Dana Edwards 11/01/06

The Rise of Europe and Decline of China 

There are numerous reasons why China, after years of world power, was surpassed in domination by Europe in the 18th century. There were huge cultural differences between European and Chinese societies, and between Christian and Confucian ideals. The Chinese system of beliefs and ethics, enforced by Confucianism, was what drove it to its political downfall. China did not lack the technology or the labor force to remain a major world power; it lacked only the motivation to do so. In addition, the influence of opium on Chinese society, their defeat in the Opium wars, and a lack of unity among the Chinese people led it to its decline. 

The Chinese felt that they didn’t need to increase progress and technology to keep up with western nations, because it went against their fundamental ideals. For thousands of years, China had been the most prosperous nation on earth. All other surrounding nations paid tribute to the “Middle Kingdom”, recognizing that it was far superior to them. It had a structured system of examinations that allowed for a just way of electing government officials. Confucianism was the main topic of the exams. The Confucian values, recorded in a series of Confucius’s sayings called “the Analects”, governed the lives of all Chinese. Confucianism stressed one’s place in the hierarchy of people. It was based on respect, and the five main relationships told people how to act towards those above and below in society. Confucianism also taught that one should work hard to provide for the community. Scholar-bureaucrats and farmers were highly respected. China simply did not want progress and technology, because their current society had been working so well for thousands of years. People are generally afraid of change, and China had no reason to want to change, since it was already doing so well. What the Chinese did not foresee is that by refusing to keep up with Europe in technology, they would lose their position as the world power.

During the 18th century, Europe was very focused on Industrial expansion, and inventions such as the steam engine made that possible. Unlike China’s community-based society, Europe was becoming capitalist during the 18th century. Capitalism embraces individual success above a communal effort. This meant that everyone was free to become as rich as possible. Because of the capitalist idea, the Industrial Revolution began, with factories beginning to mass-produce items. Everyone was looking for new ways to make the production of goods more efficient, so new inventions came into play. James Watt’s steam engine replaced waterpower, because it was portable, and coal was bountiful. This allowed factories to run giant, powerful machines. In France, an automated weaving machine was invented. In addition to their technological advances in the production of textiles and goods, Europe underwent great military progressions. They had guns and cannons far superior to the weapons the Chinese had. This is ironic, because the Chinese originally discovered gunpowder, and it was later used against them. From 1839-1842, England defeated China in the Opium Wars. They began when Commissioner Lin vowed to solve China’s opium problem, and destroyed thousands of chests of English opium. Angered by their loss, England attacked China on their shores, utilizing their superior navy. They dominated the Chinese, and in 1842 China signed the Treaty of Nanjing to end the war. This was the turning point at which Europe had clearly surpassed China in power.

Opium and internal disorder were major factors in the decline of Chinese power. Despite China’s efforts to stop them, England continually sold large amounts of opium to China throughout the eighteenth century. It was the only item that England found there was a demand for in China, and it balanced out the huge trade deficit between the two nations. In fact, by the mid-18th century, China was spending more money buying opium than it was selling goods such as porcelain, silk, or tea to all of Europe. The drug had a very negative effect on Chinese society, with addicts spending all their money on it, not being able to work, and ruining families. In addition, a lack of unity arose in Chinese society, regarding relations with foreign countries. Some Chinese were very upset with the unfair treaties that had been forced upon China after the Opium Wars, and they protested foreign influence. The internal rebellions that ensued, the biggest being the Taiping rebellion, weakened China. With an utterly un-unified people, keeping up with Europe in technology, and fighting against them in the opium wars, became a low priority for China. They first had to deal with their internal issues before they could fight external wars.

