Essential Question: How did the Communists take over China?

Before WWII
The people of China were unhappy with imperial rule. Their unhappiness led to revolution and civil war. Power struggles existed between two groupsthe Nationalists, led by Chiang Kaishek, and the Communists, led by Mao Zedong.

Chiang Kai-shek was a Nationalist and unyielding Anti-Communist. He led the military unification of China in the 1920s and helped the Allied powers defeat the Japanese in WWII. When the Nationalists lost China to the Communists, Chiang maintained the republic by moving it to the island of Taiwan where he established economic development and political stability.

Chiang Kai-shek

The Long March

1934 Chiang Kai-Shek leader of the Nationalists (700,000) surround Communist forces Maos forces (100,000) escape the blockade and begin The Long March 6,000 miles across swamplands and mountains Many died but the march gained Mao many supporters

Communists Take Over China

During World War II the Chinese Communists and the Nationalists put aside differences to fight Japanese invaders.

Civil War Resumes

Once Japan was defeated, civil war resumed. Nationalist forces outnumbered Maos Communists, but Communists had wide support among Chinas peasants. Rural Chinese peasants had long been oppressed by brutal landlords, high taxes, policies of corrupt government.

Public Support
Communists promised to take land from landlords and distribute it to peasants. By 1949, Communists had driven the Nationalists almost entirely from China Nationalist control was limited to small areas on the mainland, and several islands, including Taiwan.

Communists Take Over China

Peoples Republic of China
On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong stood before a huge crowd in Beijing. He announced the formation of the Peoples Republic of China. Maos strategy of using guerrilla warfare in rural China worked.

Opposition to Mao
China faced many difficulties, including a crippled economy and lack of a functional government. Some countries opposed to communism refused to recognize Mao and his new government. They claimed that Chiang Kai-sheks government on Taiwan was the true Chinese government.

China Under Mao

Essential Question: How did life in China change under Maos rule?

Mao set about building a Communist China. His first concern was rebuilding a country that had been torn apart by years of civil war.

Communist ideas shaped the new government.

Mao changed Chinas political and economic systems.

His government discouraged the practice of religion.

The government also seized the property of rural landowners and redistributed it among peasants.
By 1957, Chinas small industrial output had doubled. Early efforts to build the economy were successful. Improved economy and reduced poverty

China Modeled on Soviet Union

The Soviet Union provided financial support and aid in Chinas first years. China modeled many of its new political, economic, military policies on the Soviet system. In the 1950s, territorial disputes and differences in ideology pushed China away from its Soviet ally.

The Great Leap Forward

In 1958, in the break from Soviet-style economic planning, Mao announced a program designed to increase Chinas industrial and agricultural output. The Great Leap Forward created thousands of communes, collectively owned farms, of about 20,000 people each. Each commune was to produce food and have own small-scale industry

The Great Leap Forward

Planning Disaster
The plan was a disaster; small commune factories failed to produce the quantity and quality of goods China needed. A combination of poor weather and farmers neglect led to sharp drops in agricultural production.

China Virtually Isolated

Failure of the Great Leap Forward led to criticism of Mao. Soviet criticism and the withdrawal of Soviet industrial aid widened the rift between the two Communist nations.

Famine spread through rural China; tens of millions starved to death between 1959 and 1961.

By the early 1960s, relations had broken down completely; China was virtually isolated in the world community.

Great Leap Forward

The Cultural Revolution

New Movement
In the mid-1960s, Mao tried to regain power and prestige lost after Great Leap Forward. He initiated a new movement called the Cultural Revolution, which sought to rid China of old ways and create a society where peasants, physical labor were the ideal.

Red Guards
The campaign meant eliminating intellectuals who Mao feared wanted to end communism and bring back Chinas old ways. Mao shut down schools, encouraged militant students, called the Red Guards, to carry out work of Cultural Revolution by criticizing intellectuals and values.

Destruction of Society
Mao lost control; The Red Guards murdered hundreds of thousands of people; by late 1960s, China was on the verge of civil war before Mao regained control. The Cultural Revolution reestablished Maos dominance, caused terrible destruction; civil authority collapsed and economic activity fell off sharply.

Maos Death
Died in 1976

China Under Communism

Cultural Revolution Red Guard

Tiananmen Square

Protester blocking tanks approaching Tiananmen Square

Reforms Begin
In 1976, Mao died; his death was followed by retreat from many of his policies. China began to end isolation from rest of world in the early 1970s. Chinas new leader, Deng Xiaoping, helped put in place far-reaching economic reforms.

Tiananmen Square
More Freedoms Pro-Democracy Protestors

inspired by movement toward spring 1989, democratic economic freedom reforms in Eastern Europe Chinese demanded more political freedom Leaders Impatient Chinas leaders repeatedly asked protestors to leave square protestors remained, met with force one million pro-democracy protestors occupied Beijings Tiananmen Square Freedom Had Not Arrived June 1989, tanks, troops moved into square killed protestors in Tiananmen Square Massacre