Parvatibai Chowgule College of Arts and Science
Autonomous
Revolution of 1949
Name- Arilio Jose Sarto Menezes
Roll No- 2101328
Class- TYBA
Semester V
Course Title- History of Modern China and Japan (1894 -
2000)
Content
Sr. No Content Page. No
1 Abstract 1
2 Introduction 1
3 Background 2
4 Communist in the Countryside 2- 3
5 Long March 3-5
6 Chinese Civil War (1945 -49) 5-6
8 Conclusion 7
9 References 8
Abstract
In this assignment the Revolution of 1949 will be covered. This assignment will start with the
background of KMT and CCP coming together to take down the Warlords and also how
Chiang Kai Shek destroyed the Communist party. This assignment will also cover the
Communism that went in hiding in the countryside and how they raised it power again, also
how the long march that the CCP led with Mao Zedong did with his members and lastly it
will cover how after the Japanese were defeated in WW2 that later led to the final civil war
from 1945-49 which ended with the communist winning the war and leading communist
government in China.
Introduction
Starting October this year marks the 73rd anniversary of the 1949 Chinese Revolution - when
millions of peasants and workers rose up to overthrow the landlords and capitalists. This
inspiring revolutionary movement provides many important lessons for today. The revolution
of 1949 was a long fought war from 1923 to 1949, this long struggle of which power will
take over China it was a battle between Nationalist -KMT and Communist- CCP. The
revolutionary Chinese masses took matters into their own hands, changing world history for
ever. Millions of peasants and workers, who had hitherto been brutally exploited by the
landlords and capitalists, threw off the humiliating yoke of imperialism and capitalism.
1
Background
Sun was a giant of a man with enormous prestige and following in China. After Sun Yat Sen
died of an illness, there was no leader that could replace him. The leadership then went on to
the hand of Chiang Kai shek. Who had command of the military who by this time had
pronounced right-wing tendencies and a deep and abiding hatred of the Chinese Communists.
On 9 July 1926, Chiang Kai-shek led a Northern Expedition against the warlords at the head
of an army consisting of both Communists and Nationalists, later by the end the CPC wanted
to continue moving towards the north near Beijing and KMT went east towards Shanghai. 1
In January, Chiang became generalissimo of the Nationalist Army, chair of the KMT's
Central Executive Committee and head of the government in Nanjing, but Chiang then turned
with a vengeance on the pro-Communist labor unions in Shanghai. 2The allies between CCP
and KMT changed when on April 12, 1927, Chiang launched a brutal and bloody anti-
Communist campaign in Shanghai. His agents and police ruthlessly tracked down Communist
cells and shot suspected Communists on sight this incident was known as the Shanghai
Massacre. The Nationalist government in Wuhan was appalled at his actions and sought to
distance itself from his Nanjing regime, but by February 1928 the Wuhan government,
having concluded that it would be unwise and futile to confront Chiang Kai-shek militarily,
dissolved itself and recognized Chiang’s Nanjing-based regime as the new capital of the
restored republic. Chiang later led his army to Beijing and renamed it Beiping, which means
“Northern Peace” or “Pacified North.” By 1929, then, Chiang Kai-shek had emerged as
China’s new powerful leader. His forces had broken the warlords’ power, unified China
under the control of a Nanjing-based government, and expelled the CCP from Shanghai,
Beijing, and other major cities. The Communists had not been defeated however, They
quickly reemerged in the countryside where they organized peasant resistance movements. 3
Communist in the Countryside
Nationalist control over the countryside remained weak, and Chiang’s ability (and interest) in
improving economic conditions in rural areas was marginal at best. 4After CCP had a crushing
defeat the minority of Chinese Communists, led by Mao Zedong, had retreated to the
1
Wright, The History of China, 135.
2
Jaivin, The Shortest History of China, 166.
3
Wright, The History of China, 135.
4
Wasserstrom, Modern China, 142.
