Chapter 33: Asia and the Pacific "The Great Leap Forward"

Introduction
Students have read that in 1958 the Chinese launched an ambitious economic plan known as the Great Leap Forward. Under this plan the agricultural cooperatives were merged into larger, supposedly self-sufficient units called communes. But the communes were not self-sufficient, and the plan was a disaster that caused massive suffering.

Lesson Description
Students will go to The Great Leap Forward Web site. They will then answer four questions about what they have read.

Instructional Objectives
1. Students will learn more about the philosophy behind the Great Leap Forward.
2. Students will learn about the political ramifications of the failure of the Great Leap Forward.

Student Web Activity Answers
1. It was aimed at accomplishing the economic and technological development of the country at a vastly faster pace and with greater results.
2. They believed that the second plan would succeed if the people were ideologically aroused and if domestic resources could be utilized more efficiently for the simultaneous development of industry and agriculture.
3. They included a shortage of food, shortages of raw materials for industry, overproduction of poor-quality goods, and the deterioration of industrial plants.
4. Students' answers will vary but should mention such factors as basing government policy on ideology rather than on studies of the practicalities of the plan and trying to do too much in too short a time.

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