaders. CCP was better at fighting the Japanese while the KMT abandoned the people in areas of Japanese invasion. -
Long March
CCP was almost defeated in 1934 but survived via the Long March. They walked more than 10,000 km. 8000 of 90,000 people survived -
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The Second Civil War
CCP had greater support, discipline and military capabilities.
The CCP finally defeated the KMT in 1946. -
People's Republic of China
Mao Zedong declared the country to be the People's Republic of China. Nationalists retreated to Taiwan and established the Republic of China in Taiwan. -
Great Leap Forward
Goal- Expand and modernize industries (People try to make iron and steel)
Result- Short-term increases in steel output. The plan failed because making iron and steel in people's backyard obviously could not work. The iron and steel that they made were unusable. -
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Famine
One of the results of the Great Leap Forward- Agriculture neglected causing famine. 30 million starved between 1959-1961. -
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Cultural Revolution
Goal: Rid China of capitalist forces and ideas through eradication of the “Four Olds” (old ideas, culture, customs, habits)
Everyone who did not agree with Mao was killed. Red guards (young people) were used by CCP to report the "enemy". They would even report their friends and families and beat them up. Mao’s Little Red Book was carried by every Red Guard and symbolized the revolution.
Result: Many cultural and historical artifacts were destroyed. Thousands of innocent people were killed. -
The Death of Mao
Two factions sought to take power after his death.
They were Gang of Four and Political moderates headed by Deng Xiaoping. Gang of Four were arrested and blamed for the Cultural Revolution. They all died afterward. -
Deng Xiaoping became the leader of China
He was willing to bend ideology to achieve results. He mentioned Four Modernizations: development of agriculture, industry, science/technology, and defence. He gave people a certain degree of economic freedom but maintained political control. -
One Child Policy
Deng Xiaoping instituted the one-child policy to deal with population issues.