IB History: The People’s Republic under Mao — notes, maps and essay plans

1. Consolidating Victory

CHAPTER 1 · 1949–1950 · CONCEPTS: CAUSATION, CHANGE, PERSPECTIVES

EVIDENCE TO USE · ALL 6 POINTS (A FREE CHAPTER)

1. When Mao proclaimed the People’s Republic on 1 October 1949, the Communist Party had about 4.5 million members among some 540 million people. To govern that population, it initially relied on the army and six regional bureaux, largely run by generals.
2. The Common Program of September 1949 promised a coalition of four classes, among them the “national bourgeoisie”. The new government also had three non-Communists among its six vice-chairmen. These arrangements helped the regime gain acceptance in the cities.
3. The Agrarian Reform Law of June 1950 gave the new regime a mass base in the villages. By 1953, about 700 million mu, more than two-fifths of China’s farmland, had been transferred to some 300 million peasants.
4. Land reform brought violence as well as land. “speak bitterness” meetings often ended in killings, and most estimates put the dead at between one and two million. Through that violence, villagers became complicit in the new order.
5. The Marriage Law of 1 May 1950 banned arranged marriage, concubinage and child betrothal, and allowed women to divorce. Changing the law did not end resistance: in the Central-South region alone, more than 10,000 women were reported killed or driven to suicide in marriage disputes in 1951.
6. Under the Sino-Soviet Treaty of 14 February 1950, the new state received a security guarantee and a loan of 300 million dollars. The agreement also gave the Soviet Union bases at Port Arthur until 1955 and joint companies in Xinjiang.

2. Korea and the Campaigns

CHAPTER 2 · 1950–1953 · CONCEPTS: CAUSATION, CONSEQUENCE, SIGNIFICANCE

EVIDENCE TO USE · ALL 6 POINTS (A FREE CHAPTER)

1. After UN forces crossed the 38th parallel, Chinese “People’s Volunteers” crossed the Yalu on 19 October 1950. Their recapture of Seoul by January 1951 brought the new state immense prestige at home.
2. China paid heavily for the war. Beijing’s latest official count, published in 2020, puts its dead at 197,653; other estimates reach about 400,000. Mao’s son Mao Anying was among them, killed in an air raid in November 1950.
3. The Campaign to Suppress Counter-revolutionaries began with the “Double Tenth” directive of 10 October 1950. A security report in 1954 counted 712,000 people executed, 1.29 million imprisoned and another 1.2 million placed under surveillance.
4. Mao suggested in early 1951 that executions should run at about one per thousand people. Yang Kuisong’s research in Party documents shows the center setting ratios for the campaign, then slowing the killing in late April 1951.
5. The Three-Anti campaign of 1951–52 targeted corrupt officials. Its warning to the Party was unmistakable in February 1952, when Liu Qingshan and Zhang Zishan, two senior cadres of the Tianjin prefecture, were executed for embezzlement.
6. In the Five-Anti campaign of 1952, private firms faced investigations for bribery, tax evasion, theft of state property, contract fraud and theft of economic secrets. The campaign left them dependent on the state well before their nationalization in January 1956.

3. Tibet and the Frontiers

CHAPTER 3 · 1950–1959 · CONCEPTS: PERSPECTIVES, CAUSATION, CONTINUITY

EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6

• In October 1950, about 40,000 PLA troops crossed the upper Yangtze and defeated Tibet’s army of some 8,000 at Chamdo. With no foreign support, the government in Lhasa had no military option left.

Practice question: How effective were the methods used by the People’s Republic to secure control of Tibet between 1950 and 1959? Evaluate them.

5 more points of evidence, 3 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 3 in the atlas.

4. The Soviet Model

CHAPTER 4 · 1953–1957 · CONCEPTS: CHANGE, CONSEQUENCE, CONTINUITY

EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 5

• During the First Five-Year Plan, from 1953 to 1957, China raised steel output from 1.35 million to 5.35 million tonnes. Industrial output grew by about 18 percent a year, with 156 Soviet-aided projects forming the core of the effort.

Practice question: How did the First Five-Year Plan and collectivisation (1953–1957) affect the lives of China’s workers and peasants?

4 more points of evidence, 3 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 4 in the atlas.

