By 1911, the Chinese emperor had lost his political power

By 1911, the Chinese emperorhad lost his political power.

By 1911, China had becomea republic.

Tired of foreign domination,ineffective emperors, and thepoverty of the peasants, theChinese rebelled.

Led by Sun Yixian (Dr. Sun Yat-sen),Chinese nationalists tried to createa republican government.

Believing in “The Three Principlesof the People”, Dr. Sun Yixianadvocated nationalism, democracy,and socialism.

When Dr. Sun Yixian died in 1925, Chiang Kai-shek became the next leader of the KMT or NationalistParty.

Unlike Dr. Sun Yixian, Chiang Kai-shek purged communistsfrom the Nationalist party.

The Chinese Communists wereforced to retreat on a marchknown as The Long March.

Many communists died on The Long March.

But with the Japanese invasionof China, the Nationalists andCommunists stopped fighting.

Japanese soldiers committedterrible atrocities in China andthe Chinese were united in their struggleto oust the imperialists.

But after the defeat of Japan atthe end of the Second World War,the Chinese civil war resumed.

The Communists gained the respect and support of thepeasants.

With the support of the peasantsand the corruption ofnationalist leaders, theCommunists achieved victoryIn 1949.

As leader of the ChineseCommunist Party, Mao Zedongbecame the first dictator ofCommunist China.

Mao quickly set about to destroythe old ways. He abolished private property and nationalizedstate industries.

Like Stalin, Mao sought to quickly industrialize China.

His “Great Leap Forward” (1958-1959) tried to greatly increasefactory production. However, itfailed to achieve its goals.

Famine occurred as agriculturewas collectivized.

As the years passed, Mao wasworried that the revolutionaryvalues were not being fullyembraced.

To revive revolutionary ideals,Mao implemented the GreatProletarian Cultural Revolution.

Red Guards or students devotedto Mao violently removed the“Four Olds”: old ideas, old culture, old habits, and oldcustoms.

The Red Guards violentlypunished counterrevolutionariesor people opposed to the revolution.

Red Guards memorized theLittle Red Book or a collectionof the sayings of Chairman Mao.

By 1976, Mao had died butChina was forever changed.