20th Century Revolutions Questions

Read the following articles. Answer the following ON ANOTHER SHEET OF PAPER!
Russia: War and Revolution:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. 16. 17. 18. 19. 20. 21. 22. 23. 24. 25. What was creating pressure in all countries of Europe and threatening to topple their governments? When do we say the revolution began in Russia even thought democratic reforms were not established as promised? What did the Tsar do to solve the problem of lack of leadership in WWI that actually made the situation worse? What were the Russian losses in the war? Where was Alexandra from? Whose influence was she under? Why? What did the aristocrats do in order to change the situation? What group started the March Revolution in 1917? Why? On what special day did they march? What were the demands? What did Nicolas do to try to end the strike? What happens? What was the name for councils of workers and soldiers? What was the difference between the Mensheviks and the Bolsheviks? In what document did Lenin present his version of Marxist theory? Name a slogan of the Bolshevik program What person was the most help to Lenin? What held the political power Russian after Trotskys army overthrew the government? What land did Russia give up after signing the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk? Why didnt the treaty of Brest-Litovsk achieve the promised peace? What was the anti-Bolshevik army called? Who led the red army or the Bolsheviks? What caused the Whites to be unorganized and unable to achieve unity? How did the intervention of foreign armies on the side of the Whites actually help the Communists? What is the name for Lenins modified version of the old capitalist system? What did the members of the left want to do? What about members of the right? What was Stalins nick name? What happened to Trotsky? How did Stalins philosophy differ from that of the left?

Mexican Revolution:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. What was the goal of Mexicos 1910 revolution? What did the moderate leaders want? The radicals? Who were the moderate leaders of the revolution that later became presidents of Mexico? The radicals? What did all the revolutionaries agree was a problem for Mexico? What tow leaders fought for control after Diaz stepped down? What happened to Zapata? What did his assassination lead to? Who became president and organized the convention whose outcome was the Constitution of 1917? Why wasnt this successful? What signaled the end to the revolution to most historians?

Chinese Revolution:
1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. 12. 13. 14. 15. What were 2 of the weaknesses of the emperor? How did foreign economic imperialism increase social suffering in China? What stimulated the rise of Chinese nationalism? How was the outbreak of the revolution an accident? How did Sun Yat-sen get elected president? Who did take the presidency? What was the national capitals name before Beijing? What was the name for Suns revolutionary ideology? What was declared as a useless political belief? What territories were lost? What country mediated a truce between the Nationalist and Communist forces in January of 1946? Who headed this mission? How did the U.S. attempt to help the Nationalist during the next few years of the civil war? How was the new communist government received by the people? Who were the major targets in the campaign against the enemies of the state? What was Maos dictum?

