1. The Warlord decade

2. Recap Qing Dynasty (Manchu Dynasty) 1644-1912
Empress Cixi – powerful ruling regent. Dragon lady perception is questioned by recent Historians who emphasise her situation as a woman in a mans world.
International scramble for China – Britain, Germany, France, Russia, Japan and the US.
100 days reforms – Emperor Guangxu, ended in house arrest
Boxer Uprising – murder of all Christians and westerners in
certain provinces. China is humiliated as foreign powers take over.
Railways recovery movement
1911 revolution – Sun Yixian (Sun Yat-sen) and Yuan Shikai

3. The New Republic
29th December 1911 – Republic of China proclaimed with a Provisional Government.
1st January 1912 – Sun Yixian Provisional President
12th Feb PuYi abdicates
10th March - Yuan Shikai becomes President of Republic of China
August 1912 – the Tongmenghui combines with 4 other smaller political/revolutionary parties to become the Guomindang (GMD or Nationalists)
Jan 1913 – Political elections see GMD gain majority seats.
February 1914 – parliaments replaced with state councils – Yuan dictatorship
15th January Japanese 21 demands, Day of Shame
1st January 1916 – Yuan Shikai becomes Emperor

4. Yuan Shikai dies
On the 6th of June 1916 Yuan died suddenly and left China without a strong powerful leader.
“For all his faults, Yuan Shikai held the nation together – a considerable achievement given the size and ethnic diversity of China. When he died regional tensions resurfaced, fragmenting China into area controlled by provincial warlords.”
(Ryan)

5. Warlordism – Country in Chaos
Warlords fought amongst themselves “for power…without any sense of logic or reason.” (Hsu)
Pu-Yi was restored as Emperor for 12 days
Sun Yixian established a military government in Guangzhou in 1917 and later on the 2nd of April 1921 established a Republican Government (elaboration on next slide)
The Warlord Era ( ) was a period when national authority in China disintegrated and the country broke apart into a jigsaw of regions, each controlled by powerful local leaders.
The Warlord Era was a period of uncertainty, disorder and conflict
See pg 46 for map

6. The United Front After Yuan Shikai’s death, Sun returned to China.
He was elected Grand Marshal of a southern military government in September
He allied himself with a number of the southern warlords.
This government was not recognised and factional infighting made it weak.
It fell apart but in May 1921 Sun tried again, this time with military backing.
Sun dreamed of marching an army north to re-establish a republic, but the military were not strong and it failed again.
In 1922, Sun met with the Comintern and by 1924, a United Front was established with the Communist Party.
The Revolution was to be a socialist one.

7. The New Culture Movement 1914-1918
New cultural identity for China
Headed by young intellectuals and backed by students who were more
critically minded
Questioning of old ways – criticising Confucian values
Discussion of new ideas (Nationalism, women’s rights, Marxism, democracy etc)
Looking for a new national identity and the establishment of new Chinese culture.
“Intellectually and socially one of the most exciting times in Chinese History”
(Mitter)
Key leaders are mentioned in the Textbook – pg Edrolo has some good stuff on them too.
Students had undergone a more modern, western education after the Qing reforms and were now debating ideas and looking for new answers to old problems.
Important innovations in literacy – reading and writing – new forms of writing makes it easier for people to join in forming and sharing of ideas.

8. May Fourth Movement Treaty of Versailles terms announced
Mass outrage at Beijing government
Day of Shame protests brought forward to the 4th of May
Wide spread urban anti-imperialist sentiment.
Broad based, patriotic movement – Pro-China
Intellectual Revolution
Enter Mao
Day of Shame was about Chinese people coming and remembering the 21 demands from 1915 and protest against Japan.
China was on side of Allies in WW1 and expected land that had been taken by Germany to be returned to China in the Treaty.
Government in Beijing had agreed in 1918 to give German concessions to Japan
Workers went on strike, University students rallied and were arrested, Japanese goods were boycotted
Many turned to the ideas of Karl Marx
Surge in GMD support also
Interlectual revolution
“Saving the nation” (Mitter)

10. Guomindang (Kuomintang) GMD/KMT
Started by Sun Yixian later led by Jiang Jieshi
Began as the Tongmenghui revolutionary party – 1912 became the Nationalist Party GMD
Based on the Three Principles of the People.
Popular and had a broad based membership (Historian - Li)
Gained assistance (financial and advisory) from the Soviet Union
United with the Communist Party in

