first things mao did

Question 1

what did mao need to do to make china communist?

Answer 1

needed people to move from the land and into the cities to work in factories , also needed there to be enough food for these bigger cities
-reforming agriculture to become more productive was very important

Question 2

When and what was the agrarian reform law

Answer 2

1950 - rich landowners had their land taken away from them and given to the peasants (put on trial) , popular with the poorer farmers

Question 3

what was collectivisation

Answer 3

• peasants made to share their equipment and tools
  -APCS ran the farms instead of farm managers
• mao let small landowners keep ownership of the land

Question 4

what year was the great famine (great leap forward)

Answer 4

1958-62

Question 5

how many people are estimated to have died in the great famine

Answer 5

50 million

Question 6

causes of the great famine

Answer 6

• on the collectivised farms , individual farmers did not receive any profits regardless of how hard they worked , so they stopped working hard
• `four pests campaign¨ - chinese farmers killed birds which ate the crops , but without birds insect numbers increased and ate the crops even faster
• natural causes - drought in N china and crops did not grow
• fear - many farm managers worried about not meeting their production targets so lied and told Mao everything was working well

Question 7

what year did mao begin to plan to modernise the chinese economy and what did he do

Answer 7

1952 - brought in hundreds of advisors from the SU

Question 8

what was the dream of communists and chinese people since the days of the boxer rebellion

Answer 8

achieving a strong and modern economy

Question 9

what year was the first 5 year plan

Answer 9

1952-57

Question 10

what was mao first focused on (5yr plan)

Answer 10

• focused on expanding the chinese industry in coal (x2) , iron (x3) , steel and oil
  -large infrastructure projects
  -plan very syccesful

Question 11

what year was the second 5 year plan (great leap forward)

Answer 11

1958-63

Question 12

what was the second 5 year plan

Answer 12

-mao wished to repeat the success of the first, set very ambitious targets
-APCS taken away , replaced by complete worker ownership of land
-600,000 backyard furnaces built to produce large amounts of steel
-all privately owned business taken over by the state

Question 13

consequences of the great leap forward

Answer 13

-industrial production of steel and coal increased massively
-great famine
-50 million died , not enough food got to the cities
- steel made was poor quality and factories raced to meet targets and did not check how good the steel was
-productivity decreased

Question 14

what was life like for women in china before

Answer 14

women were the property of their father and then their husband, even widows were under the control of eldest sons.
- The birth of daughter regarded as a costly expense and infanticide was common.
-Girls received little education
-pushed into an arranged marriage when they were
teenagers.
-Potential husbands were forced to pay a dowry.
-Women could not own property, vote or divorce their husbands.
-Women could also be kept as concubines by powerful men

Question 15

what was the marriage law

Answer 15

-Arranged marriage banned
-Minimum age of marriage raised to 18 for women and 20 for men
-Keeping concubines forbidden
-Both men and women could request a divorce
-Anyone in an arranged marriage could divorce their partner
- Women given equal property rights
-Infanticide was forbidden

Question 16

impact of changes for women

Answer 16

-arranged marriages continued, particularly in rural areas.
-Divorced women treated like outcasts.
- infanticide reduced + average age of marriage increased.
- contraceptives introduced in 1954 but there was resistance to this particularly in rural areas.
- Childbirth became safer due to trained midwives.
-Proportion of women in the workforce increased from 8% to 29% in mid 1960s.
-Literacy levels increased. - Husbands resorted to wife selling
in the famine.
- women’s participation in politics increased and in 1953 12% of elected deputies were women.
- The first Minister of Health and Justice were both women
-Men opposed women having all but a small role in politics.

Question 17

how was the agrarian reform law enforced

Answer 17

• CCP workers sent in to rural areas
• They took the land from landlords and shared it out amongst village peasants.
  -They also got peasants to put landlords on trial in so-called ‘People’s Courts’.

Question 18

what were the ´people´s courts´

Answer 18

• trials where the landlords were accused of charging high rents or mistreating their tenants
• Some were let off, but many landlords were imprisoned or executed
• Party workers set up the courts but peasants ran them.
• 700,000 – 3 million landlords were executed.
  -This further increased support and faith in Mao

Question 19

was the agrarian reform law succesfull

Answer 19

made Mao popular but in the short-term it only decreased productivity