First United Front

The First United Front was an alliance between the Kuomintang and Chinese Communist Party from 1924 to 1927, organized to unify China and defeat warlord rule.

Kuomintang: A Chinese nationalist political party founded by Sun Yat-sen and led by Chiang Kai-shek during the Northern Expedition. The party joined the alliance while retaining its own organization and leadership.
Sun Yat-sen: A Chinese revolutionary and political leader who founded the Kuomintang and served as its first provisional president. He accepted cooperation with communists as part of rebuilding the Kuomintang.
Chiang Kai-shek: A Kuomintang military and political leader who led the Nationalist government in China from 1928. His 1927 purge of communists in Shanghai shattered the alliance.
Shanghai massacre of 1927: The April 1927 purge in which Kuomintang forces and allied groups killed and arrested communists and labor activists in Shanghai. This purge was the decisive rupture that ended cooperation in the alliance’s main stronghold.
Warlord Era: A period of fragmented military rule in China, conventionally dated from 1916 to 1928. Defeating regional warlords was the alliance’s stated unifying objective.
Chinese Communist Party: A political party founded in Shanghai in 1921 to organize a communist revolution in China. Its members cooperated with the Kuomintang while maintaining a separate party organization.
Comintern: An international organization founded in 1919 to coordinate communist parties and promote world revolution. It encouraged Chinese communists to work within the Kuomintang and helped broker cooperation.
Mikhail Borodin: A Soviet Comintern agent who advised Sun Yat-sen and the Kuomintang in China during the 1920s. He helped organize the Kuomintang’s Soviet-backed reorganization and cooperation with communists.
Nanchang Uprising: An armed uprising launched by communist forces in Nanchang on August 1, 1927, against the Kuomintang. It followed the alliance’s collapse and became a foundational event for the communist army.
Three Principles of the People: Sun Yat-sen’s political doctrine of nationalism, democracy, and people’s livelihood. The doctrine supplied the Kuomintang’s program, distinct from the communists’ revolutionary aims.

Linked from 11 pages