[Music]
hello and welcome to feature history
featuring the chinese civil war a name
that is encapsulating as it is generic
from 1927 to 1950 china was locked in a
period of civil strife
it had been for a lot longer actually
but specifically this time the two main
warring parties with the nationalist
kuomintang party and the communist
communist party prior china had been a
land ruled for millennia by long-running
dynasties one that's very own religious
and political doctrine justified the
existence of these dynasties it did
however only take half a century to
completely change that for a country
that had twice the population of today's
u.s and that was twice the size of
today's india to go from an almost
feudalistic regionalist mass to an
industrial centralized powerhouse it was
well it was quite impressive to say the
least so how can a couple revolutions be
just so revolutionary
well i'm going to tell you that's what
the rest of the video is for you should
really expected that in the 19th century
china was ruled by the qing dynasty same
for the 18th and the 17th it was however
in the 19th that the focus of western
colonists and merchants turned to china
and the qing weren't too harmonious with
this development choosing to close
themselves off from them the british
however in the opium wars would pioneer
the path of breaking open the gates of
the middle kingdom leading to many
european powers the u.s and even japan
covering up the humiliated empire into
spheres of influence and seizing control
of trade where they could foreign
tycoons would reign over the ports they
resided kept in steady supply by
impoverished chinese workers subservient
to them this was deemed unacceptable by
many but what could the qing do some
would answer that question by saying
forget the ching turning their own
regions into more self-sufficient
entities this regionalism would only
continue to degrade ching influence the
other some would demand modernization
and self-strengthening only for the
incompetent and corrupt chain to fail
them it too obsessed with its own
dynastic confusion to create any real
change after the sino-japanese war of
1895 that saw japan seized chinese
territory and title of the asian power
did this frustration manifest as a
fervent anti-foreign sentiment that
sentiment would further manifest as the
boxer rebellion the boxes looked to
relive the days of a mighty ching but
the imperial court was split on to
suppress or support such a radical
movement negligently letting the
foreigners take matters into their own
hands and occupy beijing without even a
declaration of war the 20th century
dawned with a ching that had failed to
modernize failed to strengthen failed to
improve simply failed to westernize in
1908 the two-year-old poo yi rose to the
imperial throne and of course under a
two-year-old china could only continue
to stagnate exiled revolutionary sun
yat-sen saw this as yet another chance
for him to finally see off the chin that
led a nation decay
he held a long history of failed revolts
so somehow doubt but the western
educated man was also adamant to say his
three principles nationalism democracy
and livelihood applied to create a
better china so there was each in the
end uprising herku uprising mapa ying
uprising gangshu new army uprising
second one show uprising and then an
uprising so unexpected that even the
people doing the uprising weren't
expecting it
in 1911 the wu chang uprising rose up
sign yet son at the time was still in
exile and the revolutionaries had
started before everyone was ready it
seemed a tad bleak but for the first
time much of the military joined their
cause this revolt spread quickly the
provinces successively breaking away
from the imperial court and sending the
qing into a bit of a tizzy with no time
to spare province delegates had gathered
into nanjing to form a chinese republic
inviting sun yat-sen to be china's first
president as consequence one might
expect a war to be fought between
president's son and emperor puyi but the
fact of the matter was despite each
claiming power the only person that had
power was whoever held the biggest army
which was general yuan shikai yuen
served the qing but when sun came to him
offering his presidency if he would have
forced puyi's abdication the general was
more than happy to switch sides
accomplishing his end by february of
1912 and taking position as the
president of the new republic of china
the man however lacked sun's refined
political philosophy more keen on a
direct military dictatorship method
meaning that many of the problems that
the uprising had aimed to fix remained
sun decided he could indulge a
democratic approach forming the
kuomintang political party in uen's
parliament the president saw opposition
as an affront however and son ended up
once again exiled in 1913. euan then
proceeded to blunder through politics
heavy-handedly trying to fix china's
disunity only making it worse the
tip-top of his tosh came when he
declared himself emperor in 1916.
