what was the course of the long march in terms of direction

Full Answer

How long did the Long March take?

On October 16, 1934, the embattled Chinese Communists break through Nationalist enemy lines and begin an epic flight from their encircled headquarters in southwest China. Known as Ch’ang Cheng —the “Long March”—the retreat lasted 368 days and covered 6,000 miles, more than twice the distance from New York to San Francisco.

Why is the Long March difficult to prove or disprove?

The Long March is surrounded by conflicting accounts of what occurred. Some critics and researchers call the earlier accounts myths, but find that they are difficult to prove or disprove because the Chinese government prevents independent historians from exploring the topic.

What does Long March stand for?

The Long March ( Chinese: 长征; pinyin: Chángzhēng, lit. Long Expedition) was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang army.

How did the Communists cross the Long March?

According to the official history of the Long March, 22 brave communist soldiers seized the bridge from a larger group of Nationalist forces armed with machine guns. Because their foes had removed the cross-boards from the bridge, the communists crossed by hanging from the underside of the chains and shimmying across under enemy fire.

What was the route of the Long March?

The CCP, under the eventual command of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, escaped in a circling retreat to the west and north, which reportedly traversed over 9,000 kilometres (5,600 mi) over 370 days. The route passed through some of the most difficult terrain of western China by traveling west, then north, to Shaanxi.

What was the purpose of the long march quizlet?

The Long March was when Mao and his 100,000 followers fled to Guomindang and they trekked 6,000 miles and they faced daily attacks. Out of the 100,000 followers only 20,000 survived. The Long March was a symbol of Communist heroism and the march attracted many more followers to Mao.

What were the results of the long march quizlet?

What were the results of the Long March? Communist Party was defeated so they had to take this journey. Thousands died from hunger, cold, exposure and battle wounds. They gained new followers in northwestern China.

What was the Long March Class 11?

The Long March was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army.

What was the Long March simple?

The Long March is the retreat of Mao Zedong and the Communists in 1934-35. The communists went to their stronghold away from Chiang Kai-shek and the Nationalists. Here they were able to join together and start fighting again to beat the Nationalists.

What was one long term effect of the long march quizlet?

What was one long-term effect of the Long March? Mao won support because he treated peasants fairly. more prosperous and more democratic.

How did the Communists benefit from the long march quizlet?

How did the Communists benefit from the Long March? They were able to confiscate property and weapons, as well as recruit peasants to join their army.

How did Southwest Asia change as a result of nationalism?

How did Southwest Asia change as a result of nationalism? -The Ottoman Empire was forced to give up all its territories except for Turkey, who overthrew the sultan in 1923 and Mustafa Kemal became president. He was president of the first republic in Southwest Asia and wanted to modernize Turkey.

Which of the following was one of the sources of upheaval for the Chinese republic in the early 1900s?

Which of the following was one of the sources of upheaval for the new Chinese Republic in the early 1900s? end wars between countries.

When was the Long March?

October 1934 – October 1935Long March / Period

Why did Mao Zedong undertake the long march?

Mao Zedong undertook the Long March because the Communists had been losing to the Nationalists and had no option but to retreat in order to survive.

Who won the Chinese civil war?

The Communists gained control of mainland China and established the People's Republic of China (PRC) in 1949, forcing the leadership of the Republic of China to retreat to the island of Taiwan.

What was the Long March?

Dong-Yin. The Long March ( Chinese: 长征; pinyin: Chángzhēng, lit. Long Expedition) was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China, the forerunner of the People's Liberation Army, to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang (KMT or Chinese Nationalist Party) army.

How long did the Long March last?

In this sense, the Long March lasted from October 16, 1934, to October 19, 1935.

How long did it take the Communists to escape?

The Communists, under the eventual command of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, escaped in a circling retreat to the west and north, which reportedly traversed over 9,000 kilometres (5,600 mi) over 370 days. The route passed through some of the most difficult terrain of western China by traveling west, then north, to Shaanxi .

What was Mao's first army?

Mao's First Red Army traversed several swamps and was attacked by Muslim Hui Ma clique forces under Generals Ma Bufang and Ma Buqing. Finally, in October 1935, Mao's army reached Shaanxi province and joined with local Communist forces there, led by Liu Zhidan, Gao Gang, and Xu Haidong, who had already established a Soviet base in northern Shaanxi. The remnants of Zhang's Fourth Red Army eventually rejoined Mao in Shaanxi, but with his army destroyed, Zhang, even as a founding member of the CPC, was never able to challenge Mao's authority. After an expedition of almost a year, the Second Red Army reached Bao'an (Shaanxi) on October 22, 1936, known in China as the "union of the three armies", and the end of the Long March.

