Shandong was considered a leased German territory in 1898 after the 1897 Juye Incident, after 2 German missionaries were killed in China.

• Japan presented the Twenty-One Demands to Yuan Shi Kai in 1915.

• Included railway and mining claims in Shandong.

European powers did not stop Japan because Britain did not want Japan as an enemy (colonies).

Brought renewed attention to the situation, as China took the treaty as an opportunity to have its territories returned.

However, it confirmed Japan's control over Shandong.

• Telegram revealed the Great Powers decided that Japan would keep Shandong.

Reformist student movement at Tiananmen Square.

Demanded the restoration of Chinese independence and sovereignty.

Largely sparked by China's anger over the Treaty of Versailles in 1919.

• Developed into a nationwide movement, because of public pressure, the government did not sign the treaty.

Mao in attendance

Sun Yat-Sen -> Xinhai Revolution, led to the fall of 268 year old Qing Dynasty.

• Abdication of child emperor, Puyi.

Left behind a power vaccum, beginning of the Warlord Era

New leaders faced the same problems:

The relationship with the west.

Unequal treaties and ‘extraterritoriality’ resulting from the Opium Wars.

One of the triggers of the revolution was the issue of foreign control of the railways.

Founded by Sun Yat-Sen

Three principles of nationalism, democracy and people’s wellbeing.

Largest party in both houses of the National Assembly, China’s newly formed legislature.

Republic of China officially proclaimed & Sun Yat-Sen sworn in as first president.

Former Qing general of the Beiyang Army.

Was offered the position by Sun in exchange for securing the emperor's abdication.

Backed by military & was acknowledged by foreign powers.

Improved China’s military strength after their defeat in war to Japan 1894-95.

He consolidated his power rather than allow democracy, later re-establishing the post of emperor. 

Appeased Japan with Twenty-One Demands, largely due to finance.

Growing unpopularity forced the end of his role as a monarch.

Song Jiaoren, leader & founding member of the GMD assassinated by member of the Green Gang Mob (ordered by Yuan or his supporters).

He was an outspoken critic of Yuan.

Because of this, Sun launches a "Second Revolution" in an attempt to remove Yuan from power.

• Yuan's troops retake Nanjing as Sun's revolution attempt fails & he is forced into exile.

Yuan declares the GMD an illegal organization in November 1913.

He dissolves the National Assembly & implements a self-appointed cabinet—Provincial governors replaced with military governors.

A platform for revolutionary ideas, promoting modern thoughts and values that marked the starting point of the New Culture Movement.

A cultural and intellectual reform movement.

Promoted ideas of modernization, democracy, and science while criticizing traditional Confucian values.

After the national assembly (Handpicked by Yuan), recommends the restoration of the monarchy, he proclaims himself as Emperor of China.

Provincial uprisings emerge in response.

Yuan faces military opposition in the provinces & shortage of funds, abandons his plans to revive monarchy

Further weakens government, increasing power of provincial warlord—Power vacuum.

Powerful warlords from the Qing Army became provincial leaders, ignoring any centralised control—China divided.

The western countries made their own arrangements with these warlords, obtaining special privileges to secure their sphere of influence in the region.

Some ruled fairly but others very harsh, often leading to wars between tribes or provinces.

Guangdong provincial government only declares war on Germany in 1917.

The New Premier of the Republic made a deal with the British and French to send over 100,000 Chinese coolie labourers to WW1 battlefields in Europe.

Sun Yat-Sen arrives to Guangdong from Shanghai to form a Republican government there (1917), he is elected as generalissimo of the Guangzhou military government.

Vladimir Lenin & Communists come into power in Russia, established the Soviet Union.

Japan defeated China & gained influence or control over Korea, Manchuria, Taiwan and the Liaodong Peninsula, as well as being forced to pay compensation.

Chinese nationalism led to the Boxer Rebellion but this was defeated by the foreign powers, which only increased the national dislike of them.

China helped the Allies in the First World War and expected to be rewarded for its efforts at the Paris Peace Conferences.

They also expected Wilson’s Fourteen Points to be adhered to, especially ‘self-determination’. Instead, they were forced to agree to the Twenty-One Demands in 1915 and received little from the Allies.

Some Chinese people saw the humiliation of the Treaty of Versailles as a reason not to follow any western models. Communism, or Russia’s Marxism-Leninism, was seen as a viable alternative.

