Causes of Chinese revolution PDF

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Causes of Chinese revolution Dynastic china- mid 19th century to 1911 Underlying causes1. Mass unrest in popular revolts 2. Dissident elite 1. Unequal distribution of land and predominantly rural population - Population of china reached 400 million by 1900 o Put stress on land in the rural areas because of traditional social organization and land holding patterns - 3% of land owning elite owned 30-50% of land o This left insufficient land for the remaining rural population o Shortage of land for 96% that was not part of land holding elite  Even more divided there were rich and poor for these 96%  10% completely landless  Vulnerable to famine and war  Prone to unrest, plays a role in creating a mass base for revolt -

Before the revolution, china’s political and religious culture was dominated by Confucianism a. Worked with the state to help maintain social order in the face of popular un b. Maintains order and hierarchy c. Promotes fatalism, therefore it discourages movements of social change

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Emperor of china exercised absolute authority over his subjects and held the mandate of heaven or divine support Unsuccessful in overthrowing ruling dynasty Peasant rebellions didn’t happen against Confucian framework, trying to get rid of leader and replace them Just the wealthy who succeeded and became mandarins because they required tutors

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Qing dynasty ruled more territory than modern day china does Manchus overthrew ming dynasty The Manchu were a small minority group from eastern china and there was a prolonged resistance to invasion because they were viewed as minority outsiders Qing had 2 good rulers who contributed to population growth and agriculture

Strains with qing dynasty and social system - Population growth - Military defeats by foreign powers - Massive and unsuccessful peasant rebellions

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Failed attempts at modernization

Nineteenth century foreign intervention leads to a discredited and weakened dynasty that is vulnerable to revolution - Opium war was beginning of high imperialism, foreign controls - Great Britain wanted to reduce flow of currency to china to pay for trade goods - Set up export of opium - China destroyed shipment of opium because of high rates of addiction - Great britian sent militaty to attack and defeated china - Forced china to pay and give ports in cities as concessions - Result is china will have to increase their taxes which are disproportionately heaped upon the poor - Hurt the poor who had used artisian crats as a way to make extra income Peasant unrest as an underlying cause - Long history of peasant rebellion - Vulnerable to ear, political and demographic rebellions - Aim to protect traditional lifestyles against mounting pressure and replaced bad leasers - Nian rebellion and taiping rebellion most important o Advocated redistribution of wealth - Rebellions promoted women’s rights including the end of foot binding, prostitution and arranged marriage - They won but this fighting hurt the dynasty - Important parallels with the later communist peasent led- revolution

Precipitating/immediate causes of Chinese revolution Republican china and civil war - Sun yat-sen wanted to modernize china and was frusturated by lack of government reform - 1905 he formed united revolutionary society - Beginning of divisions within the educated elite, a dissident elite was developing that would lead china towards revolution - Society made up of professionals and students so they did not have strong connection with popular masses Rise of the left within china - Educated students organized for end of traditional Chinese cultural values and substitutions of western values - Wanted major education reforms and democratically elected parliament - Protest in bejing, Versailles treaty Maos revolutionary thought - Clear divide among surviving members of communist party

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Mao believed revolution could be based on rural population He believed peaseants could be base of revolution Mao began to work with local peasants and developed own version of Marxist theory Marx said peasants were ignorant of the world and have to transform to socialism but mao disagreed Key was to fuse peasant rebellion with ideology of Marxism...