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Course: World History Project AP® > Unit 8
Lesson 1: 8.0—Setting the Stage- BEFORE YOU WATCH: Unit 8 Overview - Cold War and Decolonization
- WATCH: Unit 8 Overview
- READ: Unit 8 Introduction - Cold War & Decolonization, 1945–1990
- READ: Spread of Communism
- READ: Devastation of Old Markets
- READ: Data Exploration – Global Inequality
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READ: Spread of Communism
China and Latin America offer two contrasting stories of the global spread of communism—and fear of it—during the interwar period.
The article below uses “Three Close Reads”. If you want to learn more about this strategy, click here.
First read: preview and skimming for gist
Before you read the article, you should skim it first. The skim should be very quick and give you the gist (general idea) of what the article is about. You should be looking at the title, author, headings, pictures, and opening sentences of paragraphs for the gist.
Second read: key ideas and understanding content
Now that you’ve skimmed the article, you should preview the questions you will be answering. These questions will help you get a better understanding of the concepts and arguments that are presented in the article. Keep in mind that when you read the article, it is a good idea to write down any vocab you see in the article that is unfamiliar to you.
By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- Why, according to the author, did communism appeal to many people in China and Latin America in the period between the First and Second World Wars?
- Who were the Guomindang (GMD) and how did they come to power in 1911?
- Why did the communist party led by Mao Zedong win the civil war in China?
- What caused communism and other radical ideas to grow in Latin America in the early twentieth century?
- What was US policy in Latin America in the 1910s and 1920s, and how did it change in the 1930s?
- Who were the populists in Latin America in the 1930s, and what happened to them?
Third read: evaluating and corroborating
Finally, here are some questions that will help you focus on why this article matters and how it connects to other content you’ve studied.
At the end of the third read, you should be able to respond to these questions:
- How does this article explain the causes and consequences of why some nations adopted communism?
- From this article, what elements of the story of communism seem to be similar in China and Latin America in the first half of the twentieth century? What elements seem to be different?
Now that you know what to look for, it’s time to read! Remember to return to these questions once you’ve finished reading.
The Spread of Communism
By Alejandro Quintana
China and Latin America offer two contrasting stories of the global spread of communism—and fear of it—during the interwar period.
Introduction
The Russian Revolution of 1917 created the first communist country in the world. For many people today, communism means tyranny, rejection of basic human liberties, and dependency on government giveaways. However, for millions of European workers at the time, communism meant hope against exploitation. Between the two world wars, European governments used repression and labor reforms to lower the risk of more communist revolutions in Europe. However, communist ideas still became increasingly popular not only in Europe but all over the world.
The appeal of communism
The horrors of World War I, the misery of millions of workers and peasants, and the Great Depression together made many people wary of capitalism and democracy. Communism and fascism emerged as serious alternatives.
Karl Marx had predicted that communism would arise in fully industrialized states. He believed that industrial workers would fight a class war against factory-owners. Ironically, Latin America and China (and Russia in 1917) were not fully industrialized. They were mostly agrarian (farming) economies. So there were far more peasants than workers available to fight a revolution. Global industrialization increased the demand for raw materials and food produced in agrarian societies. Landowners had taken advantage of this economic opportunity to maximize their profits, but it exploited peasants. Naturally, many peasants identified with Marx’s concept of class conflict. Communist leaders around the world were able to convince many peasants to support their revolutions.
Communism in China during the interwar period
As you have seen, the Opium Wars and other conflicts led to foreign control of the Chinese economy. This situation paved the road to communism. Some Chinese still defended the superiority of Chinese traditions. But many reformers believed that China could only survive by adopting capitalism and democracy. In 1911, reformers replaced the Qing Dynasty with the pro-democracy Republic of China, under the Guomindang (the Chinese Nationalist Party, or GMD). The GMD was a conglomeration of various reform groups, which began to break apart in the 1920s. A communist faction saw an opportunity to gain power as the GMD began to weaken and declared war on the GMD in 1928.
The industrial working class was only two percent of the Chinese population, but there were far more peasants. One of the leaders of the communist faction, Mao Zedong recognized that Chinese peasants, not the workers, could bring about a communist revolution. To attract peasant support, Mao talked about peasant class conflict against the landlords. In communist-held territories, he redistributed the landlords’ lands to peasants. He ordered his soldiers to protect them. Meanwhile, the GMD leader, Chiang Kai-Shek, unwittingly helped the communists by breaking his democratic promises to the peasants.
