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The Coming to Power of the Communists in China in 1949 Essay

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The Coming to Power of the Communists in China in 1949

The leadership of China at the beginning of the 20th Century was very different to how it is today. The Communists did not come to power without a long and bitter struggle against the many foes that came across their path between the time of their creation, in 1921, and their eventual success in 1949.

The Double Tenth Revolution of 1911 overthrew the emperor of China, as he was only a child and could not contain the ever-depleting condition of the nation. This happened before the creation of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), but if it had not occurred then the CCP may not have achieved ultimate victory. If it had happened later in the …show more content…

Both parties, although worlds apart, had a common foe that diminished the power the central government had; these enemies were the warlords. The warlords were powerful men who ran regions of China like independent nations. Each party on its own could not have defeated the warlords, who had their own armies and vigilante police forces, therefore the two parties had to team up and out their political views aside to defeat their adversaries.

After the success of the march north (1926), which saw all the warlords either defeated or surrendering, the CCP and the Nationalists parting company in the bloodiest of fashions. The Nationalists saw the return march through Shanghai as an opportunity to exterminate the ever-growing CCP army. The Nationalist army was ordered by leader Chiang Kai-shek to kill as many CCP soldiers as possible.

On face-value this may not seem like a reason for the eventual success of the CCP but the remaining Communists – and vitally leader Mao Zedong – fled to the countryside regions and formed their own state; the Jiangxi Soviet. The Communists in the Jiangxi area won the support of the peasants by their many changes and vast improvements to the region. Peasants were all given an equal share of land, and taxes on this land were lowered significantly. Other improvements to the public

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