In the fall of 1917, Sun Yat-sen moved to Canton, China, where he tried to establish a military base through an alliance with the local warlord, Chen Chiung-ming. Chiang he was assigned to Chen Chiung-ming’s staff, but because he was Chekiangese, he was not easily accepted among Chen’s Cantonese followers.
By early 1922 the political differences between Sun and Chen had reached the breaking point. But soon after, fortune turned once more in Sun’s favor, and by February 1923 he was back in Canton. On April 20 Chiang he assumed functions as Sun’s chief of staff, which had requested support from the Moscow revolutionary group; Chiang He led a group to seek military aid in the Soviet Union.
After strengthening his political position, Chiang he was prepared to carry out Sun’s dream of national reunification. On July 9, 1926, he became supreme commander of the Northern Expeditionary Forces. Shanghai was occupied on March 22, 1927, and Nanking on March 24. In less than a year Chiang it had brought the rich and densely populated provinces of southern, central and eastern China under nationalist control.
The decade 1928-1937 was peaceful only in comparison with what had happened before and what would come after. Not a year passed without bloodshed among the militarists, nationalists, communists, and the Japanese invaders. German advisers and arsenals helped build a modern army, which eventually drove the Communists from their base in Kiangsi and forced their army to flee.
These were also years of promising breakthroughs in Chinese cities, especially in the lower Yangtze Valley and Manchuria. With their emphasis on modern, urban development, the Nationalists enlisted the cooperation of many talented, foreign-educated intellectuals, and higher education flourished. At the same time Chiang started a “New Life Movement“which was intended to introduce millions of Chinese to military discipline and enthusiasm for Confucian values. However, neither this nor Sun Yat-sen’s ideas provided an attractive alternative to Marxism. On the other hand, two problems Unsolved, the poor state of rural China and the thrust of Japanese aggression gave the communists opportunities.
During the first year of the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937-1945), where Japanese and Chinese forces clashed over land, the popularity of Chiang it shot itself. From August to December 1937 his German-trained armies engaged in a magnificent containment action around Shanghai and Nanjing. Proud and stubborn, Chiang symbolized China’s resistance against the Japanese war machine. His supremacy was confirmed in March 1938, when he assumed the title of Tsung-tsai (party leader).
Despite the victory over Japan of the allied army, on August 14, 1945, the unresolved pre-war war problems that increased during the Second War, weakened the government of Chiang, allowing the Marxist Mao Tse-Tung to extend control over a population of about one hundred million Chinese. The Marshall mission, sent by President Harry Truman, to work with both parties, could not prevent the outbreak of civil war. Overconfident from the start Chiang he made serious mistakes on the battlefield.
Many of the targets that missed Chiang on the vast continent, they succeeded on the island of Taiwan (Formosa), a seat of the Chinese nationalist government. There, he gained undisputed and virtually unlimited power. Beginning in 1954, the island enjoyed a spectacular economic boom, raising its standard of living to second place – behind only Japan – among Asian nations.
For the last three years of his life, Chiang kai-shek he was the ceremonial leader of the ROC, but his son was the practical leader. Chiang kai-shek, died after suffering a heart attack, on April 5, 1975.