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Mao’s China, 1949–76

  • 16 subtopics
  • 47 things to know
  • Paper 2
  • Paper 2 depth option, chosen from sixteen

What Mao’s China, 1949–76 covers

A Paper 2 depth study of the People's Republic under Mao, covering the establishment of party control and the destruction of opposition, the transformation of agriculture and industry from the First Five-Year Plan to the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution, and the changes to the position of women, education, culture and religion.

Where it is assessed

Paper 2

Depth study with sources, one option of sixteen.

Check the Pearson Edexcel specification ↗

The 16 subtopics

Each one has its own page.

What you need to know

Answer each one before you reveal it.

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Process

Why did the communes end in famine?

Process

How were opponents destroyed in the early 1950s?

Who and when

Which campaign punished those who spoke out after Hundred Flowers?

Key term

What happened to landlords after 1949?

Key term

Who restored some private farming after the famine?

Key term

Who were the Gang of Four?

Key term

What 1950 law improved women's rights?

Who and when

Who controlled revolutionary art and culture?

Key term

What was the state of China after the civil war?

Key term

What happened to the Nationalists in 1949?

Key term

What was the PLA?

Key term

How were party, state and army related?

Key term

Which 1950–53 war boosted CCP control and prestige?

Key term

What were the costs of the Korean War to China?

Key term

How was land redistributed?

Key term

What large rural units were created in 1958?

Who and when

Where did China's first plan of 1953 to 1957 put its investment?

Who and when

What help did the USSR provide?

Numbers

What famine resulted from the Great Leap Forward?

Numbers

What was the Great Leap Forward?

Key term

What divided the CCP leadership in the early 1960s?

Key term

Who were the Red Guards?

Key term

What were the 'four olds' the Red Guards attacked?

Key term

Which leaders were purged as 'capitalist roaders'?

Numbers

What happened to Lin Biao?

Key term

What campaign sent urban youth to the countryside?

Who and when

How far did the position of women actually improve?

Key term

What was Pinyin?

Key term

What were barefoot doctors?

Key term

How was traditional culture attacked?

Key term

Which religions and beliefs were attacked?

Key term

How was Buddhism treated?

Key term

What was the state of Chinese agriculture in 1949?

Key term

What organising principle concentrated power at the top?

Numbers

What were the anti campaigns of 1951 and 1952?

Who and when

How did the war affect relations with the USSR?

Key term

What were mutual aid teams?

Numbers

Which was the first people's commune in China?

Key term

How successful was the First Five-Year Plan?

Key term

What 1959 meeting saw Peng Dehuai criticise the Great Leap?

Numbers

What was the Socialist Education Movement?

Key term

What was Nie Yuanzi's big-character poster?

Key term

How extensive was the purge of the CCP?

Key term

Who helped restore order and returned to power in the 1970s?

Key term

What overall trend occurred in literacy?

Key term

What was Jiang Qing's role in cultural policy?

Numbers

How was Confucianism treated?

Take Mao’s China, 1949–76 further

The same content, four other ways.

Commonly confused

Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.

  • PLA vs Laogai

    PLA: the People's Liberation Army, the CCP's armed forces. Laogai: The system of labour-reform prison camps.

Questions from this topic

Each one with the model answer underneath.

  1. 1

    When did the CCP win the civil war and found the People's Republic?

    Model answer

    In 1949, with the People's Republic declared on 1 October 1949.

  2. 2

    What was the state of China after the civil war?

    Model answer

    Devastated by two decades of war: industry at a fraction of pre-war output, transport wrecked, hyperinflation, and millions of refugees and demobilised soldiers.

  3. 3

    What happened to the Nationalists in 1949?

    Model answer

    Chiang Kai-shek and around two million followers withdrew to Taiwan with the gold reserves, continuing to claim to be China's legitimate government.

  4. 4

    What was the state of Chinese agriculture in 1949?

    Model answer

    Overwhelmingly small-scale and dominated by landlords and rich peasants; roughly 80 per cent of the population farmed, many as tenants paying high rents.

  5. 5

    How bad was inflation in 1949?

    Model answer

    Catastrophic under the Nationalists, and restoring a stable currency and controlling prices was one of the CCP's first and most impressive achievements.

  6. 6

    What national identity problems did the new state face?

    Model answer

    A century of humiliation by foreign powers, loss of territory, foreign concessions, and regions such as Tibet and Xinjiang outside effective central control.

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Mao’s China, 1949–76 revision questions

What does Mao’s China, 1949–76 cover in Edexcel A-Level History?
16 subtopics: china in 1949, the new power structure, defeating the ccp’s opponents, china and the korean war, early changes in agriculture, 1949–57, the communes and their organisation, the first five-year plan, 1952–56, the great leap forward, 1958-62, mao’s reasons for launching the cultural revolution, the red guards and red terror, attacks on mao’s political and class enemies, winding down the cultural revolution, 1968–76, the changing status of women, education and health provision, cultural change and religion under mao. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
How is Mao’s China, 1949–76 organised?
By the Edexcel 9HI0 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.

Every question in Mao’s China, 1949–76, on a schedule.

Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.

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