20th Century Revolutions: Russia, M exico and China

Russia: W ar and Revolution
By 1917, total war was creating serious domestic turmoil in all of the European belligerent states. Most countries were able to prop up their regimes and convince their peoples to continue the war for another year, but others were coming close to collapse. In Austria, for example, a government minister warned that "if the monarchs of the Central Powers cannot make peace in the coming months, it ill be made for them by their peoples." Russia, however, as the only belligerent that actually experienced the kind of complete collapse in 1917 that others were predicting might happen throughout Europe. Out of Russia's collapse came the Russian Revolution, whose impact would be widely felt in Europe for decades to come. The Russian Revolution After the Revolution of 1905 had failed to bring any substantial changes to Russia, Tsar Nicholas II fell back on the army and bureaucracy as the basic props for his autocratic regime. Perhaps Russia could have survived this way, as some have argued, but World War I magnified Russia's problems and severely challenged the tsarist government. Russia was unprepared both militarily and technologically for the total war of World War I. Competent military leadership was lacking. Even worse, the tsar, alone of all European monarchs, insisted upon taking personal charge of the armed forces despite his obvious lack of ability and training for such an awesome burden. Russian industry was unable to produce the weapons needed for the army. Ill-led and ill-armed, Russian armies suffered incredible losses. Between 1914 and 1916, two million soldiers were killed while another four to six million were wounded or captured. By 1917, the Russian will to fight had vanished. The tsarist government was totally inadequate for the tasks that it faced in 1914. The surge of patriotic enthusiasm that greeted the outbreak of war was soon dissipated by a government that distrusted its own people. When leading industrialists formed committees to improve factory production, a government suspicious of their motives undermined their efforts. Although the middle classes and liberal aristocrats still hoped for a constitutional monarchy, they were sullen over the tsar's revocation of the political concessions made during the Revolution of 1905. Peasant discontent flourished as conditions worsened. The concentration of Russian industry in a few large cities made workers' frustrations all the more evident and dangerous. Even conservative aristocrats were appalled by the incompetent and inefficient bureaucracy that controlled the political and military system. In the meantime, Tsar Nicholas was increasingly insulated from events by his wife Alexandra. This German-born princess was a stubborn, willful, and ignorant woman who had fallen under the influence of Rasputin, a Siberian peasant who belonged to a religious sect that indulged in sexual orgies. To the tsarina, Rasputin was a holy man for he alone seemed able to stop the bleeding of her hemophiliac son Alexis. Rasputin's influence made him an important power behind the throne, and he did not hesitate to interfere in government affairs. As the leadership at the top stumbled its way through a series of military and economic disasters, the middle class, aristocrats, peasants, soldiers, and workers grew more and more disenchanted with the tsarist regime. Even conservative aristocrats who supported the monarchy felt the need to do something to reverse the deteriorating situation. For a start, they assassinated Rasputin in December 1916. By then it was too late to save the monarchy, and its fall came quickly at the beginning ofMarch 1917. The March Revolution At the beginning of March, a series of strikes broke out in the capital city of Petrograd (formerly St. Petersburg). Here the actions of working-class women helped to change the course of Russian history. In February of 1917, the government had introduced bread rationing in the capital city after the price of bread had skyrocketed. Many of the women who stood in the lines waiting for bread were also factory workers who had put in twelve-hour days. The number of women working in Petrograd factories had doubled since 1914. The Russian government had become aware of the volatile situation in the capital from a police report: Mothers of families, exhausted by endless standing in line at stores, distraught over their half-starving and sick children, are today perhaps closer to revolution than [the liberal opposition leaders] and of course they are a great deal more dangerous because they are the combustible material for which only a single spark is needed to burst into f1ame. On March 8, a day celebrated since 1910 as International Women's Day, about 10,000 Petrograd women marched through the city demanding "Peace and Bread" and "Down with Autocracy." Soon, the women were joined by other workers, and together they called for a genera1 strike that succeeded in shutting down all the factories in the city on March 10. The tsarina wrote to Nicholas II at the battlefront that "this is a hooligan movement. If the weather were very cold they would all probably stay at home." Nicholas ordered the troops to disperse the crowds by shooting them if necessary. Initially, the troops did so, but soon significant numbers of the soldiers joined the demonstrators. The situation was out of the tsar's control. The Duma or legislative body, which the tsar had tried to dissolve, met anyway and on March 12 established a Provisional Government that urged the tsar to abdicate. He did so on March 15. In just one week, the tsarist regime had fallen apart. It was not really overthrown since there had been no deliberate

revolution. Even those who were conscious revolutionaries were caught by surprise at the rapidity of the monarchy's disintegration. Although no particular group had been responsible for the outburst, the moderate Constitutional Democrats were responsible for establishing the Provisional Government. They represented primarily a middle-class and liberal aristocratic minority. Their program consisted of a nineteenth-century liberal agenda: freedom of speech, religion, assembly, and liberties. Their determination to carryon the war to preserve Russia's honor was a major blunder since it satisfied neither the workers nor the peasants who above all wanted an end to the war. The Provisional Government was also faced another authority, the soviets, or councils of workers' and soldiers' deputies. The soviet of Petrograd had formed in March 1917; at the same time soviets sprang up spontaneously in army units, factory towns, and rural areas. The soviets represented the more radical interests of the lower classes and were largely composed of socialists of various kinds. Most numerous were the Socialist Revolutionaries, who wished to establish peasant socialism by seizing the great landed estates and creating a rural democracy. Since the beginning of the twentieth century the Socialist Revolutionaries had come to rely on the use of political terrorism to accomplish their goals. Since 1893, Russia had also had a Marxist Social Democratic Party which had divided in 1903 into two factions known as the Mensheviks and Bolsheviks. The Mensheviks wanted Social Democrats to be a mass electoral socialist party based on a Western model. Like the Social Democrats of Germany, they were willing to cooperate temporarily in a parliamentary democracy while working toward the ultimate achievement of the socialist state. The Bolsheviks were a small faction of Russian Social Democrats who had come under the leadership of Vladimir Ulianov, known to the world as V. I. Lenin (1870-1924). Born in 1870 to a middle-class family, Lenin received a legal education and became a lawyer. In 1887, he turned into a dedicated enemy of tsarist Russia when his older brother was executed for planning to assassinate the tsar. Lenin's search for a revolutionary faith led him to Marxism, and in 1894 he moved to St. Petersburg where he organized an illegal group known as the Union for the Liberation of the Working Class. Arrested for this activity, Lenin was shipped to Siberia. After his release, he chose to go into exile in Switzerland and eventually assumed the leadership of the Bolshevik wing of the Russian Social Democratic Party. Under Lenin's direction, the Bolsheviks became a party dedicated to violent revolution. He believed that only a violent revolution could destroy the capitalist system and that a "vanguard" of activists must form a small party of well-disciplined professional revolutionaries to accomplish the task. Between 1900 and 1917, Lenin spent most of his time in Switzerland. When the Provisional Government was formed in March 1917, he believed that an opportunity for the Bolsheviks to seize power had come. In April 1917, with the connivance of the German High Command, who hoped to create disorder in Russia, Lenin, his wife, and a small group of his followers were shipped to Russia in a "sealed train" by way of Finland. Lenin's arrival in Russia opened a new stage of the Russian Revolution. In his "April Theses," issued on April 20, Lenin presented a blueprint for revolutionary action based on his own version of Marxist theory. According to Lenin, it was not necessary for Russia to experience a bourgeois revolution before it could move toward socialism, as orthodox Marxists had argued. Instead, Russia could move directly into socialism. In the "April Theses," Lenin maintained that the soviets of soldiers, workers, and peasants were ready-made instruments of power. The Bolsheviks must work to gain control of these groups and then use them to overthrow the Provisional Government. At the same time, Bolshevik propaganda must seek mass support through promises geared to the needs of the people: an end to the war; the redistribution of all land to the peas ants; the transfer of factories and industries from capitalists to committees of workers; and the relegation of government power from the Provisional Government to the soviets. Three simple slogans summed up the Bolshevik program: "Peace, Land, Bread," "Worker Control of Production," and "All Power to the Soviets." In late spring and early summer, while the Bolsheviks set about winning over the masses to their program and gaining a majority in the Petrograd and Moscow soviets, the Provisional Government struggled to gain control of Russia against almost overwhelming obstacles. Although the Provisional Government promised that a constitutional convention called for the fall of 1917 would confiscate and redistribute royal and monastic lands, the offer was meaningless since many peasants had already started seizing lands on their own in March. The military situation was also deteriorating. The Petrograd soviet had issued its Army Order No. 1 in March to all Russian military forces, encouraging them to remove their officers and replace them with committees composed of "the elected representatives of the lower ranks" of the army. Army Order No. 1 led to the collapse of all discipline and created military chaos. When the Provisional Government attempted to initiate a new military offensive in July, the army simply dissolved as masses of peasant soldiers turned their backs on their officers and returned home to join their families in seizing lands.

