1. Nationalists Overthrow Qing Dynasty

2. Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) Sun Yixian (soon yee.shyahn) was the first great leader of the party. He was a physician who spent many years in the United States. In 1912, Sun’s revolutionary Alliance succeeded in overthrowing the last emperor of the Qing dynasty. The Qing had ruled since 1644. In 1912, Sun became president of the new Republic of China. He held the post for just six weeks. He hoped to establish a modern government based on the “Three Principles of the People.”

3. Three Principles of the People Nationalism- an end to foreign control. People’s rights-democracy. People’s livelihood- economic security for all Chinese. Sun lacked the authority and the military support to secure national unity. He turned over the presidency to Yuan Shikai (yoo.ahn shee.ky), a powerful general. He quickly betrayed the democratic ideals of the revolution. By 1913, he was ruling as a military dictator and his actions sparked military revolts.

4. Revolts China remained divided and Sun’s Kuomintang powerless. Civil war broke out and warlords terrorized. Chinese peasants suffered most. Roads and bridges fell into disrepair, and crops were destroyed. Famine took the lives of millions. This was the situation in China as World War I was beginning.

5. World War I In 1917, the government in Beijing, hoping for an Allied victory, declared war against Germany The Treaty of Versailles gave Japan the territories and privileges that had previously belonged to Germany.

6. The May Fourth Movement Outrage swept the country once the news of the Treaty of Versailles reached China. On May 4, 1919, over 3,000 angry students gathered in the center of Beijing. Mao Zedong (mow dzuh.dahng), a young schoolteacher supported the student protestors. Demonstrations spread to other cities and exploded into a national movement. These demonstrations showed the Chinese people’s commitment to the goal of establishing a strong, modern nation. Many young Chinese intellectuals turned against Sun Yixian’s beliefs in Western democracy in favor of Lenin’s brand of Soviet communism.

7. The Communist Party in China In 1920, small groups of young intellectuals were meeting in Shanghai and Beijing University to discuss Marx’s revolutionary beliefs. They viewed the Soviet Union under Lenin as a model for political and economic change. In 1921, a group met in Shanghai to organize the Chinese Communist Party. Mao Zedong was among its founders. Sun decided to ally the Kuomintang with the newly formed Communist Party. Lenin began sending military advisers and equipment to the Nationalists in return for allowing the Chinese communists to join the Kuomintang.

8. Nationalists and Communists clash After Sun Yixian died in 1925, Jiang Jieshi (Jee.ahng jee.shee), aka Chiang Kai-shek, headed the Kuomintang. He was the son of a middle class merchant. Many of his followers were bankers and businesspeople. Like Jiang, they feared the Communist’s goal of creating a socialist economy. At first, Jiang put away his differences with the Communists. Together, the Nationalist forces and the Communists successfully fought the warlords. Thereafter, he turned against the Communists.

9. Nationalists and Communists continued The Nationalists nearly wiped out the Communist Party. Its few survivors went into hiding. In 1928, Jiang became president of the nationalist Republic of China. Great Britain and the US both formally recognized the new government. The Soviet Union did not. The Communists’ deep seated rage over the massacre erupted in a civil war that would last until 1949.

10. Peasants Jiang had promised democracy and political rights to all Chinese. However, he did nothing to improve the life of China’s rural peasants. Many peasants threw their support to the Chinese Communist Party. To enlist the support of the peasants, Mao divided land that the Communists won among the local farmers. The Communists fled to the countryside.

11. Civil War By 1930, Nationalists and Communists were fighting a bloody civil war. Nationlaists attacked the Communists repeatedly but failed to drive the out of the countryside. In 1933, Jiang gathered an army of at least 700,000 men. They surrounded the Communists and outnumbered them 6 to 1. In 1934, Communist Party leaders realized that they faced defeat. They fled and began a6,000 mile-long journey called the Long March.

12. The Long March Over the next year, they kept only a step ahead of the Nationalist forces. Mao’s Red Army crossed many rivers and climbed over mountain ranges. They fought several major battles and faced minor skirmishes almost everyday. They crossed swampland and slept sitting up, leaning back-to-back in pairs, to keep from sinking into the mud and drowning. The chase lasted more than a year. About 100,000 people began the march and 10,000 to 30,000 reached safety in northwestern China, beyond the reach of Jiang’s forces.

13. Communists The communists settled in caves in northwestern China. Despite the discouraging turn of events, they quickly gained more followers. Meanwhile, as civil war between Nationalist and Communists raged, Japan invaded China.

14. Japan’s invasion suspends civil war In 1931, as Chinese fought Chinese, the Japanese watched the power struggles with rising interest. Japanese forces took advantage of China’s weakening situation. They invaded Manchuria, an industrialized province in the northeast part of China. This attack signaled the onset of World War II in Asia. In 1937, the Japanese launched an all-out invasion of China. Massive bombings of villages and cities killed thousands of Chinese. The destruction of farms caused many more to die of starvation. By 1938, Japan held control of a large part of China. Nationalists and Communists temporarily united to fight the Japanese.