Mao's Cultural Revolution

Mao was very successful in ending the economic and social challenges faced by China during this time and the extent of this success if unmatched. Mao, using laws and the cultural revolution and the great leap forward and the 5 year plan fixed social and economic policies respectively.

Mao was met with success when he attempted to rectify the social challenges that existed in China between 1949 and 1976. Some of these challenges included the lack of rights for women and the continual adherence to the 4 olds by the public. Mao fixed the lack of rights for women by issuing the Marriage law of 1950. This law was pivotal and very successful to what Mao was trying to do: bring women the same rights that men had. In this law it was mandated that

The 4 olds include old customs, old habits, old culture, and old ideas. Mao saw that this was a social challenge that existed within in China at this time and so he initiated the cultural revolution to end these 4 olds. The cultural revolution was a policy enacted by Mao that sought to end these olds. This policy was very successful and through the mobilization of kids through the Red Guard, Mao was able to end almost all of the instances of the 4 olds within China. The people who still believed in these were too afraid to speak out about their beliefs. Since Mao was able to end almost all instance of the 4 olds in China within a single try, the extent of his success with this is

Mao noticed that China was industrially lagging behind countries like the Soviet Union and the United States and was also heavily dependent on resources from the Soviet Union. This was the challenge that Mao wanted to fix and so he established the Great Leap Forward (GLF) and the 5 year plans. In the Great Leap Forward, Mao mobilized the entire nation to grow crops at an increased rate and make steel in order to industrialize China. However, the GLF is an example of an economic policy that Mao initiated that was not successful in ending the challenges that Mao noticed. This is because the GLF led to neglected crops and no food left in China as all of it was being shipped out of the country. This resulted in great famine which ended up killing over 40 million people. However, the GLF was successful in that it greatly increased China’s exports and turned it into a industrialized nation. The 5 year plans were where Mao was really successful. The first 5 year plan was very successful because it led to the partial industrialization of China and China becoming closer and closer to the Soviets. The first 5 year plan called for rapid industrialization and the production of large shipping ports across China. It was this 5 year plan that paved the way for the GReat Leap Forward to occur. This plan was successful in that it started to