Reading Essentials and Study Guide Nationalism Around the ...

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Nationalism Around the World: Reading Essentials and Study Guide: Lesson 3

Reading Essentials and Study Guide

Nationalism Around the World

Lesson 3 Revolutionary Chaos in China

ESSENTIAL QUESTIONS

How can political control lead to nationalist movements?

How does economic exploitation lead to nationalist movements?

Reading HELPDESK

Content Vocabulary

guerrilla tactics the use of unexpected maneuvers like sabotage and subterfuge to fight an enemy

redistribution of wealth the shifting of wealth from a rich minority to a poor majority

Academic Vocabulary

cease to come to an end

eventually in the end

TAKING NOTES: Summarizing Information

1. ACTIVITY As you read, use the cluster diagram below to show the Confucian values that Chiang

Kai-shek used to bring modern Western ideas into a culturally conservative population.

IT MATTERS BECAUSE

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Nationalism Around the World: Reading Essentials and Study Guide: Lesson 3

In 1923 the Nationalist and Communist Parties in China formed an alliance, or partnership. They

did this to drive the imperialists out of China. Tensions grew between the two parties, however.

Sun Yat?sen¡¯s successor as leader of the Nationalists was Chiang Kai?shek. He attacked the

Communists, and many of them went into hiding or fled to the north. There Mao Zedong set up a

Communist base.

Nationalists and Communists

GUIDING QUESTION What was the relationship between the Nationalists and the Communists?

Revolutionary Marxism had its greatest impact in China. Central authority, or control by a

nationwide government, had almost ceased to exist in China by 1920. Two political forces began

to emerge. They competed for the right to rule China. Sun Yat?sen¡¯s Nationalist Party was one

force. It had lost much of its power and position several years earlier. The other was the Chinese

Communist Party.

The Nationalist-Communist Alliance

The Chinese Communist Party (CCP) began in 1921. A group of young radicals founded it, including

several people who worked for Beijing University. The CCP was formed in the commercial and

industrial city of Shanghai. Agents of the Comintern, a worldwide organization of Communist

parties, told the new party to join with the more experienced Nationalist Party.

Sun Yat-sen was the leader of the Nationalists. He welcomed the cooperation between the

Nationalists and the Communists. He needed the skill and support from the Soviet Union, who had

started the Comintern to help spread Communism throughout the world. Sun's anti-imperialist ideas

had pushed away many Western powers. One English-language newspaper in Shanghai even wrote

that Sun¡¯s ideas kept China in disorder, and he should be stopped. In 1923 the Nationalists and the

Communists formed an alliance. They did this to oppose the warlords, military leaders who

controlled local areas, and to drive the imperialist powers out of China.

The two parties tried to work together for more than three years. They formed a revolutionary

army to march north and seize control of China. This march, which began in the summer of 1926,

was called the Northern Expedition. Revolutionary forces had taken control of all of China south of

the Chang Jiang (Yangtze River) by the following spring. The area included the major river ports of

Wuhan and Shanghai.

Tensions between the parties eventually arose. Sun Yat-sen died in 1925. General Chiang Kaishek (JYAHNG KY?SHEHK) was his military subordinate, and he replaced Sun Yat?sen as head of

the Nationalist Party. Chiang pretended to support the alliance with the Communists, but he really

planned to destroy them. He attacked the Communists in Shanghai in April 1927, and thousands

were killed. The Nationalist-Communist alliance ceased after this attack, which was known as the

Shanghai Massacre.

In 1928 Chiang Kai-shek founded a new Chinese republic at Nanjing. He worked to reunify China

during the next three years. Chiang saw Japan as a serious threat, but he believed that the

Communists were more dangerous.

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Nationalism Around the World: Reading Essentials and Study Guide: Lesson 3

The Communists in Hiding

After the Shanghai Massacre of April 1927, most of the Communist leaders went into hiding in the

city. There, they tried to bring back the Communist movement within the urban working class.

Shanghai was a good place to find members for the Communist party because people were

unhappy and looking for leadership. Some Communist party members fled to the mountainous

Jiangxi

(JYAHNG?SHEE) Province, south of the Chang Jiang. They were led by the young Communist

organizer Mao Zedong (MOW DZUH?DUNG). Mao was convinced that the poor farm workers in the

countryside would lead a Chinese revolution, not the urban working class. Mao was the son of a

successful, wealthy peasant. He had helped to organize a peasant movement in South China during

the early 1920s. Chiang Kai-shek tried to get the Communists out of Shanghai and Jiangxi Province.

He succeeded in the first task in 1931. Most party leaders in Shanghai were forced to flee to Mao¡¯s

base in the mountains in southern China.

Chiang Kai?shek then turned his forces against Mao¡¯s group in Jiangxi Province. Chiang¡¯s forces far

outnumbered Mao¡¯s, but Mao made effective use of guerrilla tactics. These were unexpected

methods like sabotage (destroying things useful to the enemy) and tricks. Four slogans by Mao

describe his methods. He said to retreat when the enemy advances, to bother the enemy at camp,

to attack when the enemy tries to avoid fighting, and to attack when the enemy retreats.

The Long March

Chiang¡¯s troops had more military strength than Mao's. In 1934 they surrounded the Communist

base in Jiangxi and set up a blockade. Chiang¡¯s troops stood between the villages and Mao, and so

no food or supplies could pass to the Communist base. Chiang even built small forts to prevent

Communist raids. Mao¡¯s army was called the People¡¯s Liberation Army (PLA). It broke through the

Nationalist lines and began its famous Long March.

