The great famine (Edexcel GCSE History): Revision Notes
The great famine (1958-62)
Overview
The great famine that struck China between 1958-62 stands as one of the most devastating disasters in modern history. This catastrophe resulted in approximately 30 million deaths across China, with impacts that continued for decades. The famine occurred during a period of ambitious economic policies under Mao's leadership, and historians have identified multiple contributing factors that combined to create this tragedy.
The scale of this disaster is almost incomprehensible - the death toll exceeded the entire population of many modern countries. To put this in perspective, it represents more deaths than World War I combat casualties for all nations combined.
Causes of the great famine
Understanding what caused the great famine requires examining several interconnected factors that historians continue to debate today. Rather than a single cause, this disaster resulted from multiple overlapping crises that compounded each other's effects.
Bad weather conditions (1959-61)
Natural disasters played a significant role in the crisis, though the government initially denied there was a famine and blamed poor harvests entirely on weather. The evidence shows that severe weather did affect agricultural production during this period:
- Droughts struck major farming regions in 1959 and 1960, particularly affecting important agricultural areas like Sichuan province
- Heavy rainfall and flooding devastated crops in Guangxi province during 1959
- However, it's crucial to note that famine also occurred in regions that were not affected by bad weather, suggesting that natural disasters alone cannot explain the full extent of the crisis
While natural disasters contributed to the crisis, the fact that famine occurred even in regions with normal weather patterns proves that government policies and systemic problems were the primary causes of this disaster.
Problems with the commune system
The establishment of people's communes created significant agricultural problems that worsened food production across multiple areas:
Administrative chaos: Communes were often poorly managed, with administration driven more by Communist Party slogans than practical farming knowledge. This led to confusion and inefficient decision-making at crucial times.
Lack of incentives for hard work: The communes demanded extremely long working hours from peasants but provided few rewards or incentives for increased productivity. This system meant that peasants became less motivated to work effectively, leading to declining agricultural output.
Loss of farming tools and expertise: When peasants were ordered to produce steel in backyard furnaces, essential farming tools were melted down to create inferior metal. This left fewer people available for farming work and destroyed the equipment needed for efficient agriculture.
Government policy failures
Several specific government policies contributed directly to the agricultural crisis, demonstrating how ideological approaches could override practical farming knowledge:
Lysenkoism influence: Following the ideas of Soviet scientist Lysenko, Chinese agricultural policy promoted planting seeds much closer together than traditional methods - sometimes up to ten times closer and up to 1.5 metres deeper than normal. This pseudoscientific approach resulted in 90% of seeds failing to grow properly.
The Four Pests Campaign (1957): This campaign aimed to eliminate flies, rats, mosquitoes, and sparrows as threats to crops. However, the mass killing of sparrows led to an explosion in crop-eating insects that sparrows normally consumed, which then severely damaged harvests.
Policy Failure Example: The Sparrow Campaign
The Four Pests Campaign ordered citizens to kill sparrows by making noise to prevent them from landing, causing them to die of exhaustion. While this seemed logical for protecting crops, it created an ecological disaster:
Step 1: Sparrows were eliminated from many regions Step 2: Insect populations exploded without their natural predator Step 3: Crop damage from insects became far worse than any damage sparrows had caused Result: A policy meant to protect crops actually destroyed them
Mao's radical ideology
Mao's ideological approach to economic development created an environment where realistic assessment of problems became impossible. His radical policies prioritised political objectives over practical agricultural needs, contributing to the severity of the crisis.
Impacts of the great famine
The consequences of the famine extended far beyond immediate hunger and affected Chinese society, politics, and economics profoundly. These impacts would shape China's development for decades to come.
Social impacts
The human cost was staggering, with tens of millions of people dying from starvation and related diseases. Social order broke down in many areas as desperate peasants attempted to survive. Some people tried to take grain from commune stores to feed their families, and those caught faced execution without trial, showing how the crisis led to increased repression.
The breakdown of social order during the famine created lasting trauma in Chinese society. Families were torn apart, traditional community structures collapsed, and trust in government institutions was severely damaged.
Political consequences
The famine created significant political changes within the Communist Party that would influence China's future direction:
Loss of Mao's authority: Mao's position within the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) weakened considerably as the scale of the disaster became clear. His radical economic policies were widely seen as having failed.
Rise of pragmatic leaders: Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping gained influence by promoting more practical, 'pragmatic' policies that focused on actually solving problems rather than following ideological principles.
Loss of public faith: The CCP's credibility suffered when it denied the famine was happening and failed to provide adequate help to affected populations.
Economic impacts
Agricultural production collapsed during this period, requiring years of recovery. The crisis forced a fundamental rethinking of China's economic approach and led to significant policy changes.
The economic devastation was so severe that it took until the mid-1960s for agricultural production to return to pre-famine levels, representing nearly a decade of lost economic development.
Government response and reforms
By 1960, the severity of the crisis forced Chinese leadership to implement emergency reforms to address the famine. These reforms marked a significant shift from ideological to practical approaches.
Private farming restoration
Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping introduced crucial emergency reforms to tackle the famine, implementing what they called 'economic pragmatism':
- Small private farms were permitted, allowing peasants to grow food for their own families
- Private food trading was allowed, enabling people to sell spare food to others who needed it
- Students, soldiers, and unemployed people were sent to villages to help with agricultural work
- Commune sizes were reduced, giving priority to ensuring adequate food production and making work rewarded with proper payment
Success of the reforms
These emergency measures proved highly effective. Grain production increased by over 60 million tonnes between 1961 and 1966, demonstrating that more flexible, practical policies could succeed where rigid ideological approaches had failed.
Reform Success: Private Farming Results
The contrast between ideological and pragmatic policies was dramatic:
Before reforms (1958-1960):
- Collective farming enforced
- No private food trading allowed
- Grain production collapsed
- Widespread starvation
After reforms (1961-1966):
- Private plots permitted
- Market trading allowed
- Grain production increased by 60+ million tonnes
- Famine conditions ended
Timeline of key events
- 1957: Four Pests Campaign launched
- 1958: Great Leap Forwards begins, communes established
- 1959: Lysenkoism and Four Pests Campaign officially ended, but famine conditions begin
- 1959-1961: Severe weather conditions affect many regions
- 1960: Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping begin implementing emergency reforms
- 1961-1966: Grain production recovers significantly under reformed policies
- 1962: Famine officially ends
Key Points to Remember:
- The great famine (1958-62) killed approximately 30 million people and resulted from multiple causes including bad weather, commune problems, and failed government policies
- Key policy failures included Lysenkoism (planting seeds too close together) and the Four Pests Campaign that destroyed natural pest control
- The crisis weakened Mao's authority and led to the rise of more pragmatic leaders like Liu Shaoqi and Deng Xiaoping
- Emergency reforms in 1960 allowed private farming and food trading, which successfully increased grain production by over 60 million tonnes
- The famine demonstrated the dangers of prioritising political ideology over practical economic management