THE BOLSHEVIK REVOLUTION

In July 1917, Lenin and the Bolsheviks were falsely accused of inciting an attempt to overthrow the Provisional Government, and Lenin was forced to flee to Finland. But the days of the Provisional Government were numbered. In July 1917, Alexander Kerensky, a Socialist Revolutionary, had become prime minister in the Provisional Government. In September, when General Lavr Kornilov attempted to march on Petrograd and seize power, Kerensky released

Bolsheviks from prison and turned to the Petrograd soviet for help. Although General Kornilov's forces never reached Petrograd, Kerensky's action had strengthened the hands of the Petrograd soviet and had shown Lenin how weak the Provisional Government really was. By the end of October, the Bolsheviks had achieved a slight majority in the Petrograd and Moscow soviets. The number of party members had also grown from 50,000 to 240,000. Reports of unrest abroad had convinced Lenin that "we are on the threshold of a world proletarian revolution," and he tried to persuade his fellow Bolsheviks that the time was ripe for the overthrow of the Provisional Government. Although he faced formidable opposition within the Bolshevik ranks, he managed to gain support for his policy. He was especially fortunate to have the close cooperation of Leon Trotsky (1877-1940), a former Menshevik turned fervid revolutionary. Lenin and Trotsky organized a Military Revolutionary Committee within the Petrograd soviet to plot the overthrow of the government. On the night of November 6-7, Bolshevik forces seized the Winter Palace, seat of the Provisional Government. The Provisional Government collapsed quickly with little bloodshed. This coup dtat had been timed to coincide with a meeting in Petrograd of the all-Russian Congress of Soviets representing local soviets from all over the country. Lenin nominally turned over the sovereignty of the Provisional Government to this Congress of Soviets. Real power, however, passed to a Council of People's Commissars, headed by Lenin. One immediate problem faced by the Bolsheviks was the Constituent Assembly, which had been initiated by the Provisional Government and was scheduled to meet in January 1918. Elections to the assembly by universal male suffrage had resulted in a defeat for the Bolsheviks, who had only 225 delegates compared to the 420 garnered by the Socialist Revolutionaries. But no matter, Lenin simply broke the Constituent Assembly by force. "To hand over power," he said, "to the Constituent Assembly would again be compromising with malignant bourgeoisie." The Bolsheviks did not want majority rule, but rather the rule of the proletariat, exercised for them, of course, by the Bolsheviks. But the Bolsheviks (soon renamed the Communists) still had a long way to go. Lenin, ever the opportunist, realized the importance of winning mass support as quickly as possible by fulfilling Bolshevik promises. In his first law, Lenin declared the land nationalized and turned it over to local rural soviets. In effect, this action merely ratified the peasants' seizure of the land and assured the Bolsheviks of peasant support, especially against any attempt by the old landlords to restore their power. Lenin also met the demands of urban workers by turning over control of the factories to committees of-workers. To Lenin, however, this was merely a temporary expedient. The new government also introduced a number of social changes. Alexandra Kollontai (1872-1952), who had become a supporter of revolutionary socialism while in exile in Switzerland, took the lead in pushing a Bolshevik program for womens rights and social welfare reforms. As minister of social welfare, she tried to provide health care for women and children by establishing Palaces for the Protection of Maternity and Children. Between 1918 and 1920, the new regime enacted a series of reforms that made marriage a civil act, legalized divorce, decreed the equality of men and women, and permitted abortions. Kollontai was also instrumental in establishing a Women's Bureau within the Communist Party known as Zhenotdel. This organization sent men Soviet women soldiers. and women to all parts of the Russian Empire to explain the new social order. Members of Zhenotdel were especially eager to help Women with matters of divorce and women's rights. In the eastern provinces, several Zhenotdel members were brutally murdered by angry males who objected to any kind of liberation for their wives and daughters. Much to Kollontai's disappointment, many of these Communist social reforms were later undone as the Communists came to face more pressing matters, including the survival of the new regime. Lenin had also promised peace and that, he realized, was not an easy task because of the humiliating losses of Russian territory that it would entail. There was no real choice, however. On March 3, 1918, the new Communist government signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk with Germany and gave up eastern Poland, Ukraine, Finland, and the Baltic provinces. To his critics, Lenin argued that it made no difference since the spread of socialist revolution throughout Europe would make the treaty largely irrelevant. In any case, he had promised peace to the Russian people, but real peace did not come for the country soon lapsed into civil war.

