document_title: When the Saints Go Marching In

question_text: who wrote when the saints go marching in lyrics

text: When the Saints Go Marching In

text: Uses[edit]

text: The origins of this song are unclear.[2] It apparently evolved in the early 1900s from a number of similarly titled gospel songs including "When the Saints Are Marching In" (1896) and "When the Saints March In for Crowning" (1908).[3] The first known recorded version was in 1923 by the Paramount Jubilee Singers on Paramount 12073. Although the title given on the label is "When All the Saints Come Marching In", the group sings the modern lyrics beginning with "When the saints go marching in". No author is shown on the label. Several other gospel versions were recorded in the 1920s, with slightly varying titles but using the same lyrics, including versions by The Four Harmony Kings (1924), Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers (1924), Wheat Street Female Quartet (1925), Bo Weavil Jackson (1926), Deaconess Alexander (1926), Rev. E. D. Campbell (1927), Robert Hicks (AKA Barbecue Bob, 1927), Blind Willie Davis (1928), and the Pace Jubilee Singers (1928).[4]

text: The earliest versions were slow and stately, but as time passed the recordings became more rhythmic, including a distinctly up tempo version by the Sanctified Singers on British Parlophone in 1931. Even though the song had folk roots, a number of composers claimed copyright in it in later years, including Luther G. Presley[5] and Virgil Oliver Stamps,[6] R. E. Winsett,[7] and Frank and Jim McCravy. Although the song is still heard as a slow spiritual number, since the mid-20th century it has been more commonly performed as a "hot" number.[citation needed] The tune is particularly associated with the city of New Orleans. A jazz standard, it has been recorded by a great many jazz and pop artists.

text: Both vocal and instrumental renditions of the song abound. Louis Armstrong was one of the first to make the tune into a nationally known pop tune in the 1930s. Armstrong wrote that his sister told him she thought the secular performance style of the traditional church tune was inappropriate and irreligious.[citation needed] Armstrong was in a New Orleans tradition of turning church numbers into brass band and dance.[clarification needed]

text: Lyrics[edit]

text: As with many numbers with long traditional folk use, there is no one "official" version of the song or its lyrics. This extends so far as confusion as to its name, with it often being mistakenly called "When the Saints Come Marching In". As for the lyrics themselves, their very simplicity makes it easy to generate new verses. Since the first and second lines of a verse are exactly the same, and the third and fourth are standard throughout, the creation of one suitable line in iambic tetrameter generates an entire verse.

text: It is impossible to list every version of the song, but a common standard version runs:

text: Often the first two words of the common third verse line ("Lord, how I want...") are sung as either "Oh how", "Oh, Lord" or even "Lord, Lord" as cue notes to the simple melody at each 3rd line.

text: Arrangements vary considerably. The simplest is just an endless repetition of the chorus. Verses may be alternated with choruses, or put in the third of 4 repetitions to create an AABA form with the verse as the bridge.

text: One common verse in "hot" New Orleans versions runs (with considerable variation) like thus[citation needed]:

text: Some traditional arrangements often have ensemble rather than individual vocals. It is also common as an audience sing-along number. Versions using call and response are often heard, e.g.:

text: The response verses can echo the same melody or form a counterpoint melody, often syncopated opposite the rhythm of the main verses, and a solo singer might sing another counterpoint melody (solo soprano or tenor) as a 3rd part in more complex arrangements.

text: Analysis of the traditional lyrics[edit]

text: The song is apocalyptic, taking much of its imagery from the Book of Revelation, but excluding its more horrific depictions of the Last Judgment. The verses about the Sun and Moon refer to Solar and Lunar eclipses; the trumpet (of the Archangel Gabriel) is the way in which the Last Judgment is announced. As the hymn expresses the wish to go to Heaven, picturing the saints going in (through the Pearly Gates), it is entirely appropriate for funerals.

text: Artists who have performed and recorded the song[edit]

text: As gospel hymn[edit]

text:
First recorded by the Paramount Jubilee Singers on Paramount 12073, mid-November 1923. This group may be related to the Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers.[8]
Four Harmony Kings, Vocalion 14941, mid-November 1924.[9]
Elkins-Payne Jubilee Singers, Okeh 8170. c.November 24, 1924.
Bo Weavil Jackson, c. August 1926 in Chicago, IL, under the title "When the Saints Come Marching Home", Paramount 12390 [10][11]
Recorded by bluesman Sleepy John Estes accompanied by second guitar and kazoo for Bluebird Records in Chicago, 1941 [12]
This song is available in the Elvis Presley compilation Peace in the Valley: The Complete Gospel Recordings. Sony BMG/Elvis Music [13]

text: With traditional lyrics[edit]

text:
Louis Armstrong helped make The Saints into a jazz standard with his 1938 Decca recording.
The tune was brought into the early rock and roll repertory by Fats Domino as one of the traditional New Orleans numbers he often played to rock audiences. Domino would usually use "The Saints" as his grand finale number, sometimes with his horn players leaving the stage to parade through the theater aisles or around the dance floor.
Judy Garland sang it in her own pop style.
Elvis Presley performed the song during the Million Dollar Quartet jam session and also recorded a version for his film, Frankie and Johnny.
Bing Crosby included the song in a medley on his album 101 Gang Songs (1961)
Other early rock artists to follow Domino's lead included Jerry Lee Lewis and Tony Sheridan (featuring then-unknown band The Beatles as a backing group).
In 1990, John Rutter arranged a lively version of the song for the Cambridge Singers, piano or organ accompaniment, and a Dixieland jazz-style clarinet obbligato.
Tears for Fears performed the song and on the Live from Santa Barbara CD.
Bruce Springsteen with The Seeger Sessions Band Tour includes the song as an encore for some shows.
Etta James performed the song during the 1984 Summer Olympics opening ceremony.[14]
Dolly Parton has also included the song in a gospel medley, as has Trini Lopez in a mixed gospel/folk medley (Trini Lopez at PJ's) as part of a medley with "Gotta Travel On", "Down by the Riverside", "Marianne", and "Volare".
The Rivieras performed a surf music version for their 1964 album Let's Have A Party, titled "When The Saints".
Actor Hal Linden performed the song with Dr. Teeth and The Electric Mayhem during his guest appearance on The Muppet Show.
St. Lawrence University sports teams use it as their theme song.
The Weavers
The Kidsongs Kids and audience members perform this song on their 1989 video A Day at Camp during the grand finale of the Sizzling Summer Revue.
In a Wee Sing 1992 video, The Marvelous Musical Mansion, Alex, Kelly, Benji, Auntie Anabella, Great-Uncle Rubato and everybody else sing this song to celebrate what they have found today.

text: With non-traditional lyrics[edit]

text:
Louis Armstrong and Danny Kaye performed a comedy duet version in the 1959 film The Five Pennies, naming composers and musicians who would play "on the day that the saints go marching in".
Woody Guthrie sang a song called "When The Yanks Go Marching In" in 1943.
Tony Sheridan made a successful Rock-And-Roll arrangement of the song, which he recorded with The Beatles in 1961, significantly deviating some verses from the original lyrics.
Abrasive Wheels, a hardcore band from Leeds, Great Britain, came out of the so-called 'UK82' Punk scene with a version called "When the Punks Go Marching In" off their first album of the same name, in 1982. They replaced 'Saints' with 'Punks', 'Skins', 'Pigs', and 'Wheels' respectively, otherwise repeating the same verse four times. All other traditional lyrics remain intact, save in the third verse, which states: "I want to be in that meat van...when the pigs go marching in!" (Leading to the culmination of "Oh when the Wheels...go marching in...[...]..I want to be in that number, when the Wheels!...Go!...Mar!...Ching!...In!" for a self referential climax, complete with echoed call-and-response, ideal for live situation sing-a-longs.).
In 1983, Aaron Neville, along with New Orleans musicians Sal and Steve Monistere and Carlo Nuccio and a group of players for the New Orleans Saints American football team, recorded a popular version of the song incorporating the team's "Who Dat?" chant.[15]
French group Dionysos's album La Mécanique du Cœur (2007, The Mechanic of the Heart) contains a version of this song, in collaboration with the French singer Arthur H.
Many supporters of association football teams sing versions of the song, "Saints" is often replaced with the name or nickname of the club, for example, "When the Saints Go Marching In" (St Mirren F C) and (Southampton F.C), "When the Reds Go Marching In (Liverpool FC)", "When the Posh Go Steaming In" (Peterborough United F.C.), "When the Spurs Go Marching In" (Tottenham Hotspur) or "When the Stripes Go Marching In", "When the blues Go Marching In" (Bengaluru FC), as a rally song during football matches.[16][17][18][19]
It is also used within Rugby Union where Northampton Saints sing a traditional version of the song.
It is also used in Rugby League where St. Helens RLFC sing a version of the song.
The St Kilda Football Club, an Australian rules football club use a variation as their theme song. The main variation being in the chorus 'oh how I want to be in St Kilda'.
Bill Haley & His Comets released a rock and roll version (with lyrics referencing the members of the Comets) in 1955 on Decca Records, entitled "The Saints Rock and Roll". The group also recorded new versions of the song for Orfeon Records in 1966 and Sonet Records in 1968, as well as numerous live versions.
Japanese voice actress Kotono Mitsuishi performed a cover in 1995.
The Rock-afire Explosion of ShowBiz Pizza Place covered the song in the "New Years Eve '82" showtape, sung by Fatz Geronimo (Burt "Sal" Wilson), with new lyrics naming off every member of the band.
Abrasive Wheels, an English Punk band from Leeds, part of the so called UK82 scene

text: With no lyrics[edit]

text:
The 1958 rock and roll instrumental song "Rebel Rouser" by Duane Eddy was loosely based on this tune.
The rhythm of "When the Saints Go Marching In" was adapted by Dick Powell's Four Star Television for its legal drama, The Law and Mr. Jones starring James Whitmore, which ran on ABC from 1960-1962.[20]
Big Chief Jazzband recorded the tune in Oslo on May 10, 1953. It was released on the 78 rpm record His Master's Voice A.L. 3307.
Al Hirt released a version on his 1963 album, Our Man in New Orleans[21] and was also featured on his greatest hits album, The Best of Al Hirt.[22]
Harry James released a version on his 1972 album Mr. Trumpet. (Longines Symphonette Society SYS 5459/LS 217C/LS 217U)
It was recorded under the title of "Revival" by Johnny and the Hurricanes. The band's management claimed authorship.[23]
A portion of the song was also used in the "boss" music of the "Out of This Dimension" Easter egg stage in the game Star Fox for the SNES.
A techno remix of this song, titled "Saints Go Marching," is a playable song in some versions of Dance Dance Revolution.
The song has been used as a fight song for many schools, including Providence College and Saint Joseph's University. The Baylor University Golden Wave Marching band plays the song during Baylor football games right after a touchdown is scored. The song is also the inspiration for the nickname of the New Orleans Saints.
The musical Urinetown includes a parody homage of "Saints" entitled "Run, Freedom Run" as its protest theme.
John Williams and the Boston Pops Orchestra recorded a version and included it on their 1995 compilation album Pops Stoppers!.
An arrangement of "When the Saints Go Marching In" is also the official march of the Royal Hälsinge Air Force Wing (F 15 Söderhamn) in Sweden.[24]
A New Orleans-style instrumental of this song titled "The Saints Will Never Come" is heard in The Parish level of Left 4 Dead 2, coming from a parade float attached to a tractor.

