To what extent was the rise to power of Mao due to personal appeal and ability?

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To what extent was the rise to power of Mao due to personal appeal and ability?

Abhishek Puri

IB History HL

18.02.2008

Mao Zedong had mastered the military and political councils of the Chinese Communist Party. He recognized that the peasant majority of China had to be on his side and political emphasis on the countryside was necessary for him to rise to power. Mao and the CCP successfully spread communist ideology outside their southern base with the help of the Long March. His activeness in the political affairs bought him support even from the Kuomintang when both the parties were allied in 1926. Zedong had also developed Guerilla tactics that not only won the Party the fight for power against the Kuomintang when ties between the parties had become turbulent, but also earned respect from the peasants. Therefore, the combination of Mao's popularity with the masses and his tight grip of the CCP helped him to rise to power.

The Long March of 1934 marked the time when Mao "achieved effective control of the CCP". Even though the Long March was a retreat from Southern China to escape the wrath of