 Mao Zedong was born in Shaoshan, Hunan, he was the son of a wealthy farmer.  Adopted a Chinese nationalist and anti-imperialist outlook in early life (particularly influenced by the Xinhai Revolution (1911) and the May Fourth Movement (1919) )  Later he adopted Marxism-Leninism, which lead him in becoming a member of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and he was soon rose to a senior position.

 In 1922, the communist agreed to having an alliance with the Kuomintang, a nationalist revolutionary party, which was a larger and stronger.  Mao aided in creating a revolutionary peasant army and organizing a rural land reform.

 This is also known as the First United Front.  The CCP wanted to use the KMT’s superiority in numbers to help spread communism whereas for the KMT, they want to control the communist from within.  Both parties had their own aims.

 The Long March(1934)  Second United Front  Chinese Civil War  The Constitution of 1950 (officially adopted in 1954)  Agricultural and industrial changes  100 flowers campaign (1957)  The Great leap Forward  Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1969)

 The communist marched along the mountains borders of some provinces  Since there was lack of cooperation between one province and its neighbor, they got pass with no problems  KMT officials preferred to preserve their own power instead of defending the coummunist

 Mao’s leadership of the CCP was accepted and made chairman  Those who completed the march were determined and thus they believed they must further the cause of revolution  Members could promote communist cause  They gained military experience

 The second united front was the brief alliance between the CCP and KMT to resist the Japanese invasion

 Rebuilt the red army  Establish a base area in Shaanxi  Planned for the building of the united front with the KMT  Insisted that the party must form broad national revolution  Sent a telegram to Chiang’s government to form a united front against japan  Chiang refused to have anything to do with CCP unless Mao disbands the red army  However this was not possible

 The war between GMD and CCP  CCP was victorious  Mao Zedong was influential in this victory  Made many contributions to this war

 He was quietly preparing for war  He was pushing forward with land reform  Felt that he needed to win peasant struggle to win war  Military victory depended of success of social revolution at countryside

 Great architect of military strategy  Policy of strategic withdrawal  To retreat when outnumbered by gov forces  Concentrate forces for mobile warfare  Use the forces wipe out GMD forces(impt source of weapon and recruitment of people)  Had an objective of destroying of enemies and not to capture territory  Managed to avoid direct confrontation of GMD  Only attack when success guaranteed  Shrewd enough to evacuate Yenan(Capital of Shaanxi)  Evacuated before arrival of GMD troops  Gave orders from obscure villages  Evade pursuers

 Members elected 4 years  This constitution was to make sure laws were carried out  Administration of country was carried out  Important as it provided China with a strong central government

 Transformed China’s small, inefficient farms into large cooperative ones  Large lands were taken and redistributed among peasants  He persuaded the to join together to form collective farms  Increase food production

 Government nationalizing most businesses  Came out with a 5-year plan to develop heavy industry  Under Mao’s leadership, full communications restored and he revived the economy

 Production of vast new class of technicians and engineer  The party Cadres (a group that organized the masses politically and economically) believed that this will threaten their authority  The govt decided that open discussions will improve their relationship  However, Mao got a lot more critics than he expected  This he called off the campaign and insisted his policies were correct  This showed how much opposition there was and it led to Mao starting the great leap forward

 Mao felt something new and different was required

 Introduction of communes  These were units larger than collective farm  Divided into brigades and work team with an elected council  A complete change of emphasis in industry  Instead of aiming for large scale works like USSR and the West, smaller factories were set up in th country to provide machinery for argriculture

 Failure  Series of bad harvest  Withdrawal of Russia aid  Lack of experience in the Cadres, hardship  Disastrous Famine  Mao’s prestige suffered and he was forced to resign as chairman of the peoples congress, though he remained chairman of the communist party

 Success  Eventually both agriculture and industrial increased substantially  Mid 1960 China managed to feed its massive population

 Mao’s attempt to keep the revolution and the great leap on a pure Marxist – Leninist  When great leap was not a success, opposition grew

 In 1963 and 1966, there was a public debate between the rightist and the maoist about which course to follow  Mao, using his position as chairman of the party to rouse people, launched a desperate campaign to save the revolution  This brought chaos and something close to civil war when the student masses had been roused. They denounced and physically attacked anybody in authority, not just critics of mao  This caused great disruption, ruined millions of lives, and probably held up Chinas economic development by 10 years