Why Did Mao Rise to Power in China?
Why did Mao rise to power in China?
“Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy. “Mao Zedong clearly referring to the Kuomintang.
After a bitter civil war (1946-1949), which faced the major Chinese parties Kuomintang and CCP, Kuomintang’s defeat, evidenced with Chiang’s and 200.000 people´s fled to Formosa, Mao Zedong (1893-1976), born in Shoshan, Hunan, proclaimed the new People´s Republic of China with himself as both Chairman of the CCP and President of the republic in October 1949. How did the under numbered and weak CCP, founded by the same person in 1921 manage to survive several extermination campaigns and re-organize the party to win the civil war, crushing opposition and establish the Chinese Republic in 1949? There are diverse factors which explain his unexpected rise to power: Regionalism in China, Foreign intervention in China, lack of opposition due to the failure of the KMT and its leader and Mao´s leadership.
One of the reasons for Mao’s rise to power was the fact that due to long-term regionalism in China, it was a divided country, whereas he benefited from political instability to grow and defeat the warlords, boosting his popularity. Starting with Regionalism in China, following the 1911 Revolution, where the child Emperor Pu Yi was crushed down and replaced with Yuan Shih-kai, who ruled until 1915 based on military support, which was lost, as he proclaimed himself Emperor. This emptiness of power let to huge political instability, where different areas proclaimed themselves independent from Beijing, creating hundreds of states of varying sizes, each controlled by a warlord and his private army. Therefore, to support increasing army forces, which fought against each other, peasants, which numbered 95% of Chinese population, were charged huge taxes, living on terrible conditions. The fact that until 1928, China was a divided country offered huge opportunity to the CCP, founded in 1921, to attract peasant discontent
“Communism is not love. Communism is a hammer which we use to crush the enemy. “Mao Zedong clearly referring to the Kuomintang.
After a bitter civil war (1946-1949), which faced the major Chinese parties Kuomintang and CCP, Kuomintang’s defeat, evidenced with Chiang’s and 200.000 people´s fled to Formosa, Mao Zedong (1893-1976), born in Shoshan, Hunan, proclaimed the new People´s Republic of China with himself as both Chairman of the CCP and President of the republic in October 1949. How did the under numbered and weak CCP, founded by the same person in 1921 manage to survive several extermination campaigns and re-organize the party to win the civil war, crushing opposition and establish the Chinese Republic in 1949? There are diverse factors which explain his unexpected rise to power: Regionalism in China, Foreign intervention in China, lack of opposition due to the failure of the KMT and its leader and Mao´s leadership.
One of the reasons for Mao’s rise to power was the fact that due to long-term regionalism in China, it was a divided country, whereas he benefited from political instability to grow and defeat the warlords, boosting his popularity. Starting with Regionalism in China, following the 1911 Revolution, where the child Emperor Pu Yi was crushed down and replaced with Yuan Shih-kai, who ruled until 1915 based on military support, which was lost, as he proclaimed himself Emperor. This emptiness of power let to huge political instability, where different areas proclaimed themselves independent from Beijing, creating hundreds of states of varying sizes, each controlled by a warlord and his private army. Therefore, to support increasing army forces, which fought against each other, peasants, which numbered 95% of Chinese population, were charged huge taxes, living on terrible conditions. The fact that until 1928, China was a divided country offered huge opportunity to the CCP, founded in 1921, to attract peasant discontent