Mao’s rise to power was a result of favourable conditions resulting from both the failures of the Nationalist party (GMD) and the various successes of the Communist party (CCP). Before Mao was able to consolidate his power over China in 1949, he first had to become solitary leader of the CCP party which he accomplished through his effective use of propaganda, ideology, policies and use of force. Prior to this, China had been led by incompetent leaders and as a result of their actions, it experienced a weakness of political system, impact of war and various economic factors.
Towards the beginning of the 20th century, the Qing dynasty which had ruled China for nearly two millennia, was on the verge of collapse. After the fall of the empire
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Mao played a huge role in the establishment of communism in China. I wonder how different these events would be if he had never been born. He was instrumental during the Long March, and made many important policies. However, communism was already a known doctrine in China. Sun Yat-sen had had communist help to set up the GMD. There were also other dedicated leaders like Zhou Enlai. Communism might just have survived without Mao. However, this is all speculation. The civil unrest set up the country for a change of government. These factors do not lead directly to communism, but without them, neither the GMD nor the CCP could have established authority. The communists were victorious over the GMD due to the shortcomings of the KMT mentioned above, and the way the communists took advantage of them, and tried to gain peasant support. The main reason for the communist victory is thus the clever leadership of the party. The factors leading to the rise of the communist party in China are, therefore, the fall of the Manchu dynasty, peasant discontent and the way the communists alleviated that discontent, the erroneous actions of the GMD, the Japanese invasion and the way the communist leaders made sure that all this proved to be advantageous to their party. All these factors are interwoven, and lie in a delicate