The History of The Great Qing Dynasty

For nearly four thousand years, China was led by dynasties that rose and fell over the centuries. This dynastic system only came to a halt in the early 20th century when the last dynasty, the Qing dynasty, fell from power via a revolution after being unable to satisfy its people. Until this point, Ancient China was one of the longest-lasting human civilizations in the world, surviving almost four millennia. It's around this time that communism is first introduced into China. Inspired by the Bolsheviks and Karl Marx, Chinese revolutionaries set out to build a communist country. At first, Chinese communists closely adhered to Russian political Philosophy, but after Mao Zedong took over the party, that began to change. He developed his own way of thinking based on his experiences and Marxist thought, all while transforming Chinese history in the process. It was Mao who famously said, "Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun." ("Selected Works of Mao Tse-tung" Vol. II, pp. 224-225). A statement that would remain true for Mao throughout his decades-long conquest to control China under communist rule. However, a rival party, the Nationalist Party or the Kuomintang, would fight back against a communist takeover in a civil war that was fought in two phases over 22 years. 

The Qing dynasty lasted almost three hundred years and was the largest dynasty in Chinese history in terms of territory. Initially, in the early years of the Qing dynasty, things remained prosperous, but towards the end, the dynasty's legacy was marked with dozens of uprisings and attempted revolutions. A man named Dr. Sun Yat-Sen sponsored many of the failed uprisings and cofounded the Tongmenghui (United League) in 1905 with Huang Xing. The Tongmenghui was formed, “to expel the Manchu people, to revive Zhonghua, to establish a Republic, and to distribute land equally among the people.” Chinese University Press.. p. 468. The Tongmenghui was composed of many different views including socialist, republican, and nationalist, and combined their objectives into one organization. Eventually, they became a prominent underground resistance movement throughout China and helped fuel the support for a revolution. While he did try to start a rebellion, Sun Yat-Sen was not, however, the one who caused the collapse of the Qing dynasty. The fall of the Qing dynasty can be attributed to many things such as government corruption, food shortages, and ruler incompetence. But one major failure of the qing government was their plan to nationalize railroads. By the turn of the century, nearly all railroads were designed, funded, built, and operated by foreign nations. Many local Chinese saw this as the Manchu government seizing assets from the people and placing local property in the hands of foreign powers. This decision received massive opposition, which led to the Railway Protection Movement, a national political protest against the nationalization of railways. The response from the Qing government was to suppress the demonstration by force, often using their military, further plummeting support for the Qing. The Railway Protection Movement can be said to have directly caused the collapse of the Qing dynasty because it inspired the Wuchang Uprising on October 10, 1911. This date was not picked, but rather the uprising was initiated by the inadvertent detonation of a bomb in a building utilized as a base for rebel soldiers in Wuchang, Hubei. With their location given away and now facing arrest, the revolutionaries were forced to start an impromptu rebellion, resulting in a rebel victory. The revolutionaries captured government buildings and declared a new government in the province of Hubei. This victory ignited a wave of other uprisings across China, the Xinhai Revolution, eventually leading to the downfall of the last dynasty and the beginning of the new Republic of China. Dr.Sun Yat-Sen wasn’t in China at the time and didn’t coordinate the attack but was rallying support and money in the United States. When he learned about the uprising and its success in the newspaper, he traveled back to China and was declared president of the Republic of China. The new republic was weak, and it would only take a few months before Sun Yat-Sen would be forced into exile by Yuan Shikai, a warlord who tried to reestablish the dynastic system with himself as emperor. His death in 1916 would mark the beginning of the “warlord era” in China and was when Sun finally returned from exile.

In the ashes of the Tongmenghui, Chiang Kai-Shek and Sun Yat-Sen reformed the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) in 1919. Among the reformation of the party, there was also the May Fourth Movement. The May Fourth Movement was a large student demonstration in the capital city of Beijing against the 1918 Treaty of Versailles, which gave Qingdao to Japan. The students also advocated for democracy, national independence, freedom, and culture. The movement is argued to have Inspired a new generation of leaders and move many more people to become radicalized. In an article written for newspapers, Mao Zedong wrote in May 1938:

The May Fourth Movement twenty years ago marked a new stage in China's bourgeois-democratic revolution against imperialism and feudalism. The cultural reform movement which grew out of the May Fourth Movement was only one of the manifestations of this revolution. (“Selected Works of Mao Zedong” Vol II) 

Building off of the May Fourth Movement and inspired by the Russian Revolution, the Chinese Communist Party was formed in 1921. In the years after the party’s founding, the communists maintained low membership, but there were bigger problems ahead for them. Warlords had spread throughout the country and have been unchecked for years. In 1924, the CCP and the KMT allied with one another, The First United Front, to eliminate the warlord system and to reunify China. Both, however, had ulterior motives behind their pact. The communists wanted to use the KMT’s larger numbers to try and spread Marxist views. While The Nationalists wanted to control the communists from within their party. Together the pair made up the National Revolutionary Army (NRA) and in 1926 set out on the Northern Expedition in the fight to end warlordism. Initially, Sun wanted the alliance to work, but with his death, a political divide began to show within his party. Now the new leader of the Kuomintang, Chiang Kai-Shek grew weary of the communists who had been establishing unions in China during the Northern Expedition. Chiang thought their actions were too revolutionary and decided that “cleansing the party” was necessary. So, Shek purged the party from communists and while In Shanghai decided to also crack down on Unions and communists in the city. This resulted in the Shanghai Massacre of 1927, The violent suppression of communists in Shanghai that ended in 5,000 - 6,000 deaths. It marked the ending of the First United Front and the start of the first phase of the Chinese Civil War, fought between the communists and nationalists. Appalled by his decisions, the left-wing of the Kuomintang would condemn Chiang’s actions and, to mend his error, he exiled himself to Japan. Chiang’s “White Terror” was already felt, however, as many communists were killed or had to flee to the countryside to live. Chiang didn’t stay in exile for long, however, and when back in command he continued the northern expedition without the communists’ help. On December 29, 1928, Chiang managed to effectively end the warlord system within China and reunified China under Kuomintang rule.

Mao Zedong would lead the newly established People’s Liberation Army (PLA) through the city of Nanchang on August 1st, 1927 to counter the Shanghai Massacre. It was the first major confrontation in the Chinese Civil War and was a victory for the communists. This victory spree for Mao would not be the same for the Autumn Harvest Uprising a little over a month later where six days into the battle he had to pull his troops from the province of Hunan. This failed battle would lead Mao to develop Guerilla tactics and paved the way for future battles. In the meantime, Mao controlled territories that were under communist control, such as a base in Jiangxi province, Hunan Province, and Hubei province. Encirclement Campaigns were used by the nationalists to combat communist-controlled areas. In 1933, Chiang ordered an attack on communist bases in Southern China compelling the communists to relocate to the North in an area where they were not easier to attack. The march, which is actualy a serioes of marches, lasted from october October 16, 1934, to October 19, 1935 (one year and six days). This gave it the name The Long March and was lead by Mao Zedong 6,000 miles to the North. 

Fighting continued until 1937 when an inevitable Japanese Invasion forced the communists and nationalists to suspend fighting and form the Second United Front. Chiang remained as paranoid of the communists as he was in the First United Front, occasionally fighting against them while still in the alliance. A few years into the fight, communist forces were the only forces still fighting the Japanese using gurilla tactics. The KMT were either crushed or forced to retreat.