The Republic of China: 1912 to 1949

ISBN-13: 9781509552573 / Angielski / Twarda / 2024

Xavier Paules

Spis treści

AcknowledgementsList of Illustrations and MapsIntroductionChapter 1: The 1911 RevolutionThe flashpoint in WuhanThe last dynasty's unorthodox downfall 1912, the year of many possibilitiesThe years under Yuan Shikai (1913-1916)The international context and the influence of the war in EuropeThe fall of Yuan ShikaiChapter 2: Cliques And Warlords (1916-1928)The rivalry amongst North China's major cliques for control of the governmentWho were the warlords?The implausible identikit portraitThe driving forces behind junfa power Conflicts, alliances and viscosityWas national unity in jeopardy?The diplomatic context, May Fourth Movement (1919) and the rise of nationalismTwo decades of spectacular diplomatic recovery for China (1906-1926)Disappointed expectations from the Versailles negotiationsA movement without precedentThe rise of the Guomindang (1917-1926) and the Canton decade925: the death of Sun Yat-sen and its aftermath, the May Thirtieth MovementThe Northern ExpeditionPhase 1: the defeat of Wu Peifu and Sun ChuanfangPhase 2: the time of divisionsPhase 3: Zhang Zuolin's defeatChapter 3: The Nanking Decade (1928-1937)1928-1932: Troublesome former alliesThe period of stabilisation: 1932-1935The Guomindang's achievementThe looming Japanese threat Warlords on the waneThe successful marginalization of the Chinese Communist PartyThe successful marginalisation of the Chinese Communist PartyThe run up to the Sino-Japanese war: 1935-1937Chapter 4: The War Against Japan (1937-1945)The war of movement: 1937-1939Why did Chiang Kai-shek choose confrontation?Japan's first victoriesThe Second United Front and Soviet aid938, the difficult conquest of the Middle Yangtze River basin1939, settling in for a long warThe war of position (1940-1944)Stabilisation of the frontPopulation movementsChina and the Allies1940: the beginning of the Guomindang state's disintegrationThe CCP, a new forceMao Zedong and Chiang Kai-shek, the crossed paths of destinyOccupied China and the collaborating governments1944-1945: return to the war of movementFrom the Ichig offensive to the surrenderThe war's outcomeChapter 5: Civil War (1945-1949)A very favourable situation for the GuomindangThe political and symbolic dividends of victoryThe economic rebound in the immediate post-war periodImmediately post-war: 1945-1946The role of the USSR and the USALocking of horns for the first timeThe Guomindang's post-war failureThe military era: 1946-1949Sclerosis of the GuomindangThe issue of corruptionLack of renewal within the GuomindangThe impossible democratic transformationThe CCP's policyA third force gone missingThe withdrawal to Taiwan, a victory for the Guomindang?Chapter 6: Overview of the Chinese EconomyChina in an international contextThe financial and monetary systemThe shortcomings of the financial systemProgress and crisis in the monetary systemThe primary sectorThe very slow evolution of the agricultural sectorMining: the triumph of coal and emergence of oilThe secondary sectorIndustry and the rise of Chinese capitalismMaintaining cottage industriesThe service sectorTransportTraditional servicesThe effects of the 1937-1945 war and the civil warRelocation and state control of the economyThe origins of Communist China's planned economy?Chapter 7: Building the StatePolitical cultureInventing a political cultureContinuities with the New Policies periodContinuity with an older political orderThe Guomindang and the party-state model post 1928Sun Yat-sen, a guiding lightInstitutional structureCliques and clique strugglesThe endless return of revolutionThe question of fascismThe extension of the State's scope, a fundamental trendThe question of the relationship between the State and local elitesA plurality of State-building trajectoriesChapter 8: Changes in SocietyThe PopulationDemographicData MigrationsSocial groupsThe proletariatThe urban middle classesThe recomposition of elitesHighly resilient intermediary bodiesLiving standards and lifestylesThe issue of the impoverishment of Chinese peasantsDid the Guomindang lose interest in the countryside?Endemic insecurity in the countryside 'Problems' in Chinese societyNew leisure activitiesCan we call it westernisation?WomenChapter 9: Cultural RenewalThe dissemination of ideasThe development of primary and secondary educationHigher educationThe mediaPassing influencesNew interest in the non-Western worldThe May Fourth Movement 1919 and that of the new culture (xin wenhua yundong )Chinese Culture's Western CrisisA reinvented languageThe wentiThe competition of 'isms'Religious revivalsChina's cultural influence.The undiminished prestige of classical cultureChina as a conduit for knowledge from the WestTransmission of popular cultureConclusion And EpitaphTimelineAppendixesSun Yat-sen's Last Will (yizhu )Comparison of China's population with that of other major countriesComparison of the length of China's rail network with that of other countries (in kilometres)The Song family simplified family treeMapsBibliographyNotesIndex

O autorze

Xavier Paulès is Associate Professor in History at EHESS, Paris.