Mao's China

• During the Cultural Revolution 1966 – 1976, Red Guards (young people) attacked intellectuals, artists, and other perceived enemies of the revolution.
• Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966 as a response to perceived threats from traditional Chinese culture and Western influence.
• Mao Zedong launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966 as a way to purge the party of "revisionists" who were seen as too moderate or capitalist-leaning.
• The Manchurian Crisis was between 1931-33
• The Manchurian Crisis occured when japanese officers in the Guangdong Army blew up part of the Manchurian Railyway
• Within 6-months, the Japanese had control over now Manchuguo
• In December 1940, Japan signed an alliance with Germany and Italy (the Axis Powers)
• China joined the Allies in June 1941
• Japanese troops invaded Shanghai in August 1937
• By November 1938, Nanjing fell to the Japanese army
• Second Sino-Japanese war was between 1937-45
• The cause of the second sino-japanese war was Japans rapidly increasing population and lack of natural resources which led to Japan to seek China's resources = Expansanist foreign policy
• The 2nd Sino-Japanese war started after the Marco-Polo Bridge Incident of 1937
• What was Mao's Great Leap Forward?

  A campaign launched by Chairman Mao in 1958 to rapidly industrialize China by increasing agricultural production.
• in 1937 Chinese soldiers fought to protect Shanghai from the Japanese. 15,000 GMD soldiers died, whilst 2,000 Japanese soldiers died
• The Treaty of Tanggu in 1933 recognised Japan as owner of Manchuria.
• The Lytton Report reached a conclusion in 1932, one year after the event occurred
• Michael Fry said the Lytton response from the LOG was inadequate in preventing further aggression
• 1. Sent-Down Youth Movement → The lost generation (130 million young chinese people stopped attending school or universityChinese
• In 1966, as part of the broader Cultural Revolution, Mao Zedong initiated a policy that led to the suspension of regular school and university classes. The objective was to allow students to participate fully in the revolution and to engage in revolutionary activities.
• The Cultural Revolution began in May 1966 when Mao Zedong called upon young people to rebel against their parents and teachers
• the 4 olds were: Old Customs, Old Culture, Old habits, old ideas
• There were approximately 53,000 communes in China, 170,000 peasent households in the communes
• The Great Leap Forward was an economic campaign launched by Mao Zedong in 1958-61 with the aim of rapidly industrializing and modernizing China through mass mobilization of its population.
• Although peasants were 80% of the population, only 10% of land was arable (fit for or cultivated by plowing), most of which was unusable due to flooding and natural disasters.
• China’s population rose from 120 million in 1712 to 440 million by 1900.
• wealth was concentrated with few, as landlords and prosperous peasants were only 10% of the population but owned 70% of land
• In 1916, China aided the Allies by sending 95 000 labourers, most of which were peasants, to help with the war effort against Germany, and it was estimated that around 20 000 of these peasants died throughout the war.
• However, the ToV gave the German concessions in China to Japan, triggering student protests in Beijing on May 4th 1919.
• Peasants often had to pay 50-80% of their crops as rent to landlords
• “Rectification of Conduct campaign” - 1942-1944 --> Party members were to engage in public self-criticism --> Over a thousand party members were imprisoned and tortured to extract confessions if they had been infected by “revisionist ideas”
• Anti-Rightist Movement (1957) targeted intellectuals, critics, and perceived "rightists" who were deemed to be undermining socialist ideology and party unity. An estimated 1-2 million were arrested
• CCP membership skyrocketed from 57 members in 1921 to 58 000 by 1927
• CCP membership soared from 58 000 in 1927 to 1.2 million by 1945
• 100 Flowers campaign was in 1956 with the slogan "let a hundred flowers bloom; let a hundred schools of thought contend."
• Anti-Rights campaign dates --> 1957-1959
• Great Leap Forward was from 1958 to 1962
• Three-Anti and Five-Anti Campaigns were from 1951-1952
• The great leap forward mobilized roughly 700 million people into communes across china
• Long March was between 1934-35