Great Leap Forward

After a long, internal struggle, the communists achieved power in China in 1949, and by the mid-1950s had fortified their control of the country. However, despite the domestic victory, China remained vulnerable on the international level.

China at the time was a largely agricultural, peasant country. It lagged behind in industrialization, leaving it poorly positioned in any conflicts with world powers, like the U.S. and the U.S.S.R., or even with its regional rival in Japan.

So the government, led by Mao Zedong, launched the Great Leap Forward. Beginning in 1958, the program represented an attempt (a violently coercive attempt) to achieve rapid industrialization.

It did not go well. Attempts to collectivize farms led to clashes, while forcing agricultural workers into industrial schemes misdirected resources into costly boondoggles. Many of the industrial ventures failed. Meanwhile, the disruption to agricultural output led to a famine that eventually killed millions.

By 1962, the failure of the program had become painfully obvious, and other leaders within the Communist party maneuvered to put an end to the Great Leap Forward. Simultaneously, Mao was pushed aside as the ruling force within the party.

However, the post-credit sequence of this particular movie would include a scene foreshadowing Mao's revenge in the Cultural Revolution in the late 1960s. So, uh...stay tuned for that.