CHINESE REVOLUTION (1949): MAIN CAUSES AND CONSEQUENCES - HISTORY - 2025

The Chinese Revolution of 1949 or Chinese Communist Revolution, put an end to the civil conflicts that plagued China internally for decades and meant the consecration and establishment of the People's Republic of China, under the command of Mao Tse Tung, by then the party's top leader. Communist China.

The stage that culminates with the consolidation of the Chinese Revolution and the Communist Party lasted for four years (1945-1949) and is also known as the Third Revolutionary Civil War.

The People's Liberation Army occupies the presidential palace in 1949

Since the 1920s, China's internal conflicts have escalated into two civil wars and a war against Japan, accumulating decades of violence and civilian deaths.

The main adversary of Mao and his communist followers was the Nationalist Party of China, led by General Chang Kai Shek, who by then wielded the highest power in the ROC.

After years of fighting, the Nationalist forces were overthrown and displaced by the Communists, proclaiming the People's Republic of China with the taking of Beijing on October 1, 1949.

The beginning of a new Republic in China under a communist system led by Mao Tse Tung would result in the slow but constant process that would lead China to strengthen itself during the 20th century, strengthening itself after the Cultural Revolution (1966-1977), and consolidating as one of the world's greatest powers as the 21st century arrives.

Causes of the Chinese Revolution

The social inequality of the Chinese Empire

Under the power of the last great dynasty, the social gap between the inhabitants, especially the peasants, was extremely wide.

The great extensions of land belonged to the landowners and privileged classes, which represented a low percentage of inhabitants.

The conditions of the peasants and villages in the interior of China were affected by the little care provided by the Emperor and the dome of power in the capital.

It is estimated that the first revolutionary thoughts were introduced from Russia, observing how its uprising against Tsarism resulted in a new system of collective benefit.

Colonialism and the loss of territories

The Qing Dynasty, the last one in power, demonstrated notable ineffectiveness when it came to safeguarding China's territories.

This is responsible for having lost control over Taiwan and the Korean territories, as well as allowing the taking of Manchuria and the invasion of Chinese territory by the Japanese.

The territorial invasion of China began to show symptoms of colonialism that citizens with insurrectionary thoughts wanted to eradicate from their territories.

The loss of the Hong Kong port represented one of the end points to China's internal tolerance and weaknesses.

Internal conflicts

One of the main conflicts that preceded the Communist Revolution turned out to be the Opium Wars, in which China was clearly humiliated against the main empires and powers of the 19th century, such as England.

Resentment and the desire to establish itself as a nation of great strength began to develop in the new generations of Chinese citizens.

Internal rebellions began at the regional level that the power of the Qing Dynasty could not control, thus demonstrating its growing weakness in the face of the internal affairs of the nation it sought to lead.

The spread of communism and anti-capitalist thought

The consolidation of communist ideas in some territories of Eastern Europe, such as Russia, began to spread to the Asian territories, as well as the rejection of the Western system that was manifested in the United States and its main European allies.

The ideas took shape and the peasant and proletarian citizens began to form under the guidelines of a Communist Party of China, which received all the support of a newly founded and apparently powerful Soviet Union.

Consequences of the Chinese Revolution

Displacement and formation of a parallel republic

The communist triumph forced the nationalists to flee to the island of Taiwan, a territory that could never be retaken by the People's Republic, and where it was sought to perpetuate the original character of the Republic of China, under the leadership of the Nationalist Party.

For years, the People's Republic and the ROC stood by recognizing their own legitimacy.

The first became known as Communist China and the second as Nationalist China.

However, the years passed and the rest of the world began to recognize the People's Republic of China as the legitimate Chinese nation, relegating the Republic formed in Taiwan to a sovereign state of partial recognition.

Drastic measures and economic secrecy

Once the People's Republic was established, economic measures did not take long. Although designed in a way that provided new living conditions for the population, these took years to have the desired effects, due to an unbalanced and unequal internal system.

Works have developed that these decisions led the Chinese population to a great crisis of famine and death; it is even estimated that the poorest and most remote villages and corners came to resort to cannibalism.

Rejection and ignorance of the cultural past

It has been claimed that under Mao's command, much of the Chinese cultural and intellectual past was by then unknown and destroyed, as it represented the fascist ideas that kept Chinese society suffering for so long.

Decades later, the cultural revolution would provide an entrenchment of communist thought, closing itself further to Western systems and perceptions.

Growing tension with the West and the United States

The Chinese communist consolidation and determined Soviet support in the midst of the Cold War was not seen with good eyes by the United States of America and its European allies, who during the years of civil conflict supported the defeated nationalist side.

This would generate a growing tension between the main political and military blocs in the world, a tension that continues to this day, when every decision is taken with caution against the movements of each one.

References

1. Bianco, L. (1971). Origins of the Chinese Revolution, 1915-1949. Stanford University Press.
2. Ch'en, J. (1966). Mao and the Chinese Revolution: followed by thirty-seven poems by Mao Tse-Tung. Barcelona: Oikos-Tau.
3. Fairbank, JK (2011). The great Chinese revolution, 1800-1985. New York: Haper & Row.
4. Isaacs, H. (2009). The Tragedy of the Chinese Revolution. Chicago: Haymarket Books.
5. Tamames, R. (2007). The Century of China: from Mao to the world's leading power. Barcelona: Editorial Planeta.