 Europe transcended China in global power due to a few key factors. First of all, Chinese did not believe in technology and progress because it went against their Confucian-based beliefs. When England and other European nations were beginning the Industrial Revolution, focused on as much economic expansion as possible, the Chinese felt they already had the answer. They didn’t need science and technology when they already had a philosophically sound society, strengthened by the values of Confucianism. On the contrary, Europe was highly centered on industrial expansion, and numerous technological advances, such as the steam engine and the automated weaver, made industrialization possible. Lastly, China had to deal with the opium crisis, and internal rebellions, further aiding the decline of the great empire.

CHRONOLOGY OF CHINESE HISTORY

Zheng He 1405

Opium Wars/trade deficit/Lord MacCartney 1790s

Treaty of Nanjing 1842

Taiping Rebellion 1850-1864

Meiji Restoration 1868

Sino-Japanese War 1895

Collapse of the Qing 1911

Sun Yat-sen is President of China 1912

Treaty of Versailles 1918

May Fourth Movement 1919

Warlordism in China 1926

Long March 1934-35

Anti-Comintern Pact 1936

Marco Polo Bridge incident 1937

Pearl Harbor 1941

End of WWII 1945

China goes Communist 1949

100 Flowers/Anti-Right Campaigns 1956

Great Leap Forward 1958-61

Cultural Revolution 1966-76

Mao’s death 1976

Tiananmen Square 1989

Dana Edwards 10/16/06

Is China a Modern Country? 

China is not a modern country. Although its economy is currently flourishing, the financial boom only recently began, and it has not yet joined the league of modern countries. If the USA is considered a modern country, which most would agree upon, then China is not a modern country. However, if compared to the majority of nations in the world, including most African, Middle Eastern, and some Asian countries, than it would be considered modern. Nevertheless, for the purposes of this essay, the United States shall be the standard for a modern country, making China not modern. Some of the main reasons why China is not modern are that it lacks an adequate transportation system, its population uses far less electricity than the USA, and only a very small percentage of its people use the Internet.

One of the key aspects of a modern country is a good transportation system, because it means that people, goods, and services can efficiently travel from one place to another, and China lacks a successful system of roads, trains, and airports. It has only 486 airports, where as the United States has 14,558. A modern society must have airports. Despite the presence of a few large cities on its coast and along its major rivers, China is still mostly an agrarian society. The vast majority of its population live and work on farms. The way of life of a poor rice farmer simply does not include excessive travel, because he cannot afford it, and his needs are met locally. The main reason why China lacks a sufficient transportation system is that it simply would not work with the lifestyle of most of it people. Before China can begin to upgrade its transit system, it has to have the demand and money to do so. 

Electricity use is another good way of measuring how modern a country is. China’s use per capita is about one tenth that of the USA’s. China’s culture, for the most part, is simply poorer and less materialistic than the USA’s. Many of the rural parts of China still do not have electricity, and even the comparatively small amount of people who live in its cities use less than Americans. Many poor Chinese have began to flock to the cities in search of money. If the current rate continues, China’s electricity use will undoubtedly be higher in the future, as its cities turn from compact and congested to vast urban sprawls, similar to Los Angeles.

Even with almost five times the population of the United States, China only has half as many people who use the Internet, a modern means of communication. One of the reasons why Internet usage is a strong indicator of the modernity of population is that it connects people to the global community. The only ones in China with access to the Internet are those who live in cities, which is a very small percentage of its total population. Since most of China’s people do not have telephones, let alone Internet connections, they have no way of communicating with the outside world. With the exception of the city dwellers, the Chinese live in their own, mostly self sufficient, poor farming communities, and they have no possible way of accessing the Internet, and communicating with those outside their town.

As it is evident, China has a long way to go before it can be considered a modern country. Because most of its people are poor and living relatively primitive lifestyles, modernity cannot come until its population undergoes dramatic changes. Once that has happened, its transportation system needs work to provide for a modern society. Also, electricity needs to be provided to the masses, and eventually Internet connection.

