The Chinese Communist Movement and the Chinese Civil War

Founded in 1921 the Communist party of China had tried many times to overthrow the Nationalists or the Party of the Kuomintang. Massive corruption by the Nationalists caused many government funds to go to businesses, making the rich richer and the poor poorer. After the defeat of the 1927 revolution the only major Communist leader left was Mao Zedong who mounted the new revolution.

Upon the Japanese invasion the Communists began the Long March. They went very far north to escape the approaching Japanese army. The Communists promised to halt the corruption and help the peasants, which was a very popular position, as a large majority of the population were peasants. In 1936 both the Nationalists and Communists united to fight the Japanese. A treaty was signed to unite them, but only after Chiang Kai-shek, the Nationalist leader, was kidnapped by his Generals and was forced to sign it.

During this period Mao Zedong mustered his troops. He had his troops and generals live among the common people. Although they appeared to be fighting the Japanese through guerrilla activities, they were not doing the brunt of fighting. The Nationalists were taking the heaviest losses. This was to the large advantage of the Communists. Communist soldiers were never seen retreating and thus it was assumed that they were doing well against the Japanese. This was not true, as the bulk of the army was in northwestern China waiting it out and trying to avoid the Japanese. In 1941 everything was not progressing. The Japanese held most of the coast. Then the western powers got involved. Fighting continued until 1945 when the US dropped the atomic bomb.

After World War II

Japanese soldiers were told to surrender to the Nationalists. However, no Nationalists were in Manchuria, where many Japanese were. Many Japanese surrendered to the Communists. In this way the Communists acquired a lot of small arms, artillery, and some tanks. They even took control of Manchuria with hardly a bullet being fired. The way the Communists portrayed it, they were the ones that had won the war.

However, after the war the Nationalists got the warlords on their side. The Warlords were descendants of feudal lords that commanded large groups of soldiers and occasionally raided neighboring cities. Neither side liked them, because if all the warlords united they could conquer China. Fortunately for the Nationalists and Communists this never happened.

The Change of Public Opinion

Most citizens thought that the Communists had beaten the Japanese for them, and this caused some Nationalist supporters to decide that the policy of the Communists was better. The Communist propaganda had swelled their numbers greatly. The allies forced a peace treaty upon the two sides, which quickly collapsed, but was to a huge advantage to the Communists. It forced both armies to get rid of 1.5 million troops. The Communists got rid of and killed troops that posed a threat of switching sides. The Nationalists made the fatal mistake of getting rid of their warlords. The warlords needed something to do.