What is The Great Leap Forward?
From January of 1958 to 1962. It was a second five plan to turn China from an agriculture based nation to an industrialized communist country. It was meant to make China more powerful than the US. They would use China 's enormous population.
Who started it?
Mao Tse-Tung
The Chinese Communist Party carried it out. He based it on Stalin's idea of a communist republic
Life during the Movement:
People were placed in communes (places to live) of about 5000 families each one. 700 million people in 26,578 communes. Working under horrible conditions. Everyone had a job. The commune provided everything (Kind of like a Fascist government)
Results
Mao was responsible for a food crisis that killed about 30 million Chinese workers. 40 million in total if we count the deliberate murders that took place. Basically, if the government thought you were a threat. Politicians lied about the products to make it seem better but in reality:
• Due to floods, harvest was not very good
• Coal was overused by starting factories and trains
Even Mao admitted this was a failure
Works Cited
