Great Leap Forward

Question 1

What dates were the Great Leap Forward?

Answer 1

1958-1962

Question 2

What we’re the two main drives of the Great Leap Forward ?

Answer 2

Agriculture and steel

Question 3

What did Mao do with agriculture ?

Answer 3

Formed communes with some 5500 households more than 20 times larger than previous co-operatives

He turned mats into apcs

26,000+ by 1959

Question 4

What was Mao’s mad aim with steel ?

Answer 4

For it to be the biggest steel manufacturer in 15 years. A year after saying this he changed it to one year

He wanted 100 million tons by 1962 meaning he wanted an increase of 2000% in five years

Question 5

What happened with backyard furnaces?

Answer 5

Farmers alternated between tending crops and smelting steel

When wood became scarce, doors, coffins were burned.
Useful metal was put into furnaces to produce useless lumps of pig iron

Mao didn’t want to pay for big factories and relied on mobilising the masses for success

Question 6

What were the consequences of backyard furnaces ?

Answer 6

Steel was useless

People weren’t in the fields so food was left to rot

Deforestation

Question 7

What happened to industrial production by 1962?

Answer 7

Declined by 40% from 1958/59 level

Question 8

What happened to steel in the Great Leap Forward

Answer 8

1958- 9 million metric tons
1962- 7 million metric tons

After such a large drive for steel, less was produced

Question 9

What happened with coal in the Great Leap Forward ?

Answer 9

1958- 270 mmt
1962- 220 mmt
Declined by 50 mmt

Question 10

What happened with cement in the Great Leap Forward ?

Answer 10

1958 - 9 million metric tons

1962- 6 million metric tons

Question 11

Example of Mao using competition in the Great Leap Forward

Answer 11

Jan 1958 Ministry of Metallurgy declared he would more than double steel production to 20 million tons by 1962 and reach 100 million by 1977
20 mil-1962
100 mil-1977

Worried he would look slow in comparison, the chemical minister said he could construct thousands of chemical fertiliser factories

Question 12

What were the two successes of the great

Leap forward?

Answer 12

Massive irrigation terracing helped make agricultural land more fertile

Reconstructed cities like Tinamen square

Question 13

What happened to grain production in the Great Leap Forward ?

Answer 13

It fell by 30%
1957- 185 mmt
1961- 147 mmt

Question 14

How did the media show the Great Leap Forward to be a success?

Answer 14

Propaganda of happy workers on a field

Mao would visit fields which gave the false impression of mass production

News articles of super sized foods like “the new China news agency” carried the story of an 132 pound pumpkin

This caused people to engage in crop neglect resulting in the famine

Question 15

Why did Mao introduce the Great Leap Forward?

Answer 15

1952 - agricultural output only grew 2.1% a year

He wanted to transform China into a great industrial economical power overtaking Britain and the USSR

He was optimistic since industrial production had risen 18.3% in the first five year plan

Mao believed in sheer force of will and mobilising he masses would overcome technological obstacles

Mao believed he could ‘walk on two legs’ and increase agricultural and industrial production

Success of space race (Sputnik) - USSR were winning the Cold War

Question 16

How did the establishment of huge communes lead to mass famine? (5)

Answer 16

Government requisitioned excessive amounts of grain to sell on international markets by

Russian experts disagreed with Mao’s methods so withdrew help under Khrushchev

Cadres falsified statistics to meet impossible quotas so when the target amount of grain was requisitioned, there wasn’t enough food for the peasants

Cadres lied about extent of food shortages

Demotivated peasants

Question 17

Why did the government requisition excessive amounts of grain?

Answer 17

To sell on international markets

To pay back the $300 million loan the USSR leant in the sink-soviet treaty of 1950

Question 18

Who objected to Mao and what was the consequence of this?

Answer 18

Khrushchev told Mao not to repeat the same famine that happened in the USSR, Mao didn’t listen so soviet help was withdrew

PENG Dehuai wrote an open letter to Mao at the Lushan Conference asking him to stop the great leap.
He was forced to resign and Mao drove him mad and into an early grave

Question 19

How did natural disasters cause the great famine?

Answer 19

1959- yellow river flooded causing thousands of people to drown and almost 100 million acres of land was made useless

1959- drought in Shanxi caused crop failures so output declined by 50%

Question 20

When and where was Mao sidelined ?

Answer 20

1962- conference of 7000 cadres

Question 21

How was Mao sidelined ?

Answer 21

Mao claimed that success outweighs failures 9 to 1 and weather conditions caused the famine.

Liu Shaqui quoted a peasant from his village that said 70% man made disaster and 30% natural disaster

Mao had to admit his faults

Question 22

Who were the main 3 people that sidelined Mao?

Answer 22

Liu Shaqui
Zhou Enlai
Deng Xiaoping

Question 23

What were the successes of the changes of the new leaders?

Answer 23

By 1965, agricultural production recovered to the same level it was in 1957

Production for consumer goods was double the 1957 level

Heavy industry - growing rate 17%
Light industry - growing rate 27%

Question 24

How did the new leaders change freedom of the peasants ?

Answer 24

Let them produce what they wanted on small plots
They could decide how much fertiliser to use
The free market was introduced
Land could be claimed and cultivated by the peasants

However they still had to meet quotas

Question 25

What did the new leaders change with aid ?

Answer 25

Bring aid from city factories to rural areas

Tools, fertiliser…

Question 26

What did the new leaders change with industry?

Answer 26

Changed to support agriculture

Steel, wood and bamboo were used to make tools, carts and boats

Question 27

What did the new leaders change with influence?

Answer 27

People with tech knowledge were promoted
Experts and intellectuals imprisoned in the anti rightist campaign returned to influence

Managers got more control over state enterprise with aims to make PROFIT

urban cadres sent to countryside

Labour camps put people to work making utensils that were melted in furnaces