April 2010 Archives

Unit #7 Identifications: You will write on your choice of 5 of the 8 identifications that appear on the Unit #7 exam chosen from the list below. You may bring 10 words of "notes" for each of the 15 possible identifications to the exam. (Printed out, not on your computer.) You will need to turn in these notes, and I reserve the right to count symbols, acronyms, etc. as one or more words. Each of the five identifications is worth 5 points.

A good identification is typically in the range of 4 to 6 sentences in length. (You do need to write in complete sentences.) You should demonstrate both an understanding of just who / what the ID "is" and place it in the appropriate historical context. In addition, you need to explain the significance of the ID. In other words, answer the "So what?" question.

Schlieffen Plan
League of Nations
Treaty of Versailles
March Revolution
Great Purge
Mao Zedong
Amritsar Massacre
Mustafa Kemal
Great Depression
Benito Mussolini
appeasement
Battle of Britain
"Final Solution"
Battle of Stalingrad
Nuremberg Trials

Unit #7 Essay Exam - Questions and Format - You'll write an essay as part of the Unit #7 Exam. This essay should be turned no later than Monday, May 10th. (It should be printed out.)  Below you can find both the questions from which you will choose and the format for the essay portion on the Unit #7 Exam. The essay will be evaluated on the usual 30 point scale.

Format: The actual essay will be written by hand or word-processed. You should prepare for a five-paragraph essay. That means that you should include an introduction (with a clear thesis statement), three body paragraphs, and a concluding paragraph. (Note that the questions lend themselves to such a format. That is on purpose.)

Remember that the questions are not designed for you to tell us everything you have learned. Focus on what the question is requiring you to do.

* You may write this outside of class time.
* I want them printed out. (Double spaced, please.) Printing double-sided is fine.

A. Identify and explain the significance of your choices for the three most important outcomes or legacies of the First World War. Did the "end" of World War I make World War II inevitable? Why or why not?

B. Identify and explain what you believe were the three main causes of the Great Depression that affected the world in the early 1930s. Is the world headed for another depression? Why or why not?

C. At the end of World War II, the world faced a number of challenges and issues yet to be resolved. Identify and explain your choices for the three most important of these issues. Almost sixty-years later, do you believe our world is safer than it was at the end of 1945? Why or why not?

Interested in a little controversy? (It's also a good lesson in being careful on the internet.) I wanted a link to a clearly formatted, easy to browse version of Mein Kampf so that you could get a feel for his writing if you want. The first link returned by Google is to The Hitler Historical Museum, and it's the one I used above. Since I'd never heard of the museum, I Googled that as well. Here's an interesting article I found:

Do Historians Have a Responsibility to Warn the Public About Misleading Websites?

Do examples like this cause you to think any differently about research and/or the internet?

Download a copy of this account of the Rape of Nanking. The first page is an "outside account" of some key events. The second page starts a really interesting look at the Japanese government's treatment of these events in their own history books, etc.

Here's the homepage for Iris Chang, author of The Rape of Nanking. (Notice that there seems to be no mention of her suicide in 2004.) "New Interest in Japan's War Atrocities, but Why Now?" is an interesting 1998 article from The New York Times.

Here's the site and trailer for a documentary (which I haven't seen) that tells her story: IRIS CHANG: The Rape of Nanking.

Here's a BBC story on the subject - Scarred by History:  The Rape of Nanjing.

The Words of World War II

Here are links to a number of speeches from World War II. You need to select one of them to read and post a blog comment reaction to that speech. Be sure you understand the context of the speech. You can react to the speech's style and/or effectiveness. Or, you can comment upon what it reveals about the particular speaker or their nation, etc. It's pretty open, but I'll expect a comment of a good paragraph or more in length.

Your blog comments should be posted to this blog entry by the end of Wednesday.

• Franklin D. Roosevelt - The Great Arsenal of Democracy
• Franklin D. Roosevelt - The Four Freedoms
• Franklin D. Roosevelt - Pearl Harbor Address to the Nation
• Joseph Stalin - Speech to the Politburo in 1939 (as recreated from excerpts)
• Winston Churchill - Blood, Toil, Tears, and Sweat
• Winston Churchill - We Shall Fight on the Beaches
• Winston Churchill - Their Finest Hour
• Winston Churchill - The Few

HOMEWORK for next session - Wednesday, April 28th

Continue reading in Chapter 32 with Section 2, "Japan's Pacific Campaign." (pp. 931 - 935) The quiz will be fill-in-the-blank.

Your blog comments for the "Words of World War II" should be posted by the end of Wednesday.

I. According to Payne, fascism's primary goal was the regeneration of the nation, a goal that was pursued through extreme forms of nationalism.

II. Payne emphasizes the "fascist negations," as many think it is easier to identify what socialists were against, as opposed to what they are for.

• They were anti-liberal, believing the nation was the base of society, not the individual.
• They were anti-communist.
• They were anti-conservative. (Fascism is usually seen as a right-wing movement, but terms like "radical right" are often used.)

