1. Juan Avalos and Austin Barua

2. Northern Expedition (1926)  Chiang Kaishek became Commander-in-Chief of the KMT in 1925, after Sun Yatsen's death. In 1926, he went to Northern China, with the goal of gathering support from ordinary people by promising a natural revolution and new order in China. As a result of the campaign, the KMT captured Hankow in September of the same year, and Nanjing in 1927.

3. Shanghai Massacre (Purge of the Communists April 12, 1927)  Following a military defeat during The Northern Expedition, Chiang decided to purge all Communists from the Kuomintang. Chiang had a dire hate for the Communists, that had begun when he was studying in the USSR before his rise to power. Many prominent Communist members of the Kuomintang were imprisoned or executed by Chiang in an attempt to destroy their influence. The Kuomintang became unified under Chiang's leadership, and went on to defeat the warlord factions and formed the new central government of China.

4. Long March (October 1934)  The Long March was a journey 6000 march, in which Communist army forces were forced to flee their bases in Jiangxi province in South China. The Long March began Mao’s rise to power within the Communist Party. His leadership during the retreat garnered him support from many members of the party. Of the 87,000 the march began with, on 10,000 survived.

5. Mukden Incident (September 1931)  On the evening of September 18, 1931, an explosion occurred on the tracks of the South Manchurian Railroad north of the Chinese city of Mukden. The railroad was owned and operated by an arm of the Japanese government and its tracks were patrolled by Japanese soldiers. Military leaders immediately blamed Chinese nationalists for the incident and began an occupation of the area. There was no authorization for this offensive to occur from the government in Tokyo. Japan’s main objective was to relieve the population problems, as Manchuria was an important industrial area for Japan. This incident led to the creation of the Lytton Commission and Lytton Report in 1932. The result of the Report ended with Japan leaving the League of Nations.

6. Battle of Tsitsihar (November 15, 1931)  Japanese last week dominated every capital of Manchurian provinces except Tsitsihar. Conflict raged in a series of short battles and hot skirmishes up & down the Nonni River and the roughly parallel Taonan-Angangki Railway. Facing Tsitsihar, the Japanese field commander, Major General Hasebe, had the sluggish river on his left, the railway on his right.

7. X’ian Incident (December 12, 1936)  During the Japanese invasion and occupation of Manchuria, Chiang Kai-shek, who saw the communists as a greater threat, refused to ally with the CCP to fight against the Japanese. On December 12, 1936, GMD Generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng kidnapped Chiang Kai-shek and forced him to a truce with the CCP. The incident became known as the Xi'an Incident. Both parties suspended fighting to form a Second United Front to focus their energies and fighting against the Japanese.

8. Japanese Conquests (1937)  Japan provoked Chinese troops into a fight on the Marco Polo Bridge outside of Beijing. Under claims that the Chinese had fired upon the Japanese, the Japanese attacked Beijing, occupying the city and its surrounding area. This was rapidly followed by a full- scale invasion of China. The Japanese troops swept southwards, pushing back the KMT armies. After a three-month siege, Shanghai was captured, China's most important port. A further advance up the Yangzi river led to the capturing of Nanjing, the capital. This forced the KMT to retreat to the capital city of Chongqing. By 1938, around 1 million Japanese troops were in China. They had control of all the main cities and lines of communication in China’s most fertile and densely-populated area. The Japanese made no further advances for another 5 years.

9. Macro Polo Bridge Incident  Japanese forces engaged in training maneuvers did not notify the Chinese beforehand, despite the request that they do. The Chinese forces believed they were under attack, and fires several shots at the Japanese. One Japanese soldier failed for return to his post afterwards, and the Japanese command assumed he had been captured. The Japanese demanded permission to enter Wanping to search for the missing soldier. The Chinese thought their sovereignty had been violated, and so refused the demand for entry. The Chinese offered to conduct a search of their own, with a Japanese officer accompanying them, but during preparations for this search the Japanese attacked. The conflict escalated as both sides reinforced their numbers and fighting continued. A ceasefire was later established after the Chinese ountumbered the Japanese, and both sides built up military presence in the area. The heightened tension resulting from this incident indirectly led to full-scale war. This was the official start of World War II in East Asia.

10. Nanking Massacre (1937)  A genocide against the Chinese people, with death tolls reaching up to 300,000 dead. Various atrocities such as rape, plundering, pillaging, arson and other forms of vandalism took place in Nanking at that time. The executions began under the pretext of eliminating Chinese soldiers disguised as civilians, and a large number of innocent men were intentionally misidentified as enemy combatants and executed as the massacre gathered momentum. A large number of women and children were also killed, as rape and murder became more widespread

11. Conflicts between KMT and CCP  In the midst of the Second United Front, the CCP and the GMD were still vying for territorial advantage in "Free China" (i.e. areas not occupied by the Japanese or ruled by Japanese puppet governments). The situation came to a head in late 1940 and early 1941 when there were major clashes between the Communist and GMD forces.

