most of whom had been separated for years from their homes and
families, were not willing to fight other Chinese in the civil war now
well under way; they wanted to go home and start a new life. The
communists, however, were now well organized militarily and well equiped
with arms surrendered by the Japanese to the Soviet armies as well as
with arms and ammunition sold to them by KMT soldiers; moreover, they
were constantly strengthened by deserters from the KMT. The civil war
witnessed a steady retreat by the KMT armies, which resisted only
sporadically. By the end of 1948, most of mainland China was in the
hands of the communists, who established their new capital in Peking.

2 _Nationalist China in Taiwan_

The Nationalist government retreated to Taiwan with those soldiers who
remained loyal. This island was returned to China after the defeat of
Japan, though final disposition of its status had not yet been
determined.

Taiwan's original population had been made up of more than a dozen
tribes who are probably distant relatives of tribes in the Philippines.
These are Taiwan's "aborigines," altogether about 200,000 people in
1948.

At about the time of the Sung dynasty, Chinese began to establish
outposts on the island; these developed into regular agricultural
settlements toward the end of the Ming dynasty. Immigration increased in
the eighteenth and especially the nineteenth centuries. These Chinese
immigrants and their descendants are the "Taiwanese," Taiwan's main
population of about eight million people as of 1948.

Taiwan was at first a part of the province of Fukien, whence most of its
Chinese settlers came; there was also a minority of Hakka, Chinese from
Kuangtung province. When Taiwan was ceded to Japan, it was still a
colonial area with much lawlessness and disorder, but with a number of
flourishing towns and a growing population. The Japanese, who sent
administrators but no settlers, established law and order, protected the
aborigines from land-hungry Chinese settlers, and attempted to abolish
headhunting by the aborigines and to raise the cultural level in
general. They built a road and railway system and strongly stressed the
production of sugar cane and rice. During the Second World War, the
island suffered from air attacks and from the inability of the Japanese
to protect its industries.

After Chiang Kai-shek and the remainder of his army and of his
government officials arrived in Taiwan, the