Summary

Although the CCP had survived in the 1930s, it was nowhere near being in a position to take over the government of China.

The Second World War changed all that.  The GMD's conduct and failures, taken against the CCP's conduct and successes, changed the balance of power between the two parties so that - even though the USA supported the GMD - the Communists were able to seize power after 1945.

Links:

The following websites will help you complete the task:

Second World War:
• A simple summary

• The History Learning Site

• HA podcast on Chiang Kai-shek and the GMD

The defeats during World War Two reduced the morale and the reputation of the GMD government

The communists promised the peasants land and tax reforms

By resisting the Japanese, the CCP won the support of the people, who saw them as the defenders of China

The CCP won a four-year civil war and took power

The war wrecked China (60 million homeless); this made the GMD unpopular – in 1943, there was a peasant revolt against the Nationalist army in Gansu

GMD tactics harmed the Chinese people more than the Japanese – against whom they fought less and less

GMD commanders complained that Chiang Kai-shek kept the money and the best supplies sent by the Americans

During the war, the GMD government was forced back into Sichuan – which gave the Communists the chance to spread their message all over the rest of the country

50,000 Japanese troops easily defeated a GMD army of 400,000; the government was humiliated – the Americans tried (but failed) to force Chiang Kai-shek to resign

When Japan invaded in 1937, Chiang Kai-shek was a forced to stop his Extermination Campaign, and unite with the CCP – this enhanced the reputation of the CCP

During the war, the PLA became hardened, disciplined soldiers

During the war, the PLA perfected their guerrilla tactics

Unable to attack the CCP guerrillas, the Japanese concentrated their reprisals against the GMD, which further demoralised and damaged the GMD army

Mao took advantage of the war to launch purges to remove his opponents and to establish his ideas over the CCP

The CCP promised to destroy the power of rapacious landlords and give the peasants their land, and to tax the rich, not the peasants

GMD officials were corrupt, and made themselves wealthy by robbing the peasants; this made them hated

During the Sino-Japanese War, 1937-45, it was the CCP, not the GMD government, that did most of the resistance; this made the CCP popular

Mao took advantage of the war to launch purges to remove his opponents and to establish his ideas over the CCP

Chinese culture taught people to obey their leaders and grant them automatic respect

Perhaps 100million refugees, famines and disease, buildings and communications destroyed

The war had caused runaway inflation (the price index of the Chinese fabi, 100 in 1937, was 288million in 1948); people were reduced to barter

As government collapsed during the war, local warlords took control; there were peasant rebellions, and the pro-Soviet governor Sheng Shicai controlled Xinjiang

The Americans favoured Chaing Kai-shek against the CCP, but they were fed up with GMD corruption and poor morale

In 1945 the Americans reinstated Chiang Kai-shek as ruler of China, but corrupt GMD officials made themselves wealthy by robbing the peasants, and the Secret police hunted down opponents of the government