Isaac shott revolutions focused notes (source #2)

1. Focused Note-Taking Name: Isaac Shott
Guiding Question: What were the causes and effects of the revolution I am studying?
Make Notes
● The term of carving up
the melon was supposed
to symbolize China’s
near collapse. This was
due to the fact that China
had lost a lot of its power
to foreign control.
● The Nationalists (GMD),
the Communists (CCP),
and the warlords were
fighting for control over
the country. It started as
the CCP and GMD
fighting together but it
later changed GMD
getting the warlords to
help fight the CCP as they
saw them as a bigger
threat. The two parties
were at war until GMD
had to retreat to Taiwan
and the CCP took control,
forming the People’s
Republic of China (PRC).
● The PRC had a plan to
modernize their new
country in order to have
a fair and functioning
society.
● Since China was behind
in the industrial space,
they took a “Great Leap
Forward” and made as
many efforts as possible
to get better industrial
production.
● Mao created a social
movement to get rid of
any last ounce of
Capitalism in his society
in order to move forward
with his economic plans.
● Even though it was a
rocky road, China
became on par with the
world’s biggest
superpowers.
Take Notes
● “... large regions of China were in reality under foreign
control.”
● “China had lost control of key ports, cities, and spheres of
influence.”
● The Nationalists formed a party called Guomindang(GMD)
which was an attempt at rebuilding the country. However their
efforts were unsuccessful as the many warlords around the
country made it difficult to maintain unity.
● “In 1921, revolutionaries inspired by socialist anti-imperialist
ideas formed the Communist Party of China (CCP).”
● Nationalists allied with warlords who mistreated the people
they governed, in order to fight the CCP.
● “Between 1927 and 1937, Communists tried to gain power for
themselves, with the nationalists suppressing them.”
● “After 1937, China was officially at war with Japan. Reunited
once again against imperialists, the GMD and CCP fought the
Japanese invaders”
● “Their alliance of convenience ended, and for three years,
1946-1949, China was divided in a brutal civil war between the
nationalists and the Communists.”
● The CCP ended up taking power, forming the People’s
Republic of China(PRC), while the GMD would retreat to
Taiwan.
● “They had won a great deal of support among the common
people, especially peasants, who were glad to escape from the
control of wealthy landlords and corrupt warlords.”(Referring
to the CCP gaining control of China)
● “Marriage and land reforms gave women more rights, and
women were encouraged to enter the workforce.”
● “They were way behind other parts of the world in industrial
production.”
● “Infrastructure, like railroads, bridges, canals, reservoirs,
mines, power stations, and irrigation systems, were built and
modernized.”
● “Mao thought perhaps capitalism was still the culprit, so he
started a social movement to weed it out of Chinese society.”
● “China’s economy vastly improved. Its residents during this
time became on average wealthier, more educated, and
healthier.”
● “China was more or less on its own by the 1960s.”
● “With a strong military and good economy, China quickly
became one of the most powerful nations in the world.”
● “... taking over Tibet and trying to culturally change Muslim
citizens in the south-west of China. Some might question,
therefore, whether late twentieth-century China was
becoming an empire once again.”

2. Summary & Reflection
China was falling apart in the early 1900’s due to forigen control and power hungry imperialists. To hold the country
together, the Nationalists created one main government called the Guomindang (GMD). The efforts were unsuccessful
and warlords still ran all the regions of China. Then the Communist party (CCP) was formed and helped battle the
warlords with the GMD. Soon the GMD saw the CCP as a threat when they tried to gain power for themselves, and they
allied with the warlords to fight against the CCP. After many years of fighting in a civil war, the CCP took control and the
GMD retreated to Taiwan. With this new power, the CCP set about making new social and economic plans to modernize
and improve their society. The people of China went through pretty ridiculous and sometimes dangerous plans to catch
up with other global superpowers. Ultimately, China got what they wanted and emerged as one of the most powerful
nations in the world, behind the U.S. and in front of the Soviets.
I felt like this source focused on the long term causes and effects as opposed to the first source which dived deeper into
the civil war aspect of the revolution. The one annoying thing with this article is that they didn’t elaborate on why the
Nationalists were allied with the Communists against the warlords and then suddenly they were allied with the warlords
against the Communists. The only reason they gave was that it was only until the death of leader Sun Zhongshan when
the Nationalist decided to flip the whole three way fight into fighting against the communists. I can’t be too mad about it
because the objective of this article was the long term causes and effects while my last article explained the three-way
fight quite well.
Source (APA format) only one source per notes page.
Chinese Communist Revolution. (2021). Https://Www.oerproject.com/.
https://www.oerproject.com/OER-Materials/OER-Media/PDFs/1200/Unit8/Chinese-Communist-R
evolution