Dana Edwards 12/10/06

Alternatives to the American Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki 

On the sunlit morning of August 6, 1945, the industrial city of Hiroshima was reduced to ruins. An atomic bomb, nicknamed "Little Boy" was dropped from an American airplane over the city. The initial blast killed thousands, and the resulting radiation caused many more deaths in the following years. Three days later, on August 9, the port of Nagasaki was utterly decimated in the same fashion. These tragic events, resulting in over 300,000 deaths, marked the end of World War II. Although they ended a long, bloody war, they could have been prevented; the war could have been stopped in some other way. There were alternatives to the horrible bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. This paper discusses two such solutions that could have ended World War II with no civilian fatalities.

In order to fully understand the circumstances in which these events took place, some background information prior to the to the atomic bombings should be provided.

World War II began in the late 1930’s, when Adolph Hitler rose to power in Germany and began annexing the territories of neighboring countries. Fighting continued in Europe between Germany, England, France and Italy, while to the East Japan began invading China. In 1940, Japan signed a formal alliance with Germany and Italy, entering itself officially into World War II. The United States, already on bad terms with Japan, entered the war when the Japanese attacked their naval forces in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii on December 7, 1941. This brought the United States into war on both fronts, in Europe and in the Pacific. Meanwhile, American scientists were fervently developing a nuclear weapon in the top secret “Manhattan Project”. They finally developed and tested the atomic bomb in 1945. Two bombs, in addition to the one used as a test in New Mexico, were created. The Americans intended to use them on Japan as a quick way to end the war with the Japanese.

Although Japan was asked to surrender shortly before the bombings, the United States should have explicitly stated their intentions of detonating one or more atomic bombs on the Japanese mainland. On July 26, 1945, about two weeks before the leveling of Hiroshima, U.S. President Harry S. Truman, along with other allied leaders, issued the Potsdam Declaration, outlining the importance and terms of an imminent Japanese surrender. "...We call upon the government of Japan to proclaim now the unconditional surrender of all Japanese armed forces, and to provide proper and adequate assurances of their good faith in such action. The alternative for Japan is prompt and utter destruction." 

The declaration was broadcast to the Japanese public through radio and leaflets. The next day, Japanese newspapers stated that the declaration had been rejected. On July 28, Prime Minister Suzuki officially announced that the Japanese government intended to ignore the declaration. As is shown by Japan’s hasty refusal to cooperate, the United States should have made clearer the extent they were willing to go to, and their means of doing so, in order to force the Japanese to surrender. It is America’s responsibility, as a democratic institution, to prevent as many deaths as possible. They should not have discarded morality when weighing their options during World War II with Japan. There is a large discrepancy between telling the Japanese, as Truman did, that they would be attacked if surrender did not take place, and threatening, without any vagueness, the use of an atomic bomb, capable of destroying an entire city. There is no place for ambiguity or uncertainty in wartime situations where hundreds of thousands of lives are at stake. 

Because the Japanese did not surrender, as demanded by the United States, they clearly had no idea that the Americans possessed a means of destruction as powerful as the atom bomb. Instead, they probably assumed there would be a conventional military attack against their homeland, which was not nearly as great a threat, and which they were willing to resist. Although Truman’s words, “prompt and utter destruction” sounded intimidating, they led none to believe the factuality of the use of an atomic weapon. For all that Japan knew, the Potsdam Declaration was just a tormenting threat, one that was overstated, perhaps even a bluff. If the United States were to simply state the imminent use of an atomic weapon, and explain the magnitude of destruction it would cause, the Japanese may very well have surrendered, the war ended with no further casualties. It is possible, even probable, that Japan would still not have surrendered after being specifically told about nuclear weapons. However, the United States should have done so, given there was a chance. It would have been worth it just for the possibility of saving hundreds of thousands of lives.

