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Great Leap Forward:

To create an industrialised economy to 'catch up' with the west.

To transform China into a collectivised society where socialist principles defined work, production and even people's lives.

Cultural revolution:

To replace designated successors with leaders more faithful to Mao Zedong's current thinking.

To rectify the Chinese Communist Party.

To provide China's youths with a revolutionary experience.

To make policy changes so the educational, health care, and cultural systems less elitist.

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Did the programs fail or succeed or fail?

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Did the programs fail or succeed or fail?

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The Great Leap Forward failed because of the following reasons:

Flawed policies

Disregard for Experts

Famine

Disrupted Traditional practices

Sino-Soviet Relations

The Cultural Revolution failed because of these reasons:

Ideological Purge

Attack on Intellectuals and Authority Figures

Economic Setbacks

Social Upheaval

Mao's Loss of control

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The Great Leap Forward's main goal was to rapidly transform China into an industrialized society. Its methods involved collectivizing agriculture into communes, putting heavy industry first, and mobilizing the population for industrial projects. The consequences of this caused Famine, Economic Collapse, and Social Upheaval.

The Cultural Revolution was when Mao had sought to consolidate his power, eliminate perceived capitalist, and maintain the purity of socialism. Its methods had involved the mobilization of Red Guards, the persecution of intellectuals and party officials, and the destruction of cultural artifacts and institutions. The consequences of this were Social chaos, Suppression of Dissent, and a Long term Impact.

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What were the Great Leap Forward and the cultural Revolution? 

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What were the Great Leap Forward and the cultural Revolution? 

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The Great Leap Forward was an initiative spearheaded by the Chinese Communist Party to industrialize the nation and boost agricultural yields swiftly. It sought to channel the workforce into heavy industry, especially steel manufacturing, while reforming farming methods.

The Cultural Revolution was a major movement led by Mao Zedong in his last decade as head of the Chinese Communist Party (1966–1976) to reignite the spirit of the Chinese Revolution.

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Great Leap Forward, in Chinese history, the campaign undertaken by the Chinese communists between 1958 and early 1960 to organize its vast population, especially in large-scale rural communes, to meet China's industrial and agricultural problems. The Chinese hoped to develop labour-intensive methods of industrialization, which would emphasize manpower rather than machines and capital expenditure. Thereby, it was hoped, the country could bypass the slow, more typical process of industrialization through gradual accumulation of capital and purchase of heavy machinery. The Great Leap Forward approach was epitomized by the development of small backyard steel furnaces in every village and urban neighbourhood, which were intended to accelerate the industrialization process.

The promulgation of the Great Leap Forward was the result of the failure of the Soviet model of industrialization in China. The Soviet model, which emphasized the conversion of capital gained from the sale of agricultural products into heavy machinery, was inapplicable in China because, unlike the Soviet Union, it had a very dense population and no large agricultural surplus with which to accumulate capital. After intense debate, it was decided that agriculture and industry could be developed at the same time by changing people's working habits and relying on labour rather than machine-centred industrial processes. An experimental commune was established in the north-central province of Henan early in 1958, and the system soon spread throughout the country.

Under the commune system, agricultural and political decisions were decentralized, and ideological purity rather than expertise was emphasized. The peasants were organized into brigade teams, and communal kitchens were established so that women could be freed for work. The program was implemented with such haste by overzealous cadres that implements were often melted to make steel in the backyard furnaces, and many farm animals were slaughtered by discontented peasants. These errors in implementation were made worse by a series of natural disasters and the withdrawal of Soviet support. The inefficiency of the communes and the large-scale diversion of farm labour into small-scale industry disrupted China's agriculture seriously, and three consecutive years of natural calamities added to what quickly turned into a national disaster; in all, about 20 million people were estimated to have died of starvation between 1959 and 1962.

This breakdown of the Chinese economy caused the government to begin to repeal the Great Leap Forward program by early 1960. Private plots and agricultural implements were returned to the peasants, expertise began to be emphasized again, and the communal system was broken up. The failure of the Great Leap produced a division among the party leaders. One group blamed the failure of the Great Leap on bureaucratic elements who they felt had been overzealous in implementing its policies. Another faction in the party took the failure of the Great Leap as proof that China must rely more on expertise and material incentives in developing the economy. Some concluded that it was against the latter faction that Mao Zedong launched his Cultural Revolution in early 1966.

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica Amy McKenna.

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Great Leap Forward | Definition, Facts, & Significance

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Great Leap Forward, in Chinese history, the campaign undertaken by the Chinese communists between 1958 and early 1960 to organize its vast population, especially in large-scale rural communes, to meet China's industrial and agricultural problems. Learn more about the Great Leap Forward in this article.

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What Is the Great Leap Forward?

The Great Leap Forward was a five-year plan of forced agricultural collectivization and rural industrialization that was instituted by the Chinese Communist Party in 1958, which resulted in a sharp contraction in the Chinese economy and between 30 to 45 million deaths by starvation, execution, torture, forced labor, and suicide out of desperation. It was the largest single, non-wartime campaign of mass killing in human history.

