Overview of Chinese History from 1911 - 1949

Sun Yat-sen, Kuomintang, Communist Party of China. Long March. Chinese Civil War. Sino-Japanese war.

For those of you who are just starting

to learn about the history of China

in the first half of the 20th century,

it can be a little bit confusing.

So the goal of this video is really

to give you an overview –

to give you a scaffold – of the history of

the first half of the 20th century in China.

So as we go into the early 1900s,

you have the end of imperial dynastic rule in China.

This is a big deal.

China has been ruled by various dynasties

for multiple thousands of years.

But as you get into the 1900s, it was getting –

the dynastic rule – in particular, the Qing Dynasty –

was getting weaker and weaker.

It had suffered at the hands of the Japanese

during the first Sino-Japanese War,

at the end of the 1800s.

There was growing discontent amongst the opposition

that the dynasty, that the emperors,

were not modernizing China enough.

Remember, this was the early 1900s.

The rest of the world was becoming

a very, very modern place.

China, in the 1800s, had suffered at the hands of

western powers who were essentially exerting

their own imperial influence in China.

Many people felt that this was because

China was not as modernized –

economically, politically and technologically –

as it needed to be.

And so you fast-forward to 1911.

You have what is known as the Wuchang Uprising,

which led to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty.

By 1912, the Republic of China was established in Nanjing.

So Nanjing, right over here, was where it was established.

Beijing was, of course, the seat of dynastic rule in China.

And the first provisional president

of the Republic of China was Doctor Sun Yat-sen,

right over here.

And he actually did not directly participate

in this final uprising that finally led

to the overthrow of the Qing Dynasty.

He was actually in Denver at the time –

Denver Colorado (in the USA).

But he was a leading – or one of the leading –

figures in the run-up to this uprising –

one of the leading figures who was providing opposition,

and had tried multiple times to overthrow the dynasty.

Now Sun Yat-sen was essentially in cahoots with

Yuan Shikai, who was a general in the old dynasty.

And he has his own fascinating history.

And Sun Yat-sen struck a deal with Yuan Shikai,

who was very politically ambitious.

Yuan Shikai said, “Hey if I can get the Emperor Puyi,”

(who was the last emperor of China)

“if I can get him to officially abdicate,

I want to become the president.”

So Sun Yat-sen agrees to this.

So Yuan Shikai becomes the official

president of the Republic of China.

But that wasn't enough for him.

He declares himself emperor in 1915,

which, you could imagine, did not make many people happy,

because they were tired of having emperors.

By 1916, he abdicates – (and he passes away, actually).

And this actually begins a period

of extremely fragmented rule for China.

Even under imperial rule,

the Chinese military was not one consolidated body.

The military was controlled by various warlords

in various regions that all had allegiance to the Emperor.

Once you have Yuan Shikai abdicating,

and then dying in 1916 – and even prior that,

when he declared himself emperor –

people did not want to pledge allegiance to Yuan Shikai.

And so you had what is known as

the beginning of the ‘Warlord Era’ in China.

This is a fragmented period where

China did not have any centralized leadership.

And each of these regions here –

(This map over here shows kind of

the rough picture of what China looked

like during the Warlord Era.) –

– each of these regions was controlled by

different warlords who were in charge of a different military.

When this was going on during the Warlord era –

especially as we go back into the early 1920s –

in 1921 in particular – Sun Yat-sen hasn't given up.

He goes to the south, in Guangzhou, and sets up,

essentially, a revolutionary government out of a desire,

from there, to consolidate power in China again,

and to re-establish the Republic of China.

So he goes there.

But unfortunately, he passes away in 1925 from cancer.

And the power of the movement that he started –

which is now being referred to as the ‘Kuomintang’ –

(Let me write that down.)

WRITING: Kuomintang.’

Essentially, the power then passes on

to Generalissimo Chang Kai Shek.

And Chang Kai Shek – the reason why we say

the power essentially goes to him is because

he was in control of the major part of

the military forces of the Kuomintang.

And these are, essentially, the very nascent, early stages

of what would essentially be the Chinese Civil War –

because in the period from 1921 until Sun Yat-sen's death,

you actually had a lot of collaboration between

the Chinese Nationalists (the Kuomintang), the Soviet Union,

and the Chinese Communist Party.

They were trying to collaborate in order

to think about how China would unify.