2
countryside, beyond the immediate reach of Chiang’s city-based forces. Mao returned to his
native province of Hunan, and in 1927 he led an unsuccessful peasant uprising. In August
several thousand KMT troops abandoned Chiang’s Nationalist part and joined the Chinese
Communists, among them were some prominent meme bees such as Zhu De, who eventually
became the commander of the Red Army, and Zhou Enlai, who later served as China’s
premier and was, after Mao, the second most powerful leader in China. Mao and Zhu
eventually relocated to Jiangxi province, where they led a Communist-led regime that
confiscated land from greedy landlords, punished or executed them, and redistributed their
land to poor peasants. This program of land reform was to a very great extent appealing to
Jiangxi’s peasantry, and by early 1930 Mao’s Communist movement in the province was
gaining enormous popular support. This was worrying for Chiang Kai-shek, but he found it
even more unsettling that Zhu De’s command over a Red Army emerging to protect the new
soviet from attack. In November 1930 Chiang Kai-shek launched the first of five
“encirclement and extermination” campaigns against the Jiangxi soviet. The first four were
unsuccessful, but the fifth succeeded in dislodging the Chinese Communists and sending
them on the epic Long March. They finally relocated in Yan’an in the faraway northern
province of Shaanxi.5
Long March
Facing defeat or surrender, in October 1934 about 100,000 soldiers and support personnel
broke through the encircling KMT lines and marched south and west. Nearly half of the Red
Army force was lost in the first months due to constant fighting. The heavy casualties
threatened the CCP’s survival, and also called into question the leadership of the Comintern
advisers and their allies, especially Otto Braun, a German Comintern agent whom Moscow
had assigned to work with the Chinese Communists, and Bo Gu a senior leader within the
CCP who was a part of an orthodox Marxist faction within the Party known as the 28
Bolsheviks.6
In the eyes of the KMT the Long March was the long retreat of a defeated army and regime.
The Nationalists called it the “Great Rat Scamper” (da liu- cuan), and many old Nationalists
5
Wright, The History of China, 137.
6
Wasserstrom, Modern China, 145-146.
in Taiwan today still laugh at its glorification and exaggeration in mainland China. KMT
aircraft
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followed the course of the Long March and regularly bombed and strafed it, so that the
marchers eventually had to march at night and rest during the daytime. Hostile foot soldiers
often ambushed them and decimated their numbers. The Long Marchers suffered terribly and
often went without shoes, warm clothing, and adequate nutrition.7
Disputes over direction, strategy, and tactics were constant, with Mao frequently at odds with
the Party Central Committee. At the city of Zunyi, in western Guizhou, the Communist Red
Army paused to consider strategy amid these disagreements. After several days of meetings
and arguments, the leadership of the army and the Party were reshuffled, with Zhou Enlai
emerging as the formal leader, but with Mao poised to take actual leadership. The Soviet-
funded Comintern wing of the Party fell out of favour, and from this point forward Mao
became the dominant force in the CCP. From Zunyi, the Red Army split into three armies,
each seeking a way to link up with other Communist forces scattered across China. A year
after their initial breakout, after many thousands of miles, the forces reached Yan’an, in
northwest China. While only about 10 percent of the original force that had fled Jiangxi
remained, far from the coast, and with Japanese pressure diverting Chiang Kai-shek’s
attention, the CCP had nevertheless survived and found a place to regroup.8
The Long March finally ended in Shaanxi province in October 1935, and by 1936 the
Communists had holed up in the town of Yan’an, a strategically important area that was
nearly impossible to bomb from the air because the dwellings were dug into the faces of
nearly vertical cliffs. There the Chinese Communists remained headquartered until the end of
World War II in August 1945, beyond the reach of Japanese and KMT foes alike. The time in
Yan’an was a breather for Mao, and there he received foreign sympathisers, gave interviews
to adventurous American journalists, wrote theoretical essays, fine-tuned his ideology.9
7
Wright, The History of China, 140.
8
Wasserstrom, Modern China, 146.
9
Wright, The History of China, 141.
Disentangling the myths from the reality of the Long March was a challenging endeavour. It
remains the origin myth of the Communist Party and Mao’s leadership, and like all myths its
truth is often less important than its meaning. Original accounts that the Red Army marched
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nearly 10,000 miles have been challenged, though certainly covering 6,000 miles across
mountainous terrain is no small feat. Many of the most heroic moments of the Long March
have been questioned, and many appear to have been staged or reframed for propaganda
value. It seems that Mao and other leaders may have been carried for long stretches of the
March. Yet, its significance remains undiminished. Future leaders like Deng Xiaoping, Liu
Shaoqi, Zhu Du, and of course Zhou and Mao, took part in the Long March. The myth of the
March, as well as the Yan’an years that followed it, provided instant credentials for that
generation of leaders as well as an endless source of mythology.10
Chinese Civil War (1945 -49)
The use of two atomic bombs by the Americans against Japan in August 1945 ended the war
in China against the Japanese . Chiang Kai-shek returned victorious to Nanjing in 1945, but
soon Chinese Civil war started again but this time it was the final showdown between the
Nationalist (KMT) and the Communists(CPC).
