The Great Leap Forward
Advertisment for Mao's failed plan
The Great Leap Forward was ignited in 1958 by Mao Zedong and his
Communist Party. It was his attempt to modernize China and it’s backward
economy so that by 1988, it would have an economy so strong it would challenge
the United States of America’s. It was aimed at using China’s abundant cheap
labour to produce mass products and quickly evolve the economy. People were
placed on collective farms [lots of farms put together to make one and all the
families of those farms living together], something that was practiced by Stalin. People were also put into hundreds of new factories to work for cheap pay. Another big event was when Mao made farmers make iron in their own furnaces. They had to melt valuable farm tools but the iron was so poorly made
it was worthless. The result was a miserable catastrophe. Many farm people starved to death because they had spent their time melting iron instead of farming, which meant what little crops they had went to the Communists in the urban areas. The pollution from the factories also had a devastating effect on the
environment.
Communist Party. It was his attempt to modernize China and it’s backward
economy so that by 1988, it would have an economy so strong it would challenge
the United States of America’s. It was aimed at using China’s abundant cheap
labour to produce mass products and quickly evolve the economy. People were
placed on collective farms [lots of farms put together to make one and all the
families of those farms living together], something that was practiced by Stalin. People were also put into hundreds of new factories to work for cheap pay. Another big event was when Mao made farmers make iron in their own furnaces. They had to melt valuable farm tools but the iron was so poorly made
it was worthless. The result was a miserable catastrophe. Many farm people starved to death because they had spent their time melting iron instead of farming, which meant what little crops they had went to the Communists in the urban areas. The pollution from the factories also had a devastating effect on the
environment.