Research On Shandong Agricultural Disaster Rescue During The Republic Of China

As a large agricultural province,Shandong province often suffers from various kinds of agricultural disasters.Since ancient times,the government has attached great importance to how to effectively eliminate disasters,prevent disasters and provide disaster relief.The Republic of China was an important period of the transition from traditional to modern agricultural disaster relief in Shandong province.In terms of the system construction and practical measures of agricultural disaster relief,this period began to get rid of the traditional mode and approach modern practice.Some ideas and measures of agricultural disaster relief in the Republic of China still have direct or indirect influence on today.Put simply,many measures of agricultural disaster relief sprouted in this period.The agricultural disasters and disaster relief in Shandong province were relatively representative.Thus,it would be valuable for Shandong province to research the history of agricultural disaster relief and review the gains and losses during the Republic of China for further better carry out agricultural disaster relief in the future.This paper proceeds as follows.Section 1 gives a brief review of the characteristics,reasons and negative effects of agricultural disasters in Shandong province during the Republic of China.As the core chapters,Section 2 describes the institutions and organizations of the Northern Government,the Nanjing Nationalist Government,the Shandong Bases and Liberated Areas.Section 3 shows the disaster relief measures of agricultural disasters in Shandong province during the Republic of China from two perspectives of pre-disaster prevention measures and post-disaster relief measures.To be specific,with the whole society to the modernization of the transformation during this period,the contact between China and Western society was also increasing.Many government officials and people with breadth of vision began to pay attention to learning from Western countries,which promoted the modernization of disaster prevention and relief.First,the disaster relief organizations became modernized.Each government set up special organizations responsible for disaster relief,and targeted temporary relief organizations for major disasters.Also,they improved the management system of disaster relief organizations,and formulated the process of disaster relief.Therefore,the establishment of disaster prevention and relief organizations is the major phenomenon of modernization in this period.Second,the disaster relief measures became modernization.On the one hand,traditional relief measures such as providing free porridge,dispensing relief funds were still carried out.On the other hand,there were also some advanced measures.In terms of disaster prevention,for example,the governments built water conservation projects,restored river banks,planted trees to conserve water and soil,protected birds and beneficial insects,prevented and cured disasters by biological means,adopted plant quarantine,set up commodity inspection agencies to quarantine imported and exported agricultural products,and used pesticides.For disaster relief,the governments issued bonds in order to raise funds for disaster relief,and formulated laws related to disaster prevention and relief.Private capital also began to be involved in disaster relief,as well as foreign charities such as the Red Cross Society and the Charity of Wanguo.Finally,Section 4 focuses on the analysis of the characteristics and existing problems of agricultural disaster relief in Shandong province during the Republic of China,and draws a lot of meaningful enlightenment.It can be seen that the Beiyang Government and the Nationalist Government suffered financial losses and lost popular support due to their ineffective response to the disaster,which led to the replacement of the regime.However,the democratic government led by the communist party,responded positively to the disaster and eventually succeeded.Based on the study of agricultural disaster relief in Shandong province during the Republic of China,it is not difficult to find that the indispensable factors of disaster relief included stable social situation,harmonious external environment,strong and powerful central government,perfect disaster prevention and relief organizations,continuous economic development,and the cooperation of non-governmental relief forces.Although there were some deficiencies in the process of agricultural disaster relief in Shandong province during this period,it still has reference value on the whole,which can provide implications for the government and people at present to perform better in disaster prevention and relief in the future.