Our attention shifts from Russia to China today. As in Russia, the
imperial era will come to an end. From there, however, the two nations
follow different paths. It will be almost four decades before communism
rules over China under Mao Zedong. Today, we'll consider the end of
imperialism and the struggle between the Nationalists and Communists.
(You don't get to learn the end of the story until after World War II,
as the two sides form an uneasy alliance to fight against the Japanese
beginning in 1937.)
The End of Imperial China: When
we last left the Qing, their empire was weakened due to both internal
rebellion and foreign intervention. Here are some of the key events in
the years that follow... Key terms and people are in bold.
1911 - Pu Yi, the last Qing Emperor is overthrown. (Here's the movie link. It won 9 Oscars!)
1912 - Sun Yixian is made president of the new Republic of China.
Sun calls for "Three Principles of the People"
- nationalism - end to foreign control
- people's rights - democracy
- people's livelihood - economic security
His party is the Kuomintang, also known as the Nationalist
Party. Sun passes power to General Yuan Shikai, and he basically tries
to take over everything and sparks civil war. Warlords ruled various
lands in China for the next few years.
1919 - May Fourth Movement
- Mass demonstrations showed China's anger over the unfavorable terms
of the Treaty of Versailles, particularly that German territory
considered to be Chinese was turned over to the Japanese. Many see this
as the birth of modern nationalism in China.
1921 - Chinese Communist Party is organized by Mao Zedong and others in Shanghai.
1925 - Jiang Jieshi
assumes leadership of the Nationalists after Sun dies. His Kuomintang
forces launch raids and attacks against the Communists over the next
few years, particularly 1927.
1933 - Communist forces begin the Long March, a 6000-mile journey lasting more than a year.
1937
- Japan invades China, and the struggle between Nationalists and
Communists is temporarily set aside to face a common enemy.
The Long March -
We'll wrap up today with a little "field trip." (Before the building
expanded, we used to take a whole block and do this outside, regardless
of weather. I've gotten old and soft since then.) We'll stay inside and
take our own very small version of the march today...
- I know nothing about the authors of the website, but you can read about the exploits of some individuals who took the Long March (Mao, Deng Xiaoping and others) here.
- Here's a pretty specific version of the map of the Long March.
- Here's an animated version of the map of the Long March.
- I can't say that I'd recommend recreating this map.
By
the way, there's been a good deal of recent scholarship questioning
some of the claims of the Long March. Rather than worrying about
exactly how many miles it was, instead focus on its symbolic value for
the Chinese Communists in terms of rallying support and glorifying
their past. (Maybe you can think of similar events in US history.
Valley Forge?)
HOMEWORK for next session - Monday, February 1st
Nothing
fancy here. Please begin your reading in Chapter 31 with Section 1,
"Postwar Uncertainty." (pp. 897 - 901) You'll notice that this is a
different kind of section from what we have been reading lately...
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