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The Great Leap Forward
(2nd 5-year plan)-1958
- Why?
- Mao wanted another revolution to take control of agriculture and industry
- China's vast resource of manpower were not being used effectively
- Still a lot of unemployment
- Still a lot of unemployment
- Mao wanted to turn China into a powerful industrial
nation as quickly as possible
- Wanted to overtake Britain and the USA's economy in 20/30 years
- Wanted to overtake Britain and the USA's economy in 20/30 years
- Mao wanted another revolution to take control of agriculture and industry
- Party Propaganda
- Posters, slogans +newspaper articles encouraged: mass
enthusiasm+ long hours of work no matter the
conditions
- Posters, slogans +newspaper articles encouraged: mass
enthusiasm+ long hours of work no matter the
conditions
- Industry
- Higher targets for industry+agriculture introduced
- Big money industries introduced to solve unemployment
- Small commune factories set-up to make cement, chemical fertilisers etc...
- Steel : 600,000 'backyard' steel furnaces in towns+villages
--> 11 million tonnes produced= 65% more than 1957
- Higher targets for industry+agriculture introduced
- Communes
- Communes (collective farms):24,000
communes. Average population= 30,000
- 1958: 90% of people (700 million) organised into communes
- Big enough to tackle big projects + set
their own local coal, iron, steel
industries
- Communes (collective farms):24,000
communes. Average population= 30,000
- Results
- Industry
- Thousands of small factories= inefficient
+wasteful
- Much of iron+steel was of poor
quality --> cannot be used
- Thousands of small factories= inefficient
+wasteful
- Agriculture
- Workers switched to
industry --> food production
fell
- 1961: grain had to be imported
- 1959-62: 3 years of disastrous harvests caused by floods+droughts
- 1960: harvest reduced by 144 million tonnes
- 1959-62: 20 million Chinese died of starvation + related
diseases
- Workers switched to
industry --> food production
fell
- Communes
- Many too large to be run efficiently
- Peasants resented loss of family life+ private
plots
- Many too large to be run efficiently
- Industry
- Why it failed
- Natural disasters: Serious droughts +widespread flooding
- Relationship with Russia: Mao fell out with Soviet Leader -> 1960:
all soviet engineers returned home+left factories unfinished
- Nonsensical: Investment, technology+ planning were rejected by
Mao. Feared he would lose control to a group of 'experts'
- Natural disasters: Serious droughts +widespread flooding
Media attachments
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