Recent History of East Asia March 10, 2015

China A man named Sun Yat-Sen took power in 1912 after the last dynasty fell, and formed the first Republic of China After his death in 1925, two groups – the Nationalists and the Communists – were fighting for power The Nationalists won, under the leader of Chiang Kai-Shek

The Beginnings of Communist China In 1934, Mao Zedong, a Communist, was the leader of a group of 100,000 Chinese who were in favor of a Communist government The Nationalists were in power, and eventually a civil war started between the 2 groups The Communists eventually won the war and Mao Zedong became leader of China in 1949

The Great Leap Forward Mao Zedong put a series of policies in place beginning in 1958, that he thought would help China become equal in power to the U.S. This was called the Great Leap Forward Wanted to be equal in agricultural production He practiced the isolationist policy so he refused to trade with other countries He took over private land, and turned it into government farms He told people what to grow, and how much to grow As a result of Mao’s belief about China living on its own, not enough food was produced to feed everyone in the country and a famine in the 1960s killed millions of Chinese

The Cultural Revolution Mao also had a policy called the Cultural Revolution – an attempt to erase China’s past and concentrate on the present Foreign ideas and old Chinese cultural ideas were frowned upon Books, artwork, and anything else that showed connections to the past were destroyed Schools and universities were closed, teachers were mistreated, and families were separated for work purposes Many innocent people were killed or committed suicide during the 10 year revolution Ended only with Mao’s death in 1976

Japan In 1867, Japan formed the Empire of Japan In 1900, they began to expand their empire They took over parts of China, the Koreas, and other parts of Asia

World War II Japan fought with the Axis Powers (Germany and Italy) during WWII They attacked the U.S. naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941 During the war they took control of much of Southeast Asia and many Pacific islands They were defeated by the U.S. and other Allied forces in 1945 As a result, Japan lost its empire

Korea Korea had spent much of its history controlled by China, until Japan took over in 1910 They became independent when Japan lost their empire at the end of WWII in 1945 The country was split into North Korea and South Korea when Communist Russia took over the northern half and the U.S. helped form a democratic government in the southern half

The Korean War Korea was divided along the 38th parallel N. Korea was communist, S. Korea was a democracy In 1950, N. Korea invaded S. Korea The U.S. fought with the S. Koreans, the Chinese fought with the N. Koreans The U.S. was afraid of the spread of Communism – Domino Theory (if one country falls to Communism, then others will fall also) In 1953, a cease-fire agreement was reached Country was still divided No side officially won the war The country is still divided into North and South

Questions 1. Who formed the Republic of China in 1912? 2. Who fought for power after the death of Sun Yat-Sen? 3. Which group won the Chinese civil war? 4. Who was the leader of Communist China? 5. What was the Great Leap Forward? 6. What caused a famine in China? 7. What was the Cultural Revolution? 8. When and why did the Cultural Revolution end?

More Questions… 9. What did Japan take over when they began to expand their empire? 10. Which side did Japan fight on during World War II? 11. Why did Japan lose its empire? 12. Who controlled Korea before Japan? 13. When did Korea become independent? 14. Why did Korea split in half? 15. When did the Korean War start? 16. What is the Domino Theory?