text: Popular culture[edit]

text:
The song was the inspiration for the name of the National Football League team the New Orleans Saints. The version sung by Fats Domino is used as the team's touchdown song.
The children's television show Barney & Friends has a song called "Walk Across the Street" sung to this tune.[25]
In the survival-horror video game Left 4 Dead 2, the song plays when the four survivors ride atop a parade float in New Orleans to cross an overrun street.
This song was used in the episode Dr. Horatio's Magic Orchestra in Disney's animated TV series, Goof Troop.
Amy Rose sang the song for her audition of Sonic the Hedgehog's sidekick in the debut episode of Sonic Boom.
A version by The US Navy Southwest Regional Band was used in the 2006 film Déjà Vu.
In the Australian TV show Parallax, the character Martin can be heard singing the song while having a shower.
In the second episode of The Flintstones entitled "Hot Lips Hannigan", Fred sings a rendition of the song at The Rockland.
Towards the end of the Mrs. Brown's Boys episode "Mammy's Going", the title character sings the song before planning to head down to Foleys to celebrate her birthday, only to learn that her pet dog Spartacus has been put down.
In the We Bare Bears webisode Charlie's Opus, Charlie plays the first few bars of the song in F Major with a trombone. [26]
In The Simpsons episode One Fish, Two Fish, Blowfish, Blue Fish, Lisa plays the song on her saxophone to cheer Homer Simpson up, when he believes he is dying after eating a poisonous blowfish. He even starts singing the song with slight altered lyrics such as "When the saints go over there, no over there".
In The Real Ghostbusters episode, Play Those Ragtime Boos, the ghost of a trumpet player; Malachi and his jazz band plays the song throughout the episode, causing time to slip backwards back into the past.
The song is also used by the West Block Blues the fan club of the Indian football club Bengaluru FC as their team song but with the lyrics " When the Blues Go Marching In".


document_title: Thanos

question_text: who voices thanos in guardians of the galaxy

root

text: Thanos

text: Origin[edit]

text: Writer-artist Jim Starlin originally conceived of Thanos of Titan during college psychology classes. As Starlin described:

tag: p

text: I went to college between doing U.S. military service and getting work in comics, and there was a psych class and I came up with Thanos ... and Drax the Destroyer, but I'm not sure how he fit into it, just anger management probably. So I came up to Marvel and [editor] Roy [Thomas] asked if I wanted to do an issue of Iron Man. I felt that this may be my only chance ever to do a character, not having the confidence that my career was going to last anything longer than a few weeks. So they got jammed into it. Thanos was a much thinner character and Roy suggested beefing him up, so he's beefed up quite a bit from his original sketches ... and later on I liked beefing him up so much that he continued to grow in size.[1]

text: Starlin has admitted the character is influenced by Jack Kirby's Darkseid:

text: Kirby had done the New Gods, which I thought was terrific. He was over at DC at the time. I came up with some things that were inspired by that. You'd think that Thanos was inspired by Darkseid, but that was not the case when I showed up. In my first Thanos drawings, if he looked like anybody, it was Metron. I had all these different gods and things I wanted to do, which became Thanos and the Titans. Roy took one look at the guy in the Metron-like chair and said: "Beef him up! If you're going to steal one of the New Gods, at least rip off Darkseid, the really good one!"[2]

text: Publication history[edit]

text: Thanos' first appearance was in Iron Man #55 (Feb. 1973), featuring a story by Jim Starlin that was scripted by Mike Friedrich. The storyline from that issue continued through Captain Marvel #25–33 (bi-monthly: March 1973 – Jan. 1974), Marvel Feature #12 (Nov. 1973), Daredevil #107 (Jan. 1974), and Avengers #125 (July 1974). He returned in an extended storyline that spanned Strange Tales #178-181 (Feb.–Aug. 1975), Warlock #9-11 (Oct. 1975 – Jan. 1976), Marvel Team Up #55 (March 1977), and the 1977 Annuals for Avengers and Marvel Two-in-One (Thanos does not actually appear until the end of Warlock #9). He was also featured in a short backup story in Logan's Run #6 (June 1977) and had a small role in the Death of Captain Marvel graphic novel (April 1982).

text: The character was revived in Silver Surfer vol. 3, #34 (Feb. 1990) and guest-starred until issue #50 (June 1991), while simultaneously appearing in The Thanos Quest #1–2 (Sept.–Oct. 1990) and Infinity Gauntlet #1-6 (July–Dec. 1991). After an appearance in Spider-Man #17 (Dec. 1991), Thanos had a recurring role in Warlock and the Infinity Watch #1-42 (Feb. 1992 – Aug. 1995). This was followed by crossover appearances in Infinity War #1-6 (June – Nov. 1992), Infinity Crusade #1–6 (June – Nov. 1993), Silver Surfer vol. 3, #86-88 (Nov. 1993 – Jan. 1994), Warlock Chronicles #6-8, Thor #468–471 (Nov. 1993 – Feb. 1994), Namor The Sub-Mariner #44 (Nov. 1993), Secret Defenders #11-14 (Jan.–April 1994), Cosmic Powers #1–6 (March–July 1994), and Cosmic Powers Unlimited #1 (May 1995).

text: Thanos appeared in a connected storyline in Ka-Zar vol. 2, #4–11 (Aug. 1997 – March 1998), Ka-Zar Annual (1997), and the X-Man and Hulk Annual (1998), before featuring in Thor vol. 2, #21–25 (March–July 2000) and the 2000 Annual. The character was next used in Captain Marvel vol. 4, #17–19 (June–Aug. 2001), Avengers: Celestial Quest #1-8 (Nov. 2001 – June 2002), Infinity Abyss #1-6 (Aug.–Oct. 2002) and Marvel: The End #1-6 (May-Aug 2003).

text: In 2004 Thanos received an eponymous title that ran for 12 issues. In 2006, the character played an important role in Annihilation: Silver Surfer #1-4 (June – Sept. 2006) and Annihilation #1-6 (Oct. 2006 – March 2007). The character was re-introduced in Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 2, #24-25 (April–May 2010) and played a major role in The Thanos Imperative: Ignition (June 2010) and The Thanos Imperative #1-6 (July–Dec. 2010).

text: The character returned in Avengers Assemble #1 (March 2012).[3] A mini-series titled Thanos: Son of Titan by Joe Keatinge was planned for publication in August 2012, but was cancelled.[4]

text: The character's origin was expanded in the five-issue Thanos Rising miniseries by Jason Aaron and Simone Bianchi which was published monthly beginning in April 2013.[5] Later that same year, Thanos played a central role in the Infinity miniseries written by Jonathan Hickman and drawn by Jim Cheung, Jerome Opeña, and Dustin Weaver.

text: In May 2014, Jim Starlin and Ron Lim worked together on the one-shot Thanos Annual, which is a prelude to a new trilogy of original graphic novels. The first, Thanos: The Infinity Revelation, was released the following August.[6][7] Beginning in February 2015, Starlin also penned a four-issue miniseries titled Thanos vs. Hulk, which was set prior to the graphic novels. The second installment in the trilogy, Thanos: The Infinity Relativity, was released in June, 2015.[8] The third graphic novel, Thanos: The Infinity Finale, as well as the connected mini-series The Infinity Entity are announced for Spring 2016.[9]

text: At the same time Starlin was writing these graphic novels and tie-ins, the character also appeared in New Avengers #23-24 (Oct-Nov 2014),[10] Guardians of the Galaxy vol. 3, #18-20 (Oct-Dec 2014), Legendary Star-Lord #4 (Dec 2014), a six-issue miniseries titled Thanos: A God Up There Listening (Dec 2014), Avengers vol. 5, #40-41 (Mar-Apr 2015), and Deadpool vol. 3, #45 ("#250") (Jun 2015). Thanos also played a major role in the five-issue miniseries The Infinity Gauntlet vol. 2, (July 2015 – Jan 2016), a tie-in of the cross-over Secret Wars (2015).

