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For those of you who[br]are just starting

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to learn about the[br]history of China

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in the first half[br]of the 20th century,

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it can be a little[br]bit confusing.

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So the goal of this video is[br]really to give you an overview,

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to give you a scaffold, of[br]the history of the first half

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of the 20th century in China.

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So as we go into[br]the early 1900s,

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you have the end of imperial[br]dynastic rule in China.

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This is a big deal.

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China has been ruled[br]by various dynasties

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for multiple thousands of years.

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But as you get into the[br]1900s, the dynastic rule,

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in particular the Qing Dynasty,[br]was getting weaker and weaker.

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It had suffered at the[br]hands of the Japanese

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during the first Sino-Japanese[br]War at the end of the 1800s.

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There was growing discontent[br]amongst the opposition

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that the dynasty,[br]that the emperors,

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were not modernizing[br]China enough.

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Remember, this is[br]the early 1900s.

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The rest of the world was[br]becoming a very, very modern

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place.

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China in the 1800s had suffered[br]at the hands of Western powers

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who were essentially exerting[br]their own imperial influence

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in China.

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Many people felt that this[br]was because China was not

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as modernized[br]economically, politically,

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technologically as[br]it needed to be.

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And so you fast-forward to 1911.

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You have what is known as[br]the Wuchang Uprising, which

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led to the overthrow[br]of the Qing dynasty.

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By 1912, a Republic of China[br]was established in Nanjing.

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So Nanjing right over here[br]was where it was established.

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Beijing was, of course, the[br]seat of dynastic rule in China.

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And the first[br]provisional president

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of the Republic of China was Dr.[br]Sun Yat-sen, right over here.

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And he actually did not[br]directly participate

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in this final[br]uprising that finally

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led to the overthrow[br]of the Qing dynasty.

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He was actually in Denver at[br]the time, Denver, Colorado.

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But he was a leading or one of[br]the leading figures in the run

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up to this uprising, one[br]of the leading figures

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who was providing[br]opposition and had tried

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multiple times to[br]overthrow the dynasty.

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Now along with Sun Yat-sen,[br]he was essentially in cahoots

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with Yuan Shikai, who was a[br]general in the old dynasty.

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And he has his own[br]fascinating history.

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And Sun Yat-sen struck[br]a deal with Yuan Shikai,

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who was very[br]politically ambitious.

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Yuan Shikai said, hey, if I[br]can get the emperor Puyi, who

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was the last emperor of China,[br]if I can get him to officially

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abdicate, I want to[br]become the president.

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So Sun Yat-sen agrees to this.

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So Yuan Shikai[br]becomes the president

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of the Republic of China.

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But that wasn't enough for him.

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He declares himself[br]emperor in 1915,

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which you could imagine did[br]not make many people happy

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because they were tired[br]of having emperors.

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And by 1916, he abdicates[br]and he passes away, actually.

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And this actually[br]begins a period

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of extremely fragmented[br]rule for China.

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Even under imperial rule,[br]the Chinese military

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was not one consolidated body.

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The military was controlled[br]by various warlords

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in various regions that all[br]had allegiance to the emperor.

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Once you have Yuan Shikai[br]abdicating and then dying

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in 1916, and even[br]prior to that, when

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he declared himself[br]emperor, people

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did not want to pledge[br]allegiance to Yuan Shikai.

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And so you had what is known[br]as the beginning of the Warlord

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Era in China.

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And this is a fragmented[br]period where you did not

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have any centralized leadership.

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This map over here shows[br]kind of the rough picture

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of what the Warlord[br]Era looked like.

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Each of these regions[br]were controlled

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by a different warlord[br]who was in charge

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of a different military.

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When this was going on[br]during the Warlord Era,

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especially as we go back[br]to the early '20s, in 1921

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in particular, Sun[br]Yat-sen hasn't given up.

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He goes to the[br]south in Guangzhou

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and sets up, essentially,[br]a revolutionary government,

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essentially a desire[br]from there to try

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to consolidate power in[br]China again and reestablish

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the Republic of China.

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So he goes there.

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But unfortunately he passes[br]away in 1925 from cancer.

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And the hands or the power of[br]the movement that he started,

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which is now being referred[br]to as the Kuomintang-- Let me

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write that down.

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Essentially, the[br]power there passes on

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to Generalissimo[br]Chiang Kai-shek.

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And Chiang Kai-shek,[br]the reason why

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we say the power[br]essentially goes to him

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is because he was in[br]control of the major part

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of the military forces[br]of the Kuomintang.

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And this is essentially the[br]very nascent early stages

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of what would essentially[br]be the Chinese Civil

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War because in the period from[br]1921 until Sun Yat-sen's death,

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you actually had a[br]lot of collaboration

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between the Chinese[br]nationalists, the Kuomintang,

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and the Soviet Union, and[br]the Chinese Communist Party.

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They were trying to[br]collaborate in order

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to think about how[br]China would unify.