The initiative was led by Mao Zedong, the founder of the People's Republic of China. Mao's official goal was to rapidly evolve China from an agrarian economy into a modern industrial society with a greater ability to compete with Western industrialized nations.

Key Takeaways

Understanding the Great Leap Forward

In 1958, Mao announced his plan for the Great Leap Forward, which he laid out as a five-year plan to improve the economic prosperity of the People's Republic of China. He devised the plan after touring China and concluding that he felt the Chinese people were capable of anything.

Overall, the plan was centered around two primary goals, collectivizing agriculture, and widespread industrialization, with two main targets, increasing grain and steel production.

Agriculture

Private plot farming was abolished and rural farmers were forced to work on collective farms where all production, resource allocation, and food distribution was centrally controlled by the Communist Party. Large-scale irrigation projects, with little input from trained engineers, were initiated, and experimental, unproven new agricultural techniques were quickly introduced around the country.

These innovations resulted in declining crop yields from failed experiments and improperly constructed water projects. A nationwide campaign to exterminate sparrows, which Mao believed incorrectly were a major pest on grain crops, resulted in massive locust swarms in the absence of natural predation by the sparrows. Grain production fell sharply, and hundreds of thousands died from forced labor and exposure to the elements on irrigation construction projects and communal farming.

Famine quickly set in across the countryside, resulting in millions more deaths. People resorted to eating tree bark and dirt, and in some areas to cannibalism. Farmers who failed to meet grain quotas, tried to get more food, or attempted to escape were tortured and killed along with their family members via beating, public mutilation, being buried alive, scalding with boiling water, and other methods.

Industrialization

Large-scale state projects to increase industrial production were introduced in urban areas, and backyard steel furnaces were built on farms and in urban neighborhoods. Steel production was targeted to double in the first year of the Great Leap Forward, and Mao forecast that Chinese industrial output would exceed Britain's within 15 years. The backyard steel industry produced largely useless, low-quality pig iron. Existing metal equipment, tools, and household goods were confiscated and melted down to fuel additional production.

Due to the failures in planning and coordination, and resulting materials shortages, which are common to central economic planning, the massive increase in industrial investment and reallocation of resources resulted in no corresponding increase in manufacturing output.

Millions of "surplus" laborers were moved from farms to steel making. Most were men, breaking up families and leaving the forced agricultural labor force for the collective farms consisting of mostly women, children, and older adults. The increase in urban populations placed additional strain on the food distribution system and demand on collective farms to increase grain production for urban consumption. Collective farm officials falsified harvest figures, resulting in much of what grain was produced being shipped to the cities as requisitions were based on the official figures.

The Impact of the Great Leap Forward

The Great Leap Forward ended up being a massive failure. Tens of millions died by starvation, exposure, overwork, and execution in just a few years. It broke families apart, sending men, women, and children to different locations, and destroyed traditional communities and ways of life. Farmland was damaged by nonsensical agricultural practices and the landscape denuded of trees to fuel the steel furnaces.

Thirty to 40% of the housing stock was demolished to obtain raw materials for collective projects. In industry, massive quantities of capital goods and raw materials were consumed in projects that yielded no additional output of final goods.

The Great Leap Forward was officially halted in January 1961 after three brutal years of death and destruction.

What Was the Purpose of the Great Leap Forward Program?

The Great Leap Forward was a relatively short-lived effort by the communist regime of China to modernize its rural and agricultural sectors through collectivism and industrialization.

What Happened in the Great Leap Forward?

Rather than stimulating the economy, the measures undertaken by the Great Leap Forward resulted in massive food shortages, leading to famine and starvation-ultimately, tens of millions of Chinese citizens died as a result.

How Did the Great Leap Forward Cause Famine?

The failure of this program was due to the confluence of several factors. Efforts to kill off birds increased insect populations that ruined crops. The communal farms set up by the Great Leap Forward were beset by inadequate food distribution throughout the country given China's relatively primitive infrastructure at the time.

At the same time, there was an overproduction of grain, much of which rotted before being able to be transported. In addition, there was a bias to feed residents of urban centers rather than to peasants across the countryside, leading to higher death rates among rural communities than in cities.

How Many People Died During the Great Leap Forward?

While there is no exact count, researchers have estimated the death toll to be between 30 million and 45 million individuals.

What Was the Impact of the Great Leap Forward on China's Economy?

While the social and human consequences of the Great Leap Forward were one of the greatest avoidable disasters of modern history, the net effect on China's economy may have been positive in the end by setting it on a permanent course to becoming a dominant industrial economy. In the years following the end of the program, China's industrial and agricultural output increased greatly, along with investment and construction activity.

