Mao Zedong & The Chinese Communist Revolution,
1921-45
Part
V. The 2nd Sino-Japanese War & Rectification (1937-45)
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff.
This is the 5th entry in ‘The Strategy of Protest and Revolution’,
where we examine how historical revolutionary and protest movements achieved
success. In this series, we focus on 3 key questions:
-
How did activists turn public discontent into a coordinated movement?
-
What did successful movements do to achieve their goals? And
-
How have successful movement strategies changed over time?
In this 6-part entry, we’ll
explore the revolutionary history of the Chinese Communist Party or CCP from
1921 to 45, with a particular focus on the experiences of its eventual leader,
Mao Zedong. Here in Part V, we’ll analyze the Party’s actions during the 2nd
Sino-Japanese War, including Liu Shaoqi’s ‘3 Magic Weapons’ strategy, the
Hundred Regiments Offensive, and finally, Mao’s Rectification Campaign.
Mao Zedong & The Chinese Communist Revolution,
1921-45
Part
IV. Jiangxi, Long March, Shaanxi (1931-37)
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff.
This is the 5th entry in ‘The Strategy of Protest and Revolution’,
where we examine how historical revolutionary and protest movements achieved
success. In this series, we focus on 3 key questions:
-
How did activists turn public discontent into a coordinated movement?
-
What did successful movements do to achieve their goals? And
-
How have successful movement strategies changed over time?
In this 6-part entry, we’ll
explore the revolutionary history of the Chinese Communist Party or CCP from
1921 to 45, with a particular focus on the experiences of its eventual leader,
Mao Zedong. Here in Part IV, we’ll examine the rise and fall of the Jiangxi
Soviet under Zhou Enlai, before briefly looking at the Long March and the
Party’s eventual resettlement in northern Shaanxi.
The last years of the 3rd
Century BC saw the finale to the 2nd Punic War, a war of supremacy
between Rome and Carthage. Under the leadership of Publius Cornelius Scipio,
Roman forces would mount a daring overseas expedition to Africa, defeat the
great Carthaginian general Hannibal, and achieve what previous invasions could
not – eliminate Carthage as a power. In doing so, the victory of Scipio
‘Africanus’ heralded 6 centuries of Roman Mediterranean dominance.
Welcome to Strategy Stuff, and
this is the strategy of Scipio’s African Campaign.
Mao Zedong & The Chinese Communist Revolution
(1921-45)
Part
III: Insurrection & Guerrillaism, Jinggangshan & Futian (1927-31)
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff.
This is the 5th entry in ‘The Strategy of Protest and Revolution’,
where we examine how historical revolutionary and protest movements achieved
success. In this series, we focus on 3 key questions:
-
How did activists turn public discontent into a coordinated movement?
-
What did successful movements do to achieve their goals? And
-
How have successful movement strategies changed over time?
In this 6-part entry, we’ll
explore the revolutionary history of the Chinese Communist Party or CCP from
1921 to 45, with a particular focus on the experiences of its eventual leader,
Mao Zedong. Here in Part III, we’ll go over the various approaches the CCP took
to obtain its own independent military power, focusing particularly on Mao’s
experiences at Jinggangshan and southern Jiangxi.
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff.
In the last video, we saw how Saladin had taken advantage of the Crusaders’
external and internal troubles, and in 1187 launched what would turn out to be
a wildly successful campaign: destroying the Crusader army at Hattin, capturing
the Holy City of Jerusalem, and conquering almost the entire Crusader Levant.
Now, in the twilight of his life, he would have to hold all that he had gained against
the might of the Third Crusade.
Introduction
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff. In the previous video, we detailed how the
strategic and political failures of the Crusaders, particularly the Kingdom of
Jerusalem, prevented them from effectively confronting Saladin. All these
accumulated problems would come home to roost during the Hattin campaign of
1187, where Saladin would finally achieve his lifelong ambition.
Mao Zedong & The Chinese Communist Revolution
(1921-45)
Part
II: Early Attempts & The 1st United Front (1921-27)
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff.
This is the 5th entry in ‘The Strategy of Protest and Revolution’,
where we examine how historical revolutionary and protest movements achieved
success. In this series, we focus on 3 key questions:
-
How did activists turn public discontent into a coordinated movement?
-
What did successful movements do to achieve their goals? And
-
How have successful movement strategies changed over time?
