Tell me about the long march that happened in China?

Answer 1

It was a massive military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army.

There was not one Long March, but a series of marches, as various Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west.

Mao Zedong accomponied the trip and fell ill. (obviously he was one of the few who survived)

As the communist went through each town they left a Cadres which was a teacher of communism so they could educate the town on communism ideas and beliefs.

The long march saved the CCP as they would have been wiped out in a massacre if they hadn't embarked on this trip.

This had a legacy of eventually turing china communist. Without the CCP surving, events such as the Vietnam War wouldn't have happened as communism wouldn't have spread and china today would still be backwards and not be as economically stable as it is now.

Conditions were harsh. They walked constantly so fatigue was a problem and they eventually came up with the idea that everyone should be attached by their belts so that no one got left behind. (As people were SO tired they kept sleeping whilest others moved on, making the army smaller and smaller)

Starvation was a problem, so was malaria, heart attacks from the thin air in the mountains, swamps were metres deep in water so legs became heavy and some fell down and never got up (drowning), the cold perished 32 000 people, the change in diet from rice the corn killed many as their stomaches couldn't cope with the change and excessive walking.

The reason they were so successful was because the officers respected the men, the men BELIEVED in what they were doing and believed it to be of good cause, and the patriotic anti-Japanese feelings amongst them. (Japan was occupying Chinese land at the time as they got it from Germany after ww1 when they were given it by the allies)

They went throught 11 provences (of swamps, mountains...)

nearly 90 000 died in total

The trip showed the strength of the communists

CCP - was seen as better trained, better tactics, more resolve and a better leader.

Nationalists - corrupt, ineficient, didn't believe in what they they were doing/cause.

Xian Incidednt - Jiang Jieshi (military leader of nationalists) wanted the get rid of communists first then attack Japanese.

"the Japanese are a disease of the skin, the communists are a disease of the heart"

- Jiang Jieshi

Jiang jieshi was captured and forced to talk to Mao in considering to join forces to defeat the Japanese first. This was known as the second united front.

He obviously agreed as they fought in the sino-japanses war together and won. Once they won, they went back into a civil war of nationalists vs. communists

Hope this is what you were looking for :D