wounded, the communists broke through the
encirclement and fought their way north for 6,000
miles on the epic ‘Long March’. Yet it was not
civil war that dominated the 1930s but the
Japanese invasion in 1937. Once more, fervent
national feelings created a sense of unity in resist-
ing the brutal aggressor. Before Chiang Kai-shek’s
decisive breach he utilised the strength of the
communists to support the northern military
expedition started in 1926 to convert what was a
local government into a national one. It was a
tremendous feat to sweep successfully north from
their base in southern China to Peking. There was
some hard fighting; some warlords agreed to
accept Chiang Kai-shek’s authority on behalf of
the nationalist government now established in a
new capital in Nanking.
Chiang Kai-shek took care at this stage not to
offend the Western powers in China. He smashed
the anti-Western movement of the communists in78 BEYOND EUROPE: THE SHIFTING BALANCE OF GLOBAL POWER
KabulRUSSIAN EMPIRECHINAJAPAN
KOREAHONG KONGINDIABURMACEYLONTIBETAFGHANISTANSUMATRASARAWAKCELEBESTHAILAND
FRENCH
INDO-CHINABORNEOMALAY
STATESPHILIPPINESFORMOSA
(Japan)
DelhiChungkingShanghaiHanoiCantonManilaRangoonCalcuttaBangkokKarachiColombo
0 800 miles
0 800 kmBombayGOASaigonSingaporeNanking
HankowPekingVladivostokDairenTokyoR.Amu
rR.
Ye
llo
wR.YangtzeR.G
ang
esR.IndusNEPALSINKIANGOUTER MONGOLIAINNER
MONGOLIAMANCHURIA