During this time Americans tried to intervene in China and prevent the civil war. This,
however turned out to be impossible because both sides were determined to defeat the other
and were not interested in making amends and having any friendly relations. At the same
time however, both sides attempted to praise the United States in order to gain an advantage
and tried to humour the idealistic American diplomats who sought to restore friendly relations
between the Nationalists(KMT) and the Communists(CPC). However the U.S. government
had more sympathetic with KMT because Chiang Kai-shek’s regime was almost universally
recognised as China’s government at the time.11
Immediately after Japan’s surrender, American diplomat Patrick Hurley, tried to get the two
sides together to conduct discussions. Yielding to U.S. pressure, Chiang Kai-shek invited
Mao Zedong to Chongqing, but Mao was unwilling for the visit because he feared that this
was a KMT trap. But after Patrick Hurley gave the assurances of the U.S. government that
there would be no trap, Mao Zedong boarded an plane and flew from Yan’an to Chongqing in
10
Wasserstrom, Modern China, 146- 147.
11
Wright, The History of China, 145- 146.
mid-August 1945. There were six weeks of talking yet it produced no practical results, Mao
went back to Yan’an determined to prepare for all-out war with Chiang Kai-shek and KMT.
Hurley
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returned to the United States, but the Americans were not yet ready to take off their eyes
from China. In December 1945 the United States sent another envoy to China, General
George C. Marshall, the originator of the Marshall Plan for the postwar recovery of Europe.
Because of Marshall’s enormous prestige, the Nationalists and Communists came to the
negotiating table once more in early 1946 and pretended for a tentative settlement of their
differences. But by March, both sides were fighting once again. “Talk, talk, fight, fight” was
the guiding principle for the Communists at this time, and many say it might as well have
been for the Nationalists as well. Marshall finally left China in January 1947, thoroughly
disgusted with the refusal of both sides in the Chinese civil war to engage in peace talks in
good faith.
After Marshall’s departure from China, civil war flared up in Manchuria. American military
advisors had encouraged Chiang Kai Shek to maintain his hold over southern China rather
than spreading his forces towards the north which was Communist-dominated. Chiang,
however, stubbornly refused to take their advice and had the American military airlift
thousands of Nationalist troops to areas throughout northern China. Chiang’s insistence on
attempting to recapture the north from the Nationalists’ point of view was that Manchuria and
other parts of northern China had been occupied by Japanese invading forces since 1931, and
one major reason for China’s war with Japan was over these very areas. Chiang’s moves
against the north were quite foolish, and his campaigns turned out just as American military
advisors had feared his widely spread forces were eventually outmanoeuvred and
overwhelmed. By late 1947 his armies in Manchuria had been largely wiped out, and in
December 1948 Beijing fell to the Communists.
Nanjing itself fell to the Communists in April 1949, and on October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong
declared the Communists’ ultimate victory that he proclaimed in Beiping (now renamed
Beijing) the liberation of China and the founding of the new People’s Republic of China to
was of great happiness and a large crowd of celebrants gathered in Tiananmen Square. He
announced to China and the world that China had stood up. Meanwhile, the remnants of
Chiang Kai-shek’s corrupt government and discouraged military fled to the island of Taiwan,
where it has remained ever since.12
12
Wright, The History of China,147.
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Conclusion
After the Revolution of 1949 ended the rule of KMT in China and the rise of CCP. CCP led
China to the road of Communism were the country had great changes and development.
Many great Communist leader were able to led great changes to the country. China began to
adopt free-market reforms that introduced elements of capitalism into its economy. As a
result, the People's Republic of China today has greatly in the standard of living, health and
nutrition of the people and the Chinese economy now the second largest in the world. The
Chinese Communist Party, however, still holds monopoly of power. It does not tolerate
political dissent or anyone who questions it’s right to rule.
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References
Jaivin, Linda. The Shortest History of China. New Delhi: Picador India,
2023.
Wasserstorm, Jeffrey. N. The Oxford Illustrated History of Modern
China. United Kingdom: Oxford University Press, 2016.
Wood, Michael. The Story of China A Portrait of a Civilisation and its
People. New Delhi: Simon & Schuster India, 2020.
Wright, David Curtis. The History of China. California: Greenwood,
2011.
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