text: Fictional character biography[edit]

text: Thanos was born on Saturn's moon Titan, and is the child of Eternals Mentor and Sui-San. Thanos carries the Deviants gene, and as such shares the physical appearance of the Eternals' cousin race. At birth, his mother attempted to kill him. During his school years, Thanos was a pacifist[11] and would only play with his brother Eros (Starfox) and pets. By adolescence, Thanos had become fascinated with nihilism and death, worshipping and eventually falling in love with the physical embodiment of death, Mistress Death.[12] As an adult, Thanos augmented his physical strength and powers mystically and artificially. He also attempted to create a new life for himself by starting a family. He is visited again by Mistress Death, for whom he murders his family.[13]

text: Cosmic Cube and Infinity Gems[edit]

text: Wishing to impress Mistress Death, Thanos gathers an army of villainous aliens and begins a nuclear bombardment of Titan that kills millions of his race.[14] Seeking universal power in the form of the Cosmic Cube, Thanos travels to Earth. Prior to landing, his vessel destroys a nearby car as a family witnesses his arrival.[15] Unbeknownst to Thanos, two of the family members in the vehicle survive: the father's spirit is preserved by the Titanian cosmic entity Kronos and is given a new form as Drax the Destroyer while the daughter is found by Thanos' father, Mentor, and is raised to become the heroine Moondragon. Thanos eventually locates the Cube, and also attracts the attention of Mistress Death. Willing the Cube to make him omnipotent, Thanos then discards the Cube. He imprisons Kronos and taunts Kree hero Captain Marvel, who with the aid of superhero team the Avengers and ISAAC (a super-computer based on Titan), is eventually able to defeat Thanos by destroying the Cube.[16]

text: Thanos later comes to the aid of Adam Warlock in a war against the Magus and his religious empire.[17][18] During this alliance Thanos cultivates a plan to reunite with Mistress Death, and secretly siphons off the energies of Warlock's Soul Gem, and combines these with the power of the other Infinity Gems to create a weapon capable of destroying a star. Warlock summons the Avengers and Captain Marvel to stop Thanos, although the plan is foiled when Thanos kills Warlock. The Titan regroups and captures the heroes, who are freed by Spider-Man and the Thing. Thanos is finally stopped by Warlock, whose spirit emerges from the Soul Gem and turns the Titan to stone.[14][19] Thanos's spirit eventually reappears to accompany a dying Captain Marvel's soul into the realm of Death.[20]

text: The Infinity saga[edit]

text: Thanos is eventually resurrected,[21] and collects the Infinity Gems once again.[22] He uses the gems to create the Infinity Gauntlet, making himself omnipotent, and erases half the living things in the universe to prove his love to Death.[23] This act and several other acts are soon undone by Adam Warlock.[24] Warlock reveals that Thanos has always allowed himself to be defeated because the Titan secretly knows he is not worthy of ultimate power. Thanos joins Warlock as part of the Infinity Watch and helps him to defeat first his evil[25] and then good[26] personas, and cure Thor of "warrior Madness".[27]

text: The events above have been dubbed the "Infinity saga."[28]

text: Other adventures[edit]

text: Thanos later recruits a team of Earth-bound super-villains and puts them under the field leadership of Geatar in a mission to capture an ancient robot containing the obscure knowledge of a universal library and extract its data.[29] Thanos uses information from the robot to plot against and battle Tyrant, the first creation of Galactus turned destroyer.[30] When trapped in an alternate dimension, Thanos employs the aid of the brother of Ka-Zar, Parnival Plunder[31] and later the Hulk[32] to escape, although both attempts are unsuccessful. Thanos is eventually freed and comes into conflict with Thor, aligning himself with Mangog in a scheme to obtain powerful mystical and cosmic talismans which will allow him to destroy all life in the universe,[33] and during their battles Thanos decimates the planet Rigel-3.[34]

text: Thanos then uses the heroes Thor and Genis-Vell (Captain Marvel's son) against the death god Walker, who attempts to woo Mistress Death and then destroy the entity after being rejected.[35] Thanos then devises a plan to become the All-Father of a new pantheon of gods created by himself. Thanos, however, finds himself opposed by the Avengers' former member Mantis and her son Quoi, who apparently is destined to be the Celestial Messiah. Thanos abandons this plan after having to unite with Mistress Death to destroy the "Rot", a cosmic aberration in deep space caused by Thanos's incessant love for Death.[36] Thanos also once conducted extensive research on genetics, and after studying many of the universe's heroes and villains cloned them and gene-spliced his own DNA into the subjects. Although he later abandons the project, five clones survive, being versions of Professor X, Iron Man, Gladiator, Doctor Strange, and Galactus respectively. A sixth and unnamed version of Thanos also appears, and it is revealed the incarnations of Thanos encountered in the past by Thor and Ka-Zar were actually clones. The true Thanos – with the aid of Adam Warlock, Gamora, Pip the Troll, Spider-Man, Captain Marvel, and Dr. Strange – destroys the remaining clones.[37]

text: When the ancient Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten uses a source of cosmic power, the Heart of the Universe, to seize power in present-day Earth (killing most of Earth's heroes in the process), Thanos uses a time-travel stratagem to defeat him. Thanos then uses the Heart of the Universe to reverse Akhenaten's actions and was also compelled to correct a flaw in the universe. Changed by the experience, Thanos advises confidant Adam Warlock he will no longer seek universal conquest.[38] However, Marvel's Executive Editor Tom Brevoort has stated on his Tumblr blog that this story is not in any way a part of official Marvel continuity.[39][40]

text: Thanos decides to atone for the destruction of Rigel-3, and agrees to aid a colony of Rigellians in evacuating their planet before Galactus can consume it. During the course of this mission Thanos learns Galactus is collecting the Infinity Gems in an effort to end his unyielding hunger. Thanos later learns Galactus is being manipulated into releasing a multiversal threat called Hunger, which feeds on entire universes. Despite opposition from Thanos, Galactus unwittingly frees the entity, and when its intentions are revealed, the pair team up and attempt to destroy it.[41]

text: En route to the Kyln, an intergalactic prison, Thanos meets Death, who for the first time speaks to the Titan. Death claims to be worth wooing, but says Thanos must offer something other than death. At the Kyln Thanos encounters Peter Quill, also known as Star-Lord, and the Shi'ar warrior Gladiator, who are both prisoners, and the Beyonder, who has been rendered amnesiac by its choice to assume a humanoid female form. Thanos battles the Beyonder, causing its mind to shut down and leaving its power trapped within a comatose physical form. Thanos then instructs the Kyln officers to keep the Beyonder on life support indefinitely in order to prevent the entity from being reborn.[42] Thanos departs the Kyln in the company of Skreet, a chaos-mite freed from the prison. Thanos then meets the Fallen, revealed to be the true first Herald of Galactus. Thanos defeats the former Herald and places him under complete mental control.[43] He later appears in Wisconsin attempting to charge a weapon called the Pyramatrix with the life force of everyone on Earth until he is defeated by Squirrel Girl. After the battle, Uatu the Watcher appears and confirms to Squirrel Girl that she defeated the real Thanos, not a clone or copy.[44]

text: Annihilation[edit]

text: During the Annihilation War Thanos allies himself with the genocidal villain Annihilus. When the Annihilation Wave destroys the Kyln, Thanos sends the Fallen to check on the status of the Beyonder, whose mortal form he finds has perished. Before the Fallen can report back to Thanos it encounters Tenebrous and Aegis: two of Galactus's ancient foes. Thanos convinces Tenebrous and Aegis to join the Annihilation Wave in order to get revenge on Galactus, and they subsequently defeat the World Devourer and the Silver Surfer. Annihilus desires the secret of the Power Cosmic and asks Thanos to study Galactus. Once Thanos learns Annihilus's true goal is to use the Power Cosmic to destroy all life and remain the sole survivor, he decides to free Galactus. Drax the Destroyer kills Thanos before he can do so but discovers that Thanos had placed a failsafe device to allow Silver Surfer to free Galactus in the event that Annihilus betrayed him.[45] During a climactic battle with Annihilus, Nova is near death and sees Thanos standing with Mistress Death.[46]

text: The Thanos Imperative[edit]

text: A cocoon protected by the Universal Church of Truth is revealed to be hiding Thanos, who has been chosen by Oblivion to be the new Avatar of Death.[47] Resurrected before his mind could be fully formed, Thanos goes on a mindless rampage before being captured by the Guardians of the Galaxy.[48] Thanos pretends to aid the Guardians against the invading Cancerverse, and after discovering its origin kills an alternate version of Mar-Vell, the self-proclaimed Avatar of Life. This causes the collapse of the Cancerverse, and Nova sacrifices himself in an attempt to contain Thanos inside the imploding reality.[49] Thanos escapes[50] and returns to Earth seeking an artificial cosmic cube. He forms an incarnation of the criminal group Zodiac to retrieve it, but he is defeated by the Avengers and the Guardians of the Galaxy and remanded to the custody of the Elders of the Universe.[51]

text: Infinity and the Cabal[edit]

text: Thanos soon invades Earth again after being informed that most of the Avengers have temporarily left the planet.[52] He launches an assault on Attilan, which he offers to spare in exchange for the deaths of all Inhumans between the ages of 16 and 22. Black Bolt later informs the Illuminati that the true purpose of the invasion is to find and kill Thane, an Eternal/Inhuman hybrid that Thanos had secretly fathered years earlier.[53] Thanos is trapped in a pocket limbo of stasis by his son.[54] Thanos is freed by Namor and was among the villains that joined his Cabal to destroy other worlds.[55] Thanos later meets his end on Battleworld, where he is easily killed by God Emperor Doom during an attempted insurrection.[56]

text: Ultimates and Civil War II[edit]

text: Thanos is unintentionally brought back to life by Galactus.[57] When Thanos prepares to raid a Project Pegasus facility to steal a Cosmic Cube, he is ambushed and defeated by a team of Avengers. During their battle, he mortally wounds War Machine and critically injures She-Hulk.[58][59][60] After his defeat, he is imprisoned in the Triskelion,[61] and manipulates Ant-Man into facilitating his escape.[62] Thanos goes on a killing spree, but Black Panther, Blue Marvel and Monica Rambeau are able to stop him by devising a device that blocks the electrical synapses in his brain.[63]

text: Thanos somehow later recovers and escapes captivity, and reclaims his Black Order forces from Corvus Glaive. After retaking command of his Black Quadrant outpost, Thanos discovers that he is dying.[64] Thanos tries to force Mentor to find a cure for his malady, but kills him when he is unable to.[65] Around this time, Thanos is approached by a mysterious hooded woman, who proposes an alliance. He tasks her with bringing him the hammer of the deceased Ultimate Thor.[66] The woman fails, but removes her disguise to reveal herself as Hela, the Norse goddess of death. She tells Thanos that she needs his help to reclaim Hel, and in exchange, offers to give him the one thing he has been searching for his entire life: death. After this, the two kiss.[67]

text: Powers and abilities[edit]

text: Thanos is a mutant member of the race of superhumans known as the Titanian Eternals. The character possesses abilities common to the Eternals, but amplified to a higher degree through a combination of his mutant–Eternal heritage, bionic amplification, mysticism, and power bestowed by the abstract entity, Death. Demonstrating enormous superhuman strength, stamina, and durability, Thanos can absorb and project vast quantities of cosmic energy and is capable of telekinesis, telepathy, and matter manipulation. Thanos is an accomplished hand-to-hand combatant, having been trained in the art of war on Titan.