In the case that, after being informed of America’s definite use of atomic weaponry, Japan still refused to surrender, there were other measures that the U.S.A. could have resorted to. There is a step short of using atomic weaponry on two densely populated cities that the United States could have resorted to. If Japan still did not believe the immediate peril they faced, after having been explicitly told, America could have shown them. Demonstration tends to be much more persuasive when dealing with stubborn enemies.

There were two methods of demonstration that could have proved effective, one much more extreme than the other. The first is essentially an extension of the previous listed alternative. In addition to flatly explaining their capability of using atomic weaponry, the United States could have provided factual evidence of their ability to do so. For instance, video footage of the detonation of the first atomic bomb, held near Alamogordo, New Mexico, could have been provided. They could have shown photographs of the two atomic bombs, “little boy” and “fat man”, along with statistical information relating to them.

If this still did not result in Japanese surrender, more drastic measures could have been taken. The United States could have dropped an atomic bomb off the coast of Japan. The distance offshore, in addition to the magnitude of the bomb, would be carefully calculated in order for the explosion to prove harmless to any people, and yet remain highly visible from the mainland. After having been observed by Japan’s citizens, America’s potential to destroy Japanese cities with similar weapons would be undeniable. It is highly improbable that Japan would still refuse to surrender after having front-row seats to a display of American military prowess, viewing a massive explosion of the very weapon they were threatened with. Although this last alternative would result in the destruction of a multitude of sea life, there would be few or no human casualties, and the war with the United States would most definitely be ended after the impending Japanese surrender.

The issue of the necessity of the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki is indeed a very controversial one, because although they quickly ended World War II, they were inherently immoral. Hundreds of thousands of civilians were killed, and two cities were utterly destroyed. However, research and careful consideration concludes that the bombings were unnecessary. The USA could have, as explained earlier, explicitly explained their nuclear capabilities, and clearly threatened Japan with an imminent atomic bombing. If this did not work, America could have shown the Japanese their abilities by allowing them to view footage of the test bomb detonated in New Mexico, and further explain the immensity of the attack that would result if Japan did not surrender. Finally, as a last resort, the USA could have detonated a nuclear bomb off the coast of Japan, clearly showing them their ability to destroy Japanese cities. Perhaps these ideas did not occur to the American Government at the time, or perhaps they were so desperate to end the war that they discarded all other solutions. The bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki were the first, second, and as of 2006, only uses of nuclear bombs as weaponry. Let us hope they are the last.

Bibliography

1. Bellis, Mary. The History of the Atomic Bomb. 2006. http://inventors.about.com/library/weekly/aa050300a.htm

2. Ford, Daniel. How Many Died at Hiroshima. 2004. http://www.warbidforum.com/hirodead.htm

3. Hirschfeld, Burt. A Cloud Over Hiroshima: The Story of the Atomic Bomb. New York: Julian Messner. 1967

4. Sparknotes. World War II (1939-1945)/Overview. 2006. http://www.sparknotes.com/history/european/worldwar2/context.html

5. Thinkquest. The Manhattan Project. 2005. http://library.thinkquest.org/17940/texts/timeline/manhattan.html

6. Wikipedia. Atomic bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. 2006. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atomic_bombings_of_Hiroshima_and_Nagasaki

Dana Edwards 10/29/06

Justification of Japan’s Attack on Pearl Harbor

(Japan’s Point of View)

Although our attack on the US Navy in Pearl Harbor was devastating and unexpected, it was justified. Ever since our trade was opened up with the west in 1868, the United States has treated us horribly. The Americans are disrespectful and condescending. They call us barbarians, and think that they “deserve” to be able to trade with us. They have no right to do so. The Japanese are a proud and honorable people, and we will not take such treatment from any other nation.

The United States has always been a huge obstacle to Japanese power. They limited our trading abilities, and forced us to downsize our navy in disarmament after the Treaty of Versailles. As the years of abuse went by, an attack on America became inevitable. Some Japanese believed it was our fate to attack the United States.