Chen Duxiu & Li Dazhao founded the CCP with the help of the Bolsheviks and Far Eastern Bureau of the Communist International.

Thirteen delegates attend the party’s first congress in Shanghai.

Comintern representatives from Moscow enter China to assist and advise the CCP.

Known as 'China's First Communist'.

Born in a peasant family, but was able to study abroad in Japan from 1914-1917.

Taught Mao Zedong at the Beijing University.

Gravitated towards Communism after the Versailles Treaty.

Recruited members for Socialist Youth Groups, produced literature with Chen Duxiu.

Born to a rich family, received classical Confucian education—moved to Japan for further study.

• Became involved in Chinese reformist groups.

Became a professor at Beijing University, wrote for New Youth Magazine.

Elected as the First General Secretary of the CCP

The GMD & CCP work together to form a military academy & national army to supress warlords & reunite China.

Sun agreed to the alliance, as the USSR supported the GMD.

Dies of cancer in Beijing, before discussing peaceful reunification of China with three warlords who invited him.

After Sun's death, Chiang gets appointed as commander-in-chief of the new National Revolutionary Army & leader of the GMD.

Campaigned launched by the NRA to reunify China & end warlordism.

Against the Beiyang government & other regional warlords.

Led by Chiang Kai Shek after the death of Sun.

Was very successful for Chiang & the GMD.

The alliance became a hindrance. Both sides had competing ideologies and Chiang decided that the CCP was no longer needed.

In 1927, the GMD attacked the Communists in Wuhan, killing 15 000 or the 25 000 in the city.

This was Chiang's ultimate consolidation of power, giving him full control of Shanghai.

The GMD continued to have internal power struggles during the ‘Nanjing Decade’. Jiang faced opposition and even coups against his leadership. As a result, the GMD’s war against the CCP was not as effective as it could have been.

Chiang declares himself chairman of the National Government Committee and President of China. He decrees Nanjing as the national capital.

A relocation of the CCP & the Red Army from the Jiangxi Soviet base to Shaanxi after the GMD's Fifth Encirclement Campaign.

The retreat was 6,750 miles, approximately 200,000 members in the Red Army.

The defeat of Zhou Enlai (Leader of the CCP at the time) by the GMD in 1934 caused Mao to lead the remaining forces to Yan'an.

The Red Army lost more than 90% of its forces, yet it was hailed as a victory in CCP propaganda.

• A testament to the courage of the Red Army and the leadership of Mao Zedong.

• More recent scholarship has exposed some of this Long March mythology to be exaggerated and possibly fraudulent.

Mao proclaimed a Soviet republic in Jiangxi, financed by Moscow & introduced its own currency stamps, etc.

Jiangxi Soviet was a stronghold where it consolidated and strengthened the Red Army.

It was also a social & economic lab for testing out peasant-based Socialism.

Chinag was worried that the CCP might use Jiangxi as a revolutionary base & launched several offensives against the regions, but failed.

The CCP responded to Chiang's purge by launching an uprising in Nanchang, Wuhan.

Led to the creation of the Red Army.

• Consisted of former NRA soldiers & peasants in Southern China.

Main forces of the Red Army left Nanchang & headed towards Guangdong, Changsha & Shantao to seize political power, but were supressed.

Goal of attacking Hunan Province capital Changsha, failed & suffered setbacks.

Communist leadership drafter the uprising to spread across Hunan, Hubei, Guangdong & Jiangxi Provinces, led by Mao Zedong.

Started in Hunan, where Mao led a small peasant army against the GMD & the landlords.

Defeated by the GMD forces, Mao forced to retreat to the Jinggang Mountains.

Mao learned the values of Confucianism at a young age: 5 years of study in Shaoshan village, a traditional teacher who taught Confucianism.

Mao had no intention to obtain higher education because

1905, Mao’s father encouraged him to take the Chinese exams as it would be tested on knowledge of

He was born in a courtyard house in a farm village, called Shaoshan.

• Had 6 other siblings, but only 3 survived, including Mao. (The eldest child was usually responsible for taking care of his younger siblings & family in Chinese culture)

Lived with his maternal grandparents, and has absorbed a ‘gentler outlook in life’

• His father was absent because he was serving as a soldier. Was quicked tempered and had firm views.

• His mother was a devout Buddhist believer, while his father was a skeptic.

