China's Wars: Rousing the Dragon 1894-1949

by Philip Jowett

By the end of the first decade of the 21st century, China had become one of the great powers of the modern world. Economically, politically, and militarily, its power and international reach is only exceeded by the United States, the world's one remaining superpower.Its military spending, though dwarfed by the United States, is over $100 billion a year and it is busy developing an aircraft carrier, a stealth fighter jet, and missiles that can shoot down satellites - all in an effort to project its power on a global scale.This is all a far cry from its position at the end of the 19th century, when it was a ramshackle and isolated medieval empire upon whom the European colonial powers could impose their wishes at will. The period from the First Sino-Japanese War of 1894-95 through to the Communist victory in the Chinese Civil War ending in 1949 was one of near-constant conflict that saw China emerge as a fledgling new world power. Militarily at least, this is the defining period in Chinese history.This is the period that saw the breakdown of the traditional imperial system of control, under threat from a series of rebellions throughout the 19th century, and the rise of the warlords and civil war in 1911. Despite the establishment of the Republic of China in 1912, the country was still riven by internal strife as different factions sought to control the fledgling state, while much of the power in the land was exercised by regional warlords in a constant state of conflict with one another. The 1920s saw the rise of two opposing revolutionary movements, the Kuomintang, led first by Sun Yat-Sen and later Chiang Kai-Shek, and the Chinese Communist Party, one of whose early leaders was Mao Tse-Tung. The Kuomintang managed to gain control of the majority of China by the late 1920s, and started a long running conflict with the Communists at the same time. The late 1920s also saw the first significant Japanese intervention in China, and in 1931 the Japanese took control of the whole of Manchuria. By 1937 this had escalated into out and out conflict with the Chinese, a conflict which would last till the Japanese defeat in World War II in 1945. Even then China had to struggle through four years of painful civil war before the Chinese Communist Party finally established control in 1949.In this new study Philip Jowett traces the complicated military history of China during these pivotal years, describing in detail the conflicts that forge the modern superpower that is China today.

Genres: History, China, Nonfiction, Military History

400 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

Philip Jowett was born in Leeds in 1961 and has been interested in military history for as long as he can remember. His first Osprey book was Chinese Civil War Armies 1911–49, and since then he has published numerous other titles for Osprey including, The Russo-Japanese War 1904–05, Japan's Asian Allies 1941–45 and Armour in China 1920–1950. He lives in North Lincolnshire, UK.

Reviews

[An Le · Rating 4 out of 5]

An excellent historical primer into the essential building blocks of the modern Chinese state. Solid 4 stars.

Likes:
+ effectively chronologizes the tumultuous phases of warlordism and civil wars in recently modern Chinese history
+ well-organized book that walks the reader through the progression of history with each page
+ well-written and holds the reader's interest

Dislikes:
- China's wars did not stop in 1949; wars in Korea and Vietnam had profoundly more impact on political and military organization of communist China
- understandably weak use of first-account resources and citations

[Abbas Zubir · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a section within beyond good and evil that always fascinate me even though I'm fairly certain I haven't grasp the actual context within that section. The section I had in mind was Nietzsche lengthy diatribe on national and nationalities. On his view on value of culture, on what makes a french's french, a germany's germany.

Irrespective to the accuracy of my interpretation, the interpretation kept rearing it's head whilst I was reading this tome. Either I was bored out of my mind from the drab endless list of battalion upon battalion being listed consecutively almost to the point of debauchery or indeed I was making a connection, I know not. Supposing I was making a connection, I thought it is interesting that the current socio-political make up of China is no different than the past warlord-ian esque. In a nutshell, an extreme simplified observation of China Politics and Economy, would lead one to surmise CCP decentralized its economy to the respective provincial level. Its a uniquely governance system often dubbed as regionally decentralized authoritarianism.

It had been successful thus far but the fall of Evergrande (of course a slew of others issue, a recent research on actual GDP of China for instance and many-many more) shows that perhaps its not without its shortcomings.

Interestingly, this also invoke (again my self interpretation of Nietzsche) a sense of eternal recurrence in a literal sense. Where history kept repeating itself unbeknownst to us. Chiang Kai-Shek perhaps hasn't buried the warlord after all. Perhaps China are inherently, eternally cursed with this tinge of warlord-ian esque nature.

[Kalpit · Rating 5 out of 5]

China’s Wars by Philip Jowett is an enunciate and profoundly tailored guide/encyclopedia about China’s Wars history predating from 1894 AD ~ 1949AD.

It left me appreciating with a condescending sneer about what an incredible revolution period China has evolved from, after facing all the melancholy, dangling for steadiness and finally burring all the hard times, disputes and conflicts and finally evolving into almost a Superpower and one of the most dominating nation world has seen.
With so less information and literature available on Eastern wars (primarily China, Japan, etc) this book is almost an obelisk and highly informative, if one is interested in studying those minute details, right from the weapons used, the troops that served, quantity and quality analysis about number of rifles, ammunition, warriors, soldiers, battalions and the lives sacrificed and everything in between that’s almost forgotten.

