The American And Chinese Communist Revolutions - 1363 Words

As in all revolutionary movements, there are many accelerators that work to transform the countries they involve. Correspondingly, there were many causes that started both the American and Chinese Communist revolutions, some being similar and some being different. One of the main causes of the revolutions was that they both were inspired by the Enlightenment. This factor made both wars and their outcomes more intellectually based rather than physically. Another main accelerator that forced the people to fight for a change in their government was due to an unpopular method of rule. In both China and America, the forms of government previous to their revolutions and extreme political changes were despised among a majority of the commonplace†¦show more content†¦An important consequence was that the colonies developed a burgeoning hostility towards Great Britain. The most critical repercussion was the occurrence of the American Revolution. In China, Chiang-Kai Shek’s na tionalist government was allowing a number of Chinese citizens in the Manchurian region to be put in danger by not protecting them from Japanese invasions. Mao Zedong, China’s first communist leader, was angered by this and forced the entire nationalist bureaucracy out of the country and into Taiwan. This resulted in the reformation of China into the People’s Republic of China, and the Communist Revolution of 1949 transpired. The commencements of the American Revolution and the Chinese Communist Revolution both had their beginnings in new Enlightenment thinking of the 1700s, often called, â€Å"The Age of Reason†. The Enlightenment promoted the thought, â€Å"that humanity could be improved through rational change.† In China, Karl Marx’s new Enlightenment ideas of social equality and no private property were the main inspirations of Mao Zedong’s political thinking. Introduced in his theory, Marx believed that capitalism, â€Å"an economic system in which investment in and ownership in the means of production, distribution, and exchange of wealth is maintained chiefly by private individuals†, was unstable and that in order to prevent a revolution, private property and social classes, maintained by private wealth through capitalism, needed to be eliminated.