Class Notes 3/8

Great Leap Forward 1958-63 (China's Second 5-Year Plan)

• Example of a high level of totalitarianism (Mao had a lot of control)
  

Aims

• Industrialize China as quickly as possible
• Produce a food surplus
• Create a modern industrial economy to compete with the USSR and the capitalist West

Formation of Communes

• A method of increasing government control (Communist Party controlled decisions)
• By 1958, 90% of the population had been placed into 26,578 communes