JaeSean Coleman

Communism: Mao Zedong

Jr. Division
Website

Mao Tse-tung or Zedong was known as a leader of the Chinese Communist Party and the
founder of the Peoples Republic of China. Mao led his people to victory in the war by force. He
was responsible for and the left the legacy of Chinas Cultural Revolution and Great Leap
Forward. This is the story of his life.
Mao Tse-tung was born on December 26, 1893. He grew up in a peasant family in Shao Shan,
Central China. As a child Mao wanted to become a teacher, so he worked towards it, though
being doubtful of the job choice. Maos father had a very good position as a farmer and grain
dealer. He desired to share this fortune with his son Mao, though that was not a part of Maos
plan.
Mao really desired more education, so he left from the village going on to attend advanced
school. After he finished school he later decided to join the Revolutionary Army in his late teens
during the time Sun Yat-Sens revolution was being executed. He only stayed for 6 months but
he was excited and happy to experience an adventure. On his return to Changsha Mao couldnt
decide what to study, he tried many career fields such as Law enforcement, business, and
history. Throughout his study he figured out that he wanted to definitely be a teacher so, He
later on moved to Beijing to work in a university library.
During his time in the university library he decided to use his resources and read some books.
He took a particular interest in Marxist literature. Later In 1921 he became a founder member
of the Chinese Communist Party. Chiang Kai Shek soon took his fathers place after Sun YatSens death. Chiang supported cultural and traditional way of having government, leading to
The Kuomintang nationalist party sending out an anti-communist purge. This caused Mao and

his followers to retreat to South-eastern China. Mao led his communist party on the Long
March 6,000 miles to find a new base.
After teaming up with the Kuomintang in World War II, they quickly turned on each other
resulting in a Civil War. The Chinese Communist party came out victorious from the war.
Afterwards Mao launched the Great Leap Forward in attempt to improve production. It went
well at first but then rates started drop. The land was being washed away by floods running
over the land and bad harvests, it later horribly ended and led to the death of millions of people.
It had ruined agriculture and production rates and people did not have a very good resource for
food which led to hungry people and death from starvation. The policy was later released and
Maos position in the Chinese Communist Party weakened quickly.
Later on he desperately attempted to reestablish his position in power and decided to launch
the Cultural Revolution. This process was launched to eliminate impure influences from China
and revive the revolutionary spirit. Many people died and cities were near anarchy. Mao saw
this as an advantage and took it. He sent in his soldiers to stop the anarchy in the cities,
reestablishing peace. Mao quickly regained his high power in control of the Country.
Years later Maos condition had started to weaken. He was seen attempting to build bridges
with various other countries. Mao later died on September 9, 1976.

I chose my topic knowing that our theme was leadership, and so I looked up the most important leaders
in the world. I saw Mao Zedong, and chose him because the other leaders I know were commonly done
in projects.

I found my resources through the internet. I had to constantly look up Mao and what he did because I
couldnt find any primary sources.
I chose a website because I love technology and things that deal with it, so using the computer in my
project lead me to choose a website.
I did my project by splitting up parts of my research paper and putting them into my website.
This project relates to NHD because the theme was Leadership and Legacy and Mao Zedong is a
perfect example though he was not a good leader.

Annotated Bibliography
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