5. A Hundred Flowers

CHAPTER 5 · 1956–1957 · CONCEPTS: CAUSATION, PERSPECTIVES, SIGNIFICANCE

EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 5

• Khrushchev’s secret speech in February 1956 and the Hungarian rising that October convinced Mao that grievances needed an outlet. On 27 February 1957, he called for disagreements among the people to be resolved through discussion.

Practice question: Why did the Hundred Flowers campaign of 1956–57 end in the Anti-Rightist Campaign?

4 more points of evidence, 2 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 5 in the atlas.

6. The Great Leap Forward

CHAPTER 6 · 1958–1960 · CONCEPTS: CAUSATION, CONSEQUENCE, SIGNIFICANCE

EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6

• In November 1957, speaking in Moscow, Mao promised that China would overtake Britain in steel within fifteen years. The ambition acquired an immediate target at Beidaihe in August 1958, when that year’s steel goal was doubled to 10.7 million tonnes.

Practice question: “The Great Leap Forward failed because of Mao’s personal decisions.” How far do you agree with this statement?

5 more points of evidence, 2 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 6 in the atlas.

7. The Great Famine

CHAPTER 7 · 1959–1961 · CONCEPTS: CAUSATION, CONSEQUENCE, PERSPECTIVES

EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6

• How many people died in the famine? Estimates range from about 15 million to 45 million. Jiang Zhenghua calculated about 17 million deaths, Ansley Coale 27 million, Yang Jisheng 36 million and Frank Dikötter at least 45 million.

Practice question: Evaluate how the Great Leap Forward affected the lives of China’s rural population.

5 more points of evidence, 3 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 7 in the atlas.

8. Retreat and Recovery

CHAPTER 8 · 1961–1965 · CONCEPTS: CHANGE, CONTINUITY, CAUSATION

EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6

• In April–May 1961 Liu Shaoqi spent 44 days in rural Hunan. His judgment at the Seven Thousand Cadres Conference in January 1962 placed responsibility for the disaster chiefly on human decisions: it was “three parts natural disaster, seven parts man-made”.

Practice question: How far did other Party leaders challenge Mao’s authority between 1961 and 1965?

5 more points of evidence, 2 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 8 in the atlas.

9. The Cultural Revolution

CHAPTER 9 · 1966–1968 · CONCEPTS: CAUSATION, PERSPECTIVES, CONSEQUENCE

EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6

• Mao reviewed about a million Red Guards in Tiananmen Square on 18 August 1966. That gathering was the first of eight rallies; by late November, the rallies had brought some 12 million young people to Beijing.

Practice question: Examine why Mao launched the Cultural Revolution in 1966.

5 more points of evidence, 3 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 9 in the atlas.

10. Down to the Countryside

CHAPTER 10 · 1968–1971 · CONCEPTS: CONSEQUENCE, CHANGE, SIGNIFICANCE

EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6

• Mao’s December 1968 directive sent an existing policy onto a vast scale. Between 1968 and 1980, about 17 million urban young people went to villages and frontier farms, with the largest numbers sent in 1968–70 and again in the mid-1970s.

Practice question: Discuss the role of the People’s Liberation Army in maintaining Mao’s rule between 1966 and 1971.

5 more points of evidence, 2 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 10 in the atlas.

11. From Soviet Ally to Nixon

CHAPTER 11 · 1960–1972 · CONCEPTS: CAUSATION, CHANGE, PERSPECTIVES

EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 5

• Khrushchev recalled all 1,390 Soviet experts from China in July–August 1960. Projects they had been working on, including the Lanzhou uranium enrichment plant, were left unfinished. Chinese engineers completed the plant in 1964.

Practice question: Compare and contrast the reasons for China’s break with the Soviet Union (1956–1969) and its rapprochement with the United States (1969–1972).

4 more points of evidence, 3 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 11 in the atlas.

12. Mao’s Death and Legacy

EPILOGUE · 1976 · CONCEPTS: SIGNIFICANCE, PERSPECTIVES, CONTINUITY

EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6

• During the Qingming festival on 4–5 April 1976, huge crowds gathered in Tiananmen Square to mourn Zhou Enlai and attack the radical leaders. This was the largest spontaneous protest of the Mao era.

Practice question: “Mao’s rule was maintained more by terror than by consent.” Discuss.

5 more points of evidence, 2 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 12 in the atlas.