Yuan declared himself emperor and assassinated any senators who did not agree with him. However the biggest mistake he made that lost him his supporters was his demand for a centralized China and there for the demolishing of provinces. Many of the provinces ignored this command and simply declared themselves independent. Seeing his failed attempt he stepped down and died shortly afterward in 1916.
But even after he stepped down China was torn apart in yet another civil war. However then Chiang Kai-shek was able to unit China once again under the ROC by launching the northern campaign and uniting the various warlords. However he also relocated the capital to Nanking. But even though the various warlords had surrendered they still were in control of their regions and had little support for all of China. So Chiang Kai-shek who was now their equivalent of president released a 3 part plan. First there was military rule, than political tutelage, followed by constitutional rule.
In 1931 the soviet Chinese country was established with the help of Russia within the Republic of China. Many wars between the two countries followed however when the "Sino -Japanese war" started they signed a peace treaty. However after the war the communists saw that the nationalists were economically drained and pushed the advantage. Which of course led to the continuation of the Chinese civil war.
The communists started the war that better suited their numbers for they were vastly outnumbered. There tactic was passive defensive. Where they avoided large scaled battles sacrificing victories to keep their numbers up and wear down the enemy. The tactic was a great success even though they lost their capital. The first great success for the communists was the siege of Changchun in which the best of the nationalist armies were defeated and gave the communists the tanks and artillery necessary to go on the offensive in the Liaoshen campaign
They then took eastern central China in the Huaihai campaign. Followed by the northern Pinjin campaign. It was these 3 decisive campaigns that ultimately won the war for the communists and broke the backbone of the nationalist army. Soon afterward the capital of the nationalists fell. This forced the nationalists to finally retreat to Taiwan which is the land they currently own.
The Peoples Republic of China was formed on October 1st 1949 and the communists began going about building there empire. Mao Zedong the leader of the Peoples Republic of China first goal was a total overhaul of the land ownership system, and extensive land reforms. The new land system was more favorable to the poor and the peasants. He executed powerful former landlords. He also destroyed thousands of ancient artifacts and monuments as they were remainders of the feudal age.
He supported the "great leap forward" which because of the lack of attention to agriculture led to over 70 million deaths and dropped the birthrate dramatically though it did increase iron and steel production dramatically. He also killed hundreds of people who disagreed with him
No comments:
Post a Comment