Both Mao and Chiang knew that Mao¡¯s army would be destroyed unless it could cross the Chang

Jiang. Mao¡¯s army began a race for their lives. They moved on foot through mountains, marshes,

rivers, and deserts. The army traveled almost 6,000 miles (9,600 km) to reach the last surviving

Communist base in northwest China. They traveled 24 miles (38 km) each day. Mao¡¯s troops had to

fight Chiang¡¯s army the whole way.

Many of Mao¡¯s troops froze or starved along the way. One survivor of the Long March remembered

there was less and less to eat each day. They had to eat their horses and live on wild vegetables.

They even had to eat their leather belts.

Mao¡¯s troops reached safety in the hills of northern China one year later. Only 9,000 of the 90,000

troops who had started on the journey remained. Mao Zedong became the only leader of the

Chinese Communist Party through the course of the Long March. The Communist threat to the

Nanjing regime must have seemed over to people who lived at the time. The Communists still had

hope for the future, however.

PROGRESS CHECK

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Nationalism Around the World: Reading Essentials and Study Guide: Lesson 3

2. Identifying Central Issues Why did the Nationalists and Communists form an alliance?

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The New China

GUIDING QUESTION What characterized the new China?

Chiang had been trying to build a new Chinese nation even while he was trying to stop Mao¡¯s

Communist forces. He had publicly declared his commitment to Sun Yat?sen¡¯s plans for a republican

government. However, before that, there would be a period of change. Sun had felt that the

Chinese people needed to be prepared for republican rule. It would take time to change from a

monarchy to a republic. There would be confusion if this transition period did not happen.

Chiang announced a period of political tutelage, or training. This was to prepare the Chinese people

for a final stage of constitutional government. Even peasants would be given time to understand

the country¡¯s problems and the new government. In the meantime, the Nationalists would use their

power to carry out a land-reform program. They would also make the urban industrial sector, or

part, of the economy more modern.

A Class Divide

It would take more than plans on paper to create a new China. Years of neglect and civil war made

all parts of the nation¡ªits politics, its economy, and its society¡ªweak. There were some signs of a

growing industrial revolution, or growth in industries, in the major cities. However, most of the

people who lived in the countryside struggled because of war and civil unrest. Rural peasants made

up to 80 percent of China¡¯s population, and they were still very poor and mostly illiterate.

Meanwhile, a Westernized middle class began to form in the cities. It was here that the new

Nanjing government found much of its support. The new elite focused on middle-class Western

values. These values included individual advancement and making money or having possessions.

The elite had few links with the peasants in the countryside or with rickshaw drivers. (A rickshaw is

a small two-wheeled cart pulled by a person. It usually carried one passenger. It was common in

cities, and drivers had a very difficult job.) In the cities, it looked as if Chiang Kai-shek had brought

China into the modern world. Young people in the cities wore European clothes. They went to the

movies and listened to the radio.

Innovations and Traditions

Chiang Kai-shek knew it would be difficult to introduce foreign ideas into a population that still held

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Nationalism Around the World: Reading Essentials and Study Guide: Lesson 3

traditional values. He tried to bring together modern western innovations with traditional Confucian

values of hardwork and obedience. His wife, Soong Mei-ling, had been educated in the United

States. With her, Chiang set up a ¡°New Life Movement.¡± Its goal was to promote traditional

Confucian social beliefs. These included hard work, obedience, integrity (truth and honesty),

propriety (good manners), and righteousness (justice). Four old Confucian virtues would be guides

for living: Li (courtesy), I (duty), Lien (honesty), and Chih (honor). At the same time, it rejected

Western capitalist values.

Unfortunately for Chiang Kai-Shek, Confucian ideas had been widely rejected. This traditional

system had failed to provide answers to China¡¯s decline. Chiang Kai?shek also faced many other

problems as well. The Nanjing government had total control over just a few provinces in the Chang

Jiang valley. The Japanese threatened to gain control of northern China. The Great Depression was

also having a bad effect on China¡¯s economy. These problems made it difficult for Chiang to make

much progress with his program.

Limited Progress

Chiang faced many problems, but he did have some success. He established a large road-building

project. He also had much of the country¡¯s railroad system repaired and extended. More than

50,000 miles (80,467 km) of highways were built around and through the areas on the coast. New

factories were opened, and most of these had Chinese owners. The foreign powers ended many of

their special privileges or rights through a series of agreements with China. They ended many of

their leases on Chinese territory. They also gave up extraterritorial rights (right to separate areas

where their citizens lived and where they did not have to obey Chinese, but just their own laws).

They returned the customs service, or system of taxing imports, to Chinese control. Chiang also

established a national bank and improved the education system.

Chiang feared Communist influence. As a result, he suppressed, or stopped, all opposition. He also

censored free expression. Chiang¡¯s actions angered many intellectuals and political moderates

(people without extreme positions). Chiang¡¯s support came from the rural landed gentry and the

urban middle class. He did not want programs that would lead to a redistribution of wealth. A

land-reform program began in 1930, but it had little effect. There was no real improvement under

the Nanjing government for the peasants and poor townspeople.

Sun Fo was Sun Yat?sen¡¯s son. He did not approve of the Nanjing government. He felt that the

Kuomintang, or Chinese Nationalist Party, had taken a wrong direction, and it did not follow the

ideas in the party constitution, which Sun Yatsen had created in 1923. He also said the party

worked against the spirit of democracy.

Chiang Kai?shek¡¯s government did not have much success in promoting industrial development.

Industrial growth averaged only about one percent per year between 1927 and 1937. Much of the

national wealth was in the hands of what was called the ¡°four families.¡± This was a group of senior

officials and close subordinates of the ruling elite. Military expenses took up half the budget. Little

was left for social and economic development.

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