China 1919 to 1927: Warlords, Communists and Nationalists

Question 1

Who was nominally in charge of China during the warlord era?

Answer 1

General Duan Qirui retained the office of Prime Minister of the Republic and in charge of Beijing. However he had little if any control over the rest of China.

Question 2

While the warlords tended to act as autocrats within their own region, they might also ally themselves with others in doer to protect themselves or increase their power. What were the three broad cliques?

Answer 2

The Anhui clique (centred around Duan Qirui, the Fengtien clique (centred around Zhang Zuolin), then his son Zhang Xueliang) and the Zhihli clique (centred around Feng Guozhang, then Cao Kun and then Wu Peifu)

Question 3

How did Yaun Shikai’s rule create the warlord era?

Answer 3

Yuan Shikai’s power rested on his command of the Beiyang army and his ability to hold it together through his generals. He sent ending these generals to govern the provinces. When Yuan tried and install himself as Emperor, the generals started to turn against him. On his death and competed against themselves fro power.

Question 4

What negative impact did warlordism have on China?

Answer 4

Misery and poverty for millions of Chinese; high taxes, forced conscription, confiscation of property and uncertainty of laws all had a detrimental effect on the economy.

Question 5

What positive impact did warlord rule have on China?

Answer 5

It intensified nationalism and gave direction and purpose to a revolutionary movement; it stimulated intellectual questioning of accepted practices and literary innovation. It also led to the GMD and CCP working together to defeat the warlords and unite China.

Question 6

When was the Chinese Communist Party founded?

Answer 6

July 1921 – in Shanghai

Question 7

How large was the CCP in 1921?

Answer 7

July 1921 – in Shanghai

Question 8

What did the CCP fail to achieve in 1923?

Answer 8

It failed to organise a railway strike in the Beijing area, which at the time was under the control of the warlord Zhang Zuolin

Question 9

Why did Russia and its Comintern believe the GMD was more likely to bring about a socialist revolution that the CCP?

Answer 9

It interpreted Sun Yatsen’s Three Principles ad compatible with Marxism and felt the CCP would always be too small and insignificant to be a genuinely revolutionary force.

Question 10

Which city became the Nationalists’ major southern base in the 1902s and the seat of their government?

Answer 10

Guangzhou, in Guangdong province

Question 11

What were the “Three Principles of the People” as formulated by Sun Yatsen?

Answer 11

National sovereignty, democracy, people’s welfare – the emphasis was on the improvement of the conditions not of individuals but of the people as a whole

Question 12

Why did Sun Yatsen decide in the early 1920s that the GMD needed a military army?

Answer 12

Due to the violence and warlords which was engulfing China since the collapse of the Qing dynasty, he realised that the GMD would require an army to overcome its enemies: fine ideals and words would not be enough

Question 13

When was the Whampoa Military Academy founded?

Answer 13

1924

Question 14

What impact did the Whampoa Military Academy and its branches have on the GMD in the mid to late 1920s?

Answer 14

It led to the GMD becoming a military organisation with all the party’s leading members being products of the Academy e.g. Sun Yatsen’s successor.

Question 15

What was the NRA?

Answer 15

National Revolutionary Army – the GMD’s military wing.

Question 16

Why did Russia ally itself with the GMD in 1923?

Answer 16

Following their victory in the Russian Civil War, the Bolsheviks wanted to secure their southern borders and use the GMD to create a buffer between them and Japan. This is why they also seized Outer Mongolia from China in 1924. This is why they also considered allying with the northern warlord General Feng.

Question 17

Why did the GMD ally itself with Russia in 1923?

Answer 17

Sun Yatsen admired the structure and discipline of the Bolshevik Party and wanted the money and ammunition an alliance would bring.

Question 18

What did the Bolsheviks instruct the CCP to do with regard to the GMD from 1923?

Answer 18

They instructed the CCP to join with the GMD and work with them to create a revolutionary force in China.

Question 19

What impact did the Bolsheviks have on the Nationalists in the early to mid-1920s?

Answer 19

They provided money and ammunition; they helped reorganise the GMD along Bolshevik lines; Borodin, one of their agents, helped write a new GMD constitution which was Leninist in character.

Question 20

Why did the CCP agree to cooperate with the Nationalists in the 1920s?

Answer 20

They felt that as China has no strong proletariat class that there could not be a revolution in the short term; and therefore it was better for them to work with the Nationalists. They also felt that while working with the GMD they would attract left-wing Nationalists and so grow in numbers while retaining strict party discipline from within the GMD

Question 21

When was the United Front formed between the GMD and the CCP?

Answer 21

1924

Question 22

When did Sun Yatsen die?

Answer 22

March 1925

Question 23

Where did the 30 May Incident of 1925 take place?

Answer 23

Shanghai

Question 24

What was the 30 May Incident of 1925?

Answer 24

British troops opened fire on crowds who had gathered to protest against an earlier shooting of Chinese workers by Japanese factory workers. This led to further strikes and riots, with attacks on foreign legations in Guangzhou and Shanghai.