CIVIL WAR
There was great opposition to the new Bolshevik or Communist regime, not only from groups loyal to the tsar but also from bourgeois and aristocratic liberals and anti-Leninist socialists, including Mensheviks and Socialist Revolutionaries. In addition, thousands of Allied troops were eventually sent to different parts of Russia in the hope of bringing Russia back into the war. Between 1918 and 1921, the Bolshevik (or Red) Army was forced to fight on many

fronts. The first serious threat to the Bolsheviks came from Siberia where a White (anti-Bolshevik) force under Admiral Alexander Kolchak pushed westward and advanced almost to the Volga River before being stopped. Attacks also came from the Ukrainians in the southeast and from the Baltic regions. In mid-1919, White forces under General Anton Denikin, probably the most effective of the White generals, swept through Ukraine and advanced almost to Moscow. At one point in late 1919, three separate White armies seemed to be closing in on the Bolsheviks, but were eventually pushed back. By 1920, the major White forces had been defeated, and Ukraine retaken. The next year, the Communist regime regained control over the independent nationalist governments in the Caucasus: Georgia, Russian Armenia, and Azerbaijan. How had Lenin and the Bolsheviks triumphed over what seemed at one time to be overwhelming forces? For one thing, the Red Army became a well-disciplined formidable fighting force, largely due to the organizational genius of Leon Trotsky. As commissar of war, Trotsky reinstated the draft and even recruited and gave commands to former tsarist army officers. Trotsky insisted on rigid discipline; soldiers who deserted or refused to obey or were summarily executed. The Red Army also had the advantage of interior lines of defense and was ale move its troops rapidly from one battlefront to the other. The disunity of the anti-Communist forces seriously weakened the efforts of the Whites. Political differences created distrust among the Whites and prevented them from cooperating effectively with each other. Some Whites, such as Admiral Kolchak, insisted on restoring the tsarist regime, but others understood that only a more liberal democratic program had any chance of success. Since White forces were forced to operate on the exterior fringes of the Russian Empire, it was difficult enough to achieve military cooperation. Political differences made it virtually impossible. The Whites' inability to agree on a common goal contrasted sharply with the Communists' single-minded sense of purpose. Inspired by their vision of a new socialist order, the Communists had the advantage of possessing the determination that comes from revolutionary fervor and revolutionary convictions. The Communists also succeeded in translating their revolutionary faith into practical instruments of power. A policy of "war communism," for example, was used to ensure regular supplies for the Red Army. "War communism" included the nationalization of banks and most industries, the forcible requisition of grain from peasants, and the centralization of state administration under Bolshevik control. Another Bolshevik instrument was "revolutionary terror." Although the old tsarist secret police had been abolished, a new Red secret police-known as the Cheka, replaced it. The Red Terror instituted by the Cheka aimed at nothing less than the destruction of all those who opposed the new regime. "Class enemies" -the bourgeoisiewere especially singled out, at least according to a Cheka officer: "The first questions you should put to the accused person are: To what class does he belong, what is his origin, what was his education, and what is his profession? These should determine the fate of the accused." In practice, however, the Cheka promulgated terror against all classes, including the proletariat, if they opposed the new regime. The Red Terror added an element of fear to the Bolshevik regime. Finally, the intervention of foreign armies enabled the Communists to appeal to the powerful force of Russian patriotism. Although the Allied powers had initially intervened in Russia to encourage the Russians to remain in the war, the end of the war on November 11, 1918, had made that purpose inconsequential. Nevertheless, Allied troops remained, and more were even sent as Allied countries did not hide their anti-Bolshevik feelings. At one point, over 100,000 foreign troops, mostly Japanese, British, American, and French, were stationed on Russian soil. These forces rarely engaged in pitched battles, however, nor did they pursue a common strategy, although they did give material assistance to anti-Bolshevik forces. This intervention by the Allies enabled the Communist government to appeal to patriotic Russians to fight the attempts of foreigners to control their country. Allied interference was never substantial enough to make a military difference in the civil war, but it did serve indirectly to help the Bolshevik cause. By 1921, the Communists had succeeded in retaining control of Russia. In the course of the civil war, the Bolshevik regime had also transformed Russia into a bureaucratically centralized state dominated by a single party. It was also a state that was largely hostile to the Allied powers that had sought to assist the Bolsheviks' enemies in the civil war. To most historians, the Russian Revolution is unthinkable without the total war of World War I, for only the collapse of Russia made it possible for a radical minority like the Bolsheviks to seize the reins of power. In turn, the Russian Revolution had an impact on the course of World War I.