The Bottom Line

The Great Leap Forward was an ambitious plan for economic development, urbanization, and industrialization in China during the late 1950s into the 60s. The plan, however, ended up being a disaster. During the Great Leap Forward, as many as 45 million people died from diseases and famine resulting from Mao Zedong's failed attempt to convert small family farms to urbanized communes while simultaneously urging them into industrial production and away from agriculture.

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Great Leap Forward: What It Was, Goals, and Impact

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The Great Leap Forward was an economic campaign in the late 1950s to evolve China from an agrarian economy to an industrial one that ended in disaster.

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Background

During the early 1960s, tensions with the Soviet Union convinced Mao that the Russian Revolution had gone astray, which in turn made him fear that China would follow the same path. Programs carried out by his colleagues to bring China out of the economic depression caused by the Great Leap Forward made Mao doubt their revolutionary commitment and also resent his own diminished role. He especially feared urban social stratification in a society as traditionally elitist as China. Mao thus ultimately adopted four goals for the Cultural Revolution: to replace his designated successors with leaders more faithful to his current thinking; to rectify the Chinese Communist Party; to provide China's youths with a revolutionary experience; and to achieve some specific policy changes so as to make the educational, health care, and cultural systems less elitist. He initially pursued these goals through a massive mobilization of the country's urban youths. They were organized into groups called the Red Guards, and led by students such as Song Binbin. Mao ordered the party and the army not to suppress the movement.

Mao also put together a coalition of associates to help him carry out the Cultural Revolution. His wife, Jiang Qing, brought in a group of radical intellectuals to rule the cultural realm. Defense Minister Lin Biao made certain that the military remained Maoist. Mao's longtime assistant, Chen Boda, worked with security men Kang Sheng and Wang Dongxing to carry out Mao's directives concerning ideology and security. Premier Zhou Enlai played an essential role in keeping the country running, even during periods of extraordinary chaos. Yet there were conflicts among these associates, and the history of the Cultural Revolution reflects these conflicts almost as much as it reflects Mao's own initiatives.

The early period (1966-68)

Mao's concerns about "bourgeois" infiltrators in his party and government-those not sharing his vision of communism-were outlined in a Chinese Communist Party Central Committee document issued on May 16, 1966; this is considered by many historians to be the start of the Cultural Revolution, although Mao did not formally launch the Cultural Revolution until August 1966, at the Eleventh Plenum of the Eighth Central Committee. He shut down China's schools, and during the following months he encouraged Red Guards to attack all traditional values and "bourgeois" things and to test party officials by publicly criticizing them. Mao believed that this measure would be beneficial both for the young people and for the party cadres that they attacked.

The movement quickly escalated; many elderly people and intellectuals not only were verbally attacked but were physically abused. Many died. The Red Guards splintered into zealous rival factions, each purporting to be the true representative of Maoist thought. Mao's own personality cult, encouraged so as to provide momentum to the movement, assumed religious proportions. The resulting anarchy, terror, and paralysis completely disrupted the urban economy. Industrial production for 1968 dipped 12 percent below that of 1966.

During the earliest part of the Red Guard phase, key Politburo leaders were removed from power-most notably President Liu Shaoqi, Mao's designated successor until that time, and Party General Secretary Deng Xiaoping. In January 1967 the movement began to produce the actual overthrow of provincial party committees and the first attempts to construct new political bodies to replace them. In February 1967 many remaining top party leaders called for a halt to the Cultural Revolution, but Mao and his more radical partisans prevailed, and the movement escalated yet again. Indeed, by the summer of 1967, disorder was widespread; large armed clashes between factions of Red Guards were occurring throughout urban China.

During 1967 Mao called on the army under Lin Biao to step in on behalf of the Red Guards. Instead of producing unified support for the radical youths, this political-military action resulted in more divisions within the military. The tensions inherent in the situation surfaced vividly when Chen Zaidao, a military commander in the city of Wuhan during the summer of 1967, arrested two key radical party leaders.

In 1968, after the country had been subject to several cycles of radicalism alternating with relative moderation, Mao decided to rebuild the Communist Party to gain greater control. The military dispatched officers and soldiers to take over schools, factories, and government agencies. The army simultaneously forced millions of urban Red Guards to move to the rural hinterland to live, thus scattering their forces and bringing some order to the cities. This particular action reflected Mao's disillusionment with the Red Guards because of their inability to overcome their factional differences. Mao's efforts to end the chaos were given added impetus by the Soviet invasion of Czechoslovakia in August 1968, which greatly heightened China's sense of insecurity.

Two months later, the Twelfth Plenum of the Eighth Central Committee met to call for the convening of a party congress and the rebuilding of the party apparatus. From that point, the issue of who would inherit political power as the Cultural Revolution wound down became the central question of Chinese politics.

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Cultural Revolution | Definition, Facts, & Failure

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The Cultural Revolution was the upheaval launched by Mao Zedong during his last decade in power (1966-76). Though it was intended to renew the spirit of the Chinese Revolution, it instead had detrimental political, social, and economic consequences for China. Read more about the Cultural Revolution here.