Explain why the CCP were able to take power in 1949

Authors Avatar

Explain why the CCP were able to take power in 1949

In 1928, The GMD took control of China.  However, Chiang’s reign over this vast country was extremely unsuccessful; they rapidly lost support during the war with Japan, and so eventually lost power to the CCP after a three-year war.  The turning point in the change of popular support came about when CCP finished the Long March; they got stronger every day from then on.  Also, the Japanese war was a turning point; the population saw how weak the GMD army was to the mighty Red Army.  This is why the Civil War occurred, and why the CCP took power of China in 1949.

After the massacres in Shanghai, the CCP were had almost been crushed.  Mao managed to set up the first communist soviet in Kiangsi.  Gradually, over six years, the number of communists in this soviet rapidly increased; this was where the CCP could rebuild ready to strike back on the GMD.  However, after a few poor attempts, Chiang and his army surrounded these villages, using the ‘ring of steel’, and so forced them on the Long March on 2 October 1934.  In the next twelve months Mao and his followers would undertake one of the toughest adventures in history.

The communists crossed eighteen mountain ranges, including the Great Snow Mountains, twenty-four rivers and a huge amount of swamps and rivers.  They past through eleven provinces, and ended up about 1000 miles north of Kiangsi, in Yenan.  They travelled for 386 days, of which they rested for 100, fought for 15, and had skirmishes every day.  They covered 6000 miles, with an average of twenty-four each day.  However, the managed to fight off all GMD threat, and although the lost many thousands of men, the CCP were described as victorious for a number of reasons.

Firstly, all of the CCP members were amazingly devoted, and would go through whatever it took to see their hero, Mao, in power.  They did not need huge budgets for clothing and rations, but were thankful for what they got, and never complained.  This is the complete opposite to what the GMD army was like.  The morale in the camps was very poor because of lack of rations and clothing; the whole GMD party’s moral was made even worse when the CCP came out on top after the Long March.  The lack of determination from the GMD was clear to everyone.

Join now!

Most of the GMD money for rations and clothes Chiang spent on his wife and his palace. All Mao owned in the world at the time was a sun helmet, a torn umbrella, two uniforms, a cotton sheet, two blankets, a water jug and a rice bowl.  This was why the population looked up to him; he did not back out of all the hardships that his comrades had to go through, unlike Chiang Kai-Shek.  These hardships could also be used in huge propaganda posters, claiming that now the Red Army is invincible, and the GMD army is weak ...

This is a preview of the whole essay