The Causes and Consequences of the Cultural Revolution in China (1966-76)

The Great Leap forward failed, therefore Mao was demoted and the moderates took control because Mao was still too popular to resign. One of the political consequences was that Mao wanted to reassert himself and regain power in China after he was demoted because of the failure of the Great Leap Forward. Mao had the gained the support of Lin Biao and the PLA therefore launched the Cultural Revolution. Mao wanted to get rid of …

…a lack of production because no one was working anymore. One year into the Cultural Revolution, chaos had taken over many parts of China. As a result, it was hard to restore the law and order because of the mass chaos. As a short-term consequence, Red Guards killed 400,000 people in the civil war and many more people were beaten, imprisoned and tortured. The Cultural Revolution officially ended in 1969 when Lin Biao announced it was over.