Essential Question: How did the Communists take over China?

Before WWII…✷ The people of China were unhappy with

imperial rule.✶ Imperial = emperor / king

✷ This led to revolution and civil war.✶ The revolution was all of China overthrowing the

emperor✶ The civil war was between two groups who

differed on how China should be run

The Civil War

✷ Power struggles existed between two groups✶ the Nationalists, led by Chiang Kai-shek, ✶ the Communists, led by Mao Zedong.

Mao Zedong

Chiang Kai-shek

• Chiang Kai-shek was a Nationalist and very Anti-Communist.

• Helped the Allied powers defeat the Japanese in WWII.

• The Nationalists fought the Communists for control of China

•The Nationalists LOST

•Chiang Kai-shek moved the Nationalists to the island of Taiwan

• set up a strong economy and a stable government

Chiang Kai-shek

Communists Take Over ChinaDuring World War II the Chinese Communists and the Nationalists

put aside differences to fight Japanese invaders.

Civil War Resumes

• Nationalist forces outnumbered Mao’s Communists,

• Peasants supported Communists

• The peasants were unhappy because of high taxes and corrupt government

Public Support

• Communists promised to take land from landlords and distribute it to peasants.

• By 1949, Communists had pushed the Nationalists out of China

• Nationalists forced to move to Taiwan.

Communists Take Over China

People’s Republic of China

• On October 1, 1949, Mao Zedong stood before a huge crowd in Beijing.

• He announced the creation of the People’s Republic of China.

Opposition to Mao

• The new Communist China had many problems

• Poor economy• New government in charge

• Some countries refused to recognize Mao and the Communist government

• They claimed that Chiang Kai-shek’s government on Taiwan was the true Chinese government.

China Under Mao Essential Question:

How did life in China change under Mao’s rule?

Communist ChinaMao kept his promise to the peasants

✶ Took the land from the landowners and distributed it among the peasants

Early efforts to build the economy were successful.By 1957, China’s small industrial output had doubled.Improved economy and reduced poverty

China Modeled on Soviet Union

• The Soviet Union helped China financially• The USSR was communist at this time too• In the 1950s, territorial disputes and

differences in ideology pushed China away from its Soviet ally.

The Great Leap Forward✷ 1958- Mao announced a program designed to

increase China’s industry and agriculture.

✷ The Great Leap Forward created thousands of communes, collectively owned farms, of about 20,000 people each.

✶ Each commune was to produce food and have own small-scale industry

The Great Leap Forward

Planning Disaster

• The plan was a disaster• failed to produce quality goods

• Poor weather and farmer error led to little agriculture produced

• Famine spread through rural China

• tens of millions starved to death between 1959 and 1961.

Criticism• Failure of the Great Leap

Forward led to criticism of Mao.

• People started questioning his leadership

Cultural Revolution✷ New Movement✷ Mid-1960s – Mao tried to regain power after the GLP failed

✶ Started the Cultural Revolution, ★ Emphasis on physical labor

✷ Red Guards✶ Eliminate intellectuals who Mao feared wanted to end communism and bring back

China’s old ways.✶ Mao shut down schools and encouraged a group of militant students (the Red

Guards) to silence the people who were criticizing communism

✷ Destruction of Society✶ Mao lost control✶ The Red Guards killed hundreds of thousands of people✶ Late 1960s - China was about to start another civil war before Mao got control back

Outcome of the Cultural Revolution

✷ caused terrible destruction

✷ Government authority collapsed

✷ economic activity dropped.

Death of Mao Zedong

Mao Zedong died in 1976, 27 years after he proclaimed the People’s Republic of China on October 1, 1949. Mao Zedong’s

body was preserved and stored in a glass coffin in a mausoleum.

Life After Mao✷ Deng Xiaoping became the

leader of the People’s Republic of China after the death of Mao

✷ His job was to restore China after the disastrous Cultural Revolution

✷ He started the Four Modernizations

✶ Allowed more economic freedoms and entrepreneurs

How Do You Say His Name?????