Revolutionary base area

In Mao Zedong's original formulation of the concept of people's war, a revolutionary base area (Chinese: 革命根据地 gémìng gēnjùdì) is a local stronghold that the revolutionary force conducting the people's war should attempt to establish, starting from a remote area with mountainous or forested terrain in which its enemy is weak.

Part of a series on
Maoism
Concepts Antagonistic contradiction Anti-imperialism Anti-revisionism Cultural Revolution Marxism–Leninism Mass line New Democracy People's war Revolutionary base area Self-criticism Social imperialism
Variants Deng Xiaoping Theory Gonzalo Thought Maoism–Third Worldism Mao-Spontex Marxism–Leninism–Maoism Marxism–Leninism–Maoism–Prachanda Path Shining Path
People Mao Zedong Lin Biao Harry Haywood Charu Majumdar Chen Boda Pierre Mulele Jiang Qing Ted Hill Afzal Bangash Akram Yari Siraj Sikder Charles Bettelheim Zhang Chunqiao İbrahim Kaypakkaya Pol Pot Huey P. Newton Faiz Ahmad Yao Wenyuan Chin Peng Samir Amin Norm Gallagher Abimael Guzmán Jose Maria Sison Bob Avakian Pushpa Kamal Dahal Li Minqi Mohan Baidya Xi Jinping
Theoretical works Report on an Investigation of the Peasant Movement in Hunan On Contradiction On Practice On Guerrilla Warfare On Protracted War A Critique of Soviet Economics Quotations from Chairman Mao Historic Eight Documents
History Chinese Revolution China 1949–1976 1976–1989 1989–2002 2002–2010s Korean War Sino-Soviet split Great Leap Forward Black Power movement Cultural Revolution New Communist Movement Naxalite–Maoist insurgency CPP–NPA–NDF rebellion Sino-Albanian split Maoist insurgency in Turkey Internal conflict in Peru Nepalese Civil War
Related topics Communist Party of China Communist Party of Nepal Communist Party of the Philippines Guevarism National Democracy Movement National Democratic Front of the Philippines Naxalite Nepal Communist Party New People's Army Red Guards Revolutionary Communist Party, USA Shining Path Thought reform in China
China portal Communism portal Socialism portal Politics portal

This kind of base helps the revolutionary conducting force to exploit the few advantages that a small revolutionary movement has—broad-based popular support can be one of them—against a state's power with a large and well-equipped army.