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Industry and Agriculture (China) - Coggle Diagram
Industry and Agriculture (China)
Early Changes in Agriculture
Attacks on landlordism
Land Reform
Began with the Land Reform Law 1950 - land forcibly taken from landlords and given to the peasants
Peasants encouraged to come to meetings and denounce landlords (often ended up being killed)
Land reform was introduced to gain the support of the peasants and remove landlords (who would have opposed him due to the principles of communism)
Hope that this would make farming more efficient because landlords refused to modernise and peasants previously had no incentive to work hard because they couldn't keep anything
Collectivisation
Initially put into MATs
Quite popular
Then put into APCs
Then people were forced into Communes (30,000)
Creches, happiness homes, canteens etc were all set up to try an alleviate women of their domestic responsibilities so they could be mobilised into working on the land.
Food was often poor, low hygiene, women would've rather looked after their children
Efficient because modern machinery could be shared
Allowed the CCP to keep a strict control of the peasants and feed them with propaganda
A change in direction for agricultural policy
First 5YP
Realistic targets
Most targets were met
9% growth rate achieved
Able to improve industry and agriculture simultaneously
Started in 1952
Aim was to increase the economy - which was in a very bad state
New currency (the yuan) was introduced and prices/wages were fixed to reduce inflation
Heavy industry was the focus - coal, steel, oil
Millions went to cities to find work in factories
In 1957, Mao then called for the Hundred Flowers Campaign, he thought people would have few criticisms because of the success of the first 5YP (did he genuinely want freedom of expression or was he trying to catch people out?
Party leaders were criticised for being corrupt
Began the anti-rightist campaign (lead by Deng Xiaoping) - Deng's role in this may have contributed to his appointment following the GLF
500,000 were arrested/sent to labour camps
Mao had travelled lots during the early 1950s and was always received warmly
Second 5YP
Big failure
Mao believed in mass mobilisation > technology
No one had the expertise to run anything because of the denounciations from the anti-rightist campaigns
Foolish ideas: Lysenkoism, planting crops close together led to poor harvests
Unrealistic targets
Cadres kept lying and saying they had met the targets because they wanted to impress Mao
So the normal amount of food was being taken for the urban areas leaving the rural areas with nothing - causing famine
Not helped by the flooding in 1959
Mao was overconfident following the successes of the first 5YP
Backyard Furnaces
People spent more time burning scrap metal (pots, pans, farming
equ) than they spent on the farms
Left them with no resources to farm with
The metal produced was useless anyway
The Aftermath:
Lushan Conference (1959): Peng Dehuai declares the GLF as a failure
Mao retires leaving Liu Shaoqui and Deng Xiaoping in charge (in 1962)
Gives Mao time to read/learn about Chinese culture - sets his mind on the cultural revolution (is it possible that without the failure of the GLF the CR would not have happened?)
They allowed peasants to have private lots of lad again to boost the economy (more incentive)
Aim was to modernise China's industry and catch up to Britain in 15 years and to improve agriculture so that everyone could be fed