... the warlords depended on its credit in the international money market. The more it borrowed, the heavier its interest burden grew, and the more it had to spend on defense in the hope of getting more money from the provinces. The general trend was inevitably one of budgetary expansion. Budgetary expansion gained momentum in 1929. However, the Japanese war of 1937 ... the issue of local currency. Under these crushingly high taxes, the normal crops of rice and wheat of necessity gave way to the more lucrative opium. Consequently, some warlords relaxed the prohibition of poppy cultivation an...

• Word Count: 4353
• Approx Pages: 17
• Has Bibliography
• Grade Level: Undergraduate

... free women from their husbands and other men, in the same way they freed the peasants form the landlords and the moneylenders. Peasants, making up the majority of the Chinese population, were facing increasingly harsh conditions. They had to struggle on a limited crop producing area and with a growing population. Also inflation and Great Depression (1929) made their lives unbearable, due to the constantly increasing taxes, interest rates and high land rentals ... . Although Mao, the communist leader, did not initially believe that peasants could lead the revolution in China. Indeed, the ...

• Word Count: 3218
• Approx Pages: 13
• Grade Level: Undergraduate