The Great Leap Forward

The Great Leap ForwardLearning Objectives:Demonstrate how the Great Leap Forward was a result of the 1st 5 year plan. Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

Key Terms, Events, Names:

Second Five Year PlanMass mobilisationThe Three Banners

General LineCommuneBrigadesCadres

Peng DehauiLiu Shaoqi

Deng XiaopingLushan ConferenceThree Bitter Years

Starter: The Great Leap Forward

• How accurate of a picture of the Great Leap Forward does this poster portray?

• Why did Mao instigate the Great Leap Forward?

What was the The Great Leap Forward?

LO: Demonstrate how the Great Leap Forward was a result of the 1st 5 year plan.

• In 1958 Mao introduced a second five year plan which became known as the ‘Great Leap Forward’ (GLF).

• It was to be achieved through mass mobilisation, but it was really a gigantic experiment that ended with the death of over 20 million Chinese.

The Three BannersLO: Demonstrate how the Great Leap Forward was a result of the 1st 5 year plan.

• The General Line - to “go all out, aim high and achieve greater, faster, better and more economical results in building socialism”.

• The Great Leap Forward - to surpass Britain and catch up with the United States in industrial production within 15 years.

• Peoples Commune – mass mobilisation would be achieved by joining the agricultural production cooperatives together.

Why was a new plan needed?

LO: Demonstrate how the Great Leap Forward was a result of the 1st 5 year plan.

• Mao believed the first Five Year Plan was too slow and resulted in too much bureaucracy.

• Mao envisaged a decentralisation of control to local Party cadres (leaders) who would mobilise the masses across China.

• China could then achieve rapid and sustained economic growth that would take China from the stage of Socialism to the stage of Communism.

LO: Demonstrate how the Great Leap Forward was a result of the 1st 5 year plan.

1. Political - Mao wanted another revolution to take control of industry & agricultural away from middle class ‘experts’.

2. Social - Still a lot of unemployment and Mao believed he could mobilise the masses in a continuing revolution to boost growth. Private family life would prevent this so had to abolished.

3. Economic - Was determined to turn China into a powerful industrial nation as quickly as possible. Greater factory and agricultural production was needed.

Reasons for the Great Leap Forward

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

• Mass mobilisation was achieved by a new method of organising peasant life – the commune. He wanted to abolish the private, family sphere of peasant life.

• Aug 1958 - Collective and Co-operative farms were joined into 24,000 communes with a population of 30,000 people each.

• People in communes were organised into brigades of workers between 1000-2000 and then teams of workers of 50-200.

Key Features: Communes

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

• The government tried to persuade people to join communes by using propaganda. By October 1958, about 99.1 % of the rural population had joined the communes.

• They seemed the ideal way to organise China’s peasant labour force:– They were large enough to tackle large

projects like irrigation and could run their own local schools and clinics.

– They also set up their own local industries to mine coal and iron and make steel in blast furnaces

• Life in the commune was lived communally. Peasants ate in mess halls and nurseries looked after children.

Key Features: Communes

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

• Communes assumed the administrative functions of the villages.

• They managed public kitchens, nurseries and homes for the elderly.

• Private properties such as land, houses, animals and plants were shared out among all members, and rationing was practiced.

• There were communal eating halls where peasants could enjoy free meals. The communes also covered the cost of clothing, houses, health care and funeral services for the peasants.

Key Features: Communes

Large-scale farming district

Large-scale industrial and

manufacturing unit

Unit of local

government

Local Defenc

e

Different Roles of The Commune

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

• Cadres ignorant of rudimentary agriculture advised on planting techniques - all foolish ideas e.g. deep ploughing.

• Imposed impossible quotas and targets in order to please superiors and demonstrate enthusiasm for the new commune system. Reported exaggerated harvests to central governments.

• Peasants were reluctant to criticize and challenge authority lead to disasters in agriculture production.

The General Line

The dragon boats represent different communes set up

at that time. Each commune reports good news of good

harvest. The commune brought a good wheat harvest to peasants.

Exaggeration and over-reporting of agricultural production during the Great Leap Forward in the national media

Exaggeration and over-reporting of agricultural production during the Great Leap Forward in the national media

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

The General Line

• This cartoon depicts the exaggerated results of the agricultural reform. There were false reports everywhere in China.

• The State therefore took a greater mandated percentage of food than was available to pay off debts and loans.

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

The General Line

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

• A key element in the GLF was Party propaganda. Posters, slogans and newspaper articles were all used to encourage mass enthusiasm and long hours of work.

• Loudspeakers played revolutionary music and stirring speeches encouraging workers to go beyond targets.

• As a result of Party propaganda, many projects were finished on time.

Key Features: Party Propaganda

The commune is like a gigantic dragon, production

is visibly awe-inspiring, 1959

Go all out and aim high. The East leaps forward, the West

is worried, 1958

Put organizations on a military footing, put actions on a war

footing, put life on a collective footing, 1958

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

• New industries were set-up in cities to solve unemployment. Increasingly Higher targets for production were set.

