How and why did communism spread across the twentieth-century world?
Topic 8.4 Spread of Communism After 1900: the spread of communism through revolution and the varied paths and effects of communist movements, including the Russian and Chinese revolutions and their economic and social policies.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 8.4, explaining the spread of communism: the Russian and Chinese revolutions, the policies of Stalin and Mao including collectivization and the Great Leap Forward, the human costs, and communism's varied paths and effects worldwide.
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What this topic is asking
Topic 8.4 covers the spread of communism in the twentieth century. It asks you to explain how communist movements came to power, especially in Russia and China, the policies they pursued to transform their economies and societies (planning, collectivization), the enormous human costs of those policies, and the varied paths and effects of communism around the world.
What "the spread of communism" means
The Russian Revolution and Stalin's Soviet Union
Communism first triumphed in Russia.
The Chinese Revolution and Mao
Communism's largest victory came in China.
After a long civil war, Mao Zedong's communists won power in 1949, founding the People's Republic of China. Mao adapted communism to a peasant society:
- Collectivization. Farmland was collectivized into communes.
- The Great Leap Forward (1958 to 1962), a campaign to industrialize and collectivize at breakneck speed, failed catastrophically and caused a famine that killed tens of millions.
- The Cultural Revolution (1966 to 1976), Mao's campaign to purge "bourgeois" elements, threw China into a decade of upheaval and persecution.
China shows both communism's power to mobilize a society and its capacity for catastrophe.
Communism's varied paths and global reach
Communism took many forms.
Communist movements and states arose far beyond Russia and China: in Eastern Europe (imposed by Soviet power), Cuba under Castro, Vietnam and North Korea, and through movements across Asia, Africa, and Latin America during the Cold War. Communism adapted to local conditions - Soviet, Maoist, and other variants differed - but shared features: a one-party state, a planned economy, and the ambition to transform society from above. Its spread defined one side of the Cold War (Topic 8.2) and inspired resistance and revolution worldwide.
Try this
Q1. Name the leader whose communists took power in China in 1949 and later launched the Great Leap Forward. [Recall]
- Cue. Mao Zedong.
Q2. Explain one economic policy communist states used to transform their societies and one of its costs. [Short explanation]
- Cue. Communist states forcibly collectivized agriculture and ran planned economies through measures like five-year plans, which drove rapid industrialization but caused mass famines, as in the Soviet Union and during China's Great Leap Forward.
Exam-style practice questions
Practice questions written in the style of College Board exam questions on this dot point, with worked answer explainers. The year tag is the paper they imitate, not the source.
AP 2019 (style)3 marksBriefly identify ONE communist revolution of the twentieth century. Briefly explain ONE economic policy of a communist state. Briefly explain ONE human cost of communist rule.Show worked answer →
A Short Answer Question (SAQ), 3 points, one per bullet.
A. Identify: the Chinese Communist Revolution, in which Mao Zedong's communists took power in 1949.
B. Economic policy: communist states pursued state-controlled, planned economies, such as the Soviet five-year plans and Chinese collectivization of agriculture.
C. Human cost: forced collectivization and policies like the Great Leap Forward caused famines that killed millions, and political purges killed or imprisoned many more.
Each bullet must be concrete.
AP 2022 (style)6 marksEvaluate the most significant effect of the spread of communism in the period c. 1900 to the present.Show worked answer →
A Long Essay Question (LEQ), scored on the 6-point causation rubric.
Thesis (1): "The most significant effect of the spread of communism was the radical, state-driven transformation of economies and societies through collectivization and planning, though this came at the enormous human cost of famine and repression."
Contextualization (1): situate communism in the inequalities of industrial capitalism and the upheavals of war and revolution.
Evidence (2): the Russian and Chinese revolutions; Soviet five-year plans; Chinese collectivization and the Great Leap Forward; purges and famines.
Analysis (2): explain HOW communist states transformed their societies from above, then add complexity by weighing the modernization against the catastrophic human costs.
Related dot points
- Topic 7.1 Shifting Power after 1900: the collapse or transformation of land-based empires and the rise of new political ideologies and movements at the start of the twentieth century.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 7.1, explaining the shift in global power after 1900: the collapse of the Qing, Ottoman, and Russian empires, the Russian and Chinese revolutions, and the rise of new ideologies like communism and the end of dynastic rule.
- Topic 5.8 Reactions to the Industrial Economy from 1750 to 1900: the ideological, political, and labor responses to industrial capitalism, including socialism, Marxism, labor unions, and government reform.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 5.8, explaining the reactions to industrial capitalism: socialism and the Marxism of Marx and Engels, labor unions and strikes, government reforms regulating work, and utopian and anarchist alternatives.
- Topic 8.2 The Cold War: the strategies and confrontations of the Cold War, including containment, the arms and space races, proxy wars, and crises such as Berlin and Cuba.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 8.2, explaining the Cold War: the policy of containment, the nuclear arms race and mutually assured destruction, the space race, proxy wars in Korea and Vietnam, and crises like the Berlin Blockade and Cuban Missile Crisis.
- Topic 8.7 Global Resistance to Established Order After 1900: the movements that challenged existing power structures after 1900, including civil rights, anti-apartheid, feminist, and other movements, both peaceful and violent.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 8.7, explaining global resistance to established orders after 1900: the United States civil rights movement, the anti-apartheid struggle in South Africa, feminist movements, Tiananmen, and the spread of both nonviolent and violent resistance.
- Topic 8.8 End of the Cold War: the causes and consequences of the end of the Cold War, including the collapse of the Soviet Union, reforms like glasnost and perestroika, and the emergence of a new global order.
A focused answer to AP World History Topic 8.8, explaining the end of the Cold War: Gorbachev's reforms of glasnost and perestroika, the fall of the Berlin Wall and Soviet collapse in 1991, economic and military strain, and the consequences for the new global order.
Sources & how we know this
- AP World History: Modern Course and Exam Description — College Board (2020)