“The Long March was a retreat that changed the destiny of China” To what extent do you agree with this statement?

The Long March was an epic journey across China conducted by the Red army in 1934. After the breakdown of the first United Front, Chiang Kai Shek launched an offensive which forced a retreat from Mao and the Red army. This retreat is believed to have lasted for over a year and covered 6000 miles. By the end of the march, of the 80000 marchers who embarked on the journey, only 6000 made it to Yenan. It was a march rich with heroism and hardship. However to call the Long March a retreat that changed the destiny of china is controversial. The term 'destiny' can be interpreted in two different ways. It can be the outcome of the Long March influencing the civil war by 1949 or the world's perspective of China.

According to many historians, such as Richard Cavendish, the Long March was a victorious march for Mao and the CCP. It made the survival of the imperiled CCP possible, gave Mao a secure grasp on its leadership and ultimately led to the creation of the People's Republic of China. “As a bulwark of Chinese pride and patriotism, skillfully exploited as such by Mao and his circle”. It is also sometimes believed that the Long March was a seeding machine, one that spread the Marxist ideology and manipulated the opinions of China and Mao across the globe.

Before the epic journey began, the CCP was in a quagmire and the Nationalists seemed on the point of establishing an unshakeable control over China. The communists appeared to be a broken force. At this point, there was no certainty that the CCP will survived. However, as a result of the Long MArch, the survival of the CCP was ensured. When the CCP reached Yenan, they grew stronger. This is the common thought of the achievements of the Long March. However, could the CCP survive even without the Long March? Was Chiang Kai Shek's ruler over China inevitable without it? Many historians argued that Chiang would not have gained control of China even if the Long March had not occurred. Also the presence of the Japanese in China would have affected the KMT as they were expected to deal with the issues made by the Japanese. With the expected failure of the KMT and the involvement from the Japanese, it can be argued that the CCP would have survived even without the occurrence of the Long March. ON the other hand, it is not to say that the Long March had no impact at all on the survival of the CCP, it just merely kept more Communists alive than enured survival possible.

Many historians and critics, even Mao himself, believed that the Long March had spread the ideas of communism throughout China. Mao and his fellow troopers introduce these ideas and made promises that peasants were attracted to. Mao wrote: “The Long MArch is a manifesto. It has proclaimed to the world that the Red Army is an army of heroes, … It has announced to some 200 million people in 11 provinces that the read of the Red Army is their only road to Liberation”. The Long March had won the CCP many support among the rural peasants. Through propaganda, it also strengthened the Red army as more peasants became involved. IN this sense, the Long March had helped the Red Army become stronger, thus helped the CCP to win the Civil war in 1949. However, was the influence of the propaganda as significant as compared to the weakness of KMT and the threat of the Japanese Invasion in determining the destiny of China? If the propaganda factor of the Long March was taken out of the scenario, many historians argued that the destiny of China would remain the same. Although the propaganda helped fostered supports of the CCP, the Japanese invasion would have driven the peasants to seek the CCP for help and support. Meanwhile the KMT's main focus was to crush the CCP first. Be fore the Japanese, the peasants would of course turn to the CCP as they were the only party trying to resist the foreign invasion. With this in the picture, the propaganda factor of the Long March only helped gained a portion of the support for the CCP. Without it, the CCP would still have gained support from factors mentioned and these supports would perhaps be enough to help CCP win the Civil war.

The Long March was also believed to have consolidated Mao's leadership in the CCP. In the Zunyi conference, Mao had exploited rivalries and discontents in the party politburo to wrong foot and take control. It was at that point that Mao had maneuvered himself as the dominant leader of the CCP, thus changing the destiny of China. However, without the Long March and the Zunyi Conference, Mao is believed to still be able to climb his way to power. Mao, by nature, was a very cruel and manipulative individual. He would have exploited the politburos elsewhere. Mao was also an already popular individual due to his beliefs and determination such as the destruction of the Chinese tradition. With those factors, Mao certainly would have changed the destiny of China.

Finally, the Long March is thought to have changed the world's perspective of China. Outside China, a book called 'Red Star Over CHina' by Edgar Snow had changed the opinions of Mao as a leader. Mao had led about his life in China, claiming that he lived a modest simple lifestyle when in reality he salvaged on the luxuries. As a result of his book, the world viewed China as a potent leader, worthy of support and control over China. In this sense, the Long March had changed the world's perspective of China, hence he destiny of China. The book also had affected students in China. Chinese version of the book was released o the kids, and thus they began to worship Mao and the Red Army. There is no argument here as Edgar's Snow's book was the only book with accounts of life in China that was available to the westerners. Thus, the Long March had changed the destiny of China in terms of perception of China from the world.

Overall, the Long March seemed to have only strengthened the CCP on top of every other factors such as the invasion of Manchuria and the weakness of the KMT. It certainly has helped foster this change in destiny of China, but without it, the destiny of China would not change. I believe that it merely helped speed up the rate of growth of the CCP. It shortened the CCP's rise to power and without it, the CCP might not have gained total control until later.