Born in 1887, Chiang Kai-shek was the natural successor to Sun Yat-sen, the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party, known as the Kuomintang or Guomindang. Kai-shek would become a vital part of Chinese history in the 1900s. (Trueman)Chiang Kai-shek was born in China's seaside province of Zhejiang. (“Chiang Kai-shek”) He was born the son of a rich salt merchant. (Fredriksen) However, Kai-shek was raised by his widowed mother, and with the necessary and relevant standard Chinese schooling and education received in his childhood, he was able to graduate from the Baoding Military Academy. (Upshur) Kai-shek later attended a university in Japan focused on training military officers, and Kai-shek also served in the Imperial Japanese Army for a short time. (Trueman) In 1911, while still in Japan, Kai-shek became a member of Sun Yat-sen's revolutionary front, known as the Kuomintang or Chinese Nationalist Party. (Upshur) Later that year, Kai-shek returned to China to serve under the Kuomintang in subverting the Manchu (Qing) dynasty. After the fall of the Qing dynasty, the constitution of the new Republic of China was affirmed. (Fredriksen) About twelve years later, in 1923, Sun Yat-sen ordered Kai-shek to go to the Soviet Union to learn the skills and techniques of the Soviet Red Army. (Upshur) With the reinforcement of Sun Yat-sen, Kai-shek was appointed commander of the Whampoa Military Academy established in Canton in 1924. ("Chiang Kai-shek") In 1925, tragedy struck when the beloved leader and revered Sun Yat-sen died, and with this disastrous death mentioned above, Chiang Kai-shek was able to slip directly into Yat-sen's substance...... middle of paper...... The Kuomintang and the Communists. ("Chiang Kai-shek") The Kuomintang was steadily but inexorably defeated, and soon after, in 1949, Chiang and his surviving troops sought recourse on the island of Taiwan. Mao Zedong then announced the birth of the People's Republic of China. (Fredriksen)For the rest of his life, Chiang Kai-shek established and led a government in Taiwan that was accepted by many nations as the true government of China. ("Chiang Kai-shek") Shortly before his death, Kai-shek named his son Chiang Ching-kuo as his successor. Chiang Kai-shek died on April 5, 1975, but did not leave the world. Kai-shek left behind a legacy of Chinese unification and was a vital source of assistance in China's development and its modernist growth as a powerful nation. (Fredriksen)