HISTORY SYLLABUS IN BRIEF

PEACE AFTER WW I ***COMMUNIST RUSSIA ***COMMUNIST RUSSIA

What were the terms of the What were the reasons for Stalin’s rise to power? Collectivisation:
TOV? • Manipulation Advantages:
• Loss of German territory • Underestimated by rivals • Increased food supply for cities
• Disarmament • Luck • Stalin achieved control of countryside
• War Guilt & Reparations • Positioned himself as Lenin’s successor
• Strong powerbase Disadvantages:
LON: • Famine & starvation in countryside
Success Stalin’s Dictatorship • Kulaks deported to Gulags
• Bulgarian-Greek Conflict His goals: • Collectives poorly run
• Aaland Islands • Increase military strength
• Mosul • Achieve self-sufficiency Purges:
• Silesia • Attain Socialism • Stalin’s paranoia
• Increase food supply • Role of Secret Police – NKVD
Failures • Establish his credentials • Labour camps – Gulags
• Ruhr Crisis • Improve standards of living • Show trials
• Vilna • Atmosphere of fear & distrust
• Corfu 5 Year Plans:
• Memel Advantages: Propaganda
• Greco-Turkish War • Increase in heavy industrial output • Rewriting history
• Free healthcare & education for workers • Cult of Personality
Disarmament • Women entered workforce
• Washington Naval • Started industrialisation process for USSR
Conference
• Locarno Pact Disadvantages:
• Kellogg-Briand Pact • Rampant corruption & inefficiency
• Consumer industries neglected
Aid to Germany • Focus on quantity not quality
• Young Plan • Harsh working conditions
• Dawes Plan • Workers poorly paid
• Mass migration & overcrowding of cities
 ***NAZI GERMANY
Rise of Hitler:
Internal Factors:
• Opposition to Weimar
• No democratic tradition
• Weimar’s weakness
External Factors:
• Unpopularity of TOV
• Great Depression
Other Factors:
• Hitler’s charisma
How did Hitler win absolute
power?
• Reichstag Fire
• Reichstag Elections
• Enabling Act
• Abolition of state
governments
• Ban on political parties &
trade unions
• Night of Long Knives
• Death of Hindenburg
Hitler’s Dictatorship
• Propaganda
• Youth organizations
• Education
• Churches
• Family Life
• Workers & Economy
FASCIST JAPAN &
PACIFIC WAR
Failure of Japanese
Democracy:
• Diet’s Ineffectiveness
• Corruption
• Economic Problems
Rise of Fascism:
Internal Factors:
• Worsening relations with
west
• Rise of Chinese
nationalism
External Factors:
• Show Restoration
• Patriotic Societies
• Strong military influence
Japan’s Foreign Policy Aims:
• Build Asia-Pacific
Empire
• Liberate Asians from
west
• Solve overpopulation
• Control resources & raw
materials
• E.g. Manchuria
Why did War Break Out?
• Desire to conquer China
• Neutrality with the
Soviets
• Europeans more worried
about Hitler
• Worsening relations with
the U.S.
• Appointment of Hideki
Tojo as PM.
***ROAD TO WAR (EUROPE)
Why was Peace Threatened in the
1930s?
Hitler’s Ambition
• Rearmament & remilitarization
• Anschluss
• Lebensraum
• Destroy Communism
Great Depression
• Economic rivalry – protectionism
• Aggression
• Social unrest
• Rise of Dictators
Failure of LON
• Unable to stop aggression – no
army
• Self interest of members
• No power to force disarmament
• E.g. Abyssinia
Appeasement
• No one wanted another world war
• Buy time for Britain & France to
rearm
• Britain & France facing colonial
revolts
• Concentrate on internal problems
• American isolationism
• Sympathy for Germany – TOV
unfair
• Communist as greater evil
• E.g. Sudetenland & Czech
Why did war break out:
• Nazi-Soviet Pact
• Failure of Appeasement
• Invasion of Poland
OUTBREAK OF COLD WAR
Why did the Cold War Break out?
• Ideological differences
• Mutual Distrust
• Conflicting aims in E. Europe
Points of Tension
• Atomic Bomb
• Post-War Fate of Germany
• Fate of E. Europe
• “Iron Curtain” Speech
• Truman Doctrine & Containment
• Marshall Plan
• Soviet Response: COMECON & COMINFORM
Germany: Source of Conflict:
• Democracy
• Reconstruction
• Reparations
• Status of Berlin
Results of Berlin Blockade:
• Creation of 2 Germanys
• Rehabilitation of W. Germany
• The creation of NATO & Warsaw Pact
• World divided into 2 camps
Key Events in Cold War
• “Loss” of China
• ***Korean War
• Hungarian Uprising
• U2 Spyplane Incident
• Berlin Wall
• Nuclear/Space Race
• Checkpoint Charlie
• ***Cuban Missile Crisis
 END OF COLD WAR
Problems Facing USSR
Command Economy
• Rigid bureaucratic system
• Unproductive industries
• Over-emphasis on heavy
industries
• Weak Agricultural sector
• Little contact with world
Ineffective Government
• Unwilling to embrace
change
• Conservative & corrupt
• Apathetic people
External Problems
• Star Wars
• Anti-Soviet Sentiments
• Increased Spending
Gorbachev’s Reforms:
• Glasnost
• Perestroika
Why did the USSR Collapse?
• Failure of Gorby’s Reforms
• Loss of Communist Party’s
Authority
• Cold War Bankrupted
USSR
• Rise of Nationalism
• Immediate Cause: Aug
1991 Coup
FALL OF COMMUNISM IN E. EUROPE
E. Germany
• Massive protests
• Embassy sit-ins
• Resignation of Honecker
• Collapse of the Berlin Wall
• Reunification
• Peaceful
Poland
• Role of Solidarity
• Communists lost in elections
• Peaceful
Hungary
• Rehabilitation of Imre Nagy
• Communist lost in elections
• Peaceful
Czechoslovakia
• Rehabilitation of Alexander Dubcek
• Communists forced out
• Peaceful
Romania
• Execution of Nicolae Ceaucescu
• Bloody battles with police & anti-govt demonstrators
• Violent revolution
Bulgaria
• Communists lost in elections
• Peaceful
SBQ Topics are denoted with ***
Please note that WW I is NON-
EXAMINABLE