Thesis Rationale
• Thesis: Mao’s Five Year Plan successfully industrialized China
by improving the productivity and transportation.
• Mao’s ultimate goal was to make the nation an industrial
superpower and create a new revolution in China.
• The focus was on heavy industries, such as steel, coal, and
chemicals that would provide the raw materials for building
planes, trains, and engines.
• Motivated Chinese workers surpassed all of Mao’s targets for
the Five Year Plan.
It is only by using discussion,
criticism and reasoning that
we can really foster correct
ideas, overcome wrong ideas
and really settle issues.
Letting a hundred flowers
blossom and a hundred
schools of thought contend is
the policy for promoting
progress in the arts and the
sciences and a flourishing
socialist culture in our land. –
Mao Zedong
Key
• The graph in the top right corner represents the success of Mao's reforms.
The Five Year plan that Mao created greatly increased the rate of industrial
production. Between 1952 to 1957 the production of coal, pig-iron, steel,
chemical fertilizer, machine tools, crude oil, and electrical power doubled and or
even tripled in some cases. The actual production even surpassed the target
goal set by the government for all the products, excluding crude oil and
electrical power. The numbers might not be the most accurate, but the
achievements were still very impressive. As this graph shows, China became
very modernized and industrialized throughout the span of the Five Year Plan.
• The black quote in the bottom right corner shows why Mao executed the
Five Year plan and his reasoning/ planning behind it. He said that for China to
become more economically powerful it must use elements of urban and rural
capitalism. While Mao might have not followed what he said in that quote
directly, he certainly did what he said he would do, which was raise China from
its low economic position and make it an industrial superpower.
Key
• The image to the right of the red quote represents the advances in
agriculture and farming production. Chinese farmers worked together and to
make a plan that would ultimately increase and improve the agricultural growth.
As seen in the image, the Chinese people had a fresh start and eventually
worked their way up to grow more produce throughout the duration of Mao’s
Five Year Plan.
• The image above the black quote on the left represents the important
industrial projects throughout the nation. Throughout 1953-1957, the expansion
of steel, electricity, and railroad production spread along the east coast and
central China. Mao built new factories in small towns rather than cities, hoping
to create new industries that could start from scratch. The new railways could
transport raw materials across the nation, increasing the expansion of goods.
Key
• The image to the left of graph represents the leader of communist russia,
Joseph Stalin, and Mao Zedong. The primary source shows the alliance that
Russia and China had with each other, in which China gained supplies and
knowledge from the Russians. Thousands of russian scientists and engineers
supervised millions of chinese on almost 700 projects. Also thousands of
chinese students were sent to study abroad in soviet universities and colleges.
This represents our thesis statement because without Stalin, China would not
have gotten the resources to become an industrialized country.
• The image to the left of the black quote represents how the Chinese
government distributed there money. The primary source shows how the
chinese government distributed money to all parts of their society to please
them, and keep the different industries equal. One of Mao’s biggest supporting
groups was the peasants, and mao made sure to distribute money evenly to
keep all of his supporters happy. This supports our thesis, because without
money being distributed evenly, Mao would have lost a lot of followers, and
money, making it impossible to industrialize the country.
Key
• The image in the bottom left and the image above the black quote to the
right both represent the improvement of different transportation methods such
automobiles, trains, and aircraft. One of the main goals of the plan was to
increase the raw materials provided to transportation improvement. Because of
the plan, more factories were made in small towns. An increased number of
industries allowed for 124 million tons of coal to be produced, 5.24 million tons
of steel to be produced, and 2 million tons of crude oil to be produced from
1952 to 1957. These resources were dedicated heavily towards the
improvement of transportation methods. Both pictures show the spread of
modern transportation methods throughout China during the Five Year Plan.
Because of the changes the plan brought, China industrialized and became a
more reputable power.