Causes, Practices, and Effects of the Chinese Civil War Assessment

Explain two major political causes of the Chinese Civil War.

One major political cause of the Chinese Civil War was the downfall of the Manchu dynasty, which ruled China until 1912. Many Chinese people saw the Manchus as being weak, because they had let China become heavily influenced by foreign nations and cultures. Several Western countries had established spheres on influence in China, where they had large amounts of economic control. In addition to this, Christianity was spreading very quickly in the area. The fact that the Manchus had allowed all of this to happen caused multiple revolutions, such as the Boxer Rebellion and the Revolution of 1911. Certain groups of people felt that they could do a better job ruling China than the Manchus did. The contest for power between these groups after the Manchu dynasty collapsed was an important cause of the civil war that followed.

Another political cause was the Russian Revolution, which started in 1917. This revolution occurred due to the increasing popularity of communism, with major leaders in the movement including Vladimir Lenin and Joseph Stalin. The communist party in Russia began a violent revolution against the tsarist dictatorship that ruled over them. The events that happened in China seem to have been inspired by this revolution in some ways. The political, social, and economic ideals of the Soviet Union eventually reached China, resulting in the formation of the Chinese Communist Party in 1922. This party became one of the two major factions that would fight in the Chinese Civil War, with the other being the Nationalists led by dictator Chiang Kaishek.

Analyze three strategies or tactics that were most helpful in the Communists winning the Chinese Civil War.

The three strategies that were most helpful to the Communists were the use of guerrilla warfare, attempts to gain the support of the common people of China, and the use of assistance from Russia. Using guerrilla warfare against the Guomindang was largely Mao's idea. The communists used indirect tactics, such as leading Nationalists into their territory where they could be ambushed or isolated from help and supplies. They would also lead raids on the Nationalists at night and destroy any infrastructure that might help their enemies. This was essential to the Communist victory, because the Guomindang had a much larger and better equipped military, so the Communists likely would have been defeated if they attacked Chiang Kaishek's forces head-on.

The Communists also ensured that they received the support of China's peasants. They took advantage of the fact that peasants were being mistreated by the Nationalists by improving conditions for them ending traditional practices like arranged marriages and by effectively using propaganda in the form of artwork to convince the people that the Nationalists were cruel and corrupt while the Communists were willing to work together for the common good. Gaining the support of peasants greatly increased the size of the People's Liberation Army, giving it a good chance of successfully attacking the Guomindang directly.

Despite the importance of the above strategies, some historians argue that assistance from Soviet Russia was the most important factor of the Communists' victory. Russia sent help to the Chinese Communist Party in the form of spies and military advisors. Spies gathered intelligence from the Nationalists to give to the Communists, while advisors like Otto Braun provided knowledge of strategies and tactics that could be used against the Guomindang.

Explain two major political effects of the Chinese Civil War.

One major political effect of the Chinese Civil War was the alliance that was formed between Russia and China during the Cold War. When the Communists won the civil war in 1949, they set up the government known as the People's Republic of China, which shared some policies and ideals with the USSR. Because of this, when tensions increased between Communism and the West, China and Russia agreed to help each other, signing a Mutual Aid Treaty in 1950.

Similarly to how Communism spread from Russia to China, it also began to spread from China to the rest of Asia. The United States saw this as a major threat, and so it adopted a policy of containment, meaning that it would try to stop the spread of Communism throughout the world at all costs. This resulted in multiple wars, including the Korean War and the Vietnam War.

Explain two major economic effects of the Chinese Civil War.

The fighting that took place during the Chinese Civil War caused much of China's infrastructure to be damaged, which had a very negative effect on the nation's economy. Inflation was a large part of this, with the price of food increasing greatly beyond what it had been in the past. In an attempt to improve the economic situation, the People's Liberation Army was put to work repairing infrastructure such as bridges and railways.

Another economic effect of the war was the implementation of collective farming among peasant communities. This was very similar to what was done by other communist leaders, such as Stalin. Rather than giving land to individual peasants, land was taken away from wealthier peasants and land owners to be shared and farmed by groups of peasants collectively.