==Chiang Kai-shek unites China==
Chiang Kai-shek (1887-1975) became the KMT strongman and military leader. In 1926 Chiang led a military operation known as the "Northern Expedition" against the warlords that controled much of the country and defeated them. Next, Chiang tried to destroy the Communists. In Shanghai, the leading city, in 12 April 1927 he purged and often executed the Communists in the KMT.<ref> The event is also known as the Shanghai Massacre of 1927. See Tien-wei Wu, "A Review of the Wuhan Debacle: the Kuomintang-Communist Split of 1927." ''Journal of Asian Studies'' 1969 29(1): 125-143 </ref> The Northern Expedition proved successful and the Nationalist government gained control throughout China (except Manchuria) in 1927, with Chiang as leader. The capital of China was moved to [[Nanjing]], a city near Shanghai that previously served as capital for the [[Ming dynasty]] and for Sun Yat-sen in 1912.
The party was always concerned with strengthening Chinese identity at the same time it was discarding old traditions in the name of modernity. In 1929, the KMT government suppressed the textbook ''Modern Chinese History,'' widely used in secondary education. The Nationalists were concerned that, by not admitting the existence of the earliest emperors in ancient Chinese history, the book would weaken the foundation of the state. The case of the ''Modern Chinese History'' textbook reflects the symptoms of the period: banning the textbook strengthened the Nationalists' ideological control but also revealed their fear of the New Culture Movement and its more liberal ideological implications.
==Chinese Civil War==
Civil war broke out between the Communist and Guomindang in 1930. Mao Zedong trained peasants in guerrilla warfare. But Chiang’s army surrounded Mao’s, and in 1934 forced Mao’s army to go on the [[Long March]], which was a 6,000-mile retreat to northwestern China. Few made it back alive--the alive—the survivors controlled the Communist party since 1949.
==Second Sino-Japanese War==
:''{{Main article: [[|Second Sino-Japanese War]]''}}Meanwhile an aggressive Japan invaded [[Manchuria]], an independent warlord-controlled area of northeast China rich in iron and coal deposits needed by Japanese industry and in March 1932 set up the [[puppet state]] of [[Manchukuo]]. On 24 February, 1933, the [[League of Nations]] adopted a resolution calling for the non-recognition of Manchukuo, however the [[Soviet Union]] nonetheless did recognize Manchukuo and sold Japan the Chinese Eastern Railway in 1935. This Manchurian invasion was the beginning of [[World War II]] in Asia and is commonly referred to as the [[Mukden Incident]]. Japan followed this with an invasion of China in 1937 along the Yangtze River. The Chinese civil war stopped temporarily to defend against the Japanese invasion. The Soviet Union brought 30 thousand Red army troops to Mongolia and stationed them along the southern and south-eastern border of Mongolia on the pretext of having found the Japanese plan of military occupation of Mongolia". At the same time, the Soviet leadership gave instructions to carry out mass arrests and the execution of several ten thousands of Mongolian government, party and army cadres on the pretext of "rooting out the spy organization."
==Two wars==