Page 100 - 100 Events That Made History

The

Long March

A 12-month trek across China that

cemented Mao’s route to power

Nationalist leader Chiang
Kai-Shek fought against
the Qing dynasty in 1911.

Early defeat
In October 1934, China’s
ruling Nationalist Party,
led by Chiang Kai-Shek,
blockaded the revolutionary
communist Red Army in the
southeast of the country,
led by Mao Zedong. Though
almost eliminated, the Red On the move
Army managed to flee The retreat, known as the LONG MARCH,
Mao’s controversial
through the Nationalist How it changed saw the communists walk more than 6,000 miles
death in 1976. China is the
lines, and retreated. leadership ended with his soldiers who set out, just 8,000 reached the new
(9,500 km) to the north, over some of the
second-largest economy
country’s most difficult terrain. Of the 86,000
in the world, and is
the world
still led by the
communist headquarters at Yan’an in October
Communist Party. 1935. The march brought the army closer together,
and helped Mao shape his political ideas.

Communist China
Japan occupied China from 1937 to 1945,
retreating after World War II. Mao stepped Mao’s followers
founded
up his attacks against the Nationalists.
communes for
In January 1949, with clever military tactics, farm workers,
the Red Army captured China’s capital, shown here in
BEIJING, and established the People’s a propaganda
Republic of China. Mao’s wait was over, poster.
but it was just the beginning for
communism’s uneasy history in China.
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