Chinese Nationalist Leader Like Mao Zedong example essay topic

Sun Yat-sen is considered to be a father of' modern China. He began his political career by attempting to organize reform groups of Chinese exiles in Hong Kong. After numerous exiles he returned to China and headed the revolutionary movement. In 1923 he finally emerged as president of China. Little Red Book is the collection of Mao Zedong quotes.

During the Chinese Cultural Revolution, this red book was popularly used by the Little Red Guard, which created the cult of Mao... The Opium War, also called the Anglo-Chinese War, was the most humiliating defeat China ever suffered. By the 1830's, the English had become the major drug-trafficking criminal organization in the world. The most serious bone of contention involved treaty relations; because the British refused to submit to the emperor, there were no formal treaty relations between the two countries. The treaty imposed on the Chinese was weighted entirely to the British side. The key player in the prelude to war was a brilliant and highly moral official named Lin Tse-hs.

The Chinese, equally principled, demanded that all foreigners who were accused of committing crimes on Chinese soil were to be dealt with solely by Chinese officials. In many ways, this was the real cause of the Opium War. In addition to enforcing the opium laws, Lin aggressively pursued foreign nationals accused of crimes. The English refused to back down from the opium trade. In response, Lin threatened to cut off all trade with England and expel all English from China. Thus began the Opium War.

As a result, there was a second conflict with England the Chinese, for their part, were angered at the whole scale export of Chinese nationals to America and the Caribbean to work at what was no better than slave labour. These conflicts came to a head in 1856 in a series of skirmishes that ended in 1860. A second set of treaties further humiliated and weakened the imperial government. The most ignominious of the provisions in these treaties was the complete legalization of opium and the humiliating provision that allowed for the free and unrestricted propagation of Christianity in all regions of China. While the Chinese entered into conflict with Europe and European culture during the Opium War and after, a number of rebellions also convulsed it in mid-century. With rebellion in Nie n (1853-1868), several Muslim rebellions in the southwest (1855-1873) and northwest (1862-1877), and, especially, the Taiping rebellion, the consequences for China during this period were devastating.

The leader of the rebellion was Hung H siu-ch " an (1813-1864), who organized the anti-Manchu movement, based on religious sect, the God Worshippers. In the late 1840's, Hung reorganized his movement into a military organization. It was founded on a radical economic reform program in which all wealth was equally distributed to all members of society. Taiping believers became fanatically disciplined and devoted soldiers.

After they occupied the considerable territory, they established Heavenly Kingdom of Peace, governed by Hung. Believing that the Heavenly King should rule only by his divine virtue and not by active engagement in politics, Hung grew steadily more unbalanced. After his withdrawal and poisoning himself, at a cost of nearly thirty million lives over a period of twenty years, the Heavenly Peace ended its existence. Two leading personality Chiang Kai-she and Mao Zedong contributed much in the development of events in China. Chiang Kai-she, 18871975, Chinese Nationalist leader, like Mao Zedong, had dreams of national glory informed by the harsh realities of his youth. Both these persons acted while Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution, that was designed to destroy the culture of pre-Communist China.

Mao Zedong led the Communist Party against Chiang Kai-she who was a leader of Kuomintang. The last one tried to negotiate a truce with the Communists, but talks failed, and in 1949 year Chiang resumed leadership of the Kuomintang to oppose the Communists. He tried and failed to unify a divided nation. However, Chiang Kai-she left behind a prosperous economy that grew into a genuine democracy. Mao was another kind of leader, whos power reached its apogee during this period when he created a cult of personality in terms of symbolism of a Little Red Book consisting of his quotations. The Mongols were great cultural patrons.

They conceived, for example, the idea of a new written language that could be used to transcribe a number of the languages within the Mongol domains. The Mongol rulers were also ardent patrons of the theater, and the Yuan Dynasty witnessed a golden age of Chinese theater. The theater in this period was full of spectacles, all of which appealed greatly to the Mongols. The art of painting also flourished under Mongol governing. The greatest painters received much support and encouragement from the Mongols and also court position from Khubilai Khan. Though Chinese culture was valued and supported in many ways, as discussed above, this support was not at the expense of the Mongols' own native culture.

That is, the Mongols did not abandon their own heritage, even as they adopted many of the values and political structures of the people they conquered and governed. The Boxer Rebellion was started by a society called the "Righteous and Harmonious Fists". American, English, Japanese, Russian people were coming into China at that time. Businessmen came to make money; missionaries came to convert the Chinese to Christianity. The Chinese saw foreigners as a threat to their way of life. The Boxers were mainly poor people who blamed foreigners for their problems.

In 1900 year Boxers roved through northeast China, killing foreigners and destroying their property. They also attacked Chinese people who had become Christians. Empress Cixi, who was a ruler of China in that period was afraid of the situation when the foreigners can take over Peking and force her to retire. At her orders, Chinese troops turned back the foreigners. In retaliation, the foreigners seized Chinese coastal forts. Furious, Empress Cixi ordered that all foreigners in China be put to death.

These events were mainly the beginning of the Boxer Rebellion that played a major role in Empress Cixi downfall.