Cultural Revolutions Learning Materials

CULTURAL REVOLUTIONS The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution or simply the Cultural Revolution was a violent mass movement that resulted in social, political, and economic upheaval in the People’s Republic of China starting in 1966 and ending officially with Mao's death in 1976. It resulted in nation-wide chaos and economic disarray and stagnation. It was launched by Mao Zedong, the chairman of the Communist Party of China, on May 16, 1966. He alleged that "liberal bourgeoise" elements were permeating the party and society at large and that they wanted to restore capitalism. Mao insisted, in accordance with his theory of permanent revolution, that these elements should be removed through revolutionary violent class struggle by mobilizing China's youth who, responding to his appeal, then formed Red Guard groups around the country. The movement subsequently spread into the military, urban workers, and the party leadership itself. Although Mao himself officially declared the Cultural Revolution to have ended in 1969, its active phase lasted until the death of Lin Biao in a plane crash in 1971. The power struggles and political instability between 1969 and the arrest of the Gang of Four in 1976 are now also widely regarded as part of the Revolution. After Mao's death in 1976, forces within the party that opposed the Cultural Revolution led by Deng Xiaoping, gained prominence, and most of the political, economic, and educational reforms associated with the Cultural Revolution were abandoned by 1978. The Cultural Revolution has been treated officially as a negative phenomenon ever since. The people involved in instituting the policies of the Cultural Revolution were persecuted. In its official historical judgment of the Cultural Revolution in 1981, the Party assigned chief responsibility to Mao Zedong, but also laid significant blame on Lin Biao and the Gang of Four for causing its worst excesses. Background Great Leap Forward In 1958, after China’s first Five-Year Plan, Mao Zedong called for increased growth of "grassroots socialism", in an attempt to bring about a bottom-up approach to turn the country into a self-sufficient Communist society. To accomplish this goal, Mao began the Great Leap Forward, establishing special People's Communes in the countryside through the usage of collective labor and mass mobilization. Many communities were mobilized to produce a single commodity - steel and Mao vowed to double agricultural production to twice 1957 levels. The Great Leap was an economic failure. Industries went into turmoil because peasants were producing too much low-quality steel while other areas were neglected. Furthermore, uneducated low-income farmers were poorly equipped and ill-trained to produce steel, partially relying on backyard furnaces to achieve the production targets set by local cadres. Meanwhile, essential farm tools were melted down for steel, reducing harvest sizes. This led to a decline in the production of most goods except substandard pig iron and steel. To make matters worse, in order to avoid punishment, local authorities frequently exaggerated production numbers, thus hiding and intensifying the problem for several years. Having barely recovered from decades of war, the Chinese economy was again in shambles. In 1958, the party had no choice to admit that production numbers were exaggerated. In addition, much of the steel produced was impure and useless. In the meantime, chaos in the collectives, bad weather, and exports of food necessary to secure hard currencies resulted in the Great Chinese Famine. Food was in desperate shortage, and production fell dramatically. According to various sources, the death toll during this period was some 20 to 30 million. The Great Leap's failure had a significant impact on Mao's prestige within the Party. In 1959, Mao resigned as the State Chairman (China's head of state), and was succeeded by Liu Shaoqi. In July 1959, senior party leaders convened at the scenic Mount Lu to discuss party policy, particularly the effects of the Great Leap Forward. At the conference, Marshal Peng Dehuai, then Minister of Defense, criticized Mao's policies on the Great Leap, writing that it was plagued by mismanagement and cautioned against elevating political dogma over established laws of economics. While the Lushan Conference served as a death knell for Peng, Mao's most vocal critic, it led to a shift of power to moderates led by Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping, who took effective control of the government. Following the Conference, Mao had Peng removed of his official posts, and accused him of being a "right-opportunist". Peng was replaced by Lin Biao, another revolutionary army general who would later play a pivotal role in carrying out Maoist policies. Friction between Liu and Mao By the early 1960s, although Mao remained the Party Chairman, his chief responsibility in the Leap's failure forced him into a state of seclusion from day-to-day affairs of state and