• Central, rational planning was abandoned in favour of local organisation. Small commune factories were set up to make all kinds of products like cement, ball-bearing and fertiliser.

• Great emphasis was placed on the production of steel and the establishment of 600,000 ‘backyard’ steel furnaces in towns and villages.

Key Features: Industry

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward• The Party had announced that the

steel output of 1958 was expected to double that of the previous year, with a total of 10.7 million tons.

• By the end of August 1958, however, only half of this amount had been produced. The backyard steel campaign thus began.

• Even steel products, such as old nails, farming tools and cooking pans were collected to melt down for the production of steel.

Key Features: Industry

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward• The CPC also called for more leaps

in other fields, such as in literature and in hygiene, and high productivity was expected in each of these fields.

• In literature, many propaganda slogans were made up, such as “Overtake Lu Xun (a famous Chinese writer) within two years” and “Writing 60 scripts in one night”

• The Party also called for the eradication of “four pests”, namely flies, mosquitoes, rats and sparrows (later changed to bugs) in a few months.

Key Features: Others

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

1. Thousands of small factories were just wasteful and inefficient. Most of the steel produced in ‘backyard’ furnaces was rubbish.

2. Furnaces took too much of the countries coal supply and trains could not operate!

3. Party workers urged people to work faster and produce more steel to make themselves look good – this meant machines broke down and workers fell asleep at machines (The General Line)

Results of the GLF: Industry

As Mao’s confidence grew, his expectations were raised even higher. Mao just kept setting even higher targets. Critics didn’t want to labelled as ‘rightists’ so no one questioned Mao.

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

1. Food production slumped because too many peasants had moved into industry.

2. By 1961, China was having to import grain and impose rationing. Bad farming methods, floods and droughts caused bad harvests for three years.

3. The harvest of 1960 was reduced by 144 million tonnes due to the GLF. Between 1959-1962, over 20 million Chinese starved to death.

Results of the GLF: Agriculture

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

1. Most proved too large to be run efficiently as they were hurriedly constructed by Party cadres keen to impress.

2. Peasants resented the loss of private plots and the attack on family life.

3. Members could not own private property, all received the same wages and families were broken up. This meant that members had no incentive to work hard and production actually fell!

Results of the GLF: Commune

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

1. Natural disasters affected the harvests. In 1960 northern China had a drought whilst there was serious flooding the south of the country. China entered the “Three Bitter Years” (1959-61).

2. Mao fell out with Khrushchev and in 1960 ordered all Soviet economic and scientific advisors back to the USSR. China was short of educated technicians.

3. Mainly Mao’s fault - He was in too much of a hurry and did not think about practical problems.

4. It was nonsensical! Mao rejected capital investment, technology and planning as revisionist and wrong! He was afraid of losing control of the revolution to experts.

Why did it Fail?

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

• In 1958 China produced 200 million tons of grain – by 1960 down to 143 million tons. Meat production fell also from 4.3 million tons to 1.3 million tons.

• Famine caused by the bad planning of the GLF and bad harvests resulted in over 20 million deaths and widespread Cannibalism!

• China had to import food which undermined Mao’s aim of ‘self-reliance’ that the GLF was supposed to achieve.

Consequences of the GLF

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

• National income fell and inflation rose from 0.2% to 16.2%

• Peng Dehuai, the defence minister attempted to reveal the truth, but was condemned and dismissed.

• However, Mao in late 1959 resigned at the Lushan Conference as head of state, although this had always been planned before the full failures of the GLF were known.

Consequences of the GLF

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

• China was now controlled by three leading communists:– President, Liu Shaoqi– Prime Minister, Zhou Enlai– The CCP General Secretary, Deng

Xiaoping• They all tried to abandon the GLF by

closing down ‘backyard’ factories, returning workers to farming, giving private land back to farmers and reducing communes to one-third of original size.

Consequences of the GLF

LO: Explain the Causes, Key Features and Consequences of the Great Leap Forward

“Describe the key features of the Great Leap Forward or the Hundred Flowers Campaign.” (7 marks)

• Question (b) will always give you a choice of two factors. You have to choose one of these and describe its key features. Spend 10 minutes.

• You need to describe at least two key features. Try to write a paragraph on each.

• A key feature can be a cause, event or result.

Exam Question

Level

Mark Scheme Marks

1 Simple explanation of key featuresThe student gives an explanation which lacks detailed contextual knowledge or makes unsupported generalisations 1 mark for one simple explanation2 marks for two or more

1-2

2 Supported explanation of key features  The student supports the explanation, selecting relevant contextual knowledge. 3-4 marks for one or more supported explanation. Marks are awards based on range and depth of support.

3-4

3 Developed explanation and analysis of causationAn explanation analyzing feature(s) supported by selected knowledge. One explained feature will reach top of level 2. 5-6 marks for one or more features – marks will be awards based on range and depth of support. 7 marks for answers which shows links between features.

5-7