Mao found 2 tutors in 1910, an unemployed law student, & an elderly Chinese scholar.

The law student widened Mao’s perspectives with journals and newspaper articles, while the Chinese scholar interested Mao in classical texts.

Mao was introduced to the doings of Japan, and from a young, he learned to view the Japanese as the enemy. He read a pamphlet provided by the law tutor, “The Dismemberment of China”.

A series of bad harvests led to the outbreaks of famine in Hunan.

Stores of rice from the wealthier farmers were seized, & among the shipments they seized was one that Mao’s father was sending out to another town, Xiangtan.

Mao struggled to choose between family and social

desperation, but in the end, he could not sympathize with his dad as he continued to export the rice from his farm regardless of the famine in his own area.

Mao was amazed by Sun Yat-Sen and his cause, he read whatever he could find on Sun.

• At the time, he was still in exile, moving around Japan, Southwest Asia & United States in search of funds & support.

Mao became a convert to the revolutionary cause.

He posted a manifesto on the wall that suggests that Sun Yat-Sen be made the President of China.

He participated in student demonstrations in Changsha, and cut his hair as a symbol of reformation.

Mao heard a public address in school from a member of the Revolutionary Alliance, which inspired him to leave for Wuhan to join the Revolutionary Army.

Changsha was occupied by the Revolutionary Army forces led by 2 local leaders.

He missed his chance to join the first revolutionary army, then joined the regular army.

Mao found that physical education was very important, as Chinese scholars were so physically frail, fighting was left to uneducated men.

He wrote an essay on physical education and its effects, published in 1917 on a prestigious Beijing monthly journal, New Youth.

Mao formed a discussion society of like-minded students and friends & started a new school, “Workers’ Evening School”

It offered basic math, reading, writing, history, geography, moral cultivation, and economics. Mao was also a founding member of the “New People’s Study Society” in Changsha

He organized a strike of thirteen thousand middle school students against Zhang Jingyao.

• A Chinese general who alienated teachers & students by slashing Hunan educational budget, cutting teachers’ merit raises, blocking teachers’ salaries, & beating up those who protested.

• He banned the Xiang River Review & forced the Hunan Student's Federation to disband.

The Qing government was ruled by Manchu regents in the name of the new emperor, Puyi, who was only a six-year-old boy.

Many were resentful of the government, as China was vulnerable when facing foreigners.

Foreign investors had gained a lot of financial control over China’s emerging railroad system.

The CCP only had 50 members at the beginning of 1921, Mao Zedong was in attendance as a founding member.

Mao was then still a little known provincial leader.

He led a peasant movement in 1924, where he saw the peasants take revenge on the formerly powerful (landlords).

• Mao saw the potential in the peasants in his creation of a "New China", submits a report to CCP leaders in 1927.

However, the belief in peasants did not align with the Marxist ideology, which mainly focused on the proletariat (working-class).

The Jiangxi period thrust Mao Zedong into prominence as a CCP leader, as well as providing insight into his military tactics and political ideology.

His control over the Chinese Soviet Republic was secured through purges of the local Communists.

Chiang's attacks were blocked by Mao's employment of guerrilla strategies that he and his lieutenants developed

The battle was one of the biggest & most infamous in the Long March.

The story goes:

• The planks of the bridge were removed by the GMD.

• The Red Army was met with an "enemy machine gun nest" as they crossed the bridge

• The bridge only had its 13 chains left, which the Red Army successfully climbed across, while being shot at by snipers.

Historians have argued that the Battle of the Luding Bridge was merely a myth, then supported by Deng Xiaoping's interview.

The bridge was made in 1706, lightly defended by the Szechuan clique’s 24th army, a weak regional unit.

It would be unlikely for the soldiers to survive crossing the bridge of just thirteen steel chains with large

gaps in between while fighting against snipers and machine guns.

Deng: “This is how our propaganda presents it…there wasn’t much to it…just some troops of the warlord who were armed with old muskets.” 

A meeting was held by the CCP during the Long March by mid-December, when the Red Army went down from 86,000 to 30,000 soldiers.

The CCP committee realised that they needed to change their rigid Soviet strategies to one that can be adapted in China's circumstances. Switching to Guerilla Warfare, instead of conventional.

The Zunyi Conference leads to a transfer of power within the CCP; command of the First Red Army passes to Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai.

Key to Mao's rise to power.

Orphaned at a young age, educated at a missionary school in Tianjin & in his late teens, attended college in Japan.

