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Introduction

You will use skills of critical reading, analysis and synthesis to pursue knowledge and personal understanding of the major events, individuals and actions that took place as China experienced civil war to then become a single party state. This “Learning Pursuit” provides Tasks for you to complete as well as a Resources page of Web sites, videos and reading sources to guide your research efforts.

You will received daily assignments via the Edline content management system that will be used in conjunction with this learning pursuit.

The Essential Questions for this unit of study are:

  • Why war? Why civil war?

  • When is war “just”?

  • How does conflict change us?

  • How does a one become a totalitarian dictator?

  • How does one keep the dictator job over time?

  • How do we judge ruthless dictators who “advance” nations?

  • Can we have economic equality in society?

  • How to reform governmental systems- slowly or radically?

The more focused Unit Questions are:

  • Why do nations have civil wars (from an ESPRAT+G perspective)?•Who were the Nationalists (Guomindang/Koumintang) and what was their ideology? What were their goals?

  • What were the immediate ESPRAT+G effects of the 1949 Communist Revolution?

  • How were the Communists able to defeat the Nationalists?

  • How did Mao rise to power? What were his methods? What was his skill set?

  • What was Mao’s ideology from an ESPRAT+G perspective?

  • How was China a communist state under Mao?

  • How was China a totalitarian single party state under Mao?

  • How did Mao stay in power?

  • What was China’s foreign policy (i.e. Cold War, the USSR, Korean War, Taiwan, etc.)

  • What were the causes and consequences of the Great Leap?

  • How successful were the economic, political and social changes introduced in China between 1949 and 1961?

  • What were the causes and consequences of the Cultural Revolution?

  • How do historians’ assess Mao?

  • How do you assess Mao? (Think ESPRAT+G including foreign relations under “P”)

The IB themes are:

  • Origins and nature of authoritarian and single-party states

  • Establishment of authoritarian and single party states

  • Domestic policies and impact

  • Examine foreign policy

  • Different types of 20th century wars

  • Origins and causes of wars

  • Nature of 20th century wars

  • Effects and results of 20th century wars

Key Topics, People and Actions

  • Confucianism

  • Qing Dynasty

  • Manchu Dynasty

  • Boxer Rebellion of 1900

  • Revolution of 1911

  • China Under the Warlords (1916-1927)

  • Sun Yat-sen (Sun Zhongshan)

  • The Three Principles

  • Yuan Shikai

  • The New Culture or May Fourth Movement

  • Mao Zedong

  • “United Front” against Warlords

  • Northern Expedition

  • Jiangxi Soviet

  • The Long March

  • Zhang Xueliang

  • Xian Incident

  • “United Front” Against Japan

  • Chiang Kai-Shek (Jiang Jieshi)

  • Chinese Communist Party (CCP)

  • Comintern

  • Guomindang-GMD (Kuomintang-KMT)

  • Manchurian Incident 1931

  • Republic of China (ROC)

  • Japanese Occupation

  • Rape of Nanking (Nanking Massacre)

  • Japan-China War 1937-1945

  • Zhou Enlai

  • Lin Biao

  • Chinese Civil War (1927-37 & 1946-49)

  • People’s Republic of China (PRC)

  • People’s Liberation Army (PLA)

  • China and the Cold War

  • 100 Flowers Campaign

  • Korean War

  • 5 Year Plans

  • Great Leap Forward

  • Cultural Revolution

  • Red Guards

  • Cult of Mao Zedong

  • Gang of Four

  • Deng Xiaoping

Go to Tasks

Updated: April 8, 2012

Author: David Carpenter