Communist Revolution
The End of Emperors In 1911, after thousands of years of being ruled by emperors, the last of China s royal dynasty s was overthrown Over the next 15-20 years, China was in chaos as different groups struggled to control the country By the 1930s, China entered a period of civil war between 2 main political parties to determine who would control the country
2 Political Parties Fight for Control Nationalist Party (KMT) led by Chiang Kai-shek wanted democratic gov t Communist Party (CCP) led by Mao Zedong wanted communist gov t
Communists Win After years of civil war, the Communist Party wins the fight with the Nationalists for control (cause) In 1949, China becomes a communist nation lead by Mao Zedong Chiang Kai-shek and his nationalist party were forced to flee to the tiny island of Taiwan (What is it?)
Chairman Mao Mao Zedong = head of Chinese Communist party & gov t Communist party set all gov t policies, giving Chairman Mao nearly absolute power
Communism s Goal The goal of communism is to make everyone as equal as possible, to have a classless society (effect) There is no private ownership of property (ex. land, businesses) Everything is run by the gov t, like factories, schools, hospitals (effect) The gov t provides jobs for everyone
The Chinese Communist Party... took land from the wealthy and gave it to the poor took control over China s factories and businesses, determining what and how much should be made forced peasant farmers to combine all their land together into collective farms and work together to grow food
Why does all this matter? China is still a Communist nation today (importance)
Great Leap Forward (1958) A program meant to speed up China s economic development (what is it?) All small farms were combined into larger farms All farm & factory ownership and decisions were in the hands of the gov t (what is it?) Goals were set for farm and factory production (what is it?)
Propaganda poster of the steel production objective. The text reads: "Take steel as the key link, leap forward in all fields",
Backyard Furnaces
Great Leap Forward cont. Mao thought it would help China become equal to the richer, more powerful countries in the world (cause)
At the beginning, commune member were able to eat for free at the commune dining hall.
Backyard furnaces in China countryside during the Great Leap Forward era
Backyard Factories for making metals
In the countryside, people working in the night trying to produce metal to make tools.
Propaganda poster of the steel production objective. "Take steel as the key link, leap forward in all fields"
Chinese propaganda poster showing larger-thanhuman melon
Great Leap Forward (cont.) Workers used new ways to make products and these new ways didn t work Farms and factories could not meet the production goals set by the CCP (effect) Some workers lied about how much they made so they didn t upset their bosses
Great Leap Forward (cont.) Famine - widespread hunger because there is not enough food (effect) Millions died (effect)
Great Leap Forward (cont.) Mao retreats from public view b/c his his plan failed (importance) Many people wanted the government to stop running farms and factories (importance)
Cultural Revolution (1966) A program to increase support for and remove opposition to the Communist party (what is it?)
Cultural Revolution cont. All parts of life suppose to be about communism (what is it?) Red Guards (groups of students) patrolled for uncommunist people (what is it?)
Bring down the Four Olds 1. Old Customs 2. Old Culture 3. Old Habits 4. Old Ideas The Red Guards Pulling Down the Memorial Archway, Qufu, Shandong Province, 1966.
Chinese poster saying: "We'll destroy the old world and build new." Classical example of the Red art from the early Cultural Revolution. Worker crushes the crucifix, Buddha and classical Chinese texts with his hammer
Chinese poster showing Jiang Qing, saying: "Let new communist culture conquer every stage."
The 'Four Olds' being set on fire, Zhengzhou, 1966. Opera Azalea Mountain (Dujuan shan), Beijing, 1974.
Cultural Revolution cont. Red Guards harmed many people (effect) Anything connected to foreign ideas & old Chinese ideas destroyed (effect) People sent out to the countryside to do hard work People told on each other for crimes against communism (effect)
Cultural Revolution (cont.) Mao thought dream of classless society was disappearing Increase support for the communist party (cause)
loose guidelines in terms of classifying what was actually "old" anything that existed before 1949 was subject to being destroyed anyone caught being in possession of "old goods" would suffer serious consequences from the Red Guards
Cultural Revolution (cont.) Time of chaos (importance) Many killed or committed suicide (importance) After Mao died, Chinese leaders allowed for more private ownership of land and businesses (importance)
In the end... executed millions of "class enemies to weed out counter-revolutionary political ideas, Mao established forced-labor camps numerous prisons massive "re-education" and "selfcriticism" programs
Tiananmen Sqaure (1989) student protests in Tianamen Square against the corruption & repression of the Communist party (what is it?)
Tiananmen Square People wanted democracy and freedom (cause) thousands of soldiers with tanks and guns fired on the unarmed students (effect) destroyed the statue of the Goddess of Democracy thousands of people arrested (effect)
Tiananmen Sqaure Goddess of Democracy Communist Party sends in tanks to break up the protests
Tiananmen Square one of the most famous examples of communist cruelty and repression (importance) Although there is more freedom in China today, the communist government still controls people s lives (importance)