China in 1840 from the Opium War had been in turmoil. The Manchu Qings being considerably weakened had to face the Taiping rebellion for twenty years of bloodshed. It was followed by the Mohamedan uprising followed by the sacking of Peiping by the imperial powers.
In 1900 Boxer rebellion broke out in North China plains, as Christian missionaries were garnering privileges and foreign powers were carving out their spheres of influence. The Qings were split between those supporting the Boxers, who were convinced of their invincibility against foreign arms. The rebellion was put down by the intervention of the Qings who opposed the rebellion, weakening the Qings further.
This was followed by the civil war of twenty years fought between the Communists and KMT, that usurped power in 1911, whom the Communists opposed tooth and nail. In 1946 Chiang issues orders from Nanking to the Communists to lay down arms. But by then the 8th Route Army of the Communists were gaining ground in a wide swathe from Shanghai to Harbin and from the Yellow river to Peiping. Thousands of students are swelling the ranks of the peasant army. The mood of revolution was not discussed by the newspapers but it is all pervading nevertheless.
The revolutionary mood of the nation was making its way into Chiang’s bureaucracy as well as 1947 unaltered in the same feeling, albeit the intellectuals and business class also were making their way to the Communists camp. The Christmas holidays saw two American marines involved in an alleged rape of a Chinese girl that made thousands of students come out in Peiping shouting “Down with Americans”, clearly sending a defiance to Chiang’s regime.
Lin Biao, Liu Boxheng and He Long the commanders of 8th Route Army had gagheres much of war experience by setting up bases at the rear of the KMT forces during much of 1947-48 and increasingly the Communists strength increasied. The 8th Route Army commanders perfected the art of guerrilla warfare fighting with similar tactics fighting the Japanese Army for eight years. Chairman Mao said, “When enemy rests we strike”, seemed to share a leaf out of Sun Tzu, the famous Chinese strategist. By then the Communists could create “Liberated Zones” and 19 Base areas, covering one-third of the population that included many towns and cities. For the Communists that had to retreat to the northwest this is a formidable gain, and with a 3.2 million troops the time was ripe for a final showdown as 1948 draws to a close. By early 1949 the 8th Route Army achieved stunning victories in Liaosgen, Huaihai and on 23rd April crossed the Yangtze river and occupied the KMT capital at Nanking With the Japanese gone, the great mass of Chinese people had also are reeling from the dispossessed feeling across the peasant, intellectual and perry business class. The Western powers had the stranglehold over the economy of China, that had remained unequal since the Opium Wars with Great Britain, during the time of the imperial Qing. The first Opium War was fought in 1839-42 to weaken the Qing sovereignty, that the un equal nature of the treaty gave away much privileges to Britain.
The Xinhai revolution that followed the Wuchang unrest on 10th October 1911, saw the collapse of the Qings. Later on the republican government established from 1911 began to transform into a one party rule from 1927.The KMT (kuomintang party) rule saw the Japanese invasion of 1931 that began in Manchuria. In 1937 Japan started the full blown operations in China.
The Communist guerrillas emerged as a rag tag peasant outfit under Mao Zedong in 1927.It began to fight the republican and KMT since its inception. But the Japanese invasion saw the opposing forces within China, by patching up the civil war rivalries and coming together against the Japanese in 1937.
The battle of Wuhan n 1937, as Japanese forces launched a major operations, KMT forces were beaten and Japanese forces occupied Nanking. By 1939 as Japanese forces were stricking deep they were defeated by the communist forces in Shaanxi, that followed the guerrilla army launching operations in Central China. Following December 1941 Pearl Harbour attack on USA by Japan, the war against Japan in Asia and more particularly China got a renewed momentum. The significant success story of the communist guerrillas against the Japanese invaders, started to appeal to the Chinese masses, as opposed to the ineffective resistance by the forces led by Chiang. At that moment in history Japan surrendered in 1945.