But then, once Sun Yat-sen dies,

the power of the Kuomintang goes into the hands

of Generalissimo Chang Kai-shek.

He starts to consolidate power.

He doesn't, right from the get-go,

antagonize the Communists.

But by 1927, he's starting to bring together

these various factions in the rest of China.

So he's able to consolidate power.

But he also starts to go after the Communists.

So, Chang Kai-shek, by 1927,

also starts to go after the Communists.

And the Communists were saying,

"Hey, we are the ones who really represent

the spirit of what Sun Yat-sen represented –

while the Kuomintang, under the leadership

of Chang Kai-shek, said,

"No no no! We represent what Sun Yat-sen represented

when he first established the Republic of China."

And so in 1927, you have the beginning of

the Chinese Civil War.

This is when the Kuomintang, as part of its efforts

to consolidate power, not only tries to consolidate power

with the warlords, but also goes after the Communist Party.

Now, while all of this is happening,

as we get into the early 1930s,

Japan, once again, is trying to exert

its imperial military might on the Chinese mainland.

Japan had already captured Formosa

(which is now known as Taiwan)

and Korea during the first Sino-Japanese War

at the end of the 1800s.

And then in 1931,

the Japanese start to encroach on Manchuria.

And this would, essentially, become a multi-year

occupation and infiltration of Japan into China.

And this continues all the way until 1937

when it becomes an official all-out war

between the Japanese and the Chinese.

And I have a map here that shows kind of

the apex of Japanese control during this period.

And so in East Asia,

between the Chinese and the Japanese,

World War II was really just part of the Sino-Japanese War.

The Japanese had already encroached

on the mainland of China well before

World War II had officially begun.

Now, while all of this is happening –

(Japan is encroaching into Manchuria)

– In 1934 – you have to remember – the Kuomintang –

the Nationalist Party under Chiang Kai-shek –

is going after the Communists.

And in 1934, he has them virtually surrounded,

The Communists are nearly defeated.

They're surrounded by the Nationalist Party.

And this results in what is a fairly famous event

in Chinese history – the famous 'Long March' –

where the Chinese Communist Party – their military –

is marched through extremely tough terrain,

all the way to the northwest of China.

So this right over here is a map of the Long March.

So truly, the Chinese Communist Party seemed to be

on the ropes here in 1934.

And it was during this Long March that

Mao Zedong really started to exert and show leadership.

And this is what the leadership during this Long March –

during this retreat to the northwest of China –

is really what allowed Mao Zedong to eventually

take control of the Chinese Communist Party.

Now as we fast-forward,

we know that the Sino-Japanese war –

(Which we can view, eventually,

as one theater of operations in World War II.)

Eventually, the US goes in on the side of the Allies

against Japan after it attacked the US at Pearl Harbor.

And then in 1945, you have the attacks on Japan in the cities of

Hiroshima and Nagasaki with atomic weapons –

which essentially ends World War II in the Pacific Theater.

It’s a defeat for Japan. Japan lost World War II.

And at this point, full-scale civil war between

the two main parties in China breaks out again.

The Chinese Civil War had started in 1927.

And it kept continuing.

But then, once there was a common enemy – Japan –

that was very aggressively trying to take over

more and more of China's, well, people and resources –

trying to exert its imperial influence –

then you had the two parties kind of

[scale back their hostilities towards each other]

and say, "Hey, we need to focus on fighting the Japanese!”

But once World War II ended in 1945 –

once the Japanese were defeated,

then we saw a reigniting of full-scale civil war

between the Chinese Communist Party and the Kuomintang.

And this is probably one of

the biggest comebacks in history.

This was the Chinese Communist Party that,

in 1934 and 1935, looked like they were on the ropes –

they were, essentially, forced to retreat.

They were able to come back.

And in 1949 –

(And there are a lot of theories as to

why they were able to pull this off –

they were able to get much more support

from the rural population – they were more savvy

about getting support generally than the Kuomintang.

(We could talk about that in a future video.)

But by 1949, they were able to defeat Chang Kai-shek

and the Kuomintang, and force the Kuomintang to flee

from the mainland and retreat to Taiwan

where they established themselves as a country.

And ever since 1949, on the mainland, we have had –

with its establishment by the leadership of

the Chinese Communist Party –

the People's Republic of China.