The Long March was a military retreat undertaken by the Red Army of the Communist Party of China from 16 October 1934 to 22 October 1935 to evade the pursuit of the Kuomintang during the Chinese Civil War. The communists' escape began the ascent to power of Mao Zedong, who would soon come to become the leader of Communist China, both against the Nationalists and later against the Japanese during the Second Sino-Japanese War.
History[]
Until 1927 the Communist Party of China supported the Kuomintang under Chiang Kai-shek in unifying China under a nationalist government. The Kuomintang then turned on the communists, however, massacring many and forcing the survivors to flee the major cities. In the early 1930s Chiang Kai-shek launched a series of campaigns to destroy their remaining bases. Communist-controlled Jiangxi was encircled by government troops and placed under blockade. Communist leaders, including Mao Zedong, decided to stage a breakout to the southwest. Short of supplies - only one in three troops spearheading the march had rifles - the communists nonetheless broke out of encirclement and headed west then north in search of a safe base. Intermittent small-scale fighting was a constant drain on manpower, but hardship and disease caused most losses as the march crossed high mountains and trackless swamps. At the end, 9,000 communists arrived in Wuqizhen; 80,000 had participated in the initial Communist outbreak from Jiangxi.