THE NEW ECONOMIC POLICY

In March 1921, Lenin pulled Russia back from the abyss by aborting war communism in favor of his New Economic Policy (NEP). Lenin's New Economic Policy was a modified version of the old capitalist system. Forced requisitioning of food from the peasants was halted as peasants were now allowed to sell their produce openly. Retail stores as well as small industries that employed fewer than twenty employees could now operate under private ownership, although heavy industry, banking, and mines remained in the hands of the government. Already by 1922, a revived market and good harvest had brought an end to famine; Soviet agriculture climbed to 75 percent of its prewar level. Industry, especially state-owned heavy industry, fared less well and continued to stagnate. Only coal production had reached prewar levels by 1926. Overall, the NEP had saved Communist Russia from complete economic disaster even though Lenin and other leading Communists intended it to be only a temporary, tactical retreat from the goals of communism. Between 1922 and 1924, Lenin suffered a series of strokes that finally led to his death on January 21, 1924. Although Communist Party rule theoretically rested on a principle of collective leadership, in fact, Lenin had provided an example of

one-man rule. His death inaugurated a struggle for power among the members of the Politburo, the institution that had become the leading organ of the party. In 1924, the Politburo of seven members was severely divided over the future direction of Soviet Russia. The Left, led by Leon Trotsky, wanted to end the NEP and launch Russia on the path of rapid industrialization, primarily at the expense of the peasantry. This same group wanted to carry the revolution on, believing that the survival of the Russian Revolution ultimately depended on the spread of communism abroad. Another group in the Politburo, called the Right, rejected the cause of world revolution and wanted instead to concentrate on constructing a socialist state in Russia. Believing that too rapid industrialization would worsen the living standards of the Soviet peasantry, this group also favored a continuation of Lenin's NEP. These ideological divisions were underscored by an intense personal rivalry between Leon Trotsky and Joseph Stalin. Trotsky had been a key figure in the success of the Bolshevik Revolution and the Red Army. In 1924, he held the post of commissar of war and was the leading spokesman for the Left in the Politburo. Joseph Stalin (1879-1953) had joined the Bolsheviks in 1903 and had come to Lenin's attention after staging a daring bank robbery to obtain funds for the Bolshevik cause. Stalin, who was neither a dynamic speaker nor a forceful writer, was content to hold the dull bureaucratic job of party general secretary while other Politburo members held party positions that enabled them to display their brilliant oratorical abilities. He was a good organizer (his fellow Bolsheviks called him "Comrade Card-Index"), and the other members of the Politburo soon found that the position of party secretary was really the most important in the party hierarchy. The general secretary appointed the regional, district, city, and town party secretaries. In 1922, for example, Stalin had made some 10,000 appointments, many of them trusted followers whose holding of key positions proved valuable in the struggle for power. Although Stalin at first refused to support either the Left or Right in the Politburo, he finally came to favor the goal of "socialism in one country" rather than world revolution. Stalin used his post as party general secretary to gain complete control of the Communist Party. Trotsky was expelled from the party in 1927. Eventually, he made his way to Mexico where he was murdered in 1940, no doubt on Stalin's orders. By 1929, Stalin had succeeded in eliminating the Old Bolsheviks of the revolutionary era from the Politburo and establishing a dictatorship so powerful that the Russian tsars of old would have been envious.

