Mao Zedong was the founder of the People’s Republic of China in 1949. He was a Chinese communist revolutionary and political theorist who was the driving force behind the establishment of the People’s Republic of China.
Mao was born in 1893 in Hunan, China. He attended elementary school and later worked as a librarian, a library assistant, and a teacher before enrolling in Beijing University in 1911 to study Marxist ideologies. In 1921, Mao joined the newly established Communist Party of China (CPC) and began to organize peasant-based insurgencies against warlords which eventually led to a civil war between the CPC and the Kuomintang (KMT) nationalist party.
Mao quickly rose through the ranks of the CPC and became its leader in 1935, with the help of his “Long March” from Jiangxi to Yan’an. During the Second Sino-Japanese War (1937–1945), Mao and other members of the CPC provided military aid for the KMT to fight Japanese forces, thus greatly increasing the CPC’s popular support. Toward the end of WWII, Mao and the CPC were able to establish a base in Manchuria and begin to develop closer ties with the Soviet Union.
In 1945, the KMT and CPC signed the United National Front Agreement and formed the Democratic Coalition Government. However, the two sides were unable to come to an agreement on how to govern the country. In 1949, CPC forces led by Mao declared the People’s Republic of China, with Mao as its leader. This marked the beginning of Mao’s tenure as chairman of the Communist Party of China (CPC) and the de facto leader of China.
Mao oversaw sweeping economic, social and political reforms that transformed China into a highly centralized socialist economy and culture. He is known for launching the Great Leap Forward (1958-1960), a massive mobilization effort designed to increase agricultural and industrial production, as well as the Cultural Revolution (1966-1976), a period when Mao and his allies used propaganda campaigns and mass purges to enforce the party line.
Mao died in 1976, but his legacy continues to resonate today in China and around the world. He was one of the most influential figures in history, responsible for reshaping the face of modern China and for creating a form of government that still exists today.