The Great Leap Forward Oliver R Wellington
Pros and cons of the Great Leap Forward - Oliver R
“The Great Leap Forward was a push by Mao Ze Dong to change China from a predominantly agrarian (farming) society to a modern, industrial society in just five years.”1 Mao’s aim was to up Chinas crop output.2 The idea was that if everyone worked these long hours for all these years in both farming and steel that China would catch up to countries such as America and
England. Unfortunately for Mao and China all the steel that the people produced turned out to be, in fact, utterly useless. This lowered the morals of loads of people as they were already in communes so if many people’s morals changed they might all change. “In 1959, things started to go wrong. Political decisions/beliefs took precedence over common sense and communes faced the task of doing which they were incapable of achieving.”3Overall the Great Leap
Forward was a complete failure as nothing that was set as a goal was achieved.
The purpose of The Great Leap Forward was to catch up to more advanced countries such as the US in the industrial aspect. They would do this by not importing big machines but instead using all the cheap labour available to China. They aimed to produce grain and steel. This was because Mao believed that they were “key pillars of economic development”4 To make the steel Mao brought in quite small backyard furnaces to every commune. Unfortunately, these small furnaces were not able to produced quality steel, so it was a failure.5
The Great Leap Forward had a tremendous impact on China in both bad and good ways. A bad consequence of the great leap forward was that there was substantial damage to the environment. This was because lots of trees were used to help fuel the furnaces and, therefore, the land was vulnerable to erosion. Additionally the deeply ploughed fields also became vulnerable. Then people in the countryside were sent into steel production. Then were not enough people to help harvest the crops.
“The Great Leap Forward was a push by Mao Ze Dong to change China from a predominantly agrarian (farming) society to a modern, industrial society in just five years.”1 Mao’s aim was to up Chinas crop output.2 The idea was that if everyone worked these long hours for all these years in both farming and steel that China would catch up to countries such as America and
England. Unfortunately for Mao and China all the steel that the people produced turned out to be, in fact, utterly useless. This lowered the morals of loads of people as they were already in communes so if many people’s morals changed they might all change. “In 1959, things started to go wrong. Political decisions/beliefs took precedence over common sense and communes faced the task of doing which they were incapable of achieving.”3Overall the Great Leap
Forward was a complete failure as nothing that was set as a goal was achieved.
The purpose of The Great Leap Forward was to catch up to more advanced countries such as the US in the industrial aspect. They would do this by not importing big machines but instead using all the cheap labour available to China. They aimed to produce grain and steel. This was because Mao believed that they were “key pillars of economic development”4 To make the steel Mao brought in quite small backyard furnaces to every commune. Unfortunately, these small furnaces were not able to produced quality steel, so it was a failure.5
The Great Leap Forward had a tremendous impact on China in both bad and good ways. A bad consequence of the great leap forward was that there was substantial damage to the environment. This was because lots of trees were used to help fuel the furnaces and, therefore, the land was vulnerable to erosion. Additionally the deeply ploughed fields also became vulnerable. Then people in the countryside were sent into steel production. Then were not enough people to help harvest the crops.
Bibliography: (Accessed 25th October 2013) Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Leap_Forward#Industrialization (Accessed 25th October 2013) (Accessed 25th October 2013)