it did take a bit before it dawned on
him he had completely lost any support
and so he pissed off and died shortly
after however with him gone everything
fell apart u.n had been the only thing
holding this nation together
[Applause]
regionalism peaked so far they stopped
being regions china breaking into small
states and provinces controlled by
warlords they had their own taxes laws
and even currencies most importantly
they were constantly fighting each other
sun had returned to this chaos and began
advocating for chinese reunification
however his powerful speeches fell on
deaf ears change could only begin to be
ushered in when outrage sparked over the
treaty of versailles in 1919. former
german colonies in china were handed not
to the chinese but the japanese mass
demonstrations broke out in beijing as
consequence demanding the abolishment of
warlords the death of old and defunct
tradition the repulsion of an
encroaching japanese and the creation of
a new strong and unified china sun and
the kuomintang looked to answer this
call beginning a self-proclaimed
military government in 1921 to fight
from his founding principles and
ambitious strains to china inspired
others such as the communist party of
china who saw fit to join in an alliance
with the komen tank in 1922
the two parties knew to create a unified
china the warlords would have to be
forced to surrender their control to
cooperate they formed a united front sun
would inconveniently die in 1925 and as
such an iconic figure so much so being
labeled as the father of the nation his
departure left a void his young protege
chiang kai-shek would force himself as
heir becoming generalizimo despite the
protests of pretenders regardless
chang's main anxiety was the alliance of
the ccp the communists would drive the
peasants into a revolutionary fervor off
the back of the front successors that in
chiang's eyes threatened the structure
of china by 1927 they had seized hongsho
shanghai and nanjing beijing soon to
fall as well the warlord's not a threat
this alliance was no longer a
convenience but an obstacle
chang initiated the white terror which
saw mass executions of communists in
shanghai and later beyond thousands of
communists trade unionists and peasant
leaders were massacred in the name of
purification after only a few months of
this persecution the ccp was facing
destruction and its leadership had
conflict with itself lili-san in
concurrence with traditional communism
refused the idea that they retreat from
the city's good as defeat it was to him
mao zedong was supportive of the idea
they based himself amongst the rural
peasantry away from chiang's armies as
that was how chinese communism was to be
mao's plan of action was to be taken
despite lee being his superior they
would centralize themselves in the
jiangxi mountains undertaking an
insurgency against chiang's far larger
forces in 1930 the soviets took a larger
interest in china's revolution the great
depression had broken out and communist
world rounds saw it as the beginning of
the world revolution and so the
communist international or common turn
organization began to attempt to
instruct the chinese on how they could
be the first successful step to this
globalization of communism lee would
listen to them and do as they said and
when they told him to launch a
counter-attack against the cormentang he
did and failed horribly his leadership
tarnished and the common turn refusing
to take the blame the organization
heavily replaced by chinese students
from moscow called the 28 bolsheviks did
these studies make them better educated
or just out of touch
chiang's government was characterized by
social unease because as he continued to
pursue the communists he failed to
implement sun's reforms and allowed the
japanese to annex manchuria in 1931.
class tensions bad morale and political
dissatisfaction would reliably rise as
the general elisimo continued to
persevere the cormentang's army
encircled the mountains but mao would
develop his personal strain of guerrilla
warfare to combat them as much as it did
help it couldn't last forever in 1934
chang filtered his largest army yet to
flush them out and his suicidal escape
began to seem more desirable than
waiting for an inevitable demise
[Music]
a retreat was planned to resettle their
forces in the north of china in shanxi
but it would take them on a trek of
almost 10 000 kilometers through the
most inhospitable areas of china and
that's if they even managed to break the
encirclement the 28 bolsheviks would
lead them to do just that but when they
brought them to the shang river and lost
50 of their men to simply cross it not
many people gave a [ __ ] with those
students reckoned anymore mao zedong was
elected to leadership in january 1935
and his direction saw them march the
remaining kilometers fighting 15 major
battles and many more skirmishes
arriving in shanxi in october
with 10 percent of their original rank
surviving
but they survived
despite the significant weakening mao
was quick to prepare a plan for his
revolutionary war they'd venture out to
villages and recruit the peasants
setting up bases from one they could
make more across the countryside
organizing themselves using insurgent
tactics they could defend the bases of
course mao predicted the kuomintang
would overrun them forcing their retreat
but not without him engaging a guerrilla
phase attempting to outlast and simply
survive longer mao could create a
protracted war lastly when this had
sufficiently weakened the enemy and