text: Thanos has proved himself capable of briefly holding his own in battle against Odin,[68] and of blasting Galactus off his feet.[69]

text: Thanos is a supergenius in virtually all known fields of advanced science and has created technology far exceeding contemporary Earth science. He often employs a transportation chair capable of space flight, force field projection, teleportation, time travel, and movement through alternate universes. Thanos is also a master strategist and uses several space vessels, at least three under the name "Sanctuary", as a base of operations.

text: Other versions[edit]

text: Amalgam Comics[edit]

text: During the 1996 Amalgam Comics crossover between DC Comics and Marvel, Thanos merged with Darkseid to become "Thanoseid".[70]

text: Earth X[edit]

text: In the alternate universe limited series Earth X, Thanos dwelled in the Realm of the Dead with the entity Death.[71] It is revealed his mother was a Skrull and Death used her secret to make him believe that Death was his mother. When the deception is revealed, he uses the Ultimate Nullifier on Death.[72]

text: Ultimate Marvel[edit]

text: The Ultimate Marvel imprint title Ultimate Fantastic Four features an alternate universe version of Thanos who is the ruler of Acheron (and has a son called Ronan the Accuser, who is in possession of a Cosmic Cube[73]), a vast empire consisting of thousands of worlds that exist in another plane of existence.[74]

text: Marvel Zombies 2[edit]

text: Thanos features in the limited series Marvel Zombies 2, set in the alternate universe of Earth-2149. Having been "zombified", the character is killed by the cosmic-powered Hulk after an altercation over food.[75]

text: In other media[edit]

text: Television[edit]

text:
Thanos was featured in the Silver Surfer animated television series, voiced by Gary Krawford. Due to Fox's broadcast standards, Thanos is depicted as a worshiper of Lady Chaos. Thanos talks to a statue of Lady Chaos on his ship.[76]
Thanos appears on The Super Hero Squad Show, voiced by Steven Blum in his first appearance,[77] and by Jim Cummings in all other appearances.[78]
Thanos appears in the Avengers Assemble[79] and Guardians of the Galaxy animated shows, voiced by Isaac C. Singleton Jr.[80]

tag: ul

text: Film[edit]

text:
Damion Poitier makes a cameo appearance as Thanos (credited as Man #1) during the mid-credits of the 2012 film The Avengers as Loki's mysterious benefactor.[81][82]
Josh Brolin appears as Thanos in the 2014 film Guardians of the Galaxy.[83] He tries to use Ronan the Accuser to obtain an Infinity Stone. The film also introduces him as the adoptive father of Gamora and Nebula. Sean Gunn stood in for Thanos on set,[84][85] while Brolin provided the performance capture of the character.[86] Thanos was originally going to have a larger role in Guardians of the Galaxy, but Joss Whedon felt that the character needed to be threaded more gently.[87]
Brolin reprises his role (uncredited) in the mid-credits scene of the 2015 film Avengers: Age of Ultron. Thanos is seen retrieving an Infinity Gauntlet without stones saying "Fine, I'll do it myself."
Brolin will reprise his role in the upcoming films Avengers: Infinity War and its untitled sequel.[88][89]

text: Video games[edit]

text:
Thanos appeared in the Capcom fighting games Marvel Super Heroes[citation needed] and Marvel vs. Capcom 2 as a playable character, voiced by Andrew Jackson.[citation needed]
Thanos appears as a downloadable content character in Lego Marvel Super Heroes.[90]
Thanos appears as a playable character of Lego Marvel's Avengers, voiced by Isaac C. Singleton Jr.[citation needed]
Thanos is a playable character in Marvel Future Fight.[91]
Thanos is available to play with in Marvel: Contest of Champions.[citation needed]
There are two playable versions of Thanos in the match-three mobile game Marvel Puzzle Quest. Thanos was added to the game in December 2016.[92]
Thanos appears in Guardians of the Galaxy: The Telltale Series, voiced by Jake Hart.[93] In the first chapter, Thanos seeks the Eternity Forge, an ancient artifact. He is killed in a battle with the Nova Corps and the Guardians of the Galaxy.
Thanos appears as a playable character in Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite,[94] voiced again by Isaac C. Singleton Jr.[95] In this game, most of Thanos' moves have been revamped, as he is no longer have Infinity Stone-based moves on his move list from the previous Marvel vs. Capcom games. In the story mode, he was originally captured by Ultron Sigma (a fusion between Ultron and Sigma from Capcom's Mega Man X series), until he is rescued by the remaining heroes and soon must aid the heroes to devise another plan in combatting Ultron Sigma.

text: Novels[edit]

text: Thanos is the protagonist of the 2017 novel Thanos: Death Sentence by Stuart Moore.[96] The book follows Thanos' last chance to win Death's love after his defeat at the end of The Infinity Gauntlet.

text: Collected editions[edit]

text: A number of the stories featuring Thanos have been republished into trade paperbacks and other collected editions:

text:
The Life of Captain Marvel (collects Iron Man #55, Captain Marvel #25-34, Marvel Feature #12), 1991, ISBN 0-87135-635-X
Essential Avengers: Volume 6 (includes Captain Marvel #33; The Avengers #125, 135), 576 pages, February 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3058-6
The Greatest Battles of the Avengers (includes Avengers Annual #7), 156 pages, December 1993, ISBN 0-87135-981-2
Avengers vs. Thanos (collects Iron-Man #55, Captain Marvel #25-33, Marvel Feature #12, Daredevil #105-107, Avengers #125, Warlock #9-11, 15, Avengers Annual #7, Marvel Two-In-One Annual #2, and material from Logan's Run #6), 472 pages, March 2013, ISBN 0-7851-6850-8
Essential Marvel Two-in-One: Volume 2 (includes Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2), 568 pages, July 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2698-8
Marvel Masterworks Captain Marvel: Volume 3 (collects Captain Marvel #22–33, Iron Man #55), 288 pages, hardcover, April 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3015-2
Marvel Masterworks Captain Marvel: Volume 6 (collects Captain Marvel #58-62, Marvel Spotlight #1-4, 8, Marvel Super-Heroes #3, Marvel Graphic Novel #1; Logan's Run #63), 296 pages, hardcover, May 2016, ISBN 978-0785199946
Marvel Masterworks Warlock: Volume 2 (collects Strange Tales #178-181; Warlock #9–15; Avengers Annual #7; Marvel Two-in-One Annual #2), hardcover, 320 pages, hardcover, June 2009, ISBN 0-7851-3511-1
The Death of Captain Marvel (collects Captain Marvel #34, Marvel Spotlight #1–2, Marvel Graphic Novel #1), 128 pages, hardcover, June 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4627-X
Silver Surfer: Rebirth of Thanos (collects Silver Surfer #34–38; The Thanos Quest miniseries; "The Final Flower!" from Logan's Run #6), 224 pages, April 2006, ISBN 0-7851-2046-7 (hardcover, August 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4478-1)
The Infinity Gauntlet (collects The Infinity Gauntlet limited series), 256 pages, March 2000, ISBN 0-87135-944-8 (December 2004, ISBN 0-7851-0892-0; July 2006, ISBN 0-7851-2349-0; hardcover, August 2010, ISBN 0-7851-4549-4)
Infinity War (collects Infinity War limited series; Warlock and the Infinity Watch #7–10; Marvel Comics Presents #108–111), 400 pages, April 2006, ISBN 0-7851-2105-6
Infinity Crusade:

Volume 1 (collects Infinity Crusade #1-3, Warlock Chronicles #1–3, Warlock and the Infinity Watch #18–19), 248 pages, December 2008, ISBN 0-7851-3127-2
Volume 2 (collects Infinity Crusade #4–6, Warlock Chronicles #4–5, Warlock and the Infinity Watch #20–22), 248 pages, February 2009, ISBN 0-7851-3128-0

Thor: Blood and Thunder (collects Thor #468–471, Silver Surfer #86–88, Warlock Chronicles #6–8, Warlock and the Infinity Watch #23–25), 336 pages, July 2011, ISBN 978-0-7851-5094-7
DC versus Marvel Comics (collects DC vs. Marvel mini-series, Doctor Strangefate #1), 163 pages, September 1996, ISBN 1-56389-294-4
Ka-Zar by Mark Waid and Andy Kubert:

Volume 1 (collects Ka-Zar #1–7, Tales of the Marvel Universe #1), 208 pages, January 2011, ISBN 978-0-7851-4353-6
Volume 2 (collects Ka-Zar #8–14, Annual '97), 216 pages, March 2011, ISBN 978-0-7851-5992-6

Deadpool Classic: Volume 5 (collects Deadpool #26–33, Baby's First Deadpool, Deadpool Team-Up #1), 272 pages, June 2011, ISBN 978-0-7851-5519-5
The Mighty Thor by Dan Jurgens and John Romita, Jr.: Volume 4 (collects Thor vol. 2, #18–25, Annual 2000), 256 pages, November 2010, ISBN 978-0-7851-4927-9
Infinity Abyss (collects Infinity Abyss limited series), 176 pages, 2003, ISBN 0-7851-0985-4
Thanos: The End (collects Marvel: The End limited series), 160 pages, May 2004, ISBN 0-7851-1116-6
Thanos: Redemption (collects Thanos #1-12), 304 pages, November 2013, ISBN 0-7851-8506-2

Epiphany (collects Thanos #1–6), 144 pages, June 2004, ISBN 0-7851-1355-X
Samaritan (collects Thanos #7–12), 144 pages, October 2004, ISBN 0-7851-1540-4

Annihilation:

