Greer Liguori October 13, 2014 In 1937, Japan invaded China and conquered large parts of China. They occupied this land until Japan was defeated during the Second World War in 1945. The Chinese Communist Party established the People’s Republic of China in 1949. Despite the fact that many did not favor communism in China, the party did unify the peasant class in multiple ways. Between circa 1925 and circa 1950, the relationship between the peasants and the Chinese Communist Party was that the party encouraged the state of the people, involved the peasants in nationalism, also encouraged anti-Japanese sentiment, and favored social
Eventually, nationalistic movements in these countries rose up in an attempt to get rid of foreign influence and gain independence. China was considered to be within the sphere of British influence. Britain never completely controlled the Chinese government, but did influence political and economic affairs greatly. British control began to withdraw from China at the end of the 19th century, and many nationalistic movements began to arise. In 1911, the Revolutionary Alliance, led by Sun Yixian, overthrew the last Qing emperor.
Three major leaders of the early 1900s include Joseph Stalin, Mao Zedong and Mohandas Gandhi. All of them were revolutionary leaders of their time who caused much change for the world and the subjects they each ruled. Joseph Stalin wanted to transform the Soviet Union into a totalitarian society, and he used many methods of enforcement to control his people. Meanwhile, Mao Zedong wanted to lead a revolution in China so that the peasants could rule and aimed for a communistic society, based on ideas of Marx and Lenin. On the other hand, Gandhi led an independence movement for self-rule in India.
It can be argued that the Cultural Revolution strengthened Mao’s personal power, because one of the main outcomes was the weakening of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) and their power. For example, Mao was able to blame the party for the outcome of the Cultural Revolution. The horrific deaths of half a million Chinese people. This enabled Mao to then put the blame on the party members, for being too enthusiastic about the movement. This can be shown by the fact that one outcome was the re – education enforced by Mao, that was made compulsory to the Red Guards, the youth league of the CCP.
Qin Shihuangdi (ruled 221-210 BCE) was one of the rulers from the various states that had successfully reunified China. He used his developed effective bureaucracy and launched military campaigns to defeat the other warring states. He adopted a political philosophy called Legalism that had pessimistic views on human nature, and subordinated the aristocrats who disliked his centralized policies, whereas the Han dynasty later had more of a Confucian Theme in their governing philosophy. He was strict and once put 460 scholars to death as a warning for those who oppose him. He led some contributions to innovation by standardizing weights, measurement and currency, equipping his armies with iron weapons and had agricultural systems that enforce growth in populations.
The Second Red Scare In1945 when world war two had ended due to Japan surrendering, the United States and soviets had become the two new superpowers. They were fighting so much that it created the cold war at the end of the war. During this war the soviets wanted to spread communism and the United States wanted to contain it. This time period was known as The Second Red Scare (ohiocentralhistory.org). Truman hastily enacted plans to contain communism in America after seeing that Communist in China had almost full control of country (slideshare.net).
To what extent was the deterioration in Sino-Soviet relations in the years 1958-1969 due to personal rivalries? After the Communist revolution in China 1949, Sino-Soviet relations were thought, and feared, to be the start of a revolution that could threaten communism in China that could threaten communism in countries world wide. However, from the time of the Great Leap forward of 1958 to the Ussuri River dispute of 1969 these two once great allies had brought one another to the brink of nuclear war. The question is whether this was down to nothing more than the individual personalities of the heads of states, or was it more do do with the national rivalries that had been abundant even before the rise of communism in either country? In 1958 the Great Leap Forward was a Chinese policy designed to start an industrial revolution across China.
The change in Chinese policy was to shatter the perception of a bipolar world that existed since the beginning of the cold war. Superpower relations were now best described as a triangular process involving china, the USSR and the USA. Therefore, the deterioration in Sino-soviet relations in the years 1958-69 was due to a change in China’s foreign policy to protect Chinese national security, rather than simply being put down to personal rivalries. The communist takeover of China in 1949 was viewed by the US government as another victory for the forces of world communism. Mao was seen as an instrument of the Soviet Union’s bid to spread worldwide revolution.
Although, the development of change already faced opposition from right-winged supporters, including rich landowners who feared social changes that the Republic would try to implement. Under Generals Sanjurjo, Franco and Mola, the Spanish Civil War began as a military coup, which was aimed to put an end to the democratic political change that was seen in 1931. As seen in Italy with Mussolini in 1922 and with Hitler in Germany in 1933, one could argue that the rise of fascism subsequently kick started the demand of a takeover in Spain. But, we have to bear in mind the bad timing of 1931 to implement such a change, with the worldwide economic crisis caused by the 1929 Wall Street Crash in America, and the 1917 Bolshevik Revolution in Russia, there was now fear throughout Europe of communism and revolution. Although at the beginning of the rebellion, the three main generals were not actually all in Spain.
One main change of China during this era is the formation of an empire, and ending imperial states. China’s civilization became too large, and had rivalry among elites, which created instability in the imperial states. During the warring states, 4 dynasties fought for power, creating chaos and disorder in China. China had many falls of different dynasties. Hans dynasty followed after the Qin.