balanced the odds between the two
parties he'd engage in a conventional
war to seize power whilst mao got about
doing this chang had already pursued him
north but the general elizimo's
persistence wasn't appreciated by those
that saw the threat of the japanese as
impending in december 1936 chang would
be taken hostage by his own generals mao
had earlier that year stated his
willingness to form a second united
front to address the japanese but chang
refused to entertain such an idea the
generals made him agree however and when
chang had done so he had them put to
death yet his cooperation would still
reluctantly be given
japan declared war on both china's and
1937 and began a massive assault into
the nation or nations actually the
kuomintang held the most cities so of
course the kumentang took the brunt of
the assault chang would not trust the
communists enough to pull his army from
the north so the kuomintang only
continued to lose much ground and many
men to the invaders straining the people
to a breaking point mao used that
disaffection to drive recruitment and
was able to use his handful of victories
against japanese forces to do further on
december 1941 japan declared war on the
us chang saw this as an opportunity to
hold and conserve his forces the
americans do the fighting this was
tactically sound but he lost much public
respect for it as the tide turned in the
pacific and japan withdrew from china it
became a mad dash to see who could
liberate occupied territory the ccp
expanded much further than they had been
able to pre-war in august 1945 a
japanese surrender provoked the
proactive u.s ambassador patrick hurley
to lead talks between the kurmentang and
the ccp to see if peace could be
achieved shockingly they had agreed to
start preparation for a coalition
government even setting up a temporary
council and forming united army insane
the negotiations would never be
finalized though as when manchuria
presented itself liberation a race began
and china's fate would be decided there
the soviets invaded manchuria and when
the ccp's army arrived the soviets
handed over japanese stockpiles to them
the us was also involved as despite its
claims of neutrality it ushered chang's
armies into the region on u.s ships and
aircraft the kuomintang were able to
force the ccp out of the cities and into
the hills by december as the ccp began
to prepare a counter-attack the u.s
intervened trying to bargain a truce
between them the kuomintang had however
been in a position to overrun the
communists and now used to selol to
better prepare for war when the truce
inevitably broke down in july 1946 mao
was initially put on the back foot but
not destroyed like chang was bargaining
on march 1947 saw shanxi breached by the
kuomintang but in manchuria guerrilla
tactics were starting to paint a bleak
future for chang's occupation his army's
resources and manpower being slowly bled
dry by 1948 it was clear chang could no
longer effectively supply mandaria but
he refused to pull out refused to admit
defeat it would be hard for him to
accept the balance had shifted so
unfavorably for the kuomintang in march
manchuria fell and the grand communist
offensive began january 49 tianjin in
beijing fell the north entirely
conquered april then seeing them take
nan king then shanghai and lastly guanxi
where sun had first declared the
military government on the 1st of
october 1949 mao proclaimed the
establishment of the people's republic
of china in their capital of beijing
saying we have stood up
[Music]
when chang had lost control of the
mainland his government retreated to the
city of taipei on the island of taiwan
he continued as the president of the
republic of china and continued claiming
sovereignty of china it represented
china in the u.n until 1970 and to this
day is still officially the republic of
china for the mainland after being
liberated or conquered by the now
god-like mao zedong it would have his
key communist ideas thrust upon it in a
push to modernize the nation and take a
great leap forward he caused a famine
that killed 30 million people china
under mao was very much hit and miss
for relations with common terns and
soviets mao would denounce them as
revisionist traitors in the 1960. his
split collapsing the idea of a cohesive
world of communism as the only true
communist in mao's eyes were his
communists
the civil war that china had lived for
so many years finally put to rest a
constantly shifting image of china from
an ancient imperial dynasty to the
modernized communist state that state
however was subject to many pitfalls but
persevered much to the anxiety of the
west its initial relation with western
states highly tense given the era of
cold war today it's calmed of course
china still remains the people's
republic but for being a communist state
well that's debatable its new relations
with the outside world are heavily trade
oriented as china after the long war
looked outward for vitalization not
inward to step back though it's
interesting to think of what if it had
been an alternative outcome whether that
outcome would be better or worse is
easily arguable and i'm sure the
comments will have you covered in that
regard actually probably not it will
just be some dick saying notification
squad what up
[ __ ]
like per usual thanks to the highly
capitalistic patrons and special
mentions to the bigwig tycoons david
kendall thrace vega steve graham grandpa
hex and anal scrubs for my poor commie
viewers that don't pledge
there's a helicopter