In this 6-part entry, we’ll
explore the revolutionary history of the Chinese Communist Party or CCP from
1921 to 45, with a particular focus on the experiences of its eventual leader,
Mao Zedong. Here in Part II, we’ll go over the CCP’s early attempts at
revolution, culminating in the 1st United Front.
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff.
In the last video, we detailed how Saladin secured Egypt and conquered Syria, before
committing to Holy War against the Crusader States. In 1187, this culminated in
his decisive victory at Hattin, the surrender of Jerusalem, and the near-conquest
of the Crusader Levant.
While Hattin and its aftermath
demonstrated Saladin’s military and strategic competence, it was, above all,
the end result of a decade of Crusader failure, both strategically and
politically. We must therefore shift perspective temporarily towards them, and
see why they failed so utterly to stop Saladin.
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff.
When we last left Saladin in the spring of 1169, he had just been appointed
Vizier of Fatimid Egypt, one of the richest states of the medieval world, and
quite the promotion for a thirty-something-year-old. Inevitably, such power
earned him internal and external enemies whose attacks he needed to fend off.
Beyond them, Saladin’s rulership would also be further tested as he sought to
satisfy both his own dynastic ambitions, and the demands of Sunni Islam’s Holy
War.
Yusuf ibn Ayyub: also known as
Salah ad-Din or Saladin, meaning ‘Righteous of the Faith’. To Muslims, he was
the Sultan who reclaimed their Holy City of Jerusalem from Christian European
Crusaders. To those same Crusaders, he became a symbol of generosity and
chivalrous rulership. Beyond them, his career was also one of the more dramatic
in the medieval Middle East, rising from obscurity to ruler of Egypt and Syria,
and founding a dynasty that would last for a hundred years.
Welcome to Strategy Stuff, and this
is the story of how Saladin became the greatest prince in an age of great
princes.
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff.
This is Part V of a five-part series on how Britain and its East India Company,
between 1798 and 1807, established hegemony over India through conquest.
In the last Part, British India
had, within a year, first vassalized the nominal Maratha leader or Peshwa, and
then destroyed the Europeanized armies of the Maratha lords Shinde and Bhonsle.
In the process, the British gained control of not just the core Maratha
territories in central India, but also the northern regions of Hindustan and
Rajputana, including the Mughal Emperor in Delhi.
At this point, the chief official
of British India, Richard Wellesley the Earl of Mornington, might have finally
considered his expansionist ambitions fulfilled. But conquering all this land
was only half the equation: the new territories also had to be defended and
held. And this was easier said than done, since British Indian forces were now
stretched thin throughout the subcontinent, and Mornington’s bosses in the EIC
refused to let him hire any more. This was especially dangerous, considering
that the British had not actually defeated all the Maratha domains: there was
still one left – that of Holkar.
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff.
This is Part IV of a five-part series on how Britain and its East India
Company, between 1798 and 1807, established a hegemony over South Asia through
conquest.
In the last Part, the British had,
for better or for worse, begun their reorganization of feudal Indian society,
from the establishment of a landed gentry class, to the insistence that everybody
follow European standards of political behavior. At the same time, British
India continued acquiring and absorbing subsidiary allies, extending its reach
further and further into the subcontinent.
Despite these ‘achievements’,
however, the chief official of British India, Richard Wellesley the Earl of
Mornington, remained unsatisfied. In fact, with the downfall of his political
patron back in Britain, he was now under increasing time pressure to fulfill
his ambitions, before his bosses in the East India Company removed him from
office. This dynamic might have pushed Mornington to make his boldest move yet,
and attempt to impose his authority over the great lords of the Maratha Empire.
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff.
This is Part III of a five-part series on how, between 1798 and 1807, Britain
and its East India Company established a hegemony over India through conquest.
In the last Part, the chief
official of British India, Richard Wellesley the Earl of Mornington, had just
conquered the south Indian power of Mysore and suppressed the resistance of its
feudal lords. Now, with unquestioned authority over their territory, Mornington
and his reform-minded colleagues began to use that authority to reorganize
feudal Indian society along ‘rational’ Enlightenment principles, not just to
render India more accessible to European exploitation, but also to increase the
subcontinent’s level of development. Both were ultimately meant to achieve what
Mornington had promised his skeptical bosses back in London: a boost to the
profit of the East India Company and its shareholders.
