Civil War in China commenced in 1911 with the removal of the last Qing emperor from power. This ended 2000 years of feudal power in China. A new republic government was quickly formed but it failed just as quick. This was due to warlords still being powerful and a river government being formed at the same time. Equally, attempts at unification after the First World War were hindered by foreign enclaves and politics.
As time passed, studies on Marxism grew in popularity and communism grew in China. This peaked with the Long March, where 100,000 people marched 6000 miles. The 20,000 survivors represented the survival of Mao’s communist party and turned into a heroic myth.
The rise of communism meant that two main political parties vied for power in China. They were the KMT (Kuomintang) and the CCP (Chinese Communist Party). The KMT were publicly supported by the USA but did little to protect China from Japanese occupation. As such, the more active CCP gained a large number of followers.
Due to the involvement of the USA and USSR, the turmoil between the KMT and CCP lasted for a sustained period. Eventually, the CCP was victorious and the People’s Republic of China was declared in 1949.
