 The Soviet Union had recognized China as a potential ally  The CCP was not regarded as suitable for revolution  Fall of capitalism – a key event that had to occur before the rise of communism – had also not taken place in China yet  The GMD was thought to be the most suitable for the revolution

 1922: Comintern finally convinces CCP to work towards a coalition with the KMT to create a united front  Aim:  Liberate the Chinese from the clutches of foreigners and the warlords that currently ruled China  National unification and independence

 Under the agreement it was stated that KMT would become the central force in the revolution  CCP would support it with the aim of removing foreign intervention entirely from the country

 An attempt to end the Warlord Era in China  The CCP joined the GMD to expand their influence & spread communism, making use of their superiority in numbers and eventually subvert it from within  GMD however also wanted to control the communists from within

 Both parties had conflicting aims and the front was unsustainable  CCP favoured violent revolutions  GMD favoured gradual reforms  CCP aims and methods threatened GMD supporters

 Sun Yat-sen’s death brought the underlying conflict to the surface (Replaced by Chiang Kai- Shek as leader of the KMT)  As the Northern Expedition had been successful in uniting China, GMD felt it did not need the support of the CCP  Both parties hated each other and the alliance was hence not a committed one  Each party also had their own desire for political power

 Chiang Kai Shek purged the communists from the front while the Northern Expedition was only half complete  Resulted in a Civil War  Lasted until 1936 when Second United Front was formed

 Chiang aimed to destroy the power of the northern warlords by force  The CCP also wished to test their newly-recruited army of 8m  Saw the march as a chance to liberate the peasants in the north along the way in order to achieve their main goal for the coalition in the first place: to seize power over all of China

 As the two armies gradually conquered China, they began their own attempts to spread their own ideologies via propaganda  Competed for the support of the people they had liberated (e.g. peasants)

 Mar 1927: Shanghai had fallen and more than half of the area originally occupied by Northern warlords had been ceded to the nationalist army

 By now Chiang had grown increasingly wary and alarmed at the tactics and the growing support for the CCP  Encouraged workers to join trade unions to demand better wages  Labour problems hit the Chinese property-owning classes: the main supporters of the KMT  Communists also began to organize the people the CCP had liberated during their march into communist blocs  Increased fears of revolution  Most of CCP’s aims & tactics contradicted that of the KMT’s

 KMT was moving towards closer relations with the wealthy classes and industrialists in Shanghai as well as the KMT conservatives  Nationalisation of trade unions had still been acceptable while the KMT still required the support of the CCP

 However due to the KMT’s close political ties with the rich the Communist activities became increasingly frustrating as the march progressed  Thus once China had been all but fully conquered and the two parties’ influence extended the alliance finally broke down

 Workers in Shanghai, led by the CCP, rebelled against the warlord who ruled the area  CCP set up a Communist council to run the city, but Chiang & his army invaded the city and eradicated all the Communists in Shanghai

 Later also did the same for Guangzhou and executed all the Communists in the area, causing many others to retreat to the countryside for fear of their lives  Once the expulsion of the Communists had taken place, Chiang was in sole control of the cities & Nanjing  Now prepared to conquer rest of China

 By 1926, with the increasing power of the CCP, the right-wing of the KMT, led by Chiang, had decided that the power of the Communists had to be cut back  1927: Chiang, determined as he was to seize Shanghai during the march north, formed a purge committee to accomplish this task

 When news of this reached Shanghai, now in the hands of the Communists, a general strike, backed by the CCP, broke out  Chiang responded by sending out execution squads to murder suspected Communists  Uncertainty amongst the Communists both in China & SU about what the KMT wanted  Obviously had no idea what the true situation was as they had from the start forbidden any opposition to the KMT

 Nonetheless, the KMT began a campaign of murder against the Communists  First United Front hence broke up