Everything about Chinese Revolution totally explained
» For the full story of the war that led to the communist seizure of power on mainland China, see Chinese Civil War. For the initial revolution that overthrew the Qing Dynasty, see Xinhai Revolution; for the 1913 revolution, see Second Revolution. For the revolution of 1926-1928, see Northern Expedition. For the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, see Cultural Revolution.
The
Chinese Revolution in 1949 refers to the final stage of fighting (1946–1950) in the
Chinese Civil War. In some
anti-revisionist communist media and historiography, as well as the official media of the
Communist Party of China, this period is known as the
War of Liberation .
With the breakdown of peace talks between the
Kuomintang or
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT), and the
Communist Party of China (CPC), an all-out war between these two forces resumed. The
Soviet Union provided limited aid to the communists, and the
United States assisted the Nationalists with hundreds of millions of dollars worth of military supplies and equipment (now surplus PLA munitions), as well as the airlifting of many Nationalist troops from central China to
Manchuria, an area
Chiang Kai-Shek saw as strategically vital to defend Nationalist-controlled areas against a communist advance.
Belatedly, the Nationalist government also sought to enlist popular support through internal reforms. The effort was in vain, however, because of the rampant corruption in government and the accompanying political and economic chaos including massive
hyperinflation. By late 1948 the Nationalist position was bleak. The demoralized and undisciplined Nationalist troops proved no match for the communist
People's Liberation Army. The communists were well established in the north and northeast while the Nationalists, who had an advantage in both numbers of men and weapons, controlled a much larger territory and population than their adversaries, and enjoyed considerable international support, nevertheless suffered from a lack of morale and rampant corruption that greatly reduced their ability to fight and their civilian support. Especially during
World War II, the best of the Nationalist troops were either wounded or killed while the communists had suffered minimal losses.
After numerous operational set-backs in
Manchuria, especially in attempting to take the major cities, the communists were ultimately able to seize the region and capture large Nationalist formations. This provided them with the tanks, heavy artillery, and other combined-arms assets needed to prosecute offensive operations south of
the Great Wall. In January 1949 Beiping was taken by the communists without a fight, and its name was changed back to
Beijing. Between April and November, major cities passed from Nationalist to Communist control with minimal resistance. In most cases the surrounding countryside and small towns had come under Communist influence long before the cities — part of the strategy of
people's war. One of the decisive battles was the
Huai Hai Campaign.
Ultimately, the
People's Liberation Army was victorious. On
October 1,
1949 Mao Zedong proclaimed the
People's Republic of China.
Chiang Kai-shek, 600,000 Nationalist troops, and about two million Nationalist-sympathizer refugees, predominantly from the former government and business communities of the mainland, retreated to the island of
Taiwan and proclaimed the
Republic of China. After that, there remained only isolated pockets of resistance to the communists on the mainland, such as in the far south. A PRC attempt to take the ROC-controlled island of
Kinmen was thwarted in the
Battle of Kuningtou, halting a PLA advance towards Taiwan. In December 1949 Chiang proclaimed
Taipei, Taiwan the temporary capital of the Republic, and continued to assert his government as the sole legitimate authority of all China, while the PRC government did likewise. The last fighting between Nationalist and Communist forces ended with the communist capture of
Hainan Island in May 1950.
Further Information
Get more info on 'Chinese Revolution'.
|
External Link Exchanges
Do you know how hard it is to get a link from a large encyclopaedia? Well we're different and will prove it. To get a link from us just add the following HTML to your site on a relevant page:
<a href="http://chinese_revolution.totallyexplained.com">Chinese Revolution Totally Explained</a>
Then simply click through this link from your web page. Our crawlers will verify your link, extract the title of your web page and instantly add a link back to it. If you like you can remove the words Totally Explained and embed the link in article text.
As long as your link remains in place, we'll keep our link to you right here. Please play fair - our crawlers are watching. Your site must be closely related to this one's topic. Any kind of spamming, dubious practises or removing the link will result in your link from us being dropped and, potentially, your whole site being banned. |
