He wanted China to move from a largely agrarian society to a more modern, industrialized one.
Mao decided that the best way to accomplish this was via full-scale collectivization of agriculture and by dramatically increasing steel production. These plans were based on his belief that success could be achieved by mobilizing China's massive peasant workforce. Agriculture was collectivized, and some new techniques were introduced in an attempt to boost output. Mao's concept for increased steel production involved hundreds of thousands of backyard steel furnaces.
The result was massive famine. The agricultural initiatives were without scientific merit. Moreover, many workers were drawn to steel production, and thus much of the crop that did grow was not harvested. Compounding matters local bureaucrats, having learned their lessons from the Hundred Flowers Campaign, towed the party line in posting inflated grain...
These figures were used to set export quotas, leaving little for the peasants to eat. Worse yet, the backyard steel furnaces could not produce anything close to viable steel, so the planned industrial leap was a failure as well.
The result was massive crop failure and millions of people starved. In the government, Mao himself stepped down as State Chairman in 1959 and steps were taken to reverse the disastrous policies of the Great Leap Forward.
Works Cited
Jackson, John M. 2004. An Early Spring: Mao Tse-Tsung, the Chinese Intellectuals and the Hundred Flowers Campaign available at http://filebox.vt.edu/users/jojacks2/words/hundredflowers.htm. Retrieved March 27, 2008
The Great Leap Forward 2008. History Learning Site available at http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/great_leap_forward.htm. Retrieved March 27, 2008
