Flashcards · 9489 · A Level Topic 5

European option: European history, 1919–41 (A Level) flashcards

17 cards on A Level Topic 5, subtopics 1 to 3. Pick a subtopic or study them all.

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How did Mussolini become prime minister in October 1922?: After the March on Rome, King Victor Emmanuel III invited him to form a government: legal in form but obtained under threat of force.
What was the Acerbo Law (1923)?: An electoral law giving a large majority of seats to the party with the biggest vote. The 1924 election that followed was marked by intimidation.
Why was the Matteotti crisis (1924) a turning point?: The murder of the socialist deputy Giacomo Matteotti threatened Mussolini, but he survived. In January 1925 he took responsibility, and opposition parties and the free press were then suppressed.
What did the Lateran Treaties (1929) do?: They settled relations between the Italian state and the Catholic Church and created Vatican City.
What were the Battle for Grain and Quota 90?: Battle for Grain (1925): a drive to raise wheat output towards self-sufficiency. Quota 90 (1926): a revaluation of the lira for prestige, which hurt exports. Judge them by results, not slogans.
How did Mussolini’s foreign policy draw Italy towards Germany?: The invasion of Ethiopia (1935) brought League sanctions; the Rome-Berlin Axis followed in 1936, anti-Jewish laws in 1938 and the Pact of Steel in 1939. Italy entered the Second World War in June 1940.

How did Stalin defeat his rivals after Lenin died in 1924?: He used his post as General Secretary, control of party appointments and the ban on factions to defeat Trotsky, then Zinoviev and Kamenev, then Bukharin.
What was the First Five-Year Plan?: Stalin’s programme of rapid industrialisation from 1928, prioritising heavy industry such as coal and steel. Balance real growth against waste, poor quality and human cost.
What was collectivisation, and what were its effects?: From 1929 peasants were forced into collective farms, with a campaign against so-called kulaks. Output fell and a severe famine followed in 1932-33.
What followed the murder of Sergei Kirov in December 1934?: Wider arrests, then the show trials of 1936-38 and purges of the party, the army and the NKVD itself, with mass executions and the expansion of the Gulag.
How did Soviet foreign policy change between 1934 and 1941?: The USSR joined the League in 1934 and backed collective security, but Munich (1938) left it isolated. It signed the Nazi-Soviet Pact in August 1939 and was invaded in Operation Barbarossa on 22 June 1941.

How did Hitler become Chancellor on 30 January 1933?: The Depression brought mass unemployment and polarisation, the Nazi vote rose sharply between 1928 and 1932, and conservative elites made a deal that put him in office, believing they could control him.
Reichstag fire decree vs Enabling Act (1933): After the Reichstag fire (27 February 1933), an emergency decree suspended civil rights. The Enabling Act (23 March 1933) let the government make laws without the Reichstag.
What was the Night of the Long Knives (30 June 1934)?: The purge of the SA leadership, including Ernst Röhm, and other opponents. After Hindenburg died in August 1934, Hitler combined the offices of Chancellor and President.
How did persecution of Jewish people escalate in 1935-38?: The Nuremberg Laws (1935) removed Jewish citizenship and banned marriage between Jews and non-Jews; the violence of Kristallnacht (9-10 November 1938) followed.
Why should Nazi unemployment figures be treated with caution?: Rearmament and public works did cut unemployment, but conscription and the exclusion of some groups, such as many women and Jewish people, from the figures overstate genuine recovery.
Italy, the USSR and Germany: compare the route to power: Italy: appointed by the king after pressure. USSR: a party struggle after Lenin’s death. Germany: appointed Chancellor, then seized control. Explain why the routes differed.