I need a 2 page presentation paper on an article including 3 discussion questions - Essay Example

Chapter 22: Second Global Revolutionary Wave, 1939 Initiative of the 1949 Chinese Revolution According to Stavrianos, the second global revolutionary wave in the Chinese revolution was marked by the struggle of working world class. The Chinese revolutionist realized that in order to create communism and stop capitalism, the political, cultural and economic interests of the general public had to be considered. This is normally led by activists of political parties and working class workers’ organizations.

The revolutionaries used strategies and concepts that were well thought, planned and executed. In the build up to the 1949 revolution, the Long March strategy that ended in 1935 led to a more elaborate way of planning, military and how to carry out a revolution by Mao and his colleagues. Through mobilization and political cohesion, examining credentials of the nationals, training of effective military tactics, ensuring economic reforms and establishing a new People’s Republic party in October 1, 1949, the strategy caused a stir to the government led by Kuomintang.

Nanking and Shanghai had been seized by Japanese pushing the Kuomintang government to Chongqing. It also resulted to the Nanking massacre (Stavrianos). Because of the Japanese brutality, many Chinese joined the fight through the Red Army. In 1940 in August, the Red Army formed the Eighth Route and New Fourth Army to a National Revolutionary Army commanded by Chiang. This led to a series of attack on the Japanese Army where close to 200,000 Japanese soldiers died. But it was the start of Marxist theory of knowledge where Mao and Yan’an led through such tactics to give China its future.

From 1939, a stalemate ensued when clashes between communist troops and Kuomintang began. Later in 1941 the China Communist Party (CCP) had faded. This resulted to a situation where a communist leader had to rise against the current leader Chiang. Saich and Yang continue to say that this was not possible as CCP was still in power. The events that had taken place helped CCP to seek for independence to become nationalist. It was later dissolved when the Russians were unable to continue supporting it as they were at war with Hitler.

This came to Mao’s as an opportunity to lead the campaign of rectification in 1942-1944 (89). Cultural Revolution had to take place when the CCP had become ineffective due to its bureaucratic, elitist and brittle ways of functioning. Mao won the battle of cultural transformation and China became one of the most politicized nations. Mao’s thought of reminiscent Christianization of Europe in the middle ages was to wipe out spirits of altruistic and unbounded enthusiasm of the Chinese. This was to help them endure a frugal life and accumulate capital for spontaneous industrialization (Stavrianos).

While in power in 1949, Mao had a five year plan of developing capitalism before acquiring socialism. This faced hostility from other states where they preferred Stalinism. Arguments against this policy arose on grounds that: in socialist society there were no contradictions while Mao insisted that these were visible among the people and the government. They also believed that it was not possible to invest in heavy machinery for industrialization before investing in agriculture. Others said it was not feasible to impoverish peasants in order to build a nation.

A similar argument ensued about the issues of creating new institutions and assuming that nationalism had been achieved. Even with these new institutions, more was still needed in the creation of counterproductive relations to ensure their existence permanently reports (Stavrianos). In 1948, the Kuomintang forces were starved out of Changchun by Mao where people are believed to have died in large numbers. This continued for some time and in 1949, Kuomintang lost major battles to Mao’s forces and led to evacuation of key leaders like Kai-shek who fled to Taiwan.

Having emerged victorious in the revolution, Mao believed that the Chinese would achieve great heights if they are mobilized and educated. He believed that adopting the Soviet Leninist principle would not propel the economic growth of China. He said the solution was to mobilize the people to concurrent development in politics and economic change.Discussion Questions1. The Chinese were considered successful in their revolutionary quest after the Second World War, what factors led to their success? 2. The Chinese Red Army was mainly composed of peasants.

What actually led to them coming together to form the army?3. How can you describe the ‘Stage of imperialist in China’ How did it lead to the Long March imperialist war?ReferencesStavrianos, Leften (1981). “Revolution in China”, Global Rift: The Third World Comes of Age, New York: Morrow.