Question 25

What immediate impact did the 30 May Incident have on China?

Answer 25

It fuelled nationalist feeling and encouraged more people to join the GMD and the CCP.

Question 26

What impact did the 30 May Incident have on the CCP-GMD relations?

Answer 26

By showing the need for the GMD to have a strong military force, it helped bring Chiang Kaishek to power within the GMD. Chiang and his faction were far more pro-bourgeois and anti-communist; they sought to destroy the CCP

Question 27

What impact did the 30 May Incident have on China?

Answer 27

It created a mood of national anger and led to the Northern Expedition of 1926-28

Question 28

On Sun Yatsen’s death, how was Chiang Kaishek able to become the GMD leader?

Answer 28

Having been appointed commander-in-chief of the Whampoa Academy in 1924, he used his leadership of the NRA to overcome his rivals.

Question 29

Following Sun Yatsen’s death, which left-leaning GMD leader was Chiang Kaishek’s most serious rival for control of the GMD?

Answer 29

Wang Jingwei

Question 30

What was Chiang Kaishek’s aims in formulating the Northern Expedition of 1926-28?

Answer 30

To destroy the warlords and also eradicate the Chinese Communists

Question 31

Which cities did the Northern Expedition push out from in 1926?

Answer 31

Guangzhou and Shantou, both in the south of China

Question 32

Which the warlords did the Northern Expedition target?

Answer 32

Wu Peifu (of Central Plains), Sun Chuanfang (eastern China) and Zhang Zuolin (northern China between Beijing and Manchuria)

Question 33

What was the main strategy used by the United Front during the Northern Expedition of 1926-28?

Answer 33

Surround the warlord’s army, cut their supply lines and steadily crush them

Question 34

Which warlords did the Northern Expedition of 1926-28 manage to defeat?

Answer 34

Wu Peifu (of central China), Sun Chuanfang (eastern China – after fierce resistance) and Zhang Zuolin (northen China between Beijing and Manchuria – driven out by 1928)

Question 35

What was the popular reaction to the Nationalists during the Northern Expedition of 1926-28?

Answer 35

Due to their hatred of the warlords, they looked favourably on the GMD and the United Front, passed them information and even joined them.

Question 36

Following the Northern Expedition, the GMD felt they could declare themselves the legitimate government of China. Where did they establish their new capital?

Answer 36

Nanjing (which means ‘southern capital’ – Beijing means ‘northern capital’)

Question 37

What contribution did the CCP make to the Northern Expedition’s success?

Answer 37

They organised sabotage, strikes and boycotts which severely disrupted the warlords’ forces

Question 38

To what extent had the Northern Expedition removed warlordism from China by 1928?

Answer 38

Partially: not all warlords had been defeated; some warlords had been left in place with their private armies as long as they accepted GMD’s authority; some warlords had taken posts within the GMD or the government

Question 39

How did Mao’s views change in 1927?

Answer 39

In February 1927, Mao declared that the peasants and not the proletariat would be the class which would rise up in revolution and put the CCP into power.

Question 40

How did Chiang Kaishek first start to remove the CCP during the Northern Expedition?

Answer 40

He started to purge the GMD of Communist sympathisers, he then started to dismiss CCP officials from their posts within the GMD and arrest several Comintern advisers and remove his closest challenger, the left-leaning Wang Jingwei. (Wang set up a rival GMD government in Wuhan)

Question 41

Where and when was the ‘White Terror’?

Answer 41

April 1927 in Shanghai

Question 42

How did Chiang launch the ‘White Terror’ against the CCP during the Northern Expedition?

Answer 42

He allied himself with Shanghai’s industrialists and merchants as well as the city’s triads and Green Gang. They turned on and slaughtered known Communists, their sympathisers and trade unionists.

Question 43

How did the CCP try to respond to the Nationalists’ ‘White Terror’?

Answer 43

Through a series of (failed) armed uprisings, most notably the Autumn Harvest Rising led by Mao Zedong in August 1927.

Question 44

What effect did the ‘White Terror’ and purges have on the GMD?

Answer 44

It split the GMD in two: the left-wing GMD led by Wang Jingwei, based in Wuhan and Chiang’s party based in Nanjing.

Question 45

What were the ‘white purges’ of 1927?

Answer 45

Attacks and killings by the GMD of known and suspected Communists in cities across China.

Question 46

How did Chiang Kaishek reunite the GMD after the White Terror?

Answer 46

With far more money at his disposal than Wang Jingwei, Chiang Kaishek used the GMD-sympathetic warlord, Li Zongren, to defeat Wang and reunite the GMD under Chiang’s command.

Question 47

What were the consequences for the CCP of the ‘White Terror’ and the failed uprisings?

Answer 47

It left the CCP on the point of being annihilated, with most of them having fled to the mountains of Jiangxi province. The failure of the uprisings against the better equipped nationalist forces also convinced Mao that the CCP should rely on guerrilla tactics and avoid pitched battles with the enemy.