III. Finally, Payne focused on features of style and organization.

• Fascists created a mass following via the tools and resources of mass society.
• They used the mass media and public rituals to exalt a single leader and embrace militarism.
• Mass rallies and demonstrations were used to unify the people.

Today, we'll hold our simulated "World Economic Conference" with two objectives. First, we'll try to determine the major causes of the Great Depression. Second, we'll turn our attention to our present economic situation and try to figure out whether we are headed for another depression. You'll play a key role in both of these conversations.

Causes of the Great Depression - You were assigned to one of five groups, depending on the color handout you received. Today, we'll hear your group presentations. Remember that it is your responsibility to make the argument that "your" cause was the most significant cause of the Great Depression.

Here are the causes:

• reparation payments and war debts
• overproduction in agriculture
• stock market crash
• inequitable income distribution
• protectionism

Following the presentations, we'll attempt to come to a consensus as to which of these causes were most responsible for the Great Depression. After our open discussion, we'll put you in groups and have a vote. Here's how this will work. Each group will have ten "points," and you can assign them however you would like. (For example, you could give 4 points to what you feel is the major cause and 3 each to two others you deem most significant.) We'll see how this comes out.

What do you think of this quote? 

Historian John Garraty - "The Great Depression of the 1930s was a worldwide phenomenon composed of an infinite number of separate but related events." 

Are we headed for another depression? - Unfortunately, this is a very timely issue, as you all heard the news reports last year calling economic conditions, "the worst since the Great Depression" and things like that. You were asked to read the article you received, and you should be ready to discuss its main points. As a big group, we'll try to get a handle on some key issues affecting the future direction of the world's economy.

Here are the titles of the articles:

• "Echoes of the Great Depression"
• "A new Great Depression? It's different this time"
• "Is today's economic crisis another Great Depression?"

Let's start with these questions:

• How would you describe the overall tone of your article?
• What current trends and/or conditions are similar to those leading up to the Great Depression?
• What current trends and/or conditions are significantly different than those preceding the Great Depression?
• Realistically, what is the best case scenario for the world economy?
• What do you feel is the worst case scenario for the world economy?

HOMEWORK for next session - Monday, April 26th

Complete your reading in Chapter 31 with Section 4, "Aggressors Invade Nations." (pp. 915 - 919) The quiz will be matching.

Your "Between the Wars" assignment is due on Tuesday. (That's the poem, artwork or letter described on this Wednesday's blog entry.)

You'll take an extended look at the Great Depression next year in Modern US History, but we'll also consider the global economic slowdown from a worldwide perspective today and tomorrow. After that, World War II will take us through the rest of the unit.

The Kellogg-Briand Pact of 1928 - Ultimately, 61 nations joined this treaty which claimed to outlaw war as a means of settling disputes. The actual language pledged that each nation would "renounce war as an instrument of national policy." Kellogg and Briand were the representatives of the US and French governments, and the treaty is also often called the Pact of Paris. 

• In your opinion, was this treaty ever "worth the paper it was printed on?" Why or why not?
• What do you think motivated nations to join the pact?
• Is such a pact a realistic option in today's world? Why or why not?
  
  

Hyperinflation - Weimar Germany - Not much here to tell you, except that this chart is really pretty amazing. It shows how many German marks were equivalent in value to one US dollar.

July 1914 - 4.2 marks to the dollar 
January 1919 - 8.9 
July 1919 - 14.0 
January 1920 - 64.8 
July 1920 - 39.5 
January 1921 - 64.9 
July 1921 - 76.7 
January 1922 - 1919.8 
July 1922 - 493.2 
January 1923 - 17,972 
July 1923 - 353,412 
August 1923 - 4,620,455 
September 1923 - 98,860,000 
October 1923 - 25,260,208,000 
November 15, 1923 - 4,200,000,000,000 (yes, trillion)

[Source: Gordon Craig, "Germany 1866-1945"]

By late 1923, the German government required 1,783 printing presses, running around the clock, to print money.

Zimbabwe update:  Here and here are signs that your economy is undergoing hyperinflation.

The Great Depression - A Global Experience - Although we often use the term in reference to the United States, it is important to remember that this economic collapse of the late 1920s-1930s was truly a global phenomenon.

This iconic image was taken by Dorothea Lange in 1936 near Santa Barbara, California.

Across the world in India, people were also suffering from the Great Depression's effects.

What ideas and images come to mind when you hear the phrase, the "Great Depression?"

Let's take a look at some numbers. We'll have some of you graph on the board the changes in GDP per capita for a number of countries while the rest of us try to answer some questions. (You'll receive a handout for this.)

Perhaps the next logical question is, "How did this all happen?" We'll turn our attention here next.

World Economic Conference - Causes of the Great Depression

Tomorrow, we'll hold a simulated "World Economic Conference" with two objectives. First, we'll try to determine the major causes of the Great Depression. Second, we'll turn our attention to our present economic situation and try to figure out whether we are headed for another depression. You'll play a key role in both of these conversations.

