economic effects of authoritarian rule

What aided the revival of industry during the Third-Five-Year-Plan?

The discovery of huge oil and gas fields in Daqing

What was the aim of the Third-Five-Year-Plan?

The revival of industry and to recover from the damage of the Great Leap Forward

When was the Third-Five-Year-Plan?

1962–1965

What did people eat as a result of the shortage of grain?

Cabbage, rats, tree bark, and dogs.

What were the three years during the Great Leap Forward called and what were they?

The years 1959 to 1961 were named the Three Bitter Years

How many people are estimate to have died in China in the years 1959–1962 during the famine?

~ 36 million

What caused poverty during The Great Leap Forward?

Bad harvests due to too many people working on the Backyard Steel Campaign and terrible weather which led to even worse harvests.

What was another campaign during The Great Leap Forward and what was it?

• The Great Sparrow Campaign, and it attempted to remove all sparrows from China as they were seen as the voracious consumers of grain.

Why was the Sparrow Campaign misguided?

• Backfired because sparrows eat insects and there was a boom in locusts.

What were the years of the Great Leap Forward?

1958–1962

What was the problem with the 11 million tonnes produced during the Backyard Steel Campaign?

Most of the steel was impure and useless.

What were the statistics of the Backyard Steel Campaign?

• 600,000 backyard furnaces created in total.

• 11 million tonnes of steel created overall.

What was the Backyard Steel Campaign in The Great Leap Forward?

The construction of steel furnaces in backwards.

What did Mao want to achieve with The Great Leap Forward?

Faster growth, to assert independence from the USSR, and to regain the revolutionary spirit.

What did the Great Leap Forward focus on?

Agriculture as well as Industry

What is the Second Five-Year-Plan mainly known as?

The Great Leap Forward

When were the communes introduced?

During the Second Five-Year-Plan

What was said about the communes by historians?

‘A modern serfdom under party control.’

What else was ruined by the abolishment of private property?

The destruction of the family unit that relied on tradition.

What was the significance of continually more communist land policies like the communes?

The state now controlled the people entirely and destroyed incentives for people to earn their own personal money.

When were Communes?

1958

When were Higher APCS?

1956

When were APCS?

1953

When were Mutual Aid Teams introduced?

1950

What were communes?

Where Higher APCS were not even allowed small private plots or allotments.

What were Higher APCS?

Land was collectively owned and peasants worked for wages regardless of their input of land or equipment.

What were APCS?

Usually people of the village would pool their land and labour to make bigger, more efficient, farms.

What were mutual aid teams?

Peasants from 5 to 10 households joined together to share equipment.

How many families occupied commutes?

5000

How many families occupied a Higher APC?

200–300

How many families occupied an APC?

30–50

How many families occupied a mutual aid team?

5–10

What was the timeline for peasant collectivism?

• Mutual aid teams. (1950)

• Lower agricultural producer cooperatives (APCS) (1953)

• Higher APCS (1956)

• Commutes (1958)

When was the First Five-Year-Plan?

1953–1957

What did the state set prices to in the First Five-Year-Plan?

Set prices very low for grain so that the state could produce a large profit to invest in industry.

What was neglected during the First Five-Year-Plan?

Light industry such as food processing.

What was the First Five-Year-Plan?

It followed the Soviet model, meaning planning was highly centralised and concentrated in heavy industry — coal, steel, and machinery.

What were some of the terms of these agreements with the Soviet Union?

• 300 million dollars sent for financial aid.

• 10,000 engineers

What occurred in 1950 between China and the Soviet Union?

Agreements with the Soviet Union to provide aid and assistance to newly-communist China.

What is the People’s Bank fully named and what is its abbreviation?

People’s Bank of China (PBOC)

What did the People’s Bank control?

All financial transactions as well as the issue of money. Farmers had to 15–20% of their grain to the government at a fixed low price.

When was the People’s Bank opened?

1951

What was opened due to nationalisation?

A People’s Bank

What was nationalisation?

All major banks, the railway network, and about a third of heavy industry were nationalised.