MEXICAN Revolution
Causes: violent political and social upheaval that occurred in Mexico in the early 20th century. The revolution began in November 1910 as an effort to overthrow the 30-year dictatorship of Porfirio Diaz. It grew into a widespread rebellion that would eventually change the structure of Mexicos economy, government, and society. Various revolutionary leaders and factions pursued different goals during and immediately after the revolution. Moderate and conservative leaders sought primarily political reform, including free and fair elections. More radical leaders sought far-reaching social reforms, including the redistribution of land to poor farmers, limits on the influence of the Roman Catholic Church, and labor reforms that would give workers the right to organize and to strike. The fundamental goals of the revolution were incorporated in the 1917 constitution, although widespread factional fighting continued until 1920. It took almost another two decades for many of the reforms contained in the constitution to be implemented. And at the end of the 20th century, the goals of the revolutionparticularly the need for an accountable, democratic government and the right of all Mexicans to enjoy a basic standard of livingcontinue to influence the nation. During the revolution, different leaders pursued different objectives. Francisco Madero and Venustiano Carranzaboth of whom were later presidents of Mexicosought primarily political reform. The two most famous rebel leadersFrancisco Pancho Villa and Emiliano Zapatasupported the growing demands from the lower classes for major social and economic reforms. Zapata, in particular, championed the demands of poor farmers for land to cultivate. Others sought curbs on the social control and political influence exercised by the Catholic Church. Almost all of the revolutionaries felt a growing sense of nationalism and called for a reduction in the prominent role played by foreigners in Mexicos economy. Many swept up by the revolution gave little thought to the long-term goals being pursued; for them the revolution was an opportunity for adventure and personal economic gain. Crisis: Daz was pressured into holding an election in 1910, in which Madero was able to gather a significant number of the votes. Although Daz was at one time a strong supporter of the one-term limit, he seemed to have changed his mind and had Madero imprisoned, feeling that the people of Mexico just weren't ready for democracy. Once Madero was released from prison, he continued his battle against Daz in an attempt to have him overthrown. During this time, several other Mexican folk heroes began to emerge, including the well known Pancho Villa in the north, and the peasant Emiliano Zapata in the south, who were able to harass the Mexican army and wrest control of their respective regions. Daz was unable to control the spread of the insurgence and resigned in May, 1911, with the signing of the Treaty of Ciudad Jurez, after which he fled to France. Madero was elected president, but received opposition from Emiliano Zapata who didn't wish to wait for the orderly implementation of Madero's desired land reforms. In November of the same year Zapata denounced Madero as president and took the position for himself. He controlled the state of Morelos, where he chased out the estate owners and divided their lands to the peasants. Later, in 1919, Zapata was assassinated by Jesus Guajardo acting under orders from General Pablo Gonzalez. It was during this time that the country broke into many different factions, and guerilla units roamed across the country destroying and burning down many large haciendas and ranchos. Madero was later taken prisoner and executed and the entire country existed in a state of disorder for several years, while Pancho Villa rampaged through the north, and different factions fought for presidential control. Results: Eventually, Venustiano Carranza rose to the presidency, and organized an important convention whose outcome was the Constitution of 1917, which is still in effect today. Carranza made land reform an important part of that constitution. The constitution addressed foreign ownership of resources, an organized labor code, the role of the Roman Catholic Church in education and land reform. Although his intentions were good, the Carranza government did not last or enforce many of the reforms in the Constitution of 1917, and caused greater decentralization of power. The official loss from a comparison of crude census figures for these years (15.2 million for the former and 14.3 for the latter) is almost one million, around six percent of the population in 1910. The exact end of the "revolutionary period" is open to debate. Effective implementation of the social provisions of the 1917 Constitution of Mexico, and a near total end to revolutionary activity, awaited the administration of Lazaro Cardenas (1934-1940). Cardenas also abolished capital punishment (better known in Mexico as el fusilado, a firing squad), effective control of the republic by Cardenas and the PRM without need for summary executions was an indication that the revolutionary period was at its end.

