Why did the Chinese Communist Party Win the Civil War in 1949?

Essay by steph_veve November 2008

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The Chinese Civil War, which lasted from 1927 to 1949, was a civil war in China which the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) overthrew the Guomindang (GMD) . As the CCP had always been inferior to the GMD in many aspects, many were shocked and startled by the Communist's victory; although numerous factors show that the Communist's victory was almost inevitable. This essay will examine the factors that lead to the Communists victory, which includes ideology, economic, political, social, military, foreign issues, and personalities of the leaders.

One of the major advantages of the CCP can be seen in their social aspects and the support of peasants, which were the vast majority of people. They owned limited amount of land, had high rents, low productivity, were in dept and many lived on the edge of starvation. In addition, having peasant support for the CCP can supply with food resources. Therefore, Mao understood the first goal he had to achieve was the support from peasants.

First, he set up peasant unions of Hunan from 1925-27, then in 1838-45 when Chiang had their attention focused on the Japanese Invasion, Mao and the CCP went to the rural areas, where the peasants were grateful for the way the soldiers behaved and helped the people . Then, the political leaders confiscated land from the landowners and redistributed it to landless people; lastly, they were given rights to vote for village leaders. By doing all this, the once enslaved and exploited people of china gained faith and freedom established the myth that only the 'Red Army' was the true protector of China. In contrast, the GMD had no strong support from the peasants; and most of them felt no connection to the government. The GMD had no party organization helping the struggling provinces, and after the...