Final answer:
Mao's Great Leap Forward attempt to develop the steel industry failed, leading to a disastrous famine as agricultural production was neglected. Backyard furnaces produced poor quality steel, while farm labor was diverted and grain requisitioned, contributing to the catastrophe.
Step-by-step explanation:
Mao Zedong's desire to take a "Great Leap Forward" failed in the attempt to develop the industry of steel. This initiative was a part of the Chinese Communist Party's attempt to transform China from a nation of peasant farmers into an industrialized nation. During the Great Leap Forward in the late 1950s, Chinese peasants were encouraged to build small backyard furnaces to produce steel, which often proved to be of poor quality. This misguided industrial policy, along with a neglect of agriculture, led to a catastrophic famine. Causes of the famine included the diversion of farm labor into steel production and construction projects, the requisitioning of grain to feed industrial workers and city dwellers, and natural disasters. However, the destruction of crops during war was not a cause of famine during this period, as the Great Leap Forward was a time of peacetime internal policy rather than external conflict.