Flashcards · 2147 · Topic 3

Depth Studies flashcards

33 cards on Topic 3, subtopics 3.1 to 3.5. Pick a subtopic or study them all.

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3.1 Depth Study A: The First World War, 1914–