Militarily, Mao outsmarted the GMD army by using hit-and-run guerilla tactics. However, in 1934, Chiang Kai-Shek successfully encircled the communists in the south and was poised to destroy them. Mao refused to surrender. Instead, he led 100,000 supporters across the blockade through a 6,000-mile-long roundabout to the north. Only 20,000 survived. Technically, this “Long March” was a communist defeat, but Mao turned it into a story of determination and resilience.
Then, Japan invaded China. Initially, the GMD and the PLA (the Peoples Liberation Army, Mao’s guerrillas) allied against Japan. However, between 1937 and 1945, the GMD bore the brunt of Japan’s attack, while the PLA’s hit-and-run tactics were more effective and they took fewer casualties. Also, the GMD army was taking food and resources from peasants while the communists continued to protect them. After World War II, the communists emerged more popular and organized. In 1949, Mao defeated the GMD and created the communist People’s Republic of China.
Communism in Latin America during the interwar period
Like the Chinese, Latin American peasants had been exploited by both domestic and foreign elites, particularly from the United States. Latin America had inherited a very unequal society from the Spanish Empire. After independence from Spain, the leaders of the independence movements removed some Spanish laws that had restricted their power and economic opportunities. One law in particular protected lands of indigenous communities. The new governments removed this law and began selling these lands to wealthy capitalists, both domestic and foreign. Indigenous peoples were being forced to trade their ancestral lands for poorly paid and backbreaking jobs. They protested the abuse, sometimes violently, but usually they lacked the unity needed to defend their lands. Meanwhile, Spanish, German, and Italian workers migrating to the Americas brought communist ideas, talking of class war to end exploitation. The message helped many peasants and workers organize for revolution.
Unlike China, Latin America is a complex set of states. That made it more difficult to have one charismatic leader leading one revolution. Instead, numerous leaders promoted alternatives to end the abuse of the lower classes. Radical movements such as the Mexican Revolution (1910–1920) and the election of Hipólito Yrigoyen in Argentina (1916–1922) fought for democracy, not communism. But, like Chiang Kai-Shek in China, democratic leaders often fell short on their promises. So, peasants and workers considered the communist alternative.
The United States was instrumental for both the expansion and containment of communism in the Americas. Their aggressive presence in Latin America expanded after the Spanish-American War (1898). In the Caribbean and Central America, the US used “gunboat diplomacy”, claiming the right to invade anywhere they considered American lives—or interests—to be at risk. With over a dozen invasions in the 1910s and 1920s, the US systematically took control of national economies and politics, despite resistance. Some leaders who resisted American intrusion in this period were devoted communists, like Agustín Farabundo Martí in El Salvador.
To destroy anti-American opposition, the US supported infamous dictators in replacing elected leaders.
The rising popularity of communism in Latin American helped produce domestic Marxist intellectuals. The Peruvian José Carlos Mariátegui, for instance, adapted Marxism to Latin America’s social reality. He argued that the extreme inequalities in Latin America could be resolved through a communist revolution. But instead of a violent revolution, he suggested a gradual return to pre-Columbian collectivism, meaning the community ownership of wealth. Other Marxist intellectuals ran for president as a way to avoid bloody revolutions, but the elites rigged the elections or forced them out of politics.
Populism was the closest Latin America got to communist rule in this era. In the 1930s, populist leaders benefited from a surge in democratic activism and the US Good Neighbor Policy that promised a friendlier US attitude in Latin America.
Populism seemed like a great alternative to communism, but the Cold War destroyed this opportunity. After World War II, communist paranoia in the US reached new heights. Any leader prioritizing the interests of workers or peasants was branded a communist. Once again, the US was supporting anti-communist dictators. Not surprisingly, anti-American and pro-communist guerrillas mushroomed. These dictators reacted aggressively, kidnapping, torturing, and killing tens (possibly hundreds) of thousands of people, suspected of being communists. In this way, communism in Latin America was contained during the Cold War (with the exception of Cuba).
Conclusion
During the interwar period, communism spread throughout the world, mainly in agrarian societies. The main appeal of communism was to end the exploitation of peasants and workers by domestic and foreign elites. China and Latin America show the complexity in which communism spread. China’s economic leadership was overtaken by industrialized powers; a new model was necessary. It could have been democracy or communism, but communism had a more effective and charismatic leader. By contrast, Latin America’s complex set of states had a wide variety of leaders ranging from pro-democratic to populist to communist. Communist leaders there faced the fury of US-backed dictators. Not surprisingly, communist leaders organized guerillas to fight these dictators. This made Latin America a hot spot during the Cold War.
Author bio
Alejandro Quintana is an associate professor of history at St. John’s University in New York City. His research and teaching focus on state formation, nation-building, nationalism, revolutions, and social movements in Latin America, with a special emphasis on Mexico.