Emergence
Conditions
Problems of late 19th century China:
➔ Growing authoritarianism of the Qing dynasty and its more and more apparent inability to
govern China
◆ Growing nationalism made the Chinese resent the Qing rule more and more, as the
dynasty was not truly Chinese, but gained control of the country when they invaded
it from Manchuria in 1644
➔ The social and political hierarchy of the Imperial China was conservative: the emperor was
the supreme rule with a ‘mandate from heaven’, the country was based on feudalism, which
led to social dissatisfaction
➔ Weak international position
◆ Since the 1840s, Western powers have made China enter a number of ‘unequal
treaties,’ which obliged China to give up land and accept Western domination (eg.
with regards to trade)
● Hsu: the unequal treaties “were not negotiated by nations treating each
other as equals but were imposed on China, and they encroached upon
China's sovereign rights which reduced her to semicolonial status"
● With the rise of Chinese nationalism and anti-imperialism in the 1920s, both
the Guomindang and the Communist Party of China used this concept to
characterize the Chinese experience of losing sovereignty between 1840 to
1950
◆ Military defeats: In the Opium wars (1839-1842 and 1856-1860), first against Britain,
then Britain and France
In 1894-1895 in the First Sino-Japanese war
➔ Backwardness of the economy (as compared to that of Japan and the European powers)
◆ Much of China’s industry and trade were controlled by foreign powers
➔ Rapid population growth (Chinese population doubled in the nineteenth century), which
caused problem with food supply → famines were frequent
◆ The population in China grew by 8% in the second half of the 19th century, but the
land cultivated only increased by 1%
➔ Poverty in the countryside pushed peasants to migrate to cities, which were unable to
accommodate such rapid population growth. leading to overcrowding and high
unemployment
China under the Qing dynasty
● The inability of the Qing to respond to China’s virtual loss of sovereignty caused widespread
resentment among the Chinese people
○ 1899-1901 Boxer Rebellion
, ■ Thousands of foreign missionaries and Christian converts were killed
■ the uprising was directed at the foreign powers, the rebels were encouraged
by the Dowager Empress Cixi
■ failed
○ Several political movements also developed, with the primary example of Sun Yatsen
and his Goumindang (GMD)
■ Argued that China should aim to develop similarly as Japan had - by adopting
Western military and economic strategies. The first step was to be
overthrowing the Qing dynasty
■ Sun’s Three Principles were: People’s Nationalism
People’s Democracy
People’s Livelihood - a policy that encouraged
social justice and a fairer distribution of wealth
The revolution of 1911, the Republic (1912-1916)
● Causes: growing discontent with the foreign encroachment, failed reform programme,
nationalisation of railways
1. 1911, the Revolution of the Double Tenth/ the Wuhan revolution brought down the
government of the Qing dynasty
a. There had been revolts before, but it was only in 1911 that the military supported
the GMD
b. Lynch: ‘The Double Tenth was a triumph of regionalism.’
2. Emperor Pu Yi abdicated, and the Chinese Republic was proclaimed
3. Yuan Shikai, an imperial general, used the army as his bargaining chip to become president
instead of Sun Yatsen
4. Although Shikai allowed parliamentary election to be held in 1913, soon after he banned the
GMD and began to rule as de-facto emperor
● Problems of the Qing dynasty persisted, as Shikai ruled in an authoritarian manner
under the Constitution Compact and borrowed heavily from abroad
5. Yuan was unable to halt the subjugation of China to the foreign powers, conceding to the
Twenty-One Demands that Japan made in 1915
a. The Demands transferred German trade and territorial concessions to Japan and
allowed the Japanese to exploit the mineral resources of Southern Manchuria
6. Shikai declared himself emperor in 1916 and died shortly afterwards, leaving China with no
effective central government until 1927
7. Jiang Jieshi declared himself Shikai’s heir, the generalissimo
Warlordism
● In 1916-1926, power was seized in parts of China by provincial military leaders who became
known as warlords
, ● Warlordism, itself caused by weakening of the central government, further degraded its
control
● Individual states had their own tax systems, laws and currencies
● Warlordism led to frictions - the small states were constantly fighting each other, and
warlords were looting and terrorising local populations and imposing high taxes on the
peasantry
● Extreme factional violence (eg. 1 million dead in the 1930 Central Plains Battle)
● The harsh rule of warlords inspired dissent → multiple student movements arised, including
the May Fourth Movement and opposition associations in Hunan organised by Mao Zedong
● V 1919 May Fourth movement - anti-government and anti-foreigner protests as a result of
the unfavourable terms of the Versailles Treaty (the Allies decided China would not be
recovering territories taken from it by Germany; Shaodong given to Japan)
○ The protesters demanded unification of China into a single stronger state
○ Showed that moderate means were not enough to make China what it should be;
more radical means needed (eg. communism)
● 1923 establishment of the Peasant Movement Training Institute by the Communists. The
purpose was to train peasants to fight the warlords
○ Mao was a teacher there
○ Spread propaganda
1924-1927 First United Front
1. GMD’s leader Sun Yixian established a government in Guangzhou with an aim of unifying the
country and defeating the warlords
2. Sun was looking for foreign assistance at this time as he was attempting to unite China, and
the Soviet Union responded positively
3. The USSR embarked on a plan to influence the GMD and the CCP to unite in order to drive
the warlords out of power as they wanted to have a pro-Soviet government south of its
borders
● Mao was involved in planning the alliance
● The Soviets provided military and political aid in preparation for what was became
known as the Northern Expedition
● The Central Executive Committee was established in 1924. It adopted Sun’s three
principles
4. Preparations for the Northern Expedition began in 1926
● Joined GMD-CCP forces were to form the core of the united Chinese army
5. Sun died in 1925, and, after a power struggle in the GMD, was succeeded by conservative
Jiang Jieshi, who was suspicious towards the CCP
6. III 1926 Canton Coup - Jiang purges the CCP and the left of the GMD, consolidating his
power of the party and the Northern Expedition
, 7. VII 1926-XII 1928 Northern Expedition of the CCP and the National Revolutionary Army
of the GMD
● Very successful start as the United Front forces moved northwards by defeating the
warlords and brokering alliances with some of them
● GMD provided a well-trained army, while CCP organised peasant and urban support
and distributed anti-warlord propaganda among the workers
● However, Jieshi feared the growing influence of the CCP
○ Growth of popularity, manifested in membership in CCP: 57 in 1921 →
>58,000 in 1927, with an additional 30,000 in the Communist Youth League
○ Jieshi also feared that the USSR would use the CCP to establish communist
control over the country and that the communists would scare off the
middle class that provided financial and political support for the GMD
8. I 1927 Wang Jingwei (leader of the left faction of the GMD) declares Wuhan the new capital
of the national government and party headquarters of the GMD
a. In IV, Jiang declared a new Nationalist government in Nanjing to rival the
communist-tolerant government in Wuhan. However Wang’s government quickly
disintegrated after he learned of a CCP plot to overthrow his government, leading
him to change sides and support Chiang’s purge of the CCP across China.
Consequently, the USSR terminated all cooperation with the GMD
9. Immediately after the capture of Shanghai in IV 1927, Jieshi ended the United Front and began
purges against the CCP and the left of the GMD, known as the ‘White Terror’ (including
the Shanghai Massacre)
● >5,000 Communist sympathisers were executed
● The CCP was severely weakened, but not destroyed; those remaining moved to
remote regions of China, including the Jiangxi province
● The purges led to a split in the GMD, but Jieshi managed to establish a new
government in Nanjing, which was recognized by the Western Powers (as the
National Government of the Republic of China)
10. Communists flee to Jiangxi
1927-1936 first phase of the civil war
1. IX 1927 Autumn harvest rising: the CCP inspired peasants to rebel against the GMD and the
landlords; failed
a. Mao’s belief that the revolution had to be based in the peasants was reaffirmed,
however he became aware that an army would have to be formed
2. XII 1927 failed communist uprising in Guangzhou
3. 1928 Red Army formed, and the Three Rules of Discipline and Eight Points of Attention
(forbidding the mistreatment of people and their property) formulated
4. 1929 the Gutian Congress Resolution asserts Mao’s control over the army