Volume 1 (collects Drax the Destroyer miniseries, Annihilation: Prologue one-shot, Annihilation: Nova miniseries), 256 pages, October 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2901-4 (hardcover, March 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2511-6)
Volume 2 (collects Annihilation: Ronan miniseries, Annihilation: Silver Surfer miniseries, Annihilation: Super-Skrull miniseries), 320 pages, November 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2902-2 (hardcover, May 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2512-4)
Volume 3 (collects Annihilation: The Nova Corps Files one-shot/handbook, Annihilation limited series, Annihilation: Heralds of Galactus miniseries), 304 pages, December 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2903-0 (hardcover, July 2007, ISBN 0-7851-2513-2)

The Thanos Imperative (collects The Thanos Imperative #1–6, The Thanos Imperative: Ignition, The Thanos Imperative: Devastation, Thanos Sourcebook), 248 pages, hardcover, February 2011, ISBN 0-7851-5183-4
Infinity (collects Infinity #1-6, New Avengers vol. 3, #7-12, Avengers vol 5, #14-23, Infinity: Against the Tide Infinite Comic #1-2), 632 pages, hardcover, February 2014, ISBN 978-0785184225
Thanos Rising (collects Thanos Rising #1-5), 136 pages, hardcover, July 2014, ISBN 978-0785190479
Thanos: A God Up There Listening (collects Thanos: A God Up There Listening #1-4 and Thanos Annual #1), 120 pages, hardcover, December 2014, ISBN 978-0785191582
Thanos vs. Hulk (collects Thanos vs. Hulk #1-4, Warlock (1972) #12), 112 pages, June 2015, ISBN 978-0785197126
Thanos: Cosmic Powers (collects Secret Defenders #12-14, Cosmic Powers #1-6), 344 pages, November 2015, ISBN 978-0785198178
Deadpool vs. Thanos (collects Deadpool vs. Thanos #1-4), 112 pages, December 2015, ISBN 978-0785198451
The Infinity Gauntlet: Warzones! (collects The Infinity Gauntlet #1-5), 112 pages, December 2015, ISBN 978-0785198741
Siege: Battleworld (collects Siege #1-4, Uncanny X-Men (2011) #9-10), 144 pages, Februar 2016, ISBN 978-0785195498
Secret Wars (collects Secret Wars #1-9 and material from Secret Wars #0 FCBD), 312 pages, March 2016, ISBN 978-0785198840
The Infinity Entity (collects: The Infinity Entity #1-4, Thanos Annual #1), 116 pages, July 2016, ISBN 978-0785194217'

text: Reception[edit]

text: Thanos was ranked number 47 on IGN's top 100 comic book villains of all time,[97] 22nd on Wizard's Top 100 Greatest Villains list,[citation needed] and number 21 on Complex's 25 Greatest Comic Book Villains List.[98]


document_title: Chinese Civil War

question_text: who invaded china in 1937 and occupied the best farmland by 1938

question_tokens: who invaded china in 1937 and occupied the best farmland by 1938

text: Chinese Civil War

text: Background[edit]

text:
History of the
Republic of China (ROC)

1912–1949
Mainland rule

Xinhai Revolution
Provisional Gov't
Beiyang Government
Northern Expedition
Shanghai massacre
Chinese Civil War
Nationalist Government
Second Sino-Japanese War
Nanking Massacre

Constitutional government

1945–present
Taiwan

Retrocession of Taiwan
February 28 Incident
White Terror
Korean War
First Taiwan Strait Crisis
Vietnam War
Second Taiwan Strait Crisis
Project National Glory
Three Noes
Lieyu massacre
Third Taiwan Strait Crisis
Anti-Secession Law
100th anniversary
Sunflower Student Movement
2015 Ma–Xi meeting
2017 Summer Universiade

History of

China
the PRC (1949–present)
Taiwan (geographical)
Taipei
Kaohsiung
Beiping

Culture
Economy
Education
Geography
Politics

 Taiwan portal

v
t
e

tag: table

text: Following the collapse of the Qing Dynasty in the aftermath of the Xinhai Revolution, China fell into a brief period of civil war before Yuan Shikai assumed the presidency of the newly formed Republic of China.[11] The administration became known as the Beiyang Government, with its capital in Peking. After the death of Yuan Shikai in 1916, the following years were characterized by the power struggle between different cliques in the former Beiyang Army. In the meantime, the Kuomintang, led by Sun Yat-sen, created a new government in Guangzhou to resist the rule of Beiyang Government through a series of movements.

text: Sun's efforts to obtain aid from the Western countries were ignored, thus he turned to the Soviet Union in 1921. For political expediency, the Soviet leadership initiated a dual policy of support for both Sun and the newly established Communist Party of China, which would eventually found the People's Republic of China. Thus the struggle for power in China began between the KMT and the CPC.

text: In 1923, a joint statement by Sun and Soviet representative Adolph Joffe in Shanghai pledged Soviet assistance to China's unification.[12] The Sun-Joffe Manifesto was a declaration of cooperation among the Comintern, KMT and CPC.[12] Comintern agent Mikhail Borodin arrived in China in 1923 to aid in the reorganization and consolidation of the KMT along the lines of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union. The CPC joined the KMT to form the First United Front.[5]

text: In 1923, Sun sent Chiang Kai-shek, one of his lieutenants from his Tongmenghui days, for several months of military and political study in the Soviet capital Moscow.[13] By 1924, Chiang became the head of the Whampoa Military Academy, and rose to prominence as Sun's successor as head of the KMT.[13]

text: The Soviets provided the academy with much educational material, organization and equipment, including munitions.[13] They also provided education in many of the techniques for mass mobilization. With this aid, Sun was able to raise a dedicated "army of the party," with which he hoped to defeat the warlords militarily. CPC members were also present in the academy, and many of them became instructors, including Zhou Enlai, who was made a political instructor.[14]

text: Communist members were allowed to join the KMT on an individual basis.[12] The CPC itself was still small at the time, having a membership of 300 in 1922 and only 1,500 by 1925.[15] As of 1923, the KMT had 50,000 members.[15]

text: However, after Sun died in 1925, the KMT split into left- and right-wing movements. KMT members worried that the Soviets were trying to destroy the KMT from inside using the CPC. The CPC then began movements in opposition of the Northern Expedition, passing a resolution against it at a party meeting.

text: Then, in March 1927, the KMT held its second party meeting where the Soviets helped pass resolutions against the Expedition and curbing Chiang's power. Soon, the KMT would be clearly divided.

text: Throughout this time the Soviet Union had a large impact on the Communist Party of China. They sent money and spies to support the Chinese Communist Party. Without their support the communist party would have failed. There are documents showing of other communist parties in China at the time, one with as many as 10,000 members, but they all failed without support from the Soviet Union.[16]

text: Northern Expedition and KMT-CPC split[edit]

text: In early 1927, the KMT-CPC rivalry led to a split in the revolutionary ranks. The CPC and the left wing of the KMT had decided to move the seat of the KMT government from Guangzhou to Wuhan, where communist influence was strong.[15] However, Chiang and Li Zongren, whose armies defeated warlord Sun Chuanfang, moved eastward toward Jiangxi. The leftists rejected Chiang's demand to eliminate Communist influence within KMT and Chiang denounced them for betraying Sun Yat-sen's Three Principles of the People by taking orders from the Soviet Union. According to Mao Zedong, Chiang's tolerance of the CPC in the KMT camp decreased as his power increased.[17]

text: On April 7, Chiang and several other KMT leaders held a meeting, during which they proposed that Communist activities were socially and economically disruptive and had to be undone for the Nationalist revolution to proceed. On April 12, in Shanghai, many Communist members in the KMT were purged through hundreds of arrests and executions[18] on the orders of General Bai Chongxi. The CPC referred to this as the April 12 Incident or Shanghai Massacre.[19] This incident widened the rift between Chiang and Wang Jingwei, another warlord who controlled the city of Wuhan.

text: Eventually, the left wing of the KMT also expelled CPC members from the Wuhan government, which in turn was toppled by Chiang Kai-shek. The KMT resumed its campaign against warlords and captured Beijing in June 1928.[20] Soon, most of eastern China was under the control of the Nanjing central government, which received prompt international recognition as the sole legitimate government of China. The KMT government announced, in conformity with Sun Yat-sen, the formula for the three stages of revolution: military unification, political tutelage, and constitutional democracy.[21]

text: Communist insurgency (1927–1937)[edit]

text:
Communist insurgency (1927–1937)

Second National Revolutionary War (Mainland China)

Traditional Chinese
第二次國內革命戰爭

Simplified Chinese
第二次国内革命战争

[show]Transcriptions

Standard Mandarin

Hanyu Pinyin
Dìèrcì Guónèi Gémìng Zhànzhēng

text: On 1 August 1927, the Communist Party launched an uprising in Nanchang against the Nationalist government in Wuhan. This conflict led to the creation of the Red Army.[1][22] On August 4, the main forces of the Red Army left Nanchang and headed southwards for an assault on Guangdong. Nationalist forces quickly reoccupied Nanchang while the remaining members of the CPC in Nanchang went into hiding.[1] A CPC meeting on August 7 confirmed the objective of the party is to seize the political power by force, but the CPC was quickly suppressed the next day on August 8 by the Nationalist government in Wuhan led by Wang Jingwei. On August 14, Chiang Kai-shek announced his temporary retirement, as the Wuhan faction and Nanjing faction of the Kuomintang were allied once again with common goal of suppressing the Communist Party after the earlier split.[citation needed]

text: Attempts were later made by the CPC to take the cities of Changsha, Shantou and Guangzhou. The Red Army consisting of mutinous former National Revolutionary Army (NRA) soldiers as well as armed peasants established control over several areas in southern China.[22] KMT forces continued to attempt to suppress the rebellions.[22] Then, in September, Wang Jingwei was forced out of Wuhan. September also saw an unsuccessful armed rural insurrection, known as the Autumn Harvest Uprising, led by Mao Zedong.[23] Borodin then returned to the USSR in October via Mongolia. In November, Chiang Kai-shek went to Shanghai and invited Wang to join him. On December 11, the CPC started the Guangzhou Uprising, establishing a soviet there the next day, but lost the city by December 13 to a counter-attack under the orders of General Zhang Fakui. On December 16, Wang Jingwei fled to France. There were now three capitals in China: the internationally recognized republic capital in Beijing, the CPC and left-wing KMT at Wuhan and the right-wing KMT regime at Nanjing, which would remain the KMT capital for the next decade.[24][25]

text: This marked the beginning of a ten-year armed struggle, known in mainland China as the "Ten-Year Civil War" (十年内战) which ended with the Xi'an Incident when Chiang Kai-shek was forced to form the Second United Front against invading forces from Japan. In 1930 the Central Plains War broke out as an internal conflict of the KMT. It was launched by Feng Yuxiang, Yan Xishan and Wang Jingwei. The attention was turned to root out remaining pockets of Communist activity in a series of five encirclement campaigns.[26] The first and second campaigns failed and the third was aborted due to the Mukden Incident. The fourth campaign (1932–1933) achieved some early successes, but Chiang's armies were badly mauled when they tried to penetrate into the heart of Mao's Soviet Chinese Republic. During these campaigns, KMT columns struck swiftly into Communist areas, but were easily engulfed by the vast countryside and were not able to consolidate their foothold.

