HIST2005 The Chinese Revolution, 1900-1949

2016

4.5

18 x 50-minute lectures per semester
6 x 50-minute tutorials per semester

HIST2055 has been successfully completed

Associated major: History

The study of modern Chinese history is important because of China's size, population, global impact - and its increasing importance in the international economy. This topic examines a turbulent period in Chinese history, replete with revolution, wars, invasions and the overthrow of dynasties. The topic will begin with the Boxers' activities against the imperial regime and against foreigners, move on to the nationalist revolution and the civil war of the 1920s and the retreat of the Chinese communists to the countryside. The transformation of the communist movement into an armed peasant revolution will be examined, as will the effects of the war with Japan. The topic will conclude with the victory of the communist armies in 1949.

This topic aims to provide students with a background in the history of the Chinese revolution in a number of ways, by:

• helping students to acquire knowledge about the period
• enabling students to apply that knowledge by assessing key aspects of the period and considering a number of historical debates associated with it
• emphasising the central theme of the relationship of peasant revolution to modernisation
• exposing students to significant ideas and a substantial literatureabout the period
• enhancing students' skills in analysis, discussion and argument through helping them to communicate effectively
• helping students to work both collaboratively (through group discussions) and independently (through the written word).

Students successfully completing this topic should be able to:

• Define the situation of China in a world context in the early 20th century
• Discuss the differences between Marxism and Maoism
• Assess the significance of the transfer of the communist movement from an urban to a rural setting
• Analyse the development of periods of national history and place these periods in a context of world history
• Advance and defend historical arguments about the period in question