Factors for questions

Question 1

What was the birth of the CCP a result of?

Answer 1

Russian influence

• Surrendered all Russian occupied land in China
• Publicly condemned the special privileges in the treaty
• Gave then money + advisers
• Moscow insisted CCP joined with GMD and this ultimately gained them much more publicity

Mao

• Was there at the beginnings of the CCP
• Spread propaganda, opened a bookstore to do so
• Went on recruitment drives

May 30th incident
- Large anti-foreign demonstration, they turned to the CCP for help and the party membership went from 400 to 20,000

Question 2

What caused the fall of the Qing dynasty?

Answer 2

Humiliation by foreigners

• Treaty of Nanking gave Britain control over Hong Kong
• Weakness was exposed and China was forced to sign Japan’s treaty of Shimonoseki
• Foreigners had established spheres of influence which meant they were almost as powerful as the Imperial court
• Mandate of heaven lost

China’s traditional methods

• Chinese people believed the mandate of heaven was lost
• As a result Cixi came down hard on reformers and rid the court of any modernisers
• Cixi was in power because Gunxu was too young. She would never have got the chance if it weren’t for China’s traditional methods

Corruption

• Cixi taking control and making bad decisions like ridding the court of modernisers
• Officials skimming off tax so gov’t was losing money

Revolutionary ideas

• Boxer risings, cost gov’t lots of money
• Sun Yat-sen formed revolutionary alliance, supported Xinhai revolution which ultimately overthrew the Imperial Dynasty

Question 3

Why did GMD lose civil war?

Answer 3

Military

• Rushed troops into Manchuria and gave away the advantage his resources gave him
• corrupt soldiers as the weren’t treated well
• ineffective generalship
• CCP held onto manchuria
• CCP used Guerrilla tactics

Economic

• Inflation
• Severe taxes

Political

• No support from locals
• Corrupt government
• CCP’s lang policy gained them support
• CCP had a restricted power base

Leaders

• Nepotism (His wife soong)
• Trusted nobody
• Can’t hold countryside
• Mao had more genuine support
• Mao appealed to a wider range of people