-
So that's it.
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Life for the peasants remained largely unchanged in the first decades of the twentieth
century. However, it was also a period of intellectual freedom and debate that led to
the emergence of various political movements, including the Chinese Communist Party
(CCP). Founded in 1921, the Chinese Communist Party’s idyllic vision of a classless
and egalitarian society was particularly appealing to the vast majority of Chinese who
had traditionally lacked any hope for social mobility. -
To unite China and defeat local warlords, in 1924, the Communists joined forces with the NationalistParty, which was led by Sun Yat-sen and, later, Chiang Kai-shek. Chiang Kai-shek turned against the Communists and nearly wiped them out in a bloody purge in April 1927.
Most of the surviving Communists retreated to safety in the countryside. -
Japan launched a full-scale invasion of China as part of military activity in the Asian arena
shortly before World War II in 1937. The Japanese quickly took over the eastern part of
the country, including major cities such as Beijing and Nanjing. To defeat the Japanese,
the Nationalists and the Communists once again agreed to join forces. -
The People’s Republic of China was founded in 1949 based on a Communist vision of
a classless society—a nation in which all individuals are equal in economic, social, and
political power. Since 221 BCE, China had been ruled by a series of dynasties in which
power passed down from one ruler to the next in the same family for generations. -
Throughout this period, a tiny and elite landlord class ruled over the masses of poor
peasants. By 1900, Britain, Germany, Japan, and other countries exerted control over
parts of China, and the imperial government continued the tradition of subjugating the
peasant population. In 1912, China entered what historians refer to as the Modern Era,
after a military uprising overthrew the Qing Dynasty that had been in power since 1644
and established the Republic of China.
