Major conflict1946 – 1949 · 3 years
Chinese Civil War (Second Period)
China · Manchuria · North China
Communists defeated the Nationalist government, establishing mainland China and reshaping Asian geopolitics.
Estimated casualties
6.0M – 18Mestimated dead
HEADLINE6.0M — the single figure used on the map
1946-1949. Main CCP-KMT conflict. Casualties dominate aggregate Chinese Civil War toll.
SOURCEWikipedia: Chinese Civil War (Second Period)
What happened
After the Japanese surrender in 1945, the uneasy Nationalist-Communist alliance collapsed. Mao's PLA and Chiang Kai-shek's Nationalist forces competed for control. The Communists, battle-hardened from anti-Japanese warfare and enjoying rural support, gradually pushed the Nationalists northward. Key battles included Liaoxi-Shenyang (1948), where superior Communist organization and logistics defeated Nationalist forces. By late 1949, the Nationalists retreated to Taiwan; Mao proclaimed the People's Republic on October 1, 1949. The war killed 1-3.5 million combatants and displaced millions more.
Why it mattered
Communist victory created the world's most populous communist state and fundamentally altered the Cold War balance. China's establishment as a communist power threatened Western interests in Asia and influenced Korean War dynamics. The victory established Mao's Long March route and tactics as legendary in communist history. The conflict's outcome shaped the next 70 years of Asian history.
Belligerents2
- Republic of China
- People's Republic of China
Conflict graph
SUB-CONFLICTS · 24
- Battle of Changchun1946
- Battle of Jiangsu1946
- Battle of Siping1946
- Battle of Siping1947
- Battle of Songhua (1st)1947
- Battle of Songhua (2nd)1947
- Battle of Yanan1947
- Battle of Baoji1948
- Battle of Changchun1948
- Battle of Huaihai1948
- Battle of Jinan1948
- Battle of Jinzhou1948
+ 12 more in the atlas.
Sources
- Wikipedia — text reused under CC BY-SA 4.0
Open in the atlas →Seeks the timeline to 1946 and opens this record.
Cite as: Chinese Civil War (Second Period) (1946 – 1949). War Atlas. https://waratlas.org/c/chinese-civil-war-main · Sources & methodology