The Chinese Revolution

Causes: Inefficient emperors Corruption - Corruption in the government was serious. High officials received "gifts" from low officials. In turn, low officials put government money into their own pockets. Heavy taxes were imposed on the people, who suffered economically. Political decentralization - As politics was so corrupt and demoralized, political power could no longer be centralized in Peking. Population growth and social poverty - Long years of peace in the early and mid Qing period contributed to a quick rise in China's population. In the 19th century, when the Ch'ing was on the decline, foreign imperialism came to China and quickened the downward course of the dynasty. Foreign economic imperialism increased social suffering in China. For example, the import of cheap foreign textile goods destroyed rural Chinese industries. Foreign missionary activities in China aroused much hatred and fear among the Chinese. Foreign imperialism and the introduction of Western learning stimulated the rise of modern Chinese nationalism. THE WUHAN UPRISING ON OCTOBER 10, 1911 Immediate events leading to the uprising Disloyalty of the government's New Army - Since 1903, the government's New Army had been influenced by revolutionary propaganda. Out of a widespread concern for China's weakness, the officers and soldiers were fond of organizing revolutionary clubs which met regularly to study republican political ideas. Anti-Manchu feeling was strong. Accidental outbreak of revolt on October 70, 1911 - The Literary Society had informed the Revolutionary Alliance (T'ungmenghui) of this intended uprising. But the Revolutionary Alliance considered it not the right moment to start a revolt. As a result, no T'ung-menghui members went to the Wuhan areas. On October 9, when preparing for the planned uprising, the new army revolutionaries accidentally let off a small bomb in their headquarters in Hankow. Knowing that further delay would result in their capture by the government, the new army men started the revolt immediately the next day, October 10. They quickly seized the main Wuhan arsenal and forced an army commander, General Li Yuan-hung, to take charge of the situation. It was a successful revolt. Proclamations of the revolution were then sent to other parts of the country. The provinces were no longer loyal to the dynasty. Course In the 2 weeks after the Wuhan uprising, the provinces just watched silently. Then, some gentry-merchant-military leaders in the provinces took the lead in declaring independence from the Manchu court. After one and a half months, 15 provinces, or 2/3 of all China, were no longer within Peking's control. In most of these independent provinces, it was the conservative forces (i.e. gentry, militarists, merchants), not the revolutionaries, that controlled political power. In 10 provinces, for example, military men became governors after declarations of independence. The election of Sun Yat-sen as president Meanwhile, members of the Revolutionary Alliance like Huang Hsing had returned to China to rival the gentry-merchantmilitary leaders for control of the political situation. At the provincial level, the revolutionaries could never challenge the powerful gentry-merchant-militarist alliance. At the national level, however, the Revolutionary Alliance was recognized as the leading revolutionary group. It sent representatives to a Provisional Government which met in Nanking in December 1911. Most of the representatives favored either Li Yuan-hung or Huang Hsing as candidates for the presidency. Lacking agreement,

however, supporters of both sides turned to Sun Yat-sen, who had returned from overseas at this moment. Sun was thus elected as Provisional President of the newly established Chinese Republic. Yuan Shih-k'ai as President of the Chinese Republic On the same day as the Ch'ing dynasty's abdication, Yuan Shih-k'ai promised to support the Republic. Then Sun Yat-sen resigned as Provisional President, to be succeeded by Yuan after a formal election. Yuan was required by the new Republican Government to come to Nanking to take up the presidency. Unwilling to release his power base in the north, however, Yuan stayed in Peking. He became President of China in March. In April, Peking was made the national capital. It was renamed Beijing. The revolutionaries feared that a long civil war would bring about foreign intervention in the Chinese revolution and foreign partition of China. The revolutionaries were inexperienced in actually running a government and were disorganized themselves. Besides, as revolutionaries working outside China most of the time, they lacked popular Chinese support and did not have the friendship of the powerful local-provincial gentry. Spread of republican and democratic ideas The revolutionaries popularized modern Western political beliefs like republicanism and democracy. The conservative and backward nature of the Ch'ing dynasty was thus fully revealed. This helped erode the ideological foundation of the government. Penetration into the government's New Army As the Ch'ing government recruited many of its New Army soldiers from among progressive-minded young men, many of the revolutionaries succeeded in penetrating into the dynasty's modernized military forces. In such a way, revolutionary ideas spread within the government's army, weakened the soldier's will to fight on behalf of the Manchus, and made it easy for the outbreak of military revolts against the dynasty. As it happened, the 1911 Revolution was stimulated by such a military revolt. Comprehensive ideology for the revolutionary movement Sun's Three Principles of the People provided comprehensive programs to deal with the political, social and economic problems of China. Although such programs necessarily had weaknesses and had to be improved later, Sun was nevertheless the first political leader of Modern China to work out systematic ways to save the country. SIGNIFICANCE OF THE 1911 REVOLUTION IN CHINA End to the monarchical form of government Politically speaking, the 1911 Revolution was a decisive break with the past. For over two thousand years, China had been ruled by the monarchical form of government. Now, in 1911, however, she was willing and determined to abandon it. Whereas in the past, the dynasty could claim absolute obedience from its subject people, the Chinese people after 1911 began to learn that sovereignty belonged finally to them and to no one else. Decreased Confucianism and increased Westernization and modernization Such a political break with the past had at least two far reaching effects: Negatively, the importance of Confucianism in Chinese society was greatly decreased. As the emperorship political structure had been an inseparable part of Confucianism, the abolition of the monarchy in 1911 declared Confucianism a useless political belief. Later, during the May Fourth Revolution in 1919, even Confucianism as a way of life and a body of social thought was under attack. In this way, the 1911 political revolution made way for the 1919 intellectual revolution.

