MAO ZEDONG BACKGROUND OF MAO Mao Zedong was

MAO ZEDONG

BACKGROUND OF MAO � Mao Zedong was born in Shaoshan, Hunan, he was the son of a wealthy farmer. � Adopted a Chinese nationalist and antiimperialist outlook in early life (particularly influenced by the Xinhai Revolution (1911) and the May Fourth Movement (1919) ) � Later he adopted Marxism-Leninism, which lead him in becoming a member of the Communist Party of China (CPC), and he was soon rose to a senior position.

ALLIANCE WITH KUOMINTANG � In 1922, the communist agreed to having an alliance with the Kuomintang, a nationalist revolutionary party, which was a larger and stronger. � Mao aided in creating a revolutionary peasant army and organizing a rural land reform.

� This is also known as the First United Front. � The CCP wanted to use the KMT’s superiority in numbers to help spread communism whereas for the KMT, they want to control the communist from within. � Both parties had their own aims.

CONTRIBUTIONS TO CCP � The Long March(1934) � Second United Front � Chinese Civil War � The Constitution of 1950 (officially adopted in 1954) � Agricultural and industrial changes � 100 flowers campaign (1957) � The Great leap Forward � Cultural Revolution (1966 – 1969)

THE LONG MARCH (1934) The communist marched along the mountains borders of some provinces � Since there was lack of cooperation between one province and its neighbor, they got pass with no problems � KMT officials preferred to preserve their own power instead of defending the coummunist �

EFFECTS OF LONG MARCH � Mao’s leadership of the CCP was accepted and made chairman � Those who completed the march were determined and thus they believed they must further the cause of revolution � Members could promote communist cause � They gained military experience

SECOND UNITED FRONT � The second united front was the brief alliance between the CCP and KMT to resist the Japanese invasion

MAO’S CONTRIBUTION TO THIS Rebuilt the red army � Establish a base area in Shaanxi � Planned for the building of the united front with the KMT � Insisted that the party must form broad national revolution � Sent a telegram to Chiang’s government to form a united front against japan � Chiang refused to have anything to do with CCP unless Mao disbands the red army � However this was not possible �

THE CHINESE CIVIL WAR (1946 – 49) � The war between GMD and CCP � CCP was victorious � Mao Zedong was influential in this victory � Made many contributions to this war

HIS ROLE � He was quietly preparing for war � He was pushing forward with land reform � Felt that he needed to win peasant struggle to win war � Military victory depended of success of social revolution at countryside

HIS STRATEGIES � Great architect of military strategy � � � � Policy of strategic withdrawal To retreat when outnumbered by gov forces Concentrate forces for mobile warfare Use the forces wipe out GMD forces(impt source of weapon and recruitment of people) Had an objective of destroying of enemies and not to capture territory Managed to avoid direct confrontation of GMD Only attack when success guaranteed Shrewd enough to evacuate Yenan(Capital of Shaanxi) � � � Evacuated before arrival of GMD troops Gave orders from obscure villages Evade pursuers

THE CONSTITUTION OF 1950 � Members elected 4 years � This constitution was to make sure laws were carried out � Administration of country was carried out � Important as it provided China with a strong central government

AGRICULTURE CHANGES � Transformed China’s small, inefficient farms into large cooperative ones � Large lands were taken and redistributed among peasants � He persuaded the to join together to form collective farms � Increase food production

INDUSTRIAL CHANGES � Government nationalizing most businesses � Came out with a 5 -year plan to develop heavy industry � Under Mao’s leadership, full communications restored and he revived the economy

100 FLOWERS CAMPAIGN 1957 Production of vast new class of technicians and engineer � The party Cadres (a group that organized the masses politically and economically) believed that this will threaten their authority � The govt decided that open discussions will improve their relationship � However, Mao got a lot more critics than he expected � This he called off the campaign and insisted his policies were correct � This showed how much opposition there was and it led to Mao starting the great leap forward �

THE GREAT LEAP FORWARD � Mao felt something new and different was required

� Introduction of communes � These were units larger than collective farm � Divided into brigades and work team with an elected council �A complete change of emphasis in industry � Instead of aiming for large scale works like USSR and the West, smaller factories were set up in th country to provide machinery for argriculture

� Failure � Series of bad harvest � Withdrawal of Russia aid � Lack of experience in the Cadres, hardship � Disastrous Famine � Mao’s prestige suffered and he was forced to resign as chairman of the peoples congress, though he remained chairman of the communist party

� Success � Eventually both agriculture and industrial increased substantially � Mid 1960 China managed to feed its massive population

CULTURAL REVOLUTION(1966 -69) � Mao’s attempt to keep the revolution and the great leap on a pure Marxist – Leninist � When great leap was not a success, opposition grew

In 1963 and 1966, there was a public debate between the rightist and the maoist about which course to follow � Mao, using his position as chairman of the party to rouse people, launched a desperate campaign to save the revolution � This brought chaos and something close to civil war when the student masses had been roused. They denounced and physically attacked anybody in authority, not just critics of mao � This caused great disruption, ruined millions of lives, and probably held up Chinas economic development by 10 years �