We believe that racism is part of the reason the United States treated us so badly. The Americans simply dislike the Japanese race. Japanese-Americans were treated worse than any other race of people. They were forced to sit in the back of the movie theatre after paying for a full-price ticket, and were only allowed to swim in the swimming pools when they were dirty, they day before they were cleaned. After Pearl Harbor, the Americans sent innocent civilian Japanese-Americans to prison camps. We couldn’t stand the kind of treatment our people and nation was receiving, so something had to be done. The attack on Pearl Harbor was unavoidable.

Dana Edwards 01/11/07

Mao, China’s Robin Hood

Mao Zedong left a lasting, positive contribution to China. Before he, with the aid of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), gained control of the nation, China was in a state of disorder. After the collapse of the Qing, China’s last dynasty, warlords ruled the countryside, and there was no central authority system governing the people. Then, the nationalists (KMT), led by Chiang Kaishek, took control for a period of time, during which only the rich elites, comprising a tiny percent of the country’s population and living mostly in the few developed cities, benefited, while the peasants suffered and were plagued with famine. When Mao took over in 1949, he unified the Chinese people, and brought upon positive changes for the peasants. For instance, he reformed land; allotting poor peasants land they could live and farm on. This lessened the huge gap in social classes that existed before the CCP’s takeover. Another of his achievements is the emancipation of Chinese women. He freed them from old cultural constraints, allowing them freedom of marriage, among other new rights. While he was in power, the Chinese people had a shared admiration of their beloved leader, Mao. For a time, his portrait hung on the wall of every family’s home, songs were sung honoring his greatness, and his “little red book” was quoted often in school and business. He instilled an atmosphere of brotherhood amongst the working class behind his communist society. Through his efforts in the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, he totally renewed China and rid it of its old customs. Anyone accused of being a “rightist” was punished severely and shunned, and many people were killed in the chaotic state of the nation during Mao’s numerous revolutions. Although the nation’s upheavals were violent and disorderly, the end result was a stable, self-sufficient society. Mao produced social order within China, a kind of order and structure that had never before existed in the nation’s history. 

During Mao’s rule, he switched the nation’s focus over to the peasants, by far the largest class, giving them such rights as land, and producing an egalitarian society. The peasants truly were the most important class. Their significance was made apparent in the critically acclaimed film, “To Live”, set in China at the time of Mao’s rise to power, and following his influence on Chinese society through the life of one family. In the beginning of the movie, the main character, Fugui, a rich man with a gambling problem, is transported to various locations in his town on the back of a large woman. This shows that China, at that time, had such a large population, that people did not bother with cars, or even horse-drawn carriages; the rich would simply travel on the backs of peasants. Now, if a society has so many peasants that it makes more economical sense to use they, rather than machines, to do work, then great potential lies in those sheer masses of people. However, up until Mao’s rule, the large numbers of peasants were oppressed by the upper class, and although they provided the labor and goods for the entire nation, their influence in politics and social affairs was relatively small. When Mao took over, he saw the masses of peasants sustaining the country through farming and manual labor, and leading harsh lifestyles, while the few rich elites essentially controlled the nation, and owned most of the land. He decided that it was only fair for the peasants to become the influential class, and as a result the elites would no longer remain powerful and oppressive. So, he gave to the peasants what was rightfully theirs, land. He took from the rich and gave to the poor, almost like a modern-day, Asian Robin Hood. Except, instead of arrows, he was armed with the Red Guards, the obedient minions of Mao during the Cultural Revolution, to force the upper class to give up their wealth and land, or face severe punishment, even death. His bow was the idea of communism, which once strung, however difficult it would be, would shoot arrows into all those who opposed it, until everyone was an equally important member of the working class. Mao achieved this, and whether or not you view him as a Robin Hood, it is evident that he created an equal society, one that, although flawed in its lack of social diversity, was much fairer than the oppressive ways of past Chinese establishments. One way in which Mao’s China surpassed previous institutions in justness is his treatment of the fairer sex, women.