text: Finally, in late 1934, Chiang launched a fifth campaign that involved the systematic encirclement of the Jiangxi Soviet region with fortified blockhouses.[27] Unlike previous campaigns in which they penetrated deeply in a single strike, this time the KMT troops patiently built blockhouses, each separated by about five miles, to surround the Communist areas and cut off their supplies and food sources.[27]

text: In October 1934 the CPC took advantage of gaps in the ring of blockhouses (manned by the forces of a warlord ally of Chiang Kai-shek's, rather than regular KMT troops) and broke out of the encirclement. The warlord armies were reluctant to challenge Communist forces for fear of losing their own men and did not pursue the CPC with much fervor. In addition, the main KMT forces were preoccupied with annihilating Zhang Guotao's army, which was much larger than Mao's. The massive military retreat of Communist forces lasted a year and covered what Mao estimated as 12,500 km (25,000 Li); it became known as the Long March.[28] The Long March was a military retreat taken on by the Communist Party of China, led by Mao Zedong to evade the pursuit or attack of the Kuomintang army. It consisted of a series of marches, during which numerous Communist armies in the south escaped to the north and west. Over the course of the march from Jiangxi the First Front Army, led by an inexperienced military commission, was on the brink of annihilation by Chiang Kai Shek's troops as their stronghold was in Jiangxi. The Communists, under the command of Mao Zedong and Zhou Enlai, "escaped in a circling retreat to the west and north, which reportedly traversed over 9,000 kilometers over 370 days". The route passed through some of the most difficult terrain of western China by traveling west, and then northwards towards Shaanxi. "In November 1935, shortly after settling in northern Shaanxi, Mao officially took over Zhou Enlai's leading position in the Red Army. Following a major reshuffling of official roles, Mao became the chairman of the Military Commission, with Zhou and Deng Xiaoping as vice-chairmen." This marked Mao's position as the pre-eminent leader of the Party, with Zhou in second position to him.[citation needed]

text: The march ended when the CPC reached the interior of Shaanxi. Zhang Guotao's army, which took a different route through northwest China, was largely destroyed by the forces of Chiang Kai-shek and his Chinese Muslim allies, the Ma clique. Along the way, the Communist army confiscated property and weapons from local warlords and landlords, while recruiting peasants and the poor, solidifying its appeal to the masses. Of the 90,000–100,000 people who began the Long March from the Soviet Chinese Republic, only around 7,000–8,000 made it to Shaanxi.[29] The remnants of Zhang's forces eventually joined 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. Essentially, the great retreat made Mao the undisputed leader of the Communist Party of China.

text: The Kuomintang used Khampa troops—who were former bandits—to battle the Communist Red Army as it advanced and to undermine local warlords who often refused to fight Communist forces to conserve their own strength. The KMT enlisted 300 "Khampa bandits" into its Consolatory Commission military in Sichuan, where they were part of the effort of the central government to penetrate and destabilize local Han warlords such as Liu Wenhui. The government was seeking to exert full control over frontier areas against the warlords. Liu had refused to battle the Communists in order to conserve his army. The Consolatory Commission forces were used to battle the Red Army, but they were defeated when their religious leader was captured by the Communists.[30]

text: In 1936, Zhou Enlai and Zhang Xueliang grew closer, with Zhang even suggesting that he join the CPC. However, this was turned down by the Comintern in the USSR. Later on, Zhou persuaded Zhang and Yang Hucheng, another warlord, to instigate the Xi'an Incident. Chiang was placed under house arrest and forced to stop his attacks on the Red Army, instead focusing on the Japanese threat.

text:
The situation in China in 1929: After the Northern Expedition, the KMT had direct control over east and central China, while the rest of China proper as well as Manchuria was under the control of warlords loyal to the Nationalist government.

Map showing the communist-controlled Soviet Zones of China during and after the encirclement campaigns.

Route(s) taken by Communist forces during the Long March.

A Communist leader addressing survivors of the Long March.

text: Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945)[edit]

text: During Japan's invasion and occupation of Manchuria Chiang Kai-shek, who saw the CPC as a greater threat, refused to ally with them to fight against the Imperial Japanese Army. Chiang preferred to unite China by eliminating the warlords and CPC forces first. He believed that he was still too weak to launch an offensive to chase out Japan and that China needed time for a military build-up. Only after unification would it be possible for the KMT to mobilize a war against Japan. So he would rather ignore the discontent and anger among Chinese people at his policy of compromise with the Japanese, and ordered KMT generals Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng to carry out suppression of the CPC; however, their provincial forces suffered significant casualties in battles with the Red Army.ref

text: On 12 December 1936, the disgruntled Zhang Xueliang and Yang Hucheng conspired to kidnap Chiang and force him into a truce with the CPC. The incident became known as the Xi'an Incident.[31] Both parties suspended fighting to form a Second United Front to focus their energies and fighting against the Japanese.[31] In 1937 Japan launched its full-scale invasion of China and its well-equipped troops overran KMT defenders in northern and coastal China.

text: The alliance of CPC and KMT was in name only.[32] Unlike the KMT troops, CPC shunned conventional warfare and instead engaged in guerrilla warfare against the Japanese. The level of actual cooperation and coordination between the CPC and KMT during World War II was at best minimal.[32] In the midst of the Second United Front, the CPC and the KMT were still vying for territorial advantage in "Free China" (i.e., areas not occupied by the Japanese or ruled by Japanese puppet governments such as Manchukuo and the Reorganized National Government of China).[32]

text: The situation came to a head in late 1940 and early 1941 when clashes between Communist and KMT forces intensified. In December 1940 Chiang demanded that the CPC's New Fourth Army evacuate Anhui and Jiangsu Provinces due to its provocation and harassment of KMT forces in this area. Under intense pressure, the New Fourth Army commanders complied. In 1941 they were ambushed by KMT forces during their evacuation, which led to several thousand deaths.[33] It also ended the Second United Front, which had been formed earlier to fight the Japanese.[33]

text: Despite the intensified clashes between the CPC and KMT, countries such as the US and the Soviet Union attempted to prevent a disastrous civil war. After the New Fourth Army incident, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt sent special envoy Lauchlin Currie to talk with Chiang Kai-shek and KMT party leaders to express their concern regarding the hostility between the two parties, with Currie stating that the only ones to benefit from a civil war would be the Japanese. In 1941 the Soviet Union, with its closer alliance to the CPC, also sent an imperative telegram to Mao warning that the civil war would also make the situation easier for the Japanese military. Due to the international community's efforts, there was a temporary and superficial peace. In 1943 Chiang attacked the CPC with the propaganda piece China's Destiny, which questioned the CPC's power after the war, while the CPC strongly opposed Chiang's leadership and referred to his regime as fascist in an attempt to generate a negative public image. Both leaders knew that a deadly battle had begun between themselves.[34]

text: In general, developments in the Second Sino-Japanese War were to the advantage of the CPC, as its guerrilla war tactics had won them popular support within the Japanese-occupied areas, while the KMT's had to defend the country against the main Japanese campaigns to take over the country, since it was the legal Chinese government, and this proved costly to Chiang Kai-shek and his troops. In 1944 Japan launched its last major offensive, Operation Ichi-Go, against the KMT that resulted in the severe weakening of Chiang's forces.[35] Also, the CPC suffered fewer losses through their guerrilla tactics. By the end of the war, the Red Army had grown to more than 1.3 million members, with a separate militia of over 2.6 million members. About one hundred million people lived in CPC-controlled zones.

text: Immediate post-war clashes (1945–1946)[edit]

text: Under the terms of the Japanese unconditional surrender dictated by the United States, Japanese troops were ordered to surrender to KMT troops and not to the CPC, which was present in some of the occupied areas.[36] In Manchuria, however, where the KMT had no forces, the Japanese surrendered to the Soviet Union. Chiang Kai-shek ordered the Japanese troops to remain at their post to receive the Kuomintang and not surrender their arms to the Communists.[36]

text: The first post-war peace negotiation was attended by both Chiang Kai-shek and Mao Zedong in Chongqing from 28 August 1945 and concluded on 10 October 1945 with the signing of Double Tenth Agreement.[37] Both sides stressed the importance of a peaceful reconstruction, but the conference did not produce any concrete results.[37] Battles between the two sides continued even as peace negotiations were in progress, until the agreement was reached in January 1946. However, large campaigns and full-scale confrontations between the CPC and Chiang's troops were temporarily avoided.

