#Chinese coinage free#

By contrast, the Communist armies were growing in strength and supported by the vast majority of the population in the areas in which they operated.

#Chinese coinage free#

Faced by shortages of raw materials and rampant inflation, the Nationalists resorted to printing money, to the extent that 63% of its expenditure was met in this way.īecause of difficulties in supplying Free China, most of which came through northern Burma, the effectiveness of the Nationalist's army declined and virtually collapsed when the Japanese renewed their attacks in 1944. This led to a crisis between Chiang Kai-shek and the Americans who were his main supporters at a time when the general population was beginning to lose faith in the government.

When war broke out in 1939, this aid gradually dried up, until the Japanese entered the war on the side of Germany after the attack on Pearl Harbour. The Chinese Nationalists, deprived of their main sources of revenue, and having lost most of their army, air force and arsenals, were sustained by financial help as well as munitions from abroad, mainly the USA, Soviet Russia, Great Britain and France. The chief beneficiaries were the Communists, who gained much support with their guerrilla tactics against the Japanese. Within months both Shanghai and Nanjing had fallen to the Japanese advance and the Nationalists were forced to retreat into Sichuan province, setting up a capital in Chongqing ( Chungking).

In 1937 Japan invaded northern China, capturing Beijing and Tianjin. The KMT split with the Communists led to a war in which the Communists were forced to retreat northwards in what became known as the ' Long March', during which Mao Zedong came to prominence. Xuan Tong, the former emperor of China who had abdicated in 1912, was smuggled out of Tianjin ( Tientsin) and set up by the Japanese as a puppet emperor with the name of Kang De, the province being renamed Manchukuo. In 1931, Japan invaded Manchuria and managed to occupy the whole of the country within five months. Although the warlords still remained in control of parts of the country (some until 1949) China was finally reunified. By 1926 the KMT's National Revolution Army had secured Guangdong and begun to move north, capturing first Nanjing and Shanghai, then finally Beijing ( Peking) in 1928. Chiang Kai-shek, a protegé of Sun Yat-sen, became the academy's first commandant and quickly rose to eventual leadership of the KMT. Under his influence Communists were encouraged to join the KMT, which enabled the foundation of a military academy with help from Soviet Russia. Meanwhile, the Kuomintang had been successfully reorganised by Dr Sun Yat-sen, who had established a power base in Guangdong province. The country quickly degenerated into anarchy, with rival army factions taking over control of large areas under various warlords. Though this was defeated, further rivalries led to a split between the southern and northern provinces. Li Yuanhong succeeded to the presidency and was immediately faced with dissension from his Prime Minister and an attempt to restore the monarchy. In 1916 he attempted to set himself up as Emperor with the throne name of Hong Xian ( Hung-hsien) but was thwarted in his ambition by the secession of Yunnan Province and an army rebellion. In 1914 Yuan dismissed the KMT members and dissolved the Assembly, effectively ruling the country as a dictator. Yuan Shikai quickly came into conflict with the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party) who had won a large majority in the Chinese National Assembly. Sun Yat-sen, who had returned from abroad to become the first president of the new republic, resigned in favour of Yuan Shikai, with a prominent rebel, Li Yuanhong ( Li Yüan-hung) becoming vice-president. A retired former viceroy, Yuan Shikai ( Yüan Shih-k'ai), was made Prime Minister and agreed an armistice with the rebels who had set up a provisional government in Nanjing ( Nanking), under the terms of which the boy emperor Xuan Tong ( Hsüan T'ung) was forced to abdicate in February 1912. The Republic of China began in 1911 with a mutiny of soldiers in Hubei province and quickly spread into open revolution.