Thursday, April 27, 2017

Totalitarianism Part I: Overview and Stalin

Terms:

Totalitarianism
Fascism
Five Year Plan
New Economic Policy (NEP)
Joseph Stalin
Kulaks
The Great Purge

Questions:

What is the difference between totalitarianism and older authoritarian governments (like absolutism)?

Why do you think fascism arose specifically in Italy and Germany?

Why did Lenin need to institute the New Economic Policy (NEP)?

Why did the Five Year Plans fail?

How did Communism in Russia affect average people (particularly women)?

In what ways did Stalin take extreme measures to maintain control of the government?

Sunday, April 23, 2017

Democracy in the Interwar Period

Chapter 28 Part II

Terms

Weimar Republic
Freikorps
Spartacists
John Maynard Keynes
"stab in the back" theory
Kapp Putsch
Ruhr Crisis
Beer Hall Putsch
Dawes Plan
Locarno Pact
Kellogg-Briand Pact
1926 General Strike
Labour Party

Questions

In what ways did the Weimar Republic experience challenges from both the left and the right?  Why were both sides opposed to the new Weimar government?  Why did the Treaty of Versailles contribute to the opposition of the Weimar Republic?

Describe the economic problems that the Weimar Republic faced.  How did France and Britain's opinions about the treatment of Germany differ?

In what ways did Germany begin to improve its relations with Europe by the late 1920s?

How, in general, was France and England's economy fairing in the 1920s?

Wednesday, April 19, 2017

The Great Depression

Questions:

How did the World War I economy/production eventually lead to the Great Depression?

Why didn't the Hawley-Smoot Tariff work?

What plan did the US implement to curb the effects of the Great Depression?  To what extent did countries like France and Britain follow suit?

Why was Scandinavia more successful in recovering from the Depression?

Age of Anxiety

No Terms - YAY!

Questions:

Describe logical empiricism and existentialism, and explain how both of these ideas contribute to the age of anxiety.  Be sure to explain the specific views of some of these philosophers (i.e. Jean-Paul Sartre argued...).

How did Christian existentialists differ from atheist existentialists?

Explain how the ideas of scientists like Max Planck and Albert Einstein led to uncertainty in science.

How did the literature of the interwar period differ from that of the late 19th century?  How does this reflect the uncertainty of the times?

Lastly, name a few examples of artists and musicians that reflected this anxiety in their work (do you see a common thread here)?


Sunday, March 26, 2017

The end of World War I

Terms:

14 points
League of Nations
"Big Four"
Versailles Treaty
War guilt clause


Questions:

How does Woodrow Wilson imagine ending the First World War?  How can his 14 points be seen as liberal?  Why did he think this would prevent future conflict?  In what way were his 14 points unsuccessful?

Why might the attenders of the Paris Peace Conference along with their decisions reached through the Treaty of Versailles act to fuel the tensions leading to World War II?

Thursday, March 23, 2017

The Russian Revolution

Terms
Bolsheviks
Mensheviks
VI Lenin
Leon Trotsky
February Revolution
Rasputin
Provisional Government
Alexander Kerensky
Petrograd Soviet
Army Order #1
October Revolution
Cheka
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
War Communism

Questions

What were the various reasons why the Russian people wanted to overthrow Tsar Nicholas II?

How did the provisional government differ from the Duma?  Why did the Petrograd Soviet also emerge?

What was Army Order #1? How might this have contributed to the fall of the provisional government?

How do the Bolsheviks prevail in overthrowing the provisional government?  What are the various ways the Bolsheviks work to maintain power?

How and why does Lenin end Russia's involvement in WWI so quickly?

What are the reasons why the Bolsheviks were successful in the Russian Civil War?  Why weren't the Allies successfully able to help the "Whites"?

Wednesday, March 22, 2017

World War I Part II

Terms

Franz Ferdinand
Black Hand
Schlieffen Plan
First Battle of the Marne
Trench Warfare
Battle of the Somme
Battle of Verdun
Tannenburg
Allied Naval Blockade
Lusitania

Questions

Why was Kaiser Wilhelm II so ready and willing to assist Austria against Serbia?

What was the reason for the domino-like pattern of war declarations in 1914?

What was the Schieffen Plan and why did it fail?

How does trench warfare affect the course of war and how are Verdun and the Somme good examples of this?

How was the naval blockade successful against Germany?

Why was the sinking of the Lusitania a pivotal moment for shaping the course of war?