Mao liberated women from old Confucian sexist philosophy, with such acts as the Marriage Law of 1950. His communist ideals, centered on the belief that all people should be equal in society, did not just apply to men. He, unlike any other past Chinese ruler, gave rights to females, who were historically ill-treated members of Chinese civilization. Confucius’s teachings, which were so central to past Chinese cultures, were essentially disregarded during Mao’s years in power. They were one of the many old cultural ideas that Mao believed necessary to rid China of, in order to move forward and become a totally new communist society, unbound by old cultural constraints. The treatment of women as inferior to men was one of the accepted teachings of Confucianism, up until Mao’s time. Women would frequently be married against their will, at often-times quite a young age, to older men, who were free to treat them as their slaves, even abuse them. Also, women were not allowed in any positions of power, and in most cases were even denied education. Mao put an end to all of that. With the Marriage Law of 1950, women had the right to choose their husband, and could not be married under the age of 18. In addition, they were granted the rights to an education, and were generally treated as legitimate members of society. With all of the Chinese population, including women, bound together in one equal working class, Mao was well on his way to achieving a completely united China.

 Mao produced the most unified society in Chinese history, through the people’s mutual love of their leader, and his structured communist society. From the 1950’s until Mao’s death, China was a fully functioning, ordered nation. Unlike past governments, the Chinese Communist Party organized its people, and freed China from the unreliable, unfair, and unsustainable ways of past establishments. In Mao’s communist society, it was clear to everyone what their job was, and how they were expected to contribute to the communal effort. For instance, a baker would bake his bread, and give it to the local communist leader, who would divide it up among the people. A doctor would use his medical expertise to help ill people, and a farmer would harvest his crop, and it would be distributed to the public. If the party needed to do something, such as get more steal to build factories, everyone would pitch in with whatever metal they had, until enough was collected. The nation functioned successfully like this for quite a long time. This order to society, this sense of brotherhood and functioning as a group, is mostly due to the people’s sheer love of Mao. For a time, he was almost worshipped like a God. His teachings were mutually agreed upon as the beliefs that all members of society would adhere to. He stressed the importance of having an equal working class, above all else. He believed their livelihood was of utmost importance. The people, with all their faith in their liberator, Mao, took his teachings and bonded together as a united, communist society.

Mao Zedong was truly the Robin Hood of China. He was the liberator of the oppressed peasants, those who deserved to be treated fairly for all their hard work. His methods of power transferal from the rich to the poor were quite radical and at times violent. However, the outcome of those revolutions was a unified, communal society. Mao would often say something like, “the ends justify the means”, and in China’s case, under his rule, they did. China quickly recovered after being shot with a quiver of Mao’s arrows, from the bow of communism. The result was a society where all were equal, women and men alike.

Dana Edwards 02/01/07

Why Mao and not Chiang? (Rewrite)

Mao Zedong and the CCP emerged triumphant over Chiang Kai Shek and the KMT primarily because they had the support of the peasants. They were truly a people’s army, and they initiated positive change for China’s lower class populace. There are three main reasons why the peasants supported them. First, they began land reform by equally dividing up arable land among the people. Second, the structure of their army was organized and fair.  Lastly, while the CCP treated the peasantry well, and were in turn given their support, Chiang Kai Shek persecuted his own people, and forced the peasants to join the KMT.

The CCP reformed land, gaining them trust and loyalty from China’s peasants. For thousands of years, there had been a huge discrepancy in land ownership. There were many poor peasants who owned little or no land, and a few rich elites who owned vast amounts of land. The new communist ideas of the CCP pronounced the importance of having an egalitarian society, free of class. According to their views, all people deserved to own land, so they began taking it from the rich and distributing it to the poor.  The peasants thoroughly embraced the idea. With land, the peasants were able to raise their own crops to support themselves. However, the rich landowners were reluctant to give up their land, and violence ensued as theirs was forcefully taken away from them. After thousands of years of injustice, the peasants seized the opportunity to take revenge on the upper classes. Mao Zedong justified the violence in his famous quote, “A revolution is not the same as inviting people to dinner…it cannot be anything so refined, so calm and gentle …A revolution is an uprising, an act of violence whereby one class overthrows another.” Besides their fair treatment of China’s peasants, the CCP also excelled in its military abilities.