What was the Long March of the Red Army?

Although the literal translation of the Chinese Cháng Zhēng is "Long March", official publications of the People's Republic of China refer to it as "The Long March of the Red Army" (simplified Chinese: 红军长征; traditional Chinese: 紅軍長征; pinyin: Hóngjūn Chángzhēng ). The Long March most commonly refers to the transfer of the main group of the First (or Central) Red Army, which included the leaders of the Communist Party of China, from Yudu in the province of Jiangxi to Yan'an in Shaanxi. In this sense, the Long March lasted from October 16, 1934, to October 19, 1935. In a broader view, the Long March included two other forces retreating under pressure from the Kuomintang: the Second Red Army and the Fourth Red Army. The retreat of all the Red Armies was not complete until October 22, 1935, when the three forces linked up in Shaanxi.

What was the red X in the 4th encirclement?

Areas marked by a blue "X" were overrun by Kuomintang forces during the Fourth Encirclement Campaign, forcing the Fourth Red Army (north) and the Second Red Army (south) to retreat to more western enclaves (dotted lines). The dashed line is the route of the First Red Army from Jiangxi. The withdrawal of all three Red Armies ends in ...

What is the Chinese Long March rocket named after?

Chinese Long March rocket family, a series of expendable launch system operated by the China National Space Administration (CNSA), are named after the Long March. Chinese Nuclear submarines, starting from Type 091 class, are named after the Long March .

How long did the Long March last?

Known as Ch’ang Cheng —the “Long March”—the retreat lasted 368 days and covered 6,000 miles, more than twice the distance from New York to San Francisco.

How long was the line of marchers in the Communists?

Weapons and supplies were borne on men’s backs or in horse-drawn carts, and the line of marchers stretched for 50 miles. The Communists generally marched at night, and when the enemy was not near, a long column of torches could be seen snaking over valleys and hills into the distance.

How many men did Mao have to break through the fortifications?

It took a week for the Communists to break through the fortifications and cost them 50,000 men—more than half their number. After that debacle, Mao steadily regained his influence, and in January he was again made chairman during a meeting of the party leaders in the captured city of Tsuni.

How many people were in the Red Army during the Long March?

Secrecy and rear-guard actions confused the Nationalists, and it was several weeks before they realized that the main body of the Red Army had fled. The retreating force initially consisted of 86,000 troops, 15,000 personnel, and 35 women.

When did the Communists break out of the encirclement?

With defeat imminent, the Communists decided to break out of the encirclement at its weakest points. The Long March began at 5:00 p.m. on October 16, 1934.

When did Mao stop his columns?

After enduring starvation, aerial bombardment, and almost daily skirmishes with Nationalist forces, Mao halted his columns at the foot of the Great Wall of China on October 20, 1935. Waiting for them were five machine-gun- and red-flag-bearing horsemen. “Welcome, Chairman Mao,” one said.

When did the Civil War break out in China?

Civil war in China between the Nationalists and the Communists broke out in 1927. In 1931, Communist leader Mao Zedong was elected chairman of the newly established Soviet Republic of China, based in Jiangxi province in the southeast. Between 1930 and 1934, the Nationalists under Chiang Kai-shek launched a series of five encirclement campaigns ...

What was the Long March?

The Long March was an epic retreat by the three Red Armies of China that took place in 1934 and 1935, during the Chinese Civil War. It was a key moment in the civil war, and also in the development of communism in China. A leader of the communist forces emerged from the horrors of the march— Mao Zedong, who would go on to lead them to victory ...

How many soldiers were in the First Army during the Long March?

Survivors later reported that the Great Morass was the worst part of the entire Long March. The First Army, now down to 6,000 soldiers, faced one additional obstacle. To cross into Gansu Province, they needed to get through the Lazikou Pass.

What was the union between Mao and Zhang called?

Nonetheless, Zhang was supposed to defer to Mao, who held a higher rank in the Communist Party. This union of the two armies is called the Great Joining. To meld their forces, the two commanders switched subcommanders; Mao's officers marched with Zhang and Zhang's with Mao.

How many soldiers did Mao send?

