WWII History Vocabulary
Terms
undefined, object
copy deck
- Mao Zedong (Chairman Mao)
- Leader of the Chinese Communist Party, whose territory lay in North-western China.
- Jiang Jieshi (Chiang Kai-shek)
- Leader of the Chinese Nationalist forces, who controlled the South-western part of China.
- communes
-
Large collective farms called for by Mao through his "Great Leap Forward" Plan.
Peaseants organized into "production battallions" and worked the land together. However equal it was in the eyes of Mao, there were enormous concessions that the people were forced to make in order to enact Mao's vision. - Cultural Revolution
- Major uprising led by the Red Guards, meant to establish a society of peasants and workers in which all were equal.
- The Red Guards
- The militia units of young people who he urged to "learn revolution by making revolution". In response, millions of high school and college students left their classrooms and formed the Red Guard militia units.
- "Great Leap Forward"
- Early in 1968, Mao proclaimed the Freat leap forward. It called for still larger collective farms or communes. By the ned of 1958, the govt. had created about 26,000 communes, each averaging 15,000 acres and supporting 25,000 people.
- 1958
- The year Mao proclaimed his "Great Leap Forward" Plan. By the end of the year, the communes had sprouted rapidly in number (26,000).
- 1961
- The year the government finally discontinued the Great Leap Forward Plan (ironic, because it resulted in a Great Leap BACKWARDS for China).
- Taiwan
- Known to Westerners as Formosa, the island which Jiang Jieshi and other Nationalists fled to from the Communists.
- Nationalists
- A political party led by Jiang Jieshi, and which controlled the southwestern part of China.
- 1976
- By this year, Mao had finally admitted that the Cultural Revolution must stop, and approved the army's decision to dissolve the Red Guards.
- Communists
- THe political party led by Mao Zedong, and which controlled the Northwestern part of China.
- Japan
- During WWII, the U.S. had sent the Nationalists over $1.5 billion in aid to help fight the Japanesse. Unfortunately, most of this money never made its way towards it original cause (corrupt army officials). But when the Japanese finally surrendered, the Communists and Nationalists resumed their civil war.
- United States
-
The U.S. provided nearly $2 billion in aid to the Nationalists.
U.S. anti-Communist feelings ran rampant after Mao's victory over the Nationalists, and many people viewed the treaty of friendship signed between the Soviet and China in February 1950 as another step in the Communist campaign to take over the world. - Soviet Union
- Signed a friendship treaty with China in Febtuary 1950.