text: In the last month of World War II in East Asia, Soviet forces launched the huge Manchurian Strategic Offensive Operation to attack the Japanese 2 million strong Kwantung Army in Manchuria and along the Chinese-Mongolian border.[38] This operation destroyed the fighting capability of Japan's Kwantung Army in just 3 weeks and left the USSR occupying all of Manchuria by the end of the war in a total power vacuum of local Chinese forces. Consequently, the 700,000 Japanese troops stationed in the region surrendered. Later in the year Chiang Kai-shek realized that he lacked the resources to prevent a CPC takeover of Manchuria following the scheduled Soviet departure.[39] He therefore made a deal with the Russians to delay their withdrawal until he had moved enough of his best-trained men and modern material into the region; however, the Russians refused permission for the Nationalist troops to traverse its territory. KMT troops were then airlifted by the US to occupy key cities in North China, while the countryside was already dominated by the CPC. On 15 November 1945, an offensive began with the intent of preventing the CPC from strengthening its already strong base.[40] The Soviets spent the extra time systematically dismantling the extensive Manchurian industrial base (worth up to $2 billion) and shipping it back to their war-ravaged country.[39]

text: Yang Kuisong, a Chinese historian, said that in 1945–46, during the Soviet Red Army Manchurian campaign, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin commanded Marshal Rodion Malinovsky to give Mao Zedong most Imperial Japanese Army weapons that were captured.[41]

text: Chiang Kai-shek's forces pushed as far as Chinchow (Jinzhou) by 26 November 1945, meeting with little resistance. This was followed by a Communist offensive on the Shantung (Shandong) Peninsula that was largely successful, as all of the peninsula, except what was controlled by the US, fell to the Communists.[40] The truce fell apart in June 1946 when full-scale war between CPC and KMT forces broke out on June 26. China then entered a state of civil war that lasted more than three years.[42]

text: Resumed fighting (1946–1949)[edit]

text:
Resumed fighting (1946–1949)

Third National Revolutionary War (Mainland China)

Traditional Chinese
第三次國內革命戰爭

Simplified Chinese
第三次国内革命战争

[show]Transcriptions

Standard Mandarin

Hanyu Pinyin
Dìsāncì Guónèi Gémìng Zhànzhēng

War of Liberation (mainland China)

Traditional Chinese
解放戰爭

Simplified Chinese
解放战争

[show]Transcriptions

Standard Mandarin

Hanyu Pinyin
Jiěfàng Zhànzhēng

Wu

Romanization
chia-fhon-tsan-zen

Yue: Cantonese

Jyutping
gaai2 fong3 zin3 zang1

Southern Min

Hokkien POJ
kái-hòng chiàn-cheng

Anti-Communist Counter-insurgency War (Taiwan)

Traditional Chinese
反共戡亂戰爭

Simplified Chinese
反共戡乱战争

[show]Transcriptions

Standard Mandarin

Hanyu Pinyin
Fǎngòng Kānluàn Zhànzhēng

Chinese People's Liberation War (mainland China)

Traditional Chinese
中國人民解放戰爭

Simplified Chinese
中国人民解放战争

[show]Transcriptions

Standard Mandarin

Hanyu Pinyin
Zhōngguó Rénmín Jiěfàng Zhànzhēng

text: Background and disposition of forces[edit]

text: By the end of the Second Sino-Japanese War, the power of the Communist Party grew considerably. Their main force grew to 1.2 million troops, backed with additional militia of 2 million, totalling 3.2 million troops. Mao was very pleased with the force and decided to go on full rampage against the Kuomintang which he viewed as 'western lapdogs' that will sell out the country when requested by the Americans. Their "Liberated Zone" in 1945 contained 19 base areas, including one-quarter of the country's territory and one-third of its population; this included many important towns and cities. Moreover, the Soviet Union turned over all of its captured Japanese weapons and a substantial amount of their own supplies to the Communists, who received Northeastern China from the Soviets as well.[43]

text: In March 1946, despite repeated requests from Chiang, the Soviet Red Army under the command of Marshal Malinovsky continued to delay pulling out of Manchuria while Malinovsky secretly told the CPC forces to move in behind them, which led to full-scale war for the control of the Northeast. These favorable conditions also facilitated many changes inside the Communist leadership: the more radical hard-line faction who wanted full military bloodshed and warfare to take-over China finally gained the upper hand and defeated the careful opportunists.[44] Prior to giving control to Communist leaders, on March 27 Soviet diplomats requested a joint venture of industrial development with the Nationalist Party in Manchuria.[45]

text: Although General Marshall stated that he knew of no evidence that the CPC was being supplied by the Soviet Union, the CPC was able to utilize a large number of weapons abandoned by the Japanese, including some tanks, but it was not until large numbers of well-trained KMT troops began surrendering and joining the Communist forces that the CPC was finally able to master the hardware.[46][47] However, despite the disadvantage in military hardware, the CPC's ultimate trump card was its land reform policy. The CPC continued to make the irresistible promise in the countryside to the massive number of landless and from hunger starving peasants that by fighting for the CPC they would be given their own land to grow crops once the victory was won.[48]

text: This strategy enabled the CPC to access an almost unlimited supply of manpower for both combat and logistical purposes, despite suffering heavy casualties throughout many of the war's campaigns, man power continued to pour in massively. For example, during the Huaihai Campaign alone the CPC was able to mobilize 5,430,000 peasants to fight against the KMT forces.[49]

text: After the war with the Japanese ended, Chiang Kai-shek quickly moved KMT troops to newly liberated areas to prevent Communist forces from receiving the Japanese surrender.[43] The US airlifted many KMT troops from central China to the Northeast (Manchuria). President Harry Truman was very clear about what he described as "using the Japanese to hold off the Communists". In his memoirs he writes:

text: It was perfectly clear to us that if we told the Japanese to lay down their arms immediately and march to the seaboard, the entire country would be taken over by the Communists. We therefore had to take the unusual step of using the enemy as a garrison until we could airlift Chinese National troops to South China and send Marines to guard the seaports.

text: Using the pretext of "receiving the Japanese surrender", business interests within the KMT government occupied most of the banks, factories and commercial properties, which had previously been seized by the Imperial Japanese Army.[43] They also conscripted troops at a brutal pace from the civilian population and hoarded supplies, preparing for a resumption of war with the Communists. These hasty and harsh preparations caused great hardship for the residents of cities such as Shanghai, where the unemployment rate rose dramatically to 37.5%.[43]

text: The US strongly supported the Kuomintang forces. About 50,000 US soldiers were sent to guard strategic sites in Hupeh and Shandong. The US equipped and trained KMT troops, and transported Japanese and Koreans back to help KMT forces to occupy liberated zones as well as to contain Communist-controlled areas.[43] American aid included substantial amounts of mostly surplus military supplies; loans were made to the KMT.[51] Within less than two years after the Sino-Japanese War, the KMT had received $4.43 billion from the US—most of which was military aid.[43]

text: Outbreak of war[edit]

text:
Situation in 1947

Situation in the fall of 1948

Situation in the winter of 1948 and 1949

Situation in April to October 1949

text: As postwar negotiations between the Nationalist government in Nanjing and the Communist Party failed, the civil war between these two parties resumed. This stage of war is referred to in mainland China and Communist historiography as the "War of Liberation" (Chinese: 解放战争; pinyin: Jiěfàng Zhànzhēng). On 20 July 1946, Chiang Kai-shek launched a large-scale assault on Communist territory in North China with 113 brigades (a total of 1.6 million troops).[43] This marked the first stage of the final phase in the Chinese Civil War.

text: Knowing their disadvantages in manpower and equipment, the CPC executed a "passive defense" strategy. It avoided the strong points of the KMT army and was prepared to abandon territory in order to preserve its forces. In most cases the surrounding countryside and small towns had come under Communist influence long before the cities. The CPC also attempted to wear out the KMT forces as much as possible. This tactic seemed to be successful; after a year, the power balance became more favorable to the CPC. They wiped out 1.12 million KMT troops, while their strength grew to about two million men.[43]

text: In March 1947 the KMT achieved a symbolic victory by seizing the CPC capital of Yan'an.[52] The Communists counterattacked soon afterwards; on 30 June 1947 CPC troops crossed the Yellow River and moved to the Dabie Mountains area, restored and developed the Central Plain. At the same time, Communist forces also began to counterattack in Northeastern China, North China and East China.[43]

text: By late 1948, the CPC eventually captured the northern cities of Shenyang and Changchun and seized control of the Northeast after suffering numerous setbacks while trying to take the cities, with the decisive Liaoshen Campaign.[53] The New 1st Army, regarded as the best KMT army, was forced to surrender after the CPC conducted a brutal six-month siege of Changchun that resulted in more than 150,000 civilian deaths from starvation.[54]

text: The capture of large KMT units provided the CPC with the tanks, heavy artillery and other combined-arms assets needed to execute offensive operations south of the Great Wall. By April 1948 the city of Luoyang fell, cutting the KMT army off from Xi'an.[55] Following a fierce battle, the CPC captured Jinan and Shandong province on 24 September 1948. The Huaihai Campaign of late 1948 and early 1949 secured east-central China for the CPC.[53] The outcome of these encounters were decisive for the military outcome of the civil war.[53]

text: The Pingjin Campaign resulted in the Communist conquest of northern China. It lasted 64 days, from 21 November 1948, to 31 January 1949.[56] The PLA suffered heavy casualties while securing Zhangjiakou, Tianjin along with its port and garrison at Dagu and Beiping.[56] The CPC brought 890,000 troops from the northeast to oppose some 600,000 KMT troops.[55] There were 40,000 CPC casualties at Zhangjiakou alone. They in turn killed, wounded or captured some 520,000 KMT during the campaign.[56]

text: After achieving decisive victory at Liaoshen, Huaihai and Pingjin campaigns, the CPC wiped out 144 regular and 29 non-regular KMT divisions, including 1.54 million veteran KMT troops, which significantly reduced the strength of Nationalist forces.[43] Stalin initially favored a coalition government in postwar China, and tried to persuade Mao to stop the CPC from crossing the Yangtze and attacking the KMT positions south of the river.[57] Mao rejected Stalin's position and on 21 April, Communist began the Yangtze River Crossing Campaign. On 23 April they captured the KMT's capital, Nanjing.[28] The KMT government retreated to Canton (Guangzhou) until October 15, Chongqing until November 25, and then Chengdu before retreating to Taiwan on December 10. By late 1949 the People's Liberation Army was pursuing remnants of KMT forces southwards in southern China, and only Tibet was left. In addition, the Ili Rebellion was a Soviet-backed revolt by the Second East Turkestan Republic against the KMT from 1944–49, as the Mongolians in the People's Republic were in a border dispute with the Republic of China. A Chinese Muslim Hui cavalry regiment, the 14th Tungan Cavalry, was sent by the Chinese government to attack Mongol and Soviet positions along the border during the Pei-ta-shan Incident.[58][59]

