How did Mao Zedong establish and maintain communist control of China between 1949 and 1976, and at what human cost?
Paper 2 Option 2H.1 Mao's China 1949 to 1976: the establishment of communist rule, the command economy and the Great Leap Forward, social change, and the Cultural Revolution.
An Edexcel A-Level History Paper 2 depth guide to Mao's China 1949 to 1976. Covers the establishment of communist rule, the Great Leap Forward and the famine, social and cultural change, the Cultural Revolution and the cult of Mao, with the AO2 primary-source skills and the historiography the depth paper rewards.
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What this dot point is asking
Edexcel Paper 2 is a depth study opening with a primary-source question (AO2, Section A) followed by essays (AO1, Section B). For Mao's China you study in detail how the Communists established and held power from 1949 to 1976, and the human cost of their economic and social policies. Depth means precise knowledge of a shorter period and the ability to evaluate sources in their immediate context.
The answer
Establishing communist rule
The command economy and the Great Leap Forward
China built a command economy under central planning, modelled at first on the Soviet Union:
- The First Five Year Plan (1953 to 1957) prioritised heavy industry with Soviet aid and advisers, raising steel and coal output substantially.
- The Great Leap Forward (1958 to 1962) forced peasants into vast people's communes (around 26,000 by late 1958) and set impossible targets. Backyard furnaces produced useless pig iron; officials falsified harvest figures, so the state requisitioned grain that did not exist.
- The result was the deadliest famine of the century, killing around 30 to 45 million between 1959 and 1961. The Lushan Conference (1959) saw Mao purge Defence Minister Peng Dehuai for criticising the policy, deepening the catastrophe.
Social change and the Cultural Revolution
Mao's rule reshaped society through literacy campaigns, propaganda (the Little Red Book of his quotations), the assault on traditional family and religion, and an intense cult of personality, while terror enforced conformity. The position of women changed under the 1950 Marriage Law, though patriarchal structures persisted.
Historiography
Frank Dikotter (Mao's Great Famine, 2010), drawing on provincial archives, argues the Great Leap famine was a knowing, avoidable atrocity for which Mao bears direct responsibility. Jung Chang and Jon Halliday (Mao: The Unknown Story, 2005) present an unrelievedly hostile portrait, while Mobo Gao offers a more sympathetic reading of the Maoist period's social gains. Weighing these interpretations is exactly the AO3 skill Paper 2's essays and the wider course reward.
Examples in context
A model essay paragraph would open by ranking the Great Leap against the Cultural Revolution, then evidence each (around 30 to 45 million famine deaths versus around one to two million in the Cultural Revolution), then judge that the Great Leap was the most damaging by sheer mortality while the Cultural Revolution did deeper institutional and cultural harm.
Try this
Q1. How far do you agree that Mao's control of China in the years 1949 to 1976 rested more on terror than on genuine popular support? [20 marks]
- What the marker wants. An AO1 depth essay weighing terror (the campaigns, the Cultural Revolution) against consent (land reform, the cult of personality, nationalism), supported with dated evidence and a judgement.
Q2. What was the Great Leap Forward? [2 marks]
- Cue. Mao's 1958 to 1962 economic campaign forcing peasants into communes with unrealistic targets, which caused a catastrophic famine of tens of millions.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of Pearson Edexcel exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
Edexcel 201920 marksHow far do you agree that the Great Leap Forward was the most damaging of Mao's policies in the years 1949 to 1976?Show worked answer →
A Section B depth essay (AO1) weighing one policy against others. Level 5 ranks the Great Leap against alternatives with precise evidence and a judgement.
For. The Great Leap Forward (1958 to 1962), with its communes, backyard furnaces and falsified harvest figures, produced a famine that killed around 30 to 45 million, the deadliest event of the period.
Against. The Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976) caused mass upheaval, perhaps one to two million deaths and the destruction of culture and education; earlier campaigns (the Anti-Rightist Campaign 1957, the suppression of "counter-revolutionaries" 1950 to 1952) also killed millions.
Level 5 ranks the Great Leap against the Cultural Revolution by scale and lasting harm and reaches a clear judgement.
Edexcel 201720 marksAssess the value of Source 1 for revealing the impact of the Great Leap Forward on rural China and the attitude of the Communist Party to it. Explain your answer using the source, the information given about it and your own knowledge of the historical context.Show worked answer →
The Section A source question (AO2). Level 5 evaluates content and provenance (nature, origin, purpose) against own knowledge of the context, not mere comprehension.
Content. Identify what the source reveals about the famine, communes or official optimism, and link it to the enquiry.
Provenance. Weigh who produced it, when and why. A Party report (1959 to 1961) is valuable evidence of official denial and falsified statistics precisely because of its purpose, even where unreliable on facts.
Own knowledge. Set it against the famine death toll (around 30 to 45 million), the Lushan Conference (1959) and the purge of Peng Dehuai. Level 5 judges the source's value for the specific enquiry.
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Sources & how we know this
- Pearson Edexcel A-Level History (9HI0) specification — Pearson Edexcel (2015)