Why Did the Communists Gain Control of China in 1949?

In 1949, the Nationalist party of China, the Kuomintang (KMT), fled from mainland China after a civil war with the Chinese Communist Party. The KMT's failure was due to poor management and widespread corruption within the party.
In 1912, the last Chinese Emperor abdicated, with many parts of China resisting Imperial rule. With this abdication, China disintegrated into various smaller provinces, each one rules by a different warlord. Around this time, two political parties formed. One was a Nationalist Party, the KMT, founded by Sun Yat-sen. The other was a Communist party, the CCP. From 1925, to 1927, the CCP and the KMT were united in efforts to unify China, and defeat the warlords. However in 1927 Chiang Kai-shek, the KMT leader, decided that the Communists were a threat to National unity. He ordered members of the Kuomintang to turn their guns on the Communists. …