Great Leap Forward

MaoZedong's 1958-1960 initiative to jump start the Chinese economy and modernize agriculture and industry. It emphasized DoTheSimplestThingThatCouldPossiblyWork by asking peasants to build backyard steel furnaces in place of large steel mills. It encouraged decentralized industry, rewarded inflated promises of production, and contributed to a contender for the worst famine in human history. Over 20 million people starved to death trying to implement it.