Rise Of Communism Dbq Analysis

The birth of the early 20th century gave way to many political changes around the world such as the emergence of communism as a new way to govern countries. The Soviet Union was the first country to convert to this way of governing through the Russian Revolution in 1917. With the rise of the Bolsheviks party, a small socialist party who supported the working class more than the upper class, as an outcome to this revolution many countries were inspired to follow their footsteps. One such country was China. As China fell imperially in 1911, the Chinese Communist party emerged, reflecting the same values as its inspiration by organizing the country’s urban-working class. With the invasion of Japan, China’s enemy, in 1937 the CCP’s internal opposition,

William Hinton, a US born member of a Chinese Communist land reform task force in 1948, noted that the peasants were challenging the landlords and money lenders in regards to overcharges and restoration of lands and property seized in default of debts (Doc 4). This was due to the newly found confidence in themselves through the defeat of the Japanese. Although Hinton was born into the communist party, his recount of the actions he saw concerning the peasants was simply from a look from the outside in. He personally did not experience this sudden upsurge of challenges, which gives the public a view of what the communist party thought of what looked like a move towards social equality. Although Hinton’s recount may not have been thoroughly verified, the communist party did indeed aid in fueling what was known as a struggle meeting, where Chinese peasants humiliated and tortured landlords, as seen in the picture, organized by the Communist Party as part of the land reform process, of a group of peasants at a meeting where in the center a woman is with her former landlord (Doc 7). Alongside the destruction of the landowning infrastructure that was previously followed, the Communist party also aided the peasants in a form of social reform. One important law that granted specifically women more freedom in their social life was the creation of the Marriage Law of the People’s Republic of China in 1950, where it states that the “supremacy of man over woman, and in disregard of the interest of the children, is abolished” (Doc 5). The newly introduced concepts of free choice in partners, abortion, and monogamy that derived from this law changed the societal position on women and peasants which greatly expresses the amount of new social mobility