IB History SL: Authoritarian States: Mao's Consolidation and Maintenance of Power

This is for IBDP History SL/HL students.

What were Mao’s legal methods during his consolidation of power?

• Needed a stable government

• Must restore unified control

• Must fulfil promises of social reforms and economic recovery

What was the “People’s democratic dictatorship”?

• Temporary constitution

• Five “Black categories”

• The national bourgeoisie and petty bourgeoisie were given civil rights

What were the five “Black categories?

Seen as “non-people”:

• Landlords

• Rich farmers

• Anti-revolutionaries

• Right-wingers

What was Mao’s use of force in his consolidation of power?

• Encouraged to destroy the 4 olds (old ideas, old culture, old customs, and old habits)

• Red Guards travelled across China spreading revolutionary ideas and destroying old culture

• Mao used the PLA to break up the Red Guard units

• Forced closure of mosques and burned religious books

• Concentration camps Laogai: 20 million deaths

What was the role of charismatic leadership in his consolidation of power?

• Chinese politican, communist, philosopher, military strategist, poet, revolutionary

• Founder of Peoples Republic of China

• Marxist-leninist

What was use of propaganda during his consolidation of power?

• Central Propaganda Department (spread ideology, ecnourage activism)

• Posters, media, education, literature, films

• Dissseminated by workers of local groups, committees, propaganda teams

• Nationwide system of loudspeakers, reading newspapers was obligatory

• China Central television, People’s daily (newspaper)

What was Mao’s treatment of opposition during his consolidation of power?

• Campaigns to supress their opposition

• The five black categories

• Opposition was demonised

• Mass indoctrination

• Concentration camps

• Citizens were forced to confess to “crimes” that went against Mao’s orders and beliefs

What was the Five Year Plan (1953-1957)?

Reduce economic reliance on agriculture and move towards industrial power with Soviet financial aid. Infrastructural and economic projects

What was the Great Leap Forward?

Campaign to meet China’s industrial and agricultural problems and hoped to develop labour-intensive methods of industrialization where manpower is emphasized over heavy machinery