text: The Kuomintang made several last-ditch attempts to use Khampa troops against the Communists in southwest China. The Kuomintang formulated a plan in which three Khampa divisions would be assisted by the Panchen Lama to oppose the Communists.[60] Kuomintang intelligence reported that some Tibetan tusi chiefs and the Khampa Su Yonghe controlled 80,000 troops in Sichuan, Qinghai and Tibet. They hoped to use them against the Communist army.[61]

text: Fighting subsides[edit]

text: On 1 October 1949, Mao Zedong proclaimed the founding of the People's Republic of China with its capital at Beiping, which was renamed back to the former name Beijing. Chiang Kai-shek and approximately two million Nationalist soldiers retreated from mainland China to the island of Taiwan in December after the PLA advanced into the Sichuan province. Isolated Nationalist pockets of resistance remained in the area, but the majority of the resistance collapsed after the fall of Chengdu on 10 December 1949, with some resistance continuing in the far south.[62]

text: A PRC attempt to take the ROC-controlled island of Quemoy was thwarted in the Battle of Kuningtou, halting the PLA advance towards Taiwan.[63] In December 1949, Chiang proclaimed Taipei the temporary capital of the Republic of China and continued to assert his government as the sole legitimate authority in China.

text: The Communists' other amphibious operations of 1950 were more successful: they led to the Communist conquest of Hainan Island in April 1950, capture of Wanshan Islands off the Guangdong coast (May–August 1950), Zhoushan Island off Zhejiang (May 1950).[64]

text: Aftermath[edit]

text: Most observers expected Chiang's government to eventually fall to the imminent invasion of Taiwan by the People's Liberation Army, and the US was initially reluctant in offering full support for Chiang in their final stand. US President Harry S. Truman announced on 5 January 1950 that the United States would not engage in any dispute involving the Taiwan Strait, and that he would not intervene in the event of an attack by the PRC.[65] The situation quickly changed after the onset of the Korean War in June 1950. This led to changing political climate in the US, and President Truman ordered the United States Seventh Fleet to sail to the Taiwan Strait as part of the containment policy against potential Communist advance.[66]

text: In June 1949 the ROC declared a "closure" of all mainland China ports and its navy attempted to intercept all foreign ships. The closure was from a point north of the mouth of Min River in Fujian to the mouth of the Liao River in Liaoning.[67] Since mainland China's railroad network was underdeveloped, north-south trade depended heavily on sea lanes. ROC naval activity also caused severe hardship for mainland China fishermen.

text: After losing mainland China, a group of approximately 3,000 KMT Central soldiers retreated to Burma and continued launching guerrilla attacks into south China during the Kuomintang Islamic Insurgency in China (1950–1958) and Campaign at the China–Burma Border. Their leader, Gen. Li Mi, was paid a salary by the ROC government and given the nominal title of Governor of Yunnan. Initially, the US supported these remnants and the Central Intelligence Agency provided them with military aid. After the Burmese government appealed to the United Nations in 1953, the US began pressuring the ROC to withdraw its loyalists. By the end of 1954 nearly 6,000 soldiers had left Burma and General Li declared his army disbanded. However, thousands remained, and the ROC continued to supply and command them, even secretly supplying reinforcements at times to maintain a base close to China.

text: After the ROC complained to the United Nations against the Soviet Union for violating the Sino-Soviet Treaty of Friendship and Alliance to support the CPC, the UN General Assembly Resolution 505 was adopted on 1 February 1952, condemning the Soviet Union.

text: Though viewed as a military liability by the US, the ROC viewed its remaining islands in Fujian as vital for any future campaign to defeat the PRC and retake mainland China. On 3 September 1954, the First Taiwan Strait Crisis began when the PLA started shelling Quemoy and threatened to take the Dachen Islands in Zhejiang.[67] On 20 January 1955, the PLA took nearby Yijiangshan Island, with the entire ROC garrison of 720 troops killed or wounded defending the island. On January 24 of the same year, the United States Congress passed the Formosa Resolution authorizing the President to defend the ROC's offshore islands.[67] The First Taiwan Straits crisis ended in March 1955 when the PLA ceased its bombardment. The crisis was brought to a close during the Bandung conference.[67]

text: The Second Taiwan Strait Crisis began on 23 August 1958 with air and naval engagements between PRC and ROC forces, leading to intense artillery bombardment of Quemoy (by the PRC) and Amoy (by the ROC), and ended on November of the same year.[67] PLA patrol boats blockaded the islands from ROC supply ships. Though the US rejected Chiang Kai-shek's proposal to bomb mainland China artillery batteries, it quickly moved to supply fighter jets and anti-aircraft missiles to the ROC. It also provided amphibious assault ships to land supplies, as a sunken ROC naval vessel was blocking the harbor. On September 7 the US escorted a convoy of ROC supply ships and the PRC refrained from firing.

text: The Third Taiwan Strait Crisis in 1995–96 escalated tensions between both sides when the PRC tested a series of missiles not far from Taiwan, although, arguably, Beijing ran the test to shift the 1996 presidential election vote in favor of the KMT, already facing a challenge from the opposition Democratic Progressive Party which did not agree with the "One China Policy" shared by the CPC and KMT.[68]

text: Political fallout[edit]

text: On 25 October 1971, the United Nations General Assembly admitted the PRC and expelled the ROC, which had been a founding member of the United Nations and was one of the five permanent members of the Security Council. Representatives of Chiang Kai-shek refused to recognise their accreditations as representatives of China and left the assembly. Recognition for the People's Republic of China soon followed from most other member nations, including the United States.[citation needed]

text: By 1984 PRC and ROC began to de-escalate their diplomatic relations with each other, and cross-straits trade and investment has been growing ever since. The state of war was officially declared over by the ROC in 1991.[69] Despite the end of the hostilities, the two sides have never signed any agreement or treaty to officially end the war. According to Mao Zedong, there were three ways of "staving off imperialist intervention in the short term" during the continuation of the Chinese Revolution. The first was through a rapid completion of the military takeover of the country, and through showing determination and strength against "foreign attempts at challenging the new regime along its borders". The second was by "formalising a comprehensive military alliance with the Soviet Union", which would dedicate Soviet power to directly defending China against its enemies; this aspect became extensively significant given the backdrop of the start of the Cold War. And finally the regime had to "root out its domestic opponents : the heads of secret societies, religious sects, independent unions, or tribal and ethic organisations." By destroying the basis of domestic reaction, Mao believed a safer world for the Chinese revolution to spread in would come into existence.[70]

text: Under the new ROC president Lee Teng-hui, the Temporary Provisions Effective During the Period of Communist Rebellion was renounced in May 1991, thus ending the chances of the Kuomintang's conquest to retake the mainland.

text: With the election in 2000 of Democratic Progressive Party candidate Chen Shui-bian, a party other than the KMT gained the presidency for the first time in Taiwan. The new president did not share the Chinese nationalist ideology of the KMT and CPC. This led to tension between the two sides, although trade and other ties such as the 2005 Pan-Blue visit continued to increase.

text: Since the election of President Ma Ying-jeou (KMT) in 2008, significant warming of relations has resumed between Taipei and Beijing, with high-level exchanges between the semi-official diplomatic organizations of both states such as the Chen-Chiang summit series. Although the Taiwan straits remain a potential flash point, regular direct air links were established in 2009.[11]

text: Reasons for the Communist victory[edit]

text: This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2017) (Learn how and when to remove this template message)

text: Historian Odd Arne Westad says the Communists won the Civil War because they made fewer military mistakes than Chiang Kai-shek and also because in his search for a powerful centralized government, Chiang antagonized too many interest groups in China. Furthermore, his party was weakened in the war against the Japanese. Meanwhile, the Communists targeted different groups, such as peasants, and brought them to its corner.[71]

text: Chiang wrote in his diary in June 1948 that the KMT had failed not because of external enemies but because of rot from within.[72]

text: The USSR generally supported Chiang's forces. Stalin distrusted Mao, tried to block him from leadership as late as 1942, and worried that Mao would become an independent rival force in world communism.[73]

text: Strong American support for the Nationalists was hedged with the failure of the Marshall Mission, and then stopped completely mainly because of KMT corruption [74] (such as the notorious Yangtze Development Corporation [75] controlled by H.H. Kung and T. V. Soong's family) [76] and KMT's military setback in Northeast China.

text: Communist land reform policy promised poor peasants farmland from their landlords, ensuring popular support for the PLA.

text: The main advantage of the Chinese Communist Party was the "extraordinary cohesion" within the top level of its leadership. These skills were not only secured from defections that came about during difficult times but also coupled with "communications and top level debates over tactics". A big addition to this was the charismatic style of leadership of Mao Zedong which created a "unity of purpose" and a "unity of command" which the KMT lacked majorly. Apart from that the CPC had mastered the manipulation of local politics to their benefit, this was also derived from their propaganda skills that had also been decentralised successfully. By "portraying their opponents as enemies of all groups of Chinese" and itself as "defenders of the nation" and people (given the backdrop of the war with Japan).[77]

text: In the Chinese Civil War after 1945, the economy in the ROC areas collapsed because of hyperinflation and the failure of price controls by the ROC government and financial reforms; the Gold Yuan devaluated sharply in late 1948 [78] and resulted in the ROC government losing the support of the cities' middle classes. In the meantime, the Communists continued their relentless land reform (land redistribution) programs to win the support of the population in the countryside.

text: Atrocities[edit]

text: During the war both the Nationalists and Communists carried out mass atrocities, with millions of non-combatants deliberately killed by both sides.[79] Benjamin Valentino has estimated atrocities in the Chinese Civil War resulted in the death of between 1.8 million and 3.5 million people between 1927 and 1949. Atrocities include deaths from forced conscription and massacres.[80][better source needed]