causes of chinese civil war
Uploaded by wiegerp on Nov 09, 2008
causes of chinese vivil war
The Chinese civil war was an armed conflict between the Nationalists Kuomintang and the Communists People Liberation Army. The event lasted from January 1946 to May 1950. Although there are many causes to the outbreak of the war which include short term causes as the Long march, the Sino-Japanese War and the results of WWII. The main cause towards the Chinese Civil War is the fall of the Qing Dynasty and the death of Sun Yat-Sei which resulted in Chiang’s Kai-Shek’s rise to power and his decision of getting rid of the left wing faction inside the government at all costs.
The main cause towards the Chinese Civil war is the fall of the Qing dynasty and the death of Sun Yat-Sen as this created a political vacuum which was to be disputed by Mao Zedong and Chiang Kai Shek. The Qing dynasty last emperor Puyi abdicated in 1912 after the Xinhoi revolution in April 1912. The causes to his abdication lie on the basis of an unsatisfied country full of “mass civil disorder”. Hence this is complemented with his unpopularity as an emperor to bring modernization in order to compete with Europe.
For more than 2000 year’s people lived under the rule of dynasties and emperors from the Manchu dynasty until the Qing Dynasty. When Sun-Yat Sen receives the rule in 1912; people have high hopes of a democratic government however people were not accustomed to political freedom; the cultural basis however is still manageable as they see Sun- Yat Sen as a the sole ruler of China.
When Chiang receives the government in 1925 after the death of Sun- Yat Sen; he receives a country with political fears and with high unequal wealth. Instead of concentrating in satisfying the people’s needs and wants; Chiang focuses to eliminate the opposition from the PLA which increased people’s discontent. Chiang believed that “the sky could not have 2 suns” and therefore there should only be 1 sole leader that would rule the country. With all his emphasis based on killing the opposition; the peasants that were 90% of the people were left unattended and therefore this increased the political instability as the situation was similar to 1912. China was still a unindustralized country with famine and backwards farming techniques.
The northern expedition from 1926 to 1928 is one event which separated more the political ideas between the two factions...