Great Leap Forward
Topic: Paths to Modernisation: Japan, China, Korea · NCERT: Class 11, Ch 7 "Paths to Modernisation"
Meaning
The Great Leap Forward was a campaign launched by Mao Zedong in China in 1958. It aimed to industrialise the country very quickly. People were urged to make steel in backyard furnaces, which were small home-made furnaces. Farming was organised into people's communes, which were large units where land was owned and worked together. The steel turned out to be unusable, and the policy did not work as planned.
Example
By 1958, 26,000 communes covered 98% of China's farm population. When the results were poor, leaders such as Liu Shaochi and Deng Xiaoping tried to change the commune system.
Don't confuse with
- Cultural Revolution (1965/66): This campaign used Red Guards, made up of students and the army, to attack old culture and customs. The Great Leap was about communes and furnaces.
Related concepts
- Communist Party of China
- Comintern
- Mao Zedong
- Long March
- People's Republic of China
- People's communes
- Cultural Revolution
- Deng Xiaoping
- Four Modernisations
- Socialist market economy