The Chinese Revolution of 1949 or Chinese Communist Revolution, put an end to the civil conflicts that internally plagued China since decades ago and meant the consecration and establishment of the People's Republic of China, under the command of Mao Tse Tung, then leader of the Communist Party of China .
The stage that culminates with the consolidation of the Chinese Revolution and the Communist Party lasted some four years (1945-1949) and is also known as the Third Revolutionary Civil War.
The People's Liberation Army occupies the presidential palace in 1949
Since the 1920s, China's internal conflicts have become more acute in two civil wars and a warlike confrontation against Japan, accumulating decades of violence and civilian deaths.
The main adversary of Mao and his communist supporters was the Nationalist Party of China, led by General Chang Kai Shek, who by then exercised maximum power in the Republic of China.
After years of struggle, nationalist forces were overthrown and displaced by communists, proclaiming the People's Republic of China with the taking of Beijing on October 1, 1949.
The beginning of a new Republic in China under a communist system led by Mao Tse Tung would result in the slow but constant process that would take China to strengthen during the twentieth century, strengthening from the Cultural Revolution (1966-1977), and consolidating as one of the greatest world powers at the arrival of the 21st century.
Causes of the Chinese Revolution
The social inequality of the Chinese Empire
Under the power of the last great dynasty, the social gap between the inhabitants, especially the peasants, was extremely wide.
The large tracts of land belonged to landlords and privileged classes, which represented a low percentage of inhabitants.
The conditions of peasants and villages in the interior of China were affected by the carelessness of the Emperor and the leadership of power in the capital.
It is estimated that the first revolutionary thoughts were introduced from Russia, observing how their uprising against Tsarism resulted in a new system of collective benefit.
Colonialism and the loss of territories
The Qing Dynasty, the last to power, showed a remarkable ineffectiveness when dealing with the protection of the territories of China.
It is responsible for having lost control over Taiwan and the territories of Korea, as well as allowing the capture of Manchuria and the invasion of Chinese territory by the Japanese.
The territorial invasion of China began to show signs of colonialism that citizens with insurrectionary thoughts wanted to eradicate from their territories.
The loss of Hong Kong port represented one of the end points to China's internal tolerance and weaknesses.
Internal conflicts
One of the main conflicts that preceded the Communist Revolution turned out to be the Opium Wars, in which China was clearly humiliated against the main empires and powers of the 19th century, as was England.
Resentment and the desire to establish itself as a nation of great strength began to take shape in the new generations of Chinese citizens.
Internal rebellions began at the regional level that the Qing Dynasty could not control, thus demonstrating its growing weakness in the internal affairs of the nation it sought to lead.
The expansion of communism and anti-capitalist thinking
The consolidation of communist ideas in some territories of Eastern Europe, such as Russia, began to spread to the Asian territories, as well as the rejection of the Western system that was manifested in the United States and its main European allies.
The ideas took shape and peasant and proletarian citizens began to form under the guidelines of a Communist Party of China, which received the full support of a newly founded and apparently powerful Soviet Union.
Consequences of the Chinese Revolution
Displacement and formation of a parallel republic
The communist triumph forced the nationalists to flee to the island of Taiwan, territory that could never be retaken by the People's Republic, and where they sought to perpetuate the original character of the Republic of China, under the leadership of the Nationalist Party.
For years, the People's Republic and the Republic of China continued to recognize their own legitimacy.
The first came to be known as communist China and the second as nationalist China.
However, the years passed and the rest of the world began to recognize the People's Republic of China as the legitimate Chinese nation, relegating the Republic formed in Taiwan to a sovereign state of partial recognition.
Drastic measures and economic secrecy
Once the People's Republic was established, the economic measures did not take long. Although designed to provide new living conditions for the population, they took years to produce the desired effects, due to an unbalanced and unequal internal system.
Jobs have developed that these decisions led the Chinese population to a great crisis of famine and death; it is even estimated that the poorest and most remote villages and corners resorted to cannibalism.
Rejection and ignorance of the cultural past
It has been claimed that under Mao's orders, much of China's cultural and intellectual past was by then unknown and destroyed, as it represented the fascist ideas that held the chinese society suffering for so long
Decades later, the cultural revolution would provide a consolidation of communist thought, closing even more to the systems and perceptions of the West.
Growing tension with the West and the United States
The Chinese communist consolidation and the determined Soviet support in the middle of the Cold War it was not seen with good eyes by the United States of America and its European allies, who during the years of civil conflict supported the defeated nationalist side.
This would generate a growing tension between the main political and military blocs of the world, a tension that continues to this day, when every decision is taken with caution against the movements of each one.
References
- Bianco, L. (1971). Origins of the Chinese Revolution, 1915-1949. Stanford University Press.
- Ch'en, J. (1966). Mao and the Chinese Revolution: followed by thirty-seven poems by Mao Tse-Tung. Barcelona: Oikos-Tau.
- Fairbank, J. K. (2011). The great Chinese revolution, 1800-1985. New York: Haper & Row.
- Isaacs, H. (2009). The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
- Tamames, R. (2007). The Century of China: from Mao to the first world power. Barcelona: Editorial Planeta.