The CCP had a very efficient army, and its soldiers were loyal and well treated. The army was conducted in accordance with the communist ideas that they enforced. For instance, the lower ranks of the army were treated just as well as their officers and higher officials. Instead of getting paid, each soldier was given an amount of land for his service. Their fighting style was practical and organized, and their strategic guerilla campaigns against the Japanese proved very successful. These factors made the CCP quite appealing to the peasants, and many joined.  The CCP was also renowned for its economy. It functioned on a very small amount of money, mainly because its soldiers were not given a salary. Also, almost all the weapons they used were stolen from their enemies. When Japan’s military presence in China ended, the CCP quickly seized the weapons they left behind. Because of its alliance with the peasants, the CCP had another advantage over the KMT. Their soldiers could take refuge in villages, where the local peasants would gladly hide them from the enemy or provide them with a place to sleep. With a substantial amount of soldiers, each with the vigor and vitality of someone fighting for his own rights, the CCP prevailed over the KMT. They lacked the military prowess and backing of China’s peasants, and therefore succumbed to the CCP.

The KMT did not realize the importance of having the support of the peasants, which made up the vast majority of China’s population. Chiang Kai Shek and the KMT did many things beneficial to China. He unified China in the Northern Expedition, modernized the cities by building new hospitals and schools, and renegotiated many of the unequal treaties that China was subject to. However, he failed to solve any of the peasants’ problems. In fact, Chiang and the KMT treated the peasants horribly. He forced them to join the KMT’s army, sometimes chaining them together to prevent escape. This induced an intense dislike of the KMT among the peasants. They fought unwillingly for them. The disloyalty of its soldiers is part of the reason the KMT failed against the CCP because it takes a motivated army to win a war. Without the support of the peasants, the KMT was only allied with the elites, who, although rich and influential, were few in numbers. The KMT’s failure to gain the trust and succor of China’s peasants lead to its downfall.

China’s peasants made up the great majority of the nation’s populace. Today, it has the greatest population of any country, and at the time of the CCP’s rise to power in the 1930’s its population was over half a billion. In this technologically undeveloped nation, the support of its masses of people was vital to take over and rule the country. The KMT inevitably fell to the CCP because they lacked the backing of the peasants, the most important social class because of their vast numbers. As a result of this, they had no willing troops, forcing peasants to join, and causing the KMT to fall to the CCP due to an unmotivated and inferior army.

Dana Edwards 09/06/06

Asian History-Mr. Weis

Why Study China?

If there is one country with greater potential to change the world than any other, it is China. With the largest population of any nation, and a flourishing economy just beginning to gain momentum, no doubt it will soon emerge as one of the world’s greatest powers. But with power comes responsibility, and many Americans speculate that if China’s economy continues to rise at its current pace, the Chinese will not take responsibility for the massive amounts of pollution and oil consumption that they will create. Some would say this is hypocritical, because America uses nearly twice as much electricity as China, but the truth of the matter is, with China’s massive population, there simply will not be enough natural resources for the Chinese to live as Americans do. And just as pressing as China’s economic issues are its military plans. Some Americans are afraid that China’s military ambitions are too great, and that their military will pose a threat if a conflict arises over the matter of Taiwan. I think that strengthening their military should not be China’s number one priority with their arising environmental problems. All of these issues are examples of why it is important to study China, because soon it will become even more of a major world power than it already is, and it will have to find a way to deal with problems of pollution and economics that do not seem easy to solve.