12. Hundred Regiments Offensive (August, 1940)  By 1939 the KMT felt that CCP was not doing enough to help the united front and was only interested in gaining territory for themselves. To mend relations the CCP launched the Hundred Regiments Offensive. This lasted between August 20, 1940 into September. The CCP attacked railways, cities and coal mines in an attempt to hurt the Japanese war effort. By the end of the campaign they had destroyed over 600 miles of rail road track.

13. Three All’s Campaign (1940)  The Japanese began this campaign to deal with the Communists. It stood for kill all, burn all, destroy all. Their aim was to turn the Chines epeople against the Communists residing in their area, which they accomplished by burning down villages, slaughtering animals and poisoning wells. It had the opposite effect; it caused the Chinese to hate the Japanese all the more.

14. American Entry into Sino Japanese War (December 1941)  With the Japanese bombing of Pearl Habor in 1941, the American’s entered the Second Sino- Japanese War siding with the Chinese nationalist forces, the KMT. Despite reservations about Chiang Kai-shek, the USA provided financial and military assistance to the Nationalists. They provided nearly $3 billion in aid to the GMD government, along with large quantities of arms. They provided the KMT with air support by air and sea to the north by the end of the war, and American marines temporarily occupied Beijing and Tianjin until nationalists arrived.

15. Chinese Consecutive Victories (1943)  In 1943 the Chinese military claimed several victories over the Japanese. At the Battle of West Hubei the Japanese were defeated, although the Chinese army lost more men. The Chinese also defeated the Japanese Imperial Army in November the same year in the Battle of Changde. However, the Japanese utilised chemical and biological weapons on the city of Changde that claimed more than 300'000 civilian lives. Both battles increased Chinese resentment of the Japanese due to their excessive brutality and use of savage force.

16. Soviet Invasion of Manchuria  In August 9 Soviet troops invaded Manchuria. The Kwantung Army was rapidly defeated and Soviet Union captured Manchuria, Inner Mongolia and North Korea along with Southern Sakhalin and Kuril Island. This invasion was a big contribution to Japanese surrender.

17. Marshall’s attempt at Peace (December 1945)  Immediately after the Japanese surrendered it was expected that the KMT and the Communists would recommence their hostilities and abandon the United Front. In an effort to curb the conflict U.S. President Truman sent the Chief of Staff of the Army, George Marshall, to China. Marshall tried to broker a coalition between Mao and Chiang Kaishek, threatening to cease American aid to the nationalists if a peace accord wasn't reached. But Marshall's attempts failed and the civil war merely escalated. George Marshall returned defeated to the US in 1947. 

18. Official Start of the Civil War (June 1946)  The civil war started again in June 1946 when a million KMT troops launched a great offensive in north China. Before the Civil War started the Communists and the KMT prepared to fight, and most people thought that the KMT would easily win. This was due to the fact that they had American-trained and America- equipped army of three million men. Furthermore, they had the control of big cities, all the main railway lines, and some of the richest provinces. Also, they had a lot of money saved up and had enough weapons to win the war. Kaishek was recognized as the true leader of China by most foreign countries. While the KMT seemed to be strong, the Communists were weak. They only had the countryside areas, and not a single big city, they had no air force, few railways, no navy, and an army of only one million men. Furthermore, they did not have any support of foreign countries.

19. People’s Liberation Army (March 1947)  Civil war began in June 1946 and by March 1947 the KMT had won multiple battles against the communists including capturing the, Yanan, the communist capital. The newly named People's Liberation Army led by Lin Biao concentrated on guerilla warfare making night raids and ambushes. The PLA managed to take central and northern Chinain 1947 which forced the KMT to become defensive. This caused the support of many peasants who joined the communists.

20. Battle of Huai Hai (1948)  By 1948 the Peoples Liberation Army (PLA) had enough men to abandon the previous tactics of Guerrilla warfare and instead attack the KMT in conventional warfare. The battle took place around the towns of Suchow and Yungcheng in between the Huai River and Lung Hai railway. The battle secured the Communists dominance in the North and Central China, which later allowed for the capture of Beijing in April and Shanghai in may. The total loss for the KMT was 555,000 men, while the PLA lost only 134,000. The significance of this battle is great because it showed that the PLA was now a conventional army and did not have to use Guerrilla warfare tactics in order to win, and it defeated the main force of the KMT allowing the capture of the cities and the freedom to move around China.

21. Creation of The People’s Republic of China (1949)  After capturing Beijing in April and Shanghai in May, the Chinese Communists were able to capture Guangzhou in October, which consolidated the creation of a new China. Chiang Kai Shek retreated to Taiwan with around 200,000 KMT troops, in addition to China's gold reserves. The People's Republic of China was proclaimed in front of the gate of Heavenly Peace in Tienanmen Square, in Beijing.