Participated in the May Fourth Movement when returning to China briefly, and studied in France & CCP.

Joined the CCP abroad & formed the Communist Youth Group.

CCP & Comintern recalled him to China in 1924 because of his effective role.

Visit to Russia & continued living underground in China after the White Terror.

Became premier & foreign minister of the PRC.

End of the 1934-1935 Long March.

Yan'an was established as the official CCP base.

Chiang kidnapped by warlord generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng and coerced into ceasing the ongoing civil war against the Chinese Communist Party to form the Second United Front to resist Japan.

The CCP & GMD temporarily suspend fighting & coordinate resistance against the Japanese.

The alliance was also urged by Moscow to combat fascism & militarism.

The CCP called for national unity against Japanese military aggression.

The Eighth Route Army & New Fourth Army were nominally placed under the Nationalist command.

A staged incident by the Japanese military officers in China, by planting a bomb along a Japanese-owned railway in Manchuria (Shenyang)

The Japanese blamed the Chinese nationalists for the incident & used the opportunity to retaliate, invading Manchuria.

Sent Lord Lytton into China, but took months for him to arrive as they wanted the problem to resolve itself.

China complained to the League, Japan was at fault for the railway bombing, and Japan ignored the League & walked out after they were punished for aggression.

Japan, Britain, and France undermined the League by seeking self-interest.

The League of Nations' appeasement led Japan to have more confidence and carry out more aggressive foreign policies.

After the Mukden Incident, China saw a rise of anti-Japanese protests.

Started with a clash between Japanese monks and Chinese civilians escalated into wider violence.

On January 28, 1932, the Japanese Navy bombarded parts of Shanghai.

Japanese forces landed troops and fought against the 19th Route Army of the National Revolutionary Army.

Under the Shanghai Ceasefire Agreement, Chinese troops withdrew from the city, while Japan agreed not to expand further into Shanghai.

The Kodo Ha, a faction of the Imperial Japanese Army that openly revolted in Tokyo, provoked a fight with Chinese soldiers at the Marco Polo Bridge.

This escalated to the Second Sino-Japanese War.

Jiang Qing (江青), Zhang Chunqiao (张春桥), Yao Wenyuan (姚文元), Wang Hongwen (王洪文).

Cultural Revolution:

• Controlled propaganda, literature, theatre, and media.

• Promoted “revolutionary” art and banned works considered bourgeois or counter-revolutionary.

• Jiang Qing (Mao’s wife) was especially influential in dictating cultural life — she championed the “model operas” (yangbanxi) that glorified class struggle.

A lieutenant & sailor from the Japanese Marine Corps stationed in Shanghai forcibly drove past guards at the Hongqiao airport & started a provocation, making the Chinese guard on duty shoot them.

• This incident was used as an excuse for the Japanese to launch an offensive against Shanghai.

The Chinese government ordered General Zhang Zhizhong to send his forces to guard the Shanghai-Nanjing Railway & begin their counter-attack immediately.

After more Japanese forces landed at the Jinshan railway, they encircled the defending Chinese forces.

By late October, Japanese forces outflanked Chinese positions via amphibious landings at Hangzhou Bay. They managed to seize Shanghai after 3 months of fighting.

Japan sent more than 250,000 troops to China, suffering over 50,000 casualties. While more than 700,000 Chinese troops took part & 100,000 were killed or injured.

The Japanese Imperial Army marched into the capital city of Nanking & murdered 300,000 out of 600,000 civilians & soldiers in the city.

This was the worst atrocity during the WWII era in the European & Pacific theatres of war.

Chinese soldiers at Nanking were poorlu organized, even though they outnumbered the Japanese & had enough ammunition. 90,000 Chinese soldiers surrendered.

The 90,000 soldiers were now the Japanese prisoners of war, who were transported to remote locations in Nanking, where they were brutally tortured while being filmed by the Japanese.

Old women over the age of 70 & young girls under 8 years old were dragged off by Japanese soldiers to be sexually abused. More than 20,000 females were raped by Japanese soldiers.

• Pregnant women were raped & had their fetuses torn out, while the Japanese forced Chinese men to rape their daughters & sons to rape their family members.

Random acts of murder occurred, & the Japanese soldiers liked to fire their rifles into panicked crowds of civilians. Shopkeepers were robbed & their shops set on fire.