This book is one of it’s kind that thoroughly indulged and arrested me as I learned about the conflicts less spoken/known, the wars almost forgotten, the mysterious time from 1894-1911, the huge revolution that followed after that, warlord-ism era, the most extreme and fierce battles fought between China and Japan, Japanese Invasion, China’s involvement in WWII, the impacts it had on the world which wrecked China into pieces and dust and eventually the foundation of the Communist Party, thereby from which, China took out it’s legacy to be a world power. This book serves most of the parameters of what a historical literature should be.

Extremely passionate research work carried out by Philips Jowett and brilliantly captured between the bindings by Osprey Publishing, China’s Wars is a book that would soon be a standard reference book in Historical Literature in modern universities and a favorite to historians studying Eastern part of the world.

Author Phillips Jowett thoughtfully managed to put up all the events in chronological order and the amount of research carried out just for the production of this book is something which was noticeable right when I picked up this book. Phillips managed to collect all the rarest of rare photographs of almost all the events, battles, weapons and everything that I could possibly think of. The great art work, paintings, photographs captured and published in this book are in abundance which just make this book worth every penny and every second of time I used on it.

While skiing my journey through this book, I remember a beautiful quote “Every Adversity brings with it the seeds of an Equivalent Advantage” - which China has devoured it with famish persistence.

Although there were gimmicks about the tinniest realistic details that an enthusiast historian would desperately seek and devour, there were also some glitches and empty spaces that I felt Philips Jowett should have filled (had it been a 800 pages book, then). I expected to learn more about the traditions followed during the predated timeline, the mindset of Chinese people, political affairs, psychological impacts the instability and insecurity imposed on minds of citizens and soldiers and addition few more topographical maps would have been appreciated for even further -crystallized view of the territories the wars were fought in.
But never-the-less, this book undoubtedly delivers a hundred folds more (probably more) than what it promises on the synopsis/blurb.

Taking about the actual physical quality of the book (which I have to, in this case), Osprey Press is almost an luxury just like a Rolls Royce would be for cars. This Osprey title was fully printed on high quality magazine type papers with plenty of shiny color as well as black and white illustrations and photographs. On it’s own, it’s a beauty to behold and drips one of the highest quality of passionate craftsmanship from every page that may put other publishing companies to shame.
I almost giveaway a additional star just for the physical quality of this Hard cover edition (which makes it a 5starer for me).

On the downside, I felt this book missed out certain details of events like The Shanghai 1937 Battle fought between China and Japan which was equally devastating as the famous western wars (primarily focusing on Britain, US, France and Germany). For that, I’d suggest another book “Shanghai 1937 : Stalingrad on the Yangtze by Peter Harmsen which I loved equally.
Other than that, I can’t think of any downside that author Phillips Jowett possibly shy's away from.

While the world talks countless negative sides of China, After reading this book, I learned about the other side of the story. Not only that nation did escalate from the domination of foreign invasion, it bravely raised from the menace of misery that China was one drenched in. I felt the author did a splendid job in recreating all the history and taking me on a roller coaster yet a strategic journey.

Verdict: China’s Wars by Phillips Jowett truly captured all the nuances that history lovers would possibly seek for, in a decent chronological order that would take the reader back into the old times and relive those events as if the reader were a part of those catastrophic events. Yes, it was undoubtedly that realistic and beautifully written with added benefits of color art work and photographs. So if you’re looking for some good history books on Eastern wars, primarily addressing China’s Wars, look no further than this book. Even with few glitches here and there, this book is definitely a 5 starer for me.

[Timmy · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a well-written account, and includes most of the important events during the time period. Most of the grammar and content was great, although it can be improved by checking for spelling errors and missing spaces (or adding spaces). Great book for history enthusiasts and for research.

[T. Fowler · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book shows China was a failed state from 1893 to 1949, torn on multiple fronts by military conflict. Sun Yat-sen and then Chiang Kai-shek attempted to bring order out of chaos but the task was too difficult. It is shocking how many wars were fought, how large the armies were, and how many died in what seemed to be continuous wars. Warlords controlled large areas where any allegianced to a central grovernment was always fragile. One can only pity the poor peasant who was powerless and must have suffered terribly as armies marched back and forth over their lands.

The book focuses on the military history with only limited reference to the political and diplomatic history which is also needed to understand this tormented country. To understand this dimension, it would be useful to read "Forgotten Ally" by Rana Mitter. For each era of conlfict, Jowett gives a very useful summary of the orgainization of the main opponents, the leaders, the size of the armies, their organization, and the weapons used. Becaause the book covers such a long period of time and so many events, and because the names of all the main personalities are unfamiliar, it is somewhat laborious to read. But with that caveat, it is well written, well researched, and gives a good insight into the subject.

This history should help one to understand the current Communist government's fears of political instability and the dangers of what could happen if central government control should break down. the big question that needs to be answered is how strong does the average Chinese citizen view China as a unified nation state, and how easily could this break down into regionalism that could bring back the economic and social disasters of the 20th century.

[Frédéric · Rating 4 out of 5]

Impressive review of 50 years odd of conflicts. You'll have to buy other books in you want to dig in whatever period you're interested in but if you want a concise overall presentation of the period, this is the book you need.

[Navneet Bhushan · Rating 2 out of 5]

picture history of Chinese wars till 1949. I started reading the kindle e book thinking it will be a considerable deep analysis. It turned out to be a picture history. I stopped and read again and stopped and read again. it's more of slow page Turner.