early life & college studies

Early Life & College Studies

1893-1918

• Born into peasantry, rebellious son, studied Chinese classics & Confucianism

• Soldier in Republican Army (overthrew Qing)

• College: MARXISM!!

Favored peasant/worker class (personal & thru Marxist teachings); deals with army/military later as well

Party Affiliation

1920-1927

• Failed at democratic organization

• Founded CCP branch in Hunan (communist)

• Joined KMT to help against invaders

• Organized peasant unions, got leadership roles; published power of peasants

Marxist ideas isolated him

Autumn Harvest Uprising & Red Army Formation

1925-1929• KMT & Chiang Kai-shek battled communists;

Mao led peasant armies; he was defeated & left for rural area

Developed land reform ideas, recruited troops

• Troops became known as Red Army (cont’d into his rule); Improved on guerilla warfare

KMT troops destroyed and Mao gained prestige

Long March

1934• Chiang tried to eliminate

communists again, Mao escaped & began march to protected base (6000 miles)

Zunyi Conference held along way where Mao gained power (more leadership)

Japanese Invasion

1931-1937

• Imperial Japan moved further into China; KMT & CCP temporarily united

• Troops made mainly of peasant (Red Army)

Success of peasant army solidified Mao’s efforts, he moved up in rank…began pushing out his critics in CCP

Civil War

1945-1949

• Japan lost WWII; KMT vs. CCP for control of China

• CCP had large, trained army and won in Oct. 1949…declared People’s Republic of China

China was in despair, Mao in power, modeled reconstruction after USSR (socialist ideals)

Korean War & Hundred Flowers Movement

1950-1953, 1957

• Mao relied on USSR aid, allied with N. Korea, millions of Chinese died

Became enemies with US

• Mao wanted PRC to be united as one…led campaigns to weed out traitors

• HFM- encouraged criticism, but it was more than expected, and attacked “rightists”

See evidence of fear in intellectuals later

Great Leap Forward(In 1949, land taken from landowners & given to peasants who

worked it = )

1958-1960• land taken from peasants & turned into communes

owned by state = – 20-40 families @ first county size (1,000s)

• Build backyard furnaces instead of factories to make iron tools– Melt down scrap metal…but then ran out and started melting

already usable objects! (had to meet quota)– Couldn’t use what they melted (too brittle)– These workers also were NOT making food…

"Everybody is fully occupied in production, the trade sector is also fully occupied for everybody."

Larger-than-human melon Grain-production soaring

Great Leap Forward• Commune leaders forced to meet quota of

food production– Couldn’t meet it lied about amount produced– Govn’t took % based on that lie peasants

starved– Some food taken by govn’t rotted in warehouses

before being distributed, some sent to USSR for loan payment

• Told to do close planting to use land efficiently– Plants use each other’s nutrients and they all die!

(All critics were purged from office, many stayed quiet b/c of HFM)

Great Leap Forward

Over 20 million people died– Not realized until outsiders came in, studied

demographics– People eventually turned to cannibalism

• 1961: Mao realized it didn’t work gave 3 men, including Deng Xiaoping, 5 years for economic recovery– 1966…Mao didn’t like they had control leads to

Cultural Revolution

Cultural Revolution1966-1976

• Mao’s economic recovery task force had always been loyal, but no longer agreed with his ideologies– Mao saw same ∆s in USSR got grp. of radicals

together to purge them

• Created Red Guard (students)– Closed school to allow them to join

Mass propaganda of devotion to Mao (more so than Stalin), Little Red Book

Cultural Revolution• Beat, tortured, and imprisoned leaders who

opposed him– Suppressed all disorder/opposition with violence

• Lin Biao designated as Mao’s successor– Pushed Mao’s Little Red Book– Instituted martial law

Mao eventually disposed of him for having too much power (fled to USSR)

Death & Succession

1976

• 1972: Mao and his new successor both have health problems brings back Deng Xiaoping– Radicals continue to purge opposition

• 1974: Mao favors Deng b/c economy is so bad

• 1976: Mao dies– His helpers (Gang of Four) are arrested– Deng emerges as leader in 1977

One-Child Policy

1979• Mao had encouraged large families (labor for

communes, soldiers)…exponential population growth

• Deng needed to cut growth dramatically• Very severe punishments at first, less strict now

Unbalanced gender ratio, death/ abandonment of girls, controlled adoption policies, smaller population growth

Tiananmen Square Massacre

1989 (June 4)• In Peking (Beijing), civilian/ student protest for

democratic reform• Army came in shooting, with tanks…

hundreds (thousands?) killed• Happening simultaneously with protest in

USSR

Global condemnation

Timeline Questions

1. Who’s social and philosophical thought did Mao begin following while in college?

2. What viewpoint of Mao’s led to him being rejected by both the CCP & KMT?

3. What was the positive turnout for Mao from the Autumn Harvest Uprising?

4. Why did the U.S. become Mao’s enemy?5. What was the “Hundred Flowers” movement?6. What are some reasons the Great Leap

Forward failed?