Mao Zedong as An Important Historical Figure

Mao Zedong is one of China’s most known leaders, some love him and some hate him. He like many leaders had his ups and downs. Making many attempts to modernize china and better the economy. He made reforms like “Great Leap Forward” and the “cultural revolution” to help the process. Mao Zedong is an important historical figure because without him china could still be undeveloped and not a world power like it is today.

Mao was born December 26, 1893, into a middle class peasant family. When he grew up when he to university he got interested in communism and started learning more about it, he began to read the Marxist. The Marxist is a type of philosophy with economic theories which were founded by Karl Marx. While studying he join the communist party and became one of the founding members in 1921

In 1923 the kuomintang (KMT) and the Chinese nationalist party joined forces to defeat the warlords to try and take back the north of china. 7 years later the KMT and CCP separated due to Chiang Kia-Shek launching an anti-communist campaign. This caused mao and many other communists to fled to the northwest of china, they walked 6,000 miles. They later rejoined for the 8 year war with japan (1937-1945). The communist party won and mao announced the founding of the peoples republic of china (PRC). Chiang Kia-Shek and the nationalist fled to Taiwan.

1958 Mao launched the “Great Leap Forward” this policy aimed to improve agriculture and labor production. This however did not work out in Mao’s favor and resulted in a massive decline in agriculture. This was partly due to the drought that happened but also the poor harvest. This led to famine causing millions to die. According to the black book of communism an estimated 65 million Chinese people died. Being was compared to Stalin and hitler. The policy was later abandoned. This caused Mao’s position and credibility to weaken.

The “cultural revolution” (1966) was a policy made so Mao could fix his stature. This aimed to bring up the revolutionary spirit as Mao was trying to modernize china. However again this did not work in Mao’s favor. Not only did it killed one and a half million people and many cultural heritages it was also known as an attempt to destroy his enimies. The southern Provence’s were hurt the worst (mass killings). Even China’s animal population declined because the red guard saw this as a symbol of old china. They wanted to clear away the “”four olds” old ideas, old customs, old habits and old culture. Because of the millions of deaths cities were upset and Mao sent troops to keep the people under control. Within Inner Mongolia authorities launched vicious campaigns against separatists. Mao had hoped that the cultural revolution would turn china into a “beacon of communism”, 50 years later and many believe it did the opposite. Mao by late 1968 realized the revelutiona dnthe policy had spiraled out of control.

in Mao’s later years he re-established ties with America and invited Richard Nixon to visit the country in 1972. Mao also reconnected with Japan and Europe. Mao later died in 1976. Mao is a very famous leader in Chinese history. He had ups and downs. He changed china and made it into what it is today, a major world power. If it weren’t for Mao china could possibly be undeveloped. He could of done things better just like any other leader. However as the years went on he learned and got better at his job. In the end he helped China develop and grow the economy.