Long term, Short term Causes of the Chinese Civil War.

The Chinese civil war was an armed conflict between the Nationalists Kuomintang and the Communists People Liberation Army.

The event lasted from January 1946 to May 1950.
Long term:
The fall of the Qing Dynasty and the death of Sun Yat-Sei. --> Chiang’s Kai-Shek’s rise to power and his decision of getting rid of the left wing faction inside the government at all costs.

Short term:
Long march
Sino-Japanese War
Results of WWII.

For more than 2000 year’s people lived under the rule of dynasties and emperors from the Manchu dynasty until the Qing Dynasty.

Sun-Yat Sen (1912) --> people have high hopes of a democratic government however people were not accustomed to political freedom.

Chiang (1925) --> after the death of Sun- Yat Sen.
-->Country has political fears and high unequal wealth. Instead of concentrating in satisfying the people’s needs and wants, Chiang focuses to eliminate the opposition from the PLA which increased people’s discontent.
Chiang --> “the sky could not have 2 suns” and therefore there should only be 1 sole leader that would rule the country.
--> the peasants that were 90% of the people were left unattended and therefore this increased the political instability as the situation was similar to 1912. China was still a unindustrialized country with famine and backwards farming techniques.

April 7th, Chiang and the KMT had a meeting arguing that communist activities were both socially and economically disruptive -> April 12th, Chiang turned against the CCP and arrested hundreds of members which resulted in a massacre called “the Shanghai Massacre”.


Short term causes:
Long Marchà 100, 000 people walked 6,000 km to escape from the Nationalist government persecution.
-> Communists confiscated property, weapons from the local warlords and landlords and recruited peasants “solidifying the appeal for the masses”.
-> Only 7.000 to 8,000 men made it to Shananxi, this great retreat made Mao the undisputed leader of the communist party of China and increased his appeal towards the peasants.
-->This event widened more the left and the right factions and increased Chiang’s commitment to eliminate the CCP.

The Second Sino-Japanese war (1937-1945)
-->During the Japanese invasion and occupation of Manchuria Chiang Kai-shek saw the CCP as a greater threat than the Japanese and focus in both fight the Japanese and fight the CCP.
--> Xi’an Incident; Zhyang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng kidnapped Chiang and forced him to make a truce with the CCP.
-->The developments of the Second Sino-Japanese war were advantageous to the Communists. ------>By the end of the war, most of the peasants were in support of the communists rather than to Nationalists.
"The Japanese are a disease of the skin. The Communists are a disease of the heart.”




When the Sino-Japanese War ended; Mao Zedong went on the 28th of August of 1945 to Chongqing in order to negotiate with the Kuomintang government to try and safeguard peace and democracy. When the two sides were still at the negotiation table Chiang Kai-Shek ordered the Kuomintang government to sent troops to attack the liberated areas in the central plains. à Ignored completely the truce agreement which had been signed at the start of the Sino-Japanese which sparked the event known as the Chinese Civil War.

The Twilight of Zapatismo.

Mexico was in cheos, mainly because of the revolutionary leaders during the Mexican revolution. During the Mexican war, Mexico printed off more money than they had and caused hyper inflation, Mexico went through famine and desieses and many financial problems. Many of Gonzales troops start to die because of the bad conditions and deseases. ( Gonzales was mean, he killed a lot of men and women, threatened people). Everyone was going through really hard times. Carranza was least affected by all this, or so it seemed, he wanted to modernize and mobilize. He was anti clericalism and wanted the catholic church under his control. He wanted Mexico to stay neutral in WWII, but he had many problems, his main problem was the military, he had to make sure the army was under control. Felix Diaz (Porfirio Diaz's nephew) vs. Corranza. Corranza felt threatened by him because the US liked him. The felicistas were as hard to defeat as Villa and Zapata. The felicistas movement was helpful to Villa and Zapata, it drew Carranza's focus away from them. Meanwhile Zapata is trying to attack tagrets only to impress foreign consuls. Carranza became frightened and wanted to get rid of Zapata, and eventually killed him in April 1917. Because of this Zapata became an icon in Morelos.

Long term-

Treaty of Versailles- Germans were treated harshly after World War I and soon came to a common conclusion that they were which formed into Nationalist, another long term cause of WWII.

The League of Nations- this League was created to provide immediate help to countries that were a threat, or if they broke any part of the treaty, but failed. This action showed Hitler that he would not be punished for his consequences and so he began to go against the Treaty.

Industrialism- many things got better and progressed. This includes weapons, and machinery which resulted in the appeal for war.

Short term-

The Czech crisis- Chamberlain handed over Czechoslovakia to Hitler in an attempt to please him. On 1939 Hitler invaded Czechoslovakia. No shots were fired. Germany got the Sudate land, the border where people speak German. The League of Nations did nothing, the only thing the U.S. did was put a 25% tax on German goods

Germany’s rearment-

Germany’s army increased their troops to 400,000 troops even though the agreement of Treaty of Versailles stated they could only have 100,000. à the League of Nations did nothing.