Causes of the Great Depression - You are going to be assigned to one of five groups, depending on the color handout you receive. Each handout explains one of the major causes of the economic slowdown. It gives you very specific information about what your group is expected to present at tomorrow's conference. I'd expect each group's presentation to be a minimum of five minutes. (I'd prefer not to use the projector if we can avoid that.)

Here are the causes:

• reparation payments and war debts
• overproduction in agriculture
• stock market crash
• inequitable income distribution
• protectionism

Following the presentations, we'll attempt to come to a consensus as to which of these causes were most responsible for the Great Depression.

Are we headed for another depression? - For many of you, this might be a more important issue. A number of recent articles have raised this issue, and we'll take a look at it during tomorrow's World Economic Conference. You need to read the article you receive, and you should be ready to discuss its main points tomorrow in class. As a big group, we'll return to this overall issue of the future direction of the world's economy.

HOMEWORK for tomorrow - Friday, April 23rd

Continue your reading in Chapter 31 with Section 3, "Fascism Rises in Europe." (pp. 910 - 914) The quiz will be true / false.

Be ready for both parts of tomorrow's World Economic Conference.

Your "Between the Wars" assignment is due on Tuesday. (That's the poem, artwork or letter described on yesterday's blog entry.)

We'll cover a variety of topics today and focus on the Great Depression from a worldwide perspective tomorrow. After that, most of our attention for the rest of the unit will be focused on the causes leading up to World War II and the war itself.

Nationalism in India and Southwest Asia - You read about these events for the previous quiz. Basically, the section centered around nationalist and independence movements that led to the creation of four modern nations:  India, Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia.

Let's touch base on the India story, which won't actually be finished for a couple chapters...

• Indian National Congress (Congress Party)
  
• Rowlatt Acts
• Amritsar Massacre (1919)
  
• Mohandas Gandhi
• civil disobedience
• satyagraha
• Salt March (1930)
• Government of India Act (1935)

Next, we'll look at the cases of Turkey, Iran and Saudi Arabia. You'll be asked to choose one of these three "stories." Take a couple minutes and review the information from your textbook. (I'll list specifics below that you should be sure to cover.) Then, think about answers to the questions below.Questions:

• In your opinion, was this an example of successful nationalism? Why or why not?
• How important did an individual personality seem in your situation?
• What role did religion play in either the old or new society?
• Looking back, was this a positive transition for the nation? Why or why not?
• From the United States perspective of today, how should we view these events?

The Mandate System in the Middle East - Next, we'll take a look at a specific agreement that affected the development of the map of the Middle East - the Sykes-Picot Agreement. This was an example of the "mandate" system, where Britain and France were given the authority to "oversee" the development of lands in the former Ottoman Empire after the war.

You'll get a copy of several documents, and they'll help you consider the following questions:

Here's a map of the Sykes-Picot Agreement.

• Who wrote each document?
• What was the purpose of each document?
• Which documents were not meant to be public? Why?
• Why was the release of the Sykes-Picot Agreement to the public by the Bolsheviks an embarrassment to Britain and France?
• Was the agreement consistent with the Fourteen Points?  Why or why not?
• What would President Wilson have thought of the Sykes-Picot Agreement? What would he have thought of the Mandate System in Article 22 of the Covenant of the League of Nations?
• How would the agreement have been viewed by those living in the "zones" shown on the map?

 
Between the Wars - As you can probably imagine, there was a good deal of uncertainty and confusion in Europe, and much of the rest of the world, at the completion of World War I. Nations lay in ruins, an entire generation had been "lost," and very little of it made sense. The "Enlightenment Project," which is a term used to describe the European view that reason, liberalism and objective truth would guide the world under their leadership, was in shambles. This uneasiness was expressed in a variety or literary and artistic forms. Let's take a quick look at some of them.
HOMEWORK for tomorrow - Wednesday, April 21st

Please continue your reading in Chapter 31 with Section 2, "A Worldwide Depression." (pp. 904 - 909) This is another of those topics that you will spend much more time with next year in Modern US History.

Your "Between the Wars" activity is due on Tuesday, April 27th.

Our attention shifts from Russia to China today. As in Russia, the imperial era will come to an end. From there, however, the two nations follow different paths. It will be almost four decades before communism rules over China under Mao Zedong. Today, we'll consider the end of imperialism and the struggle between the Nationalists and Communists. (You don't get to learn the end of the story until after World War II, as the two sides form an uneasy alliance to fight against the Japanese beginning in 1937.)

Sun calls for "Three Principles of the People"

• nationalism - end to foreign control
• people's rights - democracy
• people's livelihood - economic security

We'll continue examining the changes that take place in Russia (by now the Soviet Union) during the rule of Joseph Stalin. Monday, we'll shift our attention to China in the years between the World Wars.

• Stalin era posters
  
• Hymn to Stalin
• Time's 1942 "Man of the Year" - Joseph Stalin

Finish up your reading in Chapter 30 with Section 4, "Nationalism in India and Southwest Asia." (pp. 887 - 891)

See you Monday... (Hee, hee.)