The Chinese Revolution
The Chinese revolution began when revolutionaries
overthrew the last of the Manchu emperors. The revolutionaries
believed that the Chinese had lost the mandate of heaven, and
the ability to provide proper leadership for China. Dr. Sun Yat-sen
had been an influential figure in earlier revolutions, and he
returned to China to become their first president. However, he
served as president for only a short while before the military
leader claimed leadership of China. He created an army to help
gain back control of China. The leader of this army was Chiang
Kai-shek. He led his army on a victorious march. His group was
soon powerful enough to proclaim a new government. This march
of Chiang's helped power strengthen his revolutionary cause. However,
he soon faced opposition with Mao Tse-tung and the communist party.
So far, steps one and three have been met in the revolutionary
cycle.
Mao Tse-tung developed a highly-disciplined guerrilla war band.
They were also told to be very nice to the peasants, and not to
take anything from them. this helped attract many of the peasants
to Mao's cause. At the same time, Chiang's nationalist army was
suffering from low morale, and they accomplished very little for
the people during their period of Chinese governmental control.
Their moderate reform attempted to restore many rights to China,
but internal corruption destroyed many of their accomplishments.
The counter-revolutionary communist forces soon came to seize
power. They easily defeated the nationalist forces led by Chiang,
and established their communist government. (Chiang left, and
set up his headquarters at Taiwan.) Mao then proclaimed China
to be the People's Republic of China, and created a people's congress,
and other important democratic organizations; however, he was
more or less the dictator. He then initiated a series of reforms
to help keep his hold on the quasi-dictatorship, and to increase
the standard of living in China. On of his first plans was the
Great Leap Forward, in which Mao divided the farm land into communes
which multiple families worked. He also set out to expand the
industries, by set up many small industrial plants around the
country. He also attempted to emphasize the importance of peasants
and workers as being some of the highest ranking people in society,
instead of the scholars which had traditionally been the highest
ranking. Soon, however, the communist party split into rival factions.
To help strengthen the government, he launched the Cultural Revolution
in China. This period was similar to the reign of terror found
in other revolutions. Mao's Red Guard heaped slanderous saying
upon people that were against Mao, thus forcing them out of their
jobs. Soon violence erupted in the country, but the public soon
tired of it, and the Cultural Revolution came to an end.
