Key point to note:
We are studying our second topic –
Agricultural and Industrial changes. In the
book these are dealt with discreetly, but in
lessons we will move chronologically. Please
make sure you are aware of what constitutes
‘agricultural’ and what is ‘industrial’
How and why did the system of land
ownership change during 1949 – 1957?
LO: To understand how Mao moved towards
collectivisation
• The process where the state takes over the ownership of
land and equipment that was previously in private hands.
Collective farms were to be managed by the state, which
supplied the peasants with food and accommodation in
return for their labour
Key term: Collectivisation
• Mao always intended on modernising country away from
a peasant society through urbanisation and
industrialisation (challenge strength of USSR)
• Agriculture should be collectivised to feed the industrial
workers (and to free up people to move to the cities and
work)
• Mao put blind faith into will power and mass
participation & dismissed the advice of experts
• This led to an economic disaster in 1960
Land reform: Mao’s motives for change
• Land was distributed from landlords to peasants very quickly,
although the change from peasant ownership to collectivisation
was very slow.
• Starting in ‘key point’ villages, teams of 30 – 40 CCP cadres
working with local peasants’ associations fanned out across the
countryside to carry the revolution to remote areas. Local
peasants were encouraged to identify their landlords, who were
then subjected to humiliation and violence.
• The CCP involved peasants in this process and deliberately
stoked up the class-conflict in order to cement their
relationship with the revolution.
TASK: Read p.193-195 and complete all the
questions in the pink box on p.195
Ext: Ask for the Breslin
Stage 1: Land Reform
article to add to your
notes on land reform
(especially for q.5)
• What can we learn from source 1 about the way in which
land reforms were carried out?
Source 1 p. 194
• Read the extract from Breslin about land reform and
collectivisation
• Make notes on how and why land reform developed into
collectivisation & what the results were
Homework: Reading
How & why did Land Reform
develop into collectivisation?
LO: to understand the stages of development & learn the
reform acts
LO: To judge how easy this was for the CCP
• How and why did the system of land ownership change?
Breslin: Feedback
How:
• Work groups encouraged peasants to take ownership
• ‘Peer classification’  if labelled a landlord you were forced to give
up land
• MATs = Mutual Aid Teams  Party sent to make the peasants cooperate
• Sharing officials  to try and minimise peasant anger
Why:
• 1. Increase production  feed industrial workers
• Increase peasant support
• Removal of landlords as a political class  this makes Mao move
quickly as he didn’t want there to be a situation like in USSR with
the Kulaks.
• Improve society (Chinese gov. justification)
• Development of socialist ideas.
According to Breslin:
• TASKS:
1) Read p. 195 – 196 & timeline. Annotate your timeline to
ensure you understand and can explain the steps to
collectivisation
2) How easy was it to collectivise agriculture? Complete
task 2 on p.197
Move towards collectivisation:
Main stages in Mao’s Collectivisation 1953-56
1951
• First cautious steps
• Cooperatives and Mutual
Aid Teams
• Up to 10 households
sharing labour, tools,
animals
• Wealthy peasants excluded
January 1956
• July 1955 – 17m
households in APCs
• Jan 1956 – 75m in
APCs
• 63% of the
population
• Only 3% left as
private plots
1952/3
• Second stage
• APCs group 30-50
households who by now
also share land
• Strip farming abandoned;
more land able to be
cultivated
• Private ownership by
peasants retained under
the ‘land-share’, ‘labourshare’ notion
• Large profits still made by
wealthy peasants – i.e. not
part of Mao’s plan
1955 (as a whole)
• Higher APCs introduced of 200300 households
• Much larger than a normal, single
village
• More cadres needed to control
them
• Profit distribution for wealthy
peasants reduced; labour share
increased
• State pressured wealthy peasants
to comply
1953-5
•
Confusing and contradictory
•
Fast pace of change demanded by Mao lead
to poor execution of the policy on a local
level
1953
•
Mao says stop the “rash advance”
•
But this in turn lead to ‘spontaneous
capitalism’ again
1954
•
In response Mao called for a stop to the “rash
retreat” which lead to peasant anger and
resistance
•
A poor harvest followed which lead to city
riots when the government tried to
requisition food.
Jan 1955
• Stop, Contract, Develop
campaign launch by Mao to
slow the process
• No more APCs for 18 months
Summer 1955
• Goes back to rapid
collectivisation
Early changes in agriculture:
• By mid-1950s Mao’s personal prestige was such that he
could override the concerns of other party leaders
• Ignored concerns over the unpopularity of increasing the
pace of reforms in order to realise his own ideological
goals.
• Some historians have referred to the beginning of a ‘civil
war’ within the party that was not ended until the Cultural
Revolution.
Key points to note about Mao
& agriculture:
• Using your studies of China as a
case study – find evidence of the
productivity of collectivisation in
order to persuade Mr. Osbourne
to take up one this option in
Britain.
• You must persuade using
evidence.
Which is more productive?
Why? China as a case study.