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff.
This is Part II of a five-part series on how Britain and its East India
Company, between 1798 and 1807, established hegemony over India through
conquest.
In the last Part, the chief
official of British India, Richard Wellesley the Earl of Mornington, had just
arrived on the subcontinent, determined to achieve something to advance his
political ambitions. Unexpectedly, he had scored an early success when a major
indigenous power, Hyderabad, submitted to Company rule. Now, Mornington would return
to his intended target: the south Indian power of Mysore.
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff.
When it comes to conquest in the late 18th Century, we usually think
first of Revolutionary France and its attempts to establish hegemony over
Europe. But during the same period, Britain – or more accurately its East India
Company – also conquered out a hegemony in South Asia, one that was just as
extensive and certainly longer-lasting than the French attempt.
In a series of wars between 1799
and 1806, British Indian forces decisively defeated almost all their indigenous
rivals on the subcontinent: most notably the Sultanate of Mysore in the south,
and the Maratha Empire in the center and north. In the process, British rule
expanded throughout the coasts and up the Ganges River, seizing many old and
famous states along the way. By the end of the period, there was no longer any
doubt: Britain alone dominated this ‘Jewel in the Crown’.
These events are usually interpreted
as an inevitable consequence of European military superiority, but in fact, throughout
this period most British strategymakers opposed and even tried to stop
expansion. That it happened anyway was arguably due to one man – the chief
official of India, Richard Wellesley, the Earl of Mornington – and his desire
to conquer the subcontinent for his own political gain.
Ironically, India would give a
bigger boost to the career of Richard’s younger brother, Arthur Wellesley,
later to achieve military fame as the Duke of Wellington. To minimize
confusion, this video series will refer to Richard as ‘Mornington’ and Arthur
anachronistically as ‘Wellington’. Together, they – alongside other generals
and officials – would not only produce a seminal example of European
imperialism, but also forcibly induct South Asia into the European world order
and lay the groundwork for the modern states that exist there today.
This is Part I of a five-part
series, where we will go over the situation in India during the 1790s, as well
as examine why Britain embarked on conquest.
Strategy
of Protest and Revolution 4.5: The Russian Bolshevik Revolution
(Mar-Nov
1917)
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff.
This is the second part of the fourth entry in ‘The Strategy of Protest and
Revolution’, which will focus on the actual progress of the Russian Revolution
and how the Bolshevik movement ultimately emerged victorious in this
multilayered contest.
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff.
In the 17th Century, the East Asian island of Taiwan or Formosa
underwent a dramatic political transformation, as seen in the three conquests
of the island: the initial colonization by the Dutch, the takeover by the
independent army of Zheng Chenggong, and the final capture by China’s Qing
Dynasty. In examining these conquests, we will focus on the following
questions:
-
Why was Taiwan worth conquering?
-
What was behind the success of each conquest?
-
and How did these answers evolve as Taiwan grew increasingly developed?
With these questions in mind,
let’s head to the maritime world of Early Modern East Asia.
The Strategy of Protest and Revolution 2: The French
Revolution
Hi, and
welcome to Strategy Stuff. This is a video series on “The Strategy of Protest
and Revolution”, where we’ll look at how successful revolutionary,
protest and other social movements have strategized in order to achieve
their political goals. To do that, we’ll be focusing on the following
questions:
- First: How can activists turn public
discontent into a political movement?
- Second: What do successful movements
do to achieve their political goals?
- And third, how have successful
strategies changed with time?
Over this
series, we’ll answer these questions by looking at various historical
movements, starting with the French Revolution of 1789.
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff. This is a video
series I originally made for CaspianReport on the geostrategic analysis of the
Peloponnesian War. In the fourth video, we looked at how competing Athenian and
Spartan strategies finally culminated in a Spartan victory in the final phase
of the War. Now, we conclude the series by looking at how politics influenced
Athenian and Spartan strategymaking.
Hi, and welcome to Strategy Stuff. This is a video
series I originally made for CaspianReport on the geostrategic analysis of the
Peloponnesian War. In the third video, we examined Athens’ ascent and Sparta’s
response during the Archidamian War. Now, we see how a 3rd
generation of leaders sought decision in the final phases of the conflict: the
Peace of Nicias, the infamous Sicilian Expedition, and the Ionian War.