To Change China Essay

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Political Ideologies on the Peasant Farmers in China

Many historians view the May Fourth Movement as the birth of Communism in the Peoples Republic of China. The demonstrations and their suppression in 1919 turned increasingly political influencing Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao, the founders of the Communist Party of China, to align themselves to leftist ideologies. According to Cultural China, this movement was a protest against the imperial power in China. It greatly influenced the Chinese working class as they took the political center stage as the main force in the movement. More than 20 provinces participated in the movement; it had a wider foundation than the 1911 revolution. The greatest impact of the movement was influencing of people's consciousness. It helped spread Marxism in China and lay foundation for ideologies that established communism in China.

The May Fourth Movement revolutionized people's minds; many Chinese were disengaged from democracy as promoted by western the countries. The intellectuals in particular viewed the treaty of Versailles as a tool protecting foreign interests. In addition, Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points lost the appeal and was seen as hypocritical. They claimed that United States had not properly engaged Britain, France and Japan to adhere to the fourteen points. Moreover, the U.S. did not join the League of Nations; this resulted to the intellectual thought led by Chen Duxiu and Li Dazhao to favor Marxism over the Western liberal democratic style.

The peasants formed the bulk of those who participated in the May Fourth Movement.

The main actors must have campaigned in larger rural social groups such as the extended families. In China, people's behavior within such groups was guided by customs and traditions governed by family and villagers, so for these rural people to participate in such high-risk collective actions, there must have been a collective thought on the state of affairs. To most peasants, life presented them with dire economic challenges. They knew little regarding neither the World War nor the international political situation. Hao, agrees that the movement propagated the establishment of the Communist party as it mobilized both peasants and workers to strengthen the foundation of the Communist revolution.

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The War and After

The Chinese civil war solidified communism in China. The war was fought between the Nationalist Party, Governing Party and the Communist Party of China between 1927 and 1950. In 1920, the Communist party agents retreated on a countrywide campaign to form a military revolt that ignited the war with the start of the Nanchang Uprising (Lin 52). They consolidated support from peasant rebels and established their authority over southern China, but the Nationalists continued to forge ahead against the rebellion (Lee). This marked the beginning of a ten-year war.

The war was a representation of ideological differences between the Nationalist Party and the communist Party. Between 1947 and 1949, the war was known as the War of Liberation. After the fall of Tientsin, the Nationalist army was dismantled, they made announcements that they were withdrawing to Taiwan. Thereafter, October 1949 saw the proclamation of the People's Republic of China.

The liberation war did was not beneficial to the peasants. In fact, it was a political war for the Communist Party and left the poor workers and peasants in poverty. The peasants, despite their economic condition, provided resources for the war. The Communist Party recruited many peasants as soldiers during the Long March.

Mao urged the peasants to confiscate land from the landowners and distribute it among themselves for farming. This became very popular in china after the war and increased Mao's support among the peasant communities (Watkins). However, the state took the land away from them before ten years elapsed.

Nonetheless, Mao directed the peasants to melt iron and steel in order to make utensils. The program hindered agriculture, which was their main occupation. They spent much time in the furnaces melting iron and steel as directed in the process neglecting farming. In addition, they melted everything including important farming tools.

The consequences were dire as these non-agricultural projects….....

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