11. Chinese Communist Party - CCp
July 1921 – First National Party Congress of the Chinese Communist Party.
Chen Duxiu was the first Secretary General – an orthodox Marxist who placed urban workers over Peasants. He believed, like Lenin in a elite party that would develop a revolutionary consciousness in the Proletariat.
Comintern in Moscow held sway because they funded the Chinese.
BUT China was not sufficiently industrialised nor did they have the proletariat numbers.
Communists planned to use the GMD’s organisation until the time was right for a full CCP take over of China.
In 1927 Mao developed his ideas of a Peasant Revolution into a theory.
members
1923 – 420 members
1925 – 10,000 members
1927 – 57,000 members

12. 12 members of the first Communist Party meeting

13. Death of Sun Yat-sen 12th March 1925 – Sun Yatsen dies of liver cancer
Buried as a revolutionary hero.
Death destabilised the fragile union that Sun had kept together in the GMD
Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek) ended up taking leadership of the GMD

14. 30th May incident 1925 Nationalist feeling grow
Workers strike at a Japanese Mill in Shanghai. They are arrested by British soldiers.
Students protest and are gunned down.
Hatred followed
Boycott of all foreign goods, especially from Hong Kong.
Shanghai – considered to be a Chinese city by the Chinese.

15. Northern Expedition
Jiang Jieshi uses growing nationalist feelings to launch a Northern Expedition against the warlords, in an effort to unite China under one government.
1st July 1926 – Sun dream of a Northern Expedition is announced
The expedition was “Communist led and Moscow controlled” (Fitzgerald)
85,000 troops who were disciplined and professional
Northern warlords and rulers were divided.
Over two years the Northern Expedition had many successes BUT the unification of the two major groups (GMD & CCP) was far from harmonious.
Page 64 – Map
The two parties worked strategically even though there was internal fighting. Communists would go ahead and get the people on their side, then the military would come in and take over. Often unions formed militia and staged strikes that would paralyse cities so that the GMD could successfully take over. (eg. Shanghai)
This was also a threat though for Jiang because the strikers often outnumbered his troops.

16. White terror
Jiang makes deals with the Green Gang – ‘Pockmarked Hung’ and ‘Big Ears Du’
In April GMD and CCP issue a statement claiming that their relationship was strong and that there was no plans to establish a communist uprising.
In 1927 the GMD tried to lesson Jiang Jieshi’s power.
The time had come to take control.
When Jiang entered Shanghai he sought out the Green Gang – a drug smuggling network who ran drug dens, prostitution and protection rackets and their leader, Huang, was the boss of the Chinese detectives in the French Concession.
‘Pockmarked Hung’ and ‘Big Ears Du’ – were the leaders of the Gang and were both big business men who did not like the workers movements. They were keen to get rid of Communism.
He made a deal with them to help him with his “Communist problem”. In return they received immunity from laws and had exclusive rights to sell opium.

17. “It was an orgy of counter-revolutionary violence” (Meisner)
Shanghai Massacre
12th April 1927
Big Ears Du and 2000 armed militia (who had assistance from the French Consul General) started the massacre just before dawn.
,000 Communists and Unionists were killed in Shanghai on that day.
Violence spread to other areas and hundreds of thousands were killed
Jiang was expelled from the GMD but he didn’t care. He had the military and power.
“It was an orgy of counter-revolutionary violence” (Meisner)
In a brutal change of heart, he carried out a purge of Communists in Shanghai that came to be known as the “White Terror”. Chiang declared martial law in the region and, when students and unionists marched in the streets in protest, the KMT arrested, beat and shot them. During the month of April, an estimated 12,000 people were killed by the KMT. Over the next year, an estimated 300,000 suspected Communists and dissidents were killed throughout the nation. (2.)
As the picture below indicates, these executions were carried out quickly and publicly, sending a simple but effective message to the population.

18. GMD and the CCP split
On the 15th of July the two parties split and the story of the Revolution now becomes on of Nationalists V’s Communists.
Borodin, the soviet advisor to China at the time said:
“the Guomingdang is like a toilet which, however often you flush it, still stinks.”
The GMD were still considered the Nationalist Government of China at this time, and the Northern Expedition continued.
They suffered from increasing tension among factions and Jiang was asked back as their leader in early 1928.
By October he was the Chairman and the GMD was being recognised internationally.
Jiang – Chairman of the Central Executive Committee and state council, secretary general of the GMD and head of the military council.
1st unified government since the death of Yuan ShiKai.
China now embarked on a decade of modernisation and national reconstruction.