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But then once Sun Yat-sen dies[br]and the power of the Kuomintang

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essentially goes into the[br]hands of Generalissimo Chiang

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Kai-shek, he starts[br]to consolidate power.

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And right from the[br]get-go, he doesn't

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antagonize the communists.

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But by 1927, he's[br]starting to consolidate,

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he's starting to merge[br]these various factions

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in the rest of China.

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So he's able to[br]consolidate power.

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But he also starts to[br]go after the communists.

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So Chiang Kai-shek,[br]by '27, also starts

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to go after the communists.

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And the communists[br]are saying, hey, we

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are the ones that really[br]represent the spirit of what

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Sun Yat-sen represented,[br]while the Kuomintang

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under the leadership of Chiang[br]Kai-shek said, no, no, no.

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We represent what Sun Yat-sen[br]represented when he first

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established the[br]Republic of China.

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And so in 1927, you have the[br]beginning of the Chinese Civil

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War.

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This is when the Kuomintang,[br]as part of its efforts

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to consolidate[br]power, not only tries

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to consolidate power[br]of the warlords,

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but also goes after[br]the Communist Party.

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Now while all of[br]this is happening,

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as we get into the early[br]1930s, Japan once again

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is trying to exert its[br]imperial, its military,

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might on the Chinese mainland.

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They had already[br]captured Formosa,

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which is now known[br]as Taiwan, and Korea

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during the first Sino-Japanese[br]War at the end of the 1800s.

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And then in 1931, the Japanese[br]start to encroach on Manchuria.

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And this would essentially[br]become a multi-year occupation

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and infiltration of[br]Japan into China.

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And this continues all[br]the way until 1937,

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when it becomes an[br]official all-out war

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between the Japanese[br]and the Chinese.

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And I have a map[br]here that shows kind

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of the maximum Japanese[br]control over this period.

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And so in east Asia between[br]the Chinese and the Japanese,

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World War II was really just[br]part of the Sino-Japanese War.

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The Japanese had[br]already encroached

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on the mainland of China[br]well before World War

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II had officially begun.

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Now while all this[br]is happening, Japan

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is encroaching into Manchuria,[br]in 1934, you have to remember,

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the Kuomintang, the Nationalist[br]Party under Chiang Kai-shek

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is going after the communists.

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And in 1934, he almost[br]has them, or he does.

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The communists are[br]nearly defeated.

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They're surrounded by[br]the Nationalist Party.

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And this becomes what[br]is a fairly famous event

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in Chinese history, the[br]famous Long March, where

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the Chinese Communist[br]Party, their military,

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is marched through[br]extremely tough terrain

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all the way to the[br]northwest of China.

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So this right over here is[br]a map of the Long March.

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The Chinese Communist Party[br]seemed to be on the ropes

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here in 1934.

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And it was during[br]this Long March

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that Mao Zedong really started[br]to exert and show leadership.

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The leadership during[br]this Long March,

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during this retreat to[br]the northwest of China,

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is really what allowed Mao[br]Zedong to eventually take

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control of the Chinese[br]Communist Party.

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Now as we fast forward, we know[br]that the Sino-Japanese War--

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you could view this as one[br]theater, eventually, of World

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War II-- eventually the[br]US goes in on the side

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of the Allies against[br]Japan after Pearl Harbor.

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And then in 1945,[br]you have the attacks

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on Hiroshima and Nagasaki[br]with atomic weapons,

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which essentially ends[br]the Pacific theater.

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It's defeat for Japan, and[br]Japan has lost World War II.

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And at this point,[br]full-scale civil war

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between the two parties[br]break out again.

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The Civil War started in 1927,[br]and then it kept continuing.

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But then once there was a common[br]enemy in Japan that was clearly

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aggressively trying to take[br]over more and more of China's

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people, resources, exert[br]its imperial influence,

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then you had the two parties[br]kind of go into a low-grade war

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and say, hey, we need[br]to fight these Japanese.

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But once World War[br]II ended in 1945,

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once the Japanese were[br]defeated, then you

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had full-scale[br]civil war break out

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again between the[br]Chinese Communist

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Party and the Kuomintang.

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And this is probably one of the[br]biggest comebacks in history.

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This was the Chinese Communist[br]Party that in 1934 and 1935

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looked like they[br]were on the ropes.

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They were forced into,[br]essentially, retreat.

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They were able to come back.

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And in 1949-- and[br]there's a lot of theories

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as to why they were[br]able to pull this off.

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That they were able to get[br]much more of the support

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from the rural population.

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They were more savvy about[br]getting support generally

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than the Kuomintang.

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But we could talk about[br]that in a future video.

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But by 1949, they[br]were able to defeat

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Chiang Kai-shek[br]and the Kuomintang,

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force the Kuomintang[br]to retreat to Taiwan,

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establish government in Taiwan.

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And ever since then, you[br]had the establishment

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by the Chinese[br]Communist Party in 1949

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of the People's[br]Republic of China.

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