governance. Many of Mao's Great Leap policies were reversed, their negative impact mitigated and gradually diminished. Among Liu and Deng's reforms were a partial retreat from collectivism, seen as more pragmatic and more effective. During this phase Liu Shaoqi coined the famous phrase, "buying is better than manufacturing, and renting is better than buying," opening a new economic frontier in China that contradicted Mao's self-sufficiency ideals. Liu's successful economic policies generated him support within the party. Together with Deng Xiaoping, Liu seemed on his way to ease Mao out of power but retaining him as a national icon. In response, Mao began the Socialist Education Movement in 1962 to restore his political base. The main theme of the movement was the restoration of revolutionary fervor amongst party members and the general public. More notably, the movement focused on primary and secondary education reform. One of its most salient aspects was the incorporation of commune and factory labor into education. The movement had the effect of indoctrinating Maoist ideology on China's youth. INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTIONS The Industrial Revolution may be defined as the application of power driven machinery to manufacturing. The consequences of this revolution would change irrevocably human labor, consumption, family structure, social structure and even the very thought of the individual. This revolution involved more than technology for both European and Non-European countries. Population growth was one of the reasons for Industrial Revolutions. Agricultural Revolution The English country side was transformed between 1760 and 1830 as the open field system of cultivation gave way to compact farms and enclosed fields. The cultivation of turnips and potatoes was one of features of this revolution. Jethro Tull’s most original contributions were the seed drill and horse hoe. He introduced four course rotation of crops : wheat, turnips, oats or barley and clover. The first Industrial Revolution: Textiles and Steam: 1712-1830 1712: The Newcomen Steam engine 1733: John Kay invents the flying Shuttle 1764: James Hargreaves invents the Spinning jenny 1763: James Watt patents a series of improvements on the Newcomen engine making it more efficient. 1769: Richard Arc Wright patents water frame 1779: Samuel Crompton perfects the spinning mule 1785: Edmund Cartwright patents a power loom 1793: Elley Whitney patents the cotton gin 1807: Robert Fulton begins steamboat service on the Hudson River 1830: George Stephenson begins rail service between Liverpool and London The Spread of Industrial Revolution: 1830-1875 1839: Samuel Cunard begins transatlantic steamship service 1856: Henry Bessemer develops Bessemer converter 1859: the first commercial oil well drilled in Pennsylvania 1866: The Siemens brothers improve steelmaking by developing the open hearth furnace The Second Industrial Revolution: Electricity and Chemicals: 1875-1905 1836: Samuel.F.B, Morse invents the telegraph 1866: Cyrus Field lays the first successful transatlantic cable 1876: Alexander Grahambell invents the Telephone 1879: Thomas Edison invents the incandescent light bulb 1892: Rudolf Diesel patents diesel engine 1899: Gugliemo Marconi invents the wireless 1903: The Wright brothers make the first successful airplane flight. American Industrialization Industrial growth transformed American Society. It produced new class of wealthy industrialists and prosperous middle class. It also produced blue collar working class. Characteristics 1. 2. 3. 4. Production by machine rather than by hand. Involvement of an increasing proportion of the work force in manufacturing. Production concentrated in large, intricately organized factories Accelerated technological innovation, emphasizing new inventions and applied science. 5. Expanded markets, no longer local and regional in scope. 6. Growth of nationwide transportation, network based on the railroad, along with a communications network based on telegraph and telephone. 7. Increased capital accumulation for investment in expansion of production. 8. Growth of large enterprises and specialization in all forms of economic widely 9. Steady increase in the size and predominance of cities 10. Railroad growth fueled industrial development, Over 100,000 miles of track were laid between 1877 and 1893, doubling the U.S.network. TRANSPORTATION REVOLUTIONS 3500- Wheeled carts, river boats are invented 2000- Horses are tamped and used for transport 770- Iron horseshoes came 1492- Leonardo da Vinci describes a flying machine 1662- Pascal invents a horse drawn public bus 1740- clock work powered carriage 1783- first hot air balloons 1801- stem powered railroad locomotive 1807- hydrogen gas powered vehicle 1814- steam powered railroad locomotive 1860- gasoline engine automobile 1868- air locomotive brake 1900- first successful dirigible 1903- first motor driven airplane 1947- supersonic flight 1969-manned mission to moon COMMUNICATION REVOLUTIONS Telegraphs and telephones Television Satellites