Mao sent fifty of his soldiers who had mountaineering experience up the cliff face above the blockhouses. The communists threw grenades down on the Nationalists' position, sending them running. By October of 1935, Mao's First Army was down to 4,000 soldiers.

What would happen if the Red Armies refused to feed the locals?

If the locals refused to feed them, the Red Armies might take people hostage and ransom them for food, or even force them to join the march. In later Party mythology, however, the local villagers welcomed the Red Armies as liberators and were grateful for being rescued from the rule of local warlords.

Was the Long March hyped?

Much of the communist propaganda surrounding the Long March is hype rather than history. Interestingly, this is also true in Taiwan, where the defeated KMT leadership fled at the end of the Chinese Civil War in 1949.

Who led the Red Army in 1934?

Early in 1934, the communist Red Army of China was on its heels, outnumbered and outgunned by the Nationalists or Kuomintang (KMT), led by Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek.

How long was the Long March?

Full Article. Long March, (1934–35), the 6,000-mile (10,000-km) historic trek of the Chinese communists, which resulted in the relocation of the communist revolutionary base from southeastern to northwestern China and in the emergence of Mao Zedong as the undisputed party leader.

Where was the Long March?

…what became known as the Long March. By mid-1936 the remnants of several Red armies had gathered in an impoverished area in northern Shaanxi, with headquarters located in the town of Yan’an, which lent its name to the subsequent period (1936–45) of CCP development.…

How many troops did the communists have in 1936?

The subsequent arrival of other units (including that of Zhu De) swelled their total strength by late 1936 to about 30,000 troops. In December 1936 the communists moved to the nearby district of Yan’an in Shaanxi, where they remained throughout the Sino-Japanese War (1937–45).

Where did Mao go in 1935?

Zhang’s group, accompanied by Zhu De, headed toward the extreme southwestern part of China. The main body under Mao proceeded toward northern Shaanxi, where the communist leaders Gao Gang and Liu Zhidan had built up another base. Mao arrived at this destination in October 1935 along with only about 8,000 survivors.

Where was Mao's morale when he arrived in Zunyi?

Morale was low when they arrived in Zunyi, in the southwestern province of Guizhou, but at a conference there in January 1935 Mao was able to gather enough support to establish his dominance of the party.

What was the purpose of the Chiang Kai Shek encirclement?

Between 1930 and 1934 Chiang Kai-shek launched a series of five military encirclement campaigns against the Chinese communists in an attempt to annihilate their base area (the Jiangxi Soviet) on the border between Jiangxi and Fujian in southeastern China.

Who wrote the Long March?

Edgar Snow 's Account of "The Long March". A Nation Emigrates. Having successfully broken through the first line of fortifications, the Red Army set out on its epochal year-long trek to the west and to the north, a varicolored and many-storied expedition describable here only in briefest outline.

Where was the 25,000 Li March?

The Reds themselves generally spoke of it as the "25,000- li March," and with all its twists, turns and countermarches, from the farthest point in Fukien to the end of the road in far northwest Shensi, some sections of the marchers undoubtedly did that much or more.

Why did the Lolos hate the Chinese?

The Lolos hated the Chinese because they had been oppressed by them ; but there were "White" Chinese and "Red" Chinese, just as there were "White" Lolos and "Black" Lolos, and it was the White Chinese who had always slain and oppressed the Lolos.

Where did the Lolos occupy?

Never conquered, never absorbed by the Chinese who dwelt all around them, the turbulent Lolos had for centuries occupied that densely forested and mountainous spur of Szechuan whose borders are marked by the great southward arc described by the Yangtze just east of Tibet.

What river did Chiang Kai Shek cross?

Anticipating an attempt to cross the Yangtze River into Szechuan, Chiang-Kai-shek withdrew thousands of troops from Hupeh, Anhui, and Kiangsi and shipped them hurriedly westward, to cut off ( from the north) the Red Army's route of advance.

How long did the Red Army work at crossing the Fort?

Crossing was now a simple matter. Six big boats worked constantly for nine days. The entire army was transported into Szechuan without a life lost.

Why did Prince Shih pause for three days?

Arriving at the banks of the Tatu, Prince Shih had paused for three days to honor the birth of his son — an imperial prince. Those days of rest had given his enemy the chance to concentrate against him, and to make the swift marches in his rear that blocked his line of retreat.

Timeline

Background

The Long March

The March in Popular Culture

Historical Controversies

Legacy

See Also

Further Reading