Positively, the creation of a Western-style republic speeded up and extended Westernization and modernization in all areas of Chinese city life and culture. The Chinese people were therefore psychologically better prepared to accept new, modern things. Indeed, some intellectuals even accepted Communism later. Lack of social revolution Socially speaking, the 1911 revolution was a failure: First, the Revolution did not bring about much change in the composition of the Chinese ruling classes. It is true that the emperor and his officials were gone, but the conservative gentry-landlords had not been overthrown, and still ruling in the countryside. In addition, military men of the Late Ch'ing like Yuan Shih-k'ai remained influential. Revolutionaries and intellectuals, who helped run the Republic, were powerless in the presence of these conservative forces. Secondly, the revolution was limited to several cities only and was too quickly concluded. Only the political system was revolutionized; the social order remained what it had been. Consequently, while the city was modernized, the village was as backward and conservative as ever. Increased provincial decentralization Once the dynasty had been overthrown, the traditional link between the provinces and Peking was cut. The new Republic was weak and could not establish centralized political power over all China. Consequently, the local-provincial scholar-gentry fell back on local and provincial, not national, affairs. The growth of national consciousness was therefore slowed down. Seen from this angle, the 1911 Revolution worsened the problem of political decentralization of the late Ch'ing period. From anti-Manchuism to anti-imperialism Before 1911, Chinese intellectuals could blame the Manchus for all the national and social problems that China suffered. Now that the Manchus no longer ruled, the blame began to be directed at foreign imperialism. Modern Chinese nationalism, therefore, gradually changed from anti-Manchuism to anti-imperialism after 1911. Increased foreign influence in China Because the new Chinese Republic was weak and divided, foreign control of China was increased after 1911. For example, the foreign diplomats in Peking had taken over the complete direction of China's maritime customs. Loss of Outer Mongolia and Tibet Territories that traditionally belonged to China were lost, like Outer Mongolia and Tibet, which declared independence from China after 1911. Communist Revolution 1949 Through the mediatory influence of the United States a military truce was arranged between Nationalist and Communist forces in January 1946, but battles soon resumed. Realizing that American efforts short of large-scale armed intervention could not stop the war, the United States withdrew the American mission, headed by General George C. Marshall, in early 1947. The civil war, in which the United States aided the Nationalists with massive economic loans but no military support, became more widespread. Battles raged not only for territories but also for the allegiance of cross sections of the population. Belatedly, the Nationalist government sought to enlist popular support through internal reforms. The effort was in vain, however, because of the rampant corruption in government and the accompanying political and economic chaos. By late 1948 the Nationalist position was bleak. The demoralized and undisciplined Nationalist troops proved no match for the People's Liberation Army (PLA or ). The Communists were well established in the north and northeast. Although the Nationalists had an advantage in numbers of men and weapons, controlled a much larger territory and population than their adversaries, and enjoyed considerable international support, they were exhausted by the long war with Japan and the attendant internal responsibilities. In January 1949 Beijing was taken by the Communists without a fight. Between April and November, major cities passed from Guomindang to Communist control with minimal resistance. In most cases the surrounding

countryside and small towns had come under Communist influence long before the cities. After Chiang Kai-shek and a few hundred thousand Nationalist troops fled from the mainland to the island of Taiwan, there remained only isolated pockets of resistance. In December 1949 Chiang proclaimed Taipei ( ), Taiwan ( ), the temporary capital of China.

For the first time in decades a Chinese government was met with peace, instead of massive military opposition, within its territory. The new leadership was highly disciplined and, having a decade of wartime administrative experience to draw on, was able to embark on a program of national integration and reform. In the first year of Communist administration, moderate social and economic policies were implemented with skill and effectiveness. The leadership realized that the overwhelming and multitudinous task of economic reconstruction and achievement of political and social stability required the goodwill and cooperation of all classes of people. Results were impressive by any standard, and popular support was widespread. After China entered the Korean War, the initial moderation in Chinese domestic policies gave way to a massive campaign against the "enemies of the state," actual and potential. The campaign was combined with party-sponsored trials attended by huge numbers of people. The major targets in this drive were foreigners and Christian missionaries who were branded as United States agents at these mass trials. The drive against political enemies was accompanied by land reform, which had actually begun under the Agrarian Reform Law. The redistribution of land was accelerated, and a class struggle landlords and wealthy peasants was launched. An ideological reform campaign requiring self-criticisms and public confessions by university faculty members, scientists, and other professional workers was given wide publicity. Artists and writers were soon the objects of similar treatment for failing to heed Mao's dictum that culture and literature must reflect the class interest of the working people. The wu fan movement aimed at eliminating recalcitrant and corrupt businessmen and industrialists, condemnation of "tax evasion, bribery, cheating in government contracts, thefts of economic intelligence, and stealing of state assets." The number of people affected by the various punitive or reform campaigns was estimated in the millions.