à France feels scared, but no one is willing to help. No consequence for Germanys actions.

Invasion of Poland-

Germany invaded Poland. France and Britain figured they were next to be invaded, so they formed an ally, and declared war.

No consequence once again for Germany.

VIlla and Zapata the Civil War.

The war broke out between Villa and Carranza with Obregon and Zapata. Obregon started the war he saw that if Villa advanced from Mexico City to Veracruz without delay, Corranza scarcely survived. Obregon and Carranza had suspicions about each other. Everyone expected Villa to emerge from Mexico City and direct his army to Veracruz but he didn’t even though Angeles begged him to consider. The idea of Carranza vs. Villa presented landowners, the petit-bourgeois, the military, professional politicians and bureaucrats versus frontier horse men, pioneers, cowboys, the dispossessed. Only 3 issues divided Villa and Corranza. The role of central government, land reform and attitude toward the US. Corranza was for strong central government and iron grip on the military. Villa wanted full power in Chihuahua and Durango. Villa was only partly committed to land reform. Corranza was always anti-America and Villa was pro-American. Obregon liked to humiliate the rich. Corrranza’s propaganda really damaged Villa. Villa was suffering from shortage of exportable cotton and cattle, and the US wasn’t helping much. Carranza held most important cards he held most of Mexico’s export goods. Villista’s military campaign had a really good start with Angeles striking success in the north-east. Angeles threatened Monterrey, one of Carranzas places, Carranza finally fled the army and Angeles captured 3,000 prisoners , 14 locomotives, 19 wagons, 2000 cartridges, and 11000 artillery shells, but Angeles did not kill them but let them go if they promised not to fight for Carranza again. Villa was needed to come to Guadalajara. Once he entered he began to alarm the rich about land reform after he decided his next move was going to be oil port in Tampic. He sent 15000 men under Chao and Urbina to assault a heavily outnumbered enemy, but they were far from success. Oregon then decided to attack Villa. Angeles once spotted Obregon warned Villa but he ignored his warnings. One weakness in Oregon’s strategy was that he had to be supplied by rail from Veracruz, an if Villa was to move against Veracruz Obregon would face a serious shortage of ammunition. The battle of Celaya began on April 6. Obregon won, but Villa refused to accept Obregon as a better general. On April 13 Villa attacked Celaya again this time with 20000 men, but Obregon won again. Villa did not give up on April 29 Villa set a surprise attack on Obregon, a 38-day battle that took 500 lives. Although Villa seemed strong, Obregon hurt him much more than anyone realized. Villa lost again. When Villa returned to Chihuahua after the battle it was a land of chaos. Agricultural production fell; Villa also destroyed all rail communications with the world.

VIlla and Zapata.

Obragon and Carranza made it clear to Mexico City that the halcyon days were over by imposing tax, humiliating the churches, and by attacking all the business men who supported Huerta. Their number one concern was though Villa and Zapata forming a bond especially if allied by Felipe Angeles. Zapata wanted Carranza to accept the turns of Ayala, which he wouldn’t, so Zapata proposed they meet with conditions that if he decided no to show up he would disowning everything that has been said to Carranza. That means 70,000 men with Mausers would oppose any Carranza presidency. After some reconsideration Zapata finally showed up at dinner, but still Zapatistas would not negotiate about accepting the plan of Ayala, Zapata made some terms but Carranza rejected them on Sept 5. Then Obregon offered Villa a deal, he would abandon Carranza and make sure he did not become president if Villa in return would restore his position in Sonora. Villa and Obregon then traveled to Sonora to have a conference and eventually Obregon was made commander-and-chief in state, but the agreement only lasted 24 hours. Villa wanted Obregon to withdraw Hill, but Obregon refused, Villa then threatened to kill him, but Obregon made sure that he knew that if he did Obregon would become the a hero for the state. Soon after Carranza too messed up by wanting to unite with Zapata, and Villa announced he no longer recognized him as chief along he outlined step by step directions how to sabotage him. Villa was also planning on executing Obregon.

The Aguascalientes was originally a meeting for the military and four main groups showed up the villistas, a handful of Carranza men, independent and the Zapatistas. They were all tired of the war, and every one f the groups wanted something different. Villa could not recognize the convention until he accepted the terms of the Plan of Ayala. Zapata wanted to ally with Villa and on 26 of October a train carrying Zapatistas to Villas headquarters was their first move as an alliance. The Aguascalientes, the man himself started the meeting by tearing up the Mexican flag and ended by saying Viva Villa, Viva Zapata! His plan was to unite Villa and Zapata following up with Corranzas resignation.