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Great Chinese Famine

Also Known As Three Years of Natural Disasters
Agricultural Famines and Disasters

The famine of 1959 to 1961 in the People's Republic of China, the deadliest in recorded history. Estimates of the dead run from 15 to 55 million, with newer scholarship concentrating on 30 to 46 million excess deaths; the number is genuinely uncertain and carried here as a range. Its causes were made, not weathered: Great Leap Forward communes, discredited agronomy imposed from above, extreme grain requisitioning against inflated harvest reports, the sparrow campaign, and a planning system that punished truthful accounting, with drought and flood arriving on top. This description is adapted from Wikipedia contributors under CC BY-SA 4.0; changes were made. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/

Facts
Milestone Year
1959 2
The famine ran from 1959 to 1961.
When
1959 to 1961 2
Location
People's Republic of China 2
Classification
Type/Classification
Agricultural Famine or Disaster 1
Connections

Open Questions

How much of the Great Chinese Famine's death toll came from Great Leap Forward policy failures as against genuine natural disaster, and how many people actually died?, Open Questions
Source Great Leap Forward (Wikipedia)
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Found In

China

Also in Geography Atlas: where this subject is found.

Source Great Chinese Famine (Wikipedia)
Sources
1. Great Leap Forward (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Contributing factors section
    A 1959 drought and flooding from the Yellow River in the same year also contributed to the famine.
  • lead description (milestone-kind)
    The famine of 1959 to 1961 in the People's Republic of China, the deadliest in recorded history.
View the Source
2. Great Chinese Famine (Wikipedia)
Wikimedia Foundation
  • Lead section; death toll estimates
    The Great Chinese Famine was a famine that occurred between 1959 and 1961 in the People's Republic of China.
  • Terminology section
    Initially, the usual name was "Three Years of Natural Disasters" (三年自然灾害).
View the Source
Open Questions (1 open question)
How much of the Great Chinese Famine's death toll came from Great Leap Forward policy failures as against genuine natural disaster, and how many people actually died?

Death toll estimates range roughly from 15 to 55 million depending on source and method; researcher Basil Ashton notes weather worsened the harvest but says it is impossible to assess how much responsibility belongs to policy against drought and flooding, and the government's own account emphasizes natural disaster over policy.

What would resolve this Full access to Chinese demographic and agricultural archives from 1958 to 1962 and an accepted method for separating policy-driven from weather-driven crop loss.
Demography and Chinese economic historyGreat Leap Forward (Wikipedia)

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