China’s Civil War

• China’s Civil War (1928-1949)• Mao pushed for a tactic of taking the revolution to

the countryside • Peasants would join the Red Army and be trained in

guerrilla warfare• Nationalists would attack Communists but failed to

ever drive the Communists out

The Long March

• Jiang gathers 700,000 men and surrounded the Communist’s mountain stronghold

• Communist forces (100,000 men) began the Long March (6,000 mile march from southern China to northern China)

• Kept one step ahead of Jiang• Thousands would die from hunger, cold & exposure• “If we can survive all this, we can survive

everything”

Luding Bridge

Civil War Suspended

• By 1931, Japan began to watch the problems with China

• Japan invaded Manchuria to control an industrial part of northeast China

• 1937, Japan launches an all-out invasion of China (destroyed farms and killed thousands)

• By 1938, Japan had control of much of China• People of China united to fight the Japanese

Question

• If the Long March had failed, do you think the Nationalist party would have been successful in uniting the Chinese? Why or why not?