SGQ#3

MWH p. 405-412

1. Revolution and the warlord era
a. Explain the three major crises of this era?
i. Europeans started to force their way into China to take advantage of trading opportunities (i.e. British and the Opium Wars)
ii. Taiping Rebellion (1850-64)
iii. China was defeated in a war with Japan (1894-5) and lost territory (led to Boxer Uprising against foreign influences)
b. What was the immediate cause of the 1911 revolution?
The revolution began among soldiers in Wuchang in October 1911, and most provinces quickly declared themselves independent of Beijing (this led to the govt asking yuan shih-kai to help them, but he ended up taking over and naming himself emperor before losing the army's support and dieing.
c. What were the two important positive developments that took place during the Warlord Era?
i. The May Fourth Movement (1919): anti-warlords, anti-traditional chinese culture, anti-japanese
ii. The Kuomintang or Nationalist Party gradually grew stronger and succeeded in bringing the warlords under control by 1928.

2. The Kuomintang, Dr. Sun Yat-sen, and Chiang Kai-shek
a. What were Sun Yat-sen's three goals for China?
i. nationalism (rid china of foreign influence and build her into a strong, united, respected power
ii. democracy (china shouldn't be ruled by warlords but by people-once educated)
iii. land reform (long-term policy of economic development and redistribution of land to the peasants, but without confiscation of the landlords' property)
b. What three steps did Chiang take to consolidate power?
i. 1926 set out on the Northern March to destroy warlords
ii. 1927 decided communists were becoming too powerful (communists expelled from the KMT and thousands massacred)
iii. ? the Kuomintang govt proved to be a great disappointment to most of the chinese people...

3. Mao Zedong and the Chinese Communist Party
a. How did the Communists survive the extermination campaigns?
Led by Mao Zedong,They took to the mountains and concentrated on building up the red army, then when surrounded by KMT army, they moved base elsewhere and were able to control the provinces of Shensi and Kansu.
b. Why did Mao and the Communists gain support?
i. inefficiency and corruption of the KMT in gov't (only interested in landowners bankers and industrialists, no mass support)
ii. little improvement of factory conditions (widespread bribery of inspectors etc)
iii. no improvement in peasant poverty (high taxes, forced labor), whereas communists offered restricted rents and seized landowners property and gave it to peasants
iv. KMT put up no effective resistance to the japanese, then when japanese started beating KMT, communists presented themselves as nationalists and won support

4. Briefly summarize how the CCP won their struggle with the KMT, and give 2 reasons
Incensed about the japanese invasion, some of his own troops captured him and he was forced to agree to a fresh alliance with the CCP... then when japanese defeated, KMT and CCP locked in power struggle. Despite american help to the KMT, communist army was still really strong and big, and the KMT fell apart under direct attack. CCP took Beijing, then Chiang fled to taiwan and CCP took over with Mao as chairman.
Why: 1. Communists' land policy was popular, and gov't was honest and fair, compared to KMT who printed extra $ and caused inflation...
2. CCP leaders were shrewd enough to take advantage of KMT weaknesses and their armies were carefully prepared and competent.