The Communists gained strength for many reasons.

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (Oct/Nov 2022). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. [1] (a) The Communists marched roughly 8000 miles.
2. [1] (a) There were over 100 000 people on the March.
3. [1] (a) The Long March began in 1934.
4. [1] (a) The Long March lasted for just over a year.
5. [1] (a) The Communists marched from Jiangxi to Yenan.
6. [1] (a) The Long March crossed 18 mountain ranges.
7. [1] (a) The Long March passed through 11 provinces.
8. [1] (b) The Nationalist government did not attack the Japanese.
9. [1] (b) The Nationalists wasted huge amounts of aid and equipment from the USA.
10. [1] (b) Senior members of the KMT were corrupt and embezzled US funds for personal use.
11. [1] (b) The peasantry supported the Communists because they took direct action against the Japanese.
12. [5] (b) The Second World War weakened the Nationalists because Chiang Kai-shek proved reluctant to engage the Japanese in military confrontation and adopted defensive positions. He ignored the advice of American military advisers who urged him to attack the Japanese. This annoyed the Chinese peasants who wanted to see their own government fight the Japanese.
13. [1] (c) Mao won respect for looking after China's interests.
14. [1] (c) Mao treated the peasants well.
15. [1] (c) Mao used guerrilla warfare.
16. [1] (c) Chiang was considered corrupt and not popular.
17. [1] (c) Mao won the hearts and minds of the peasantry.
18. [5] (c) Mao won the Civil War because he was extremely popular with the peasants. He had fought the Japanese hard in the Second World War, and during the Civil War the Communists were always considerate towards the peasants. The peasants were also attracted to the Communists because they were promised land. This meant the peasants fought loyally for the Communists.
19. [5] (c) Other factors were important. For instance, the Communists used guerrilla tactics. They knew they could not afford to engage in large scale attacks as this would be too costly in terms of manpower and supplies. Therefore, they made calculated attacks against small targets to cause problems for the KMT.
20. [10] (c) Explanation of both sides (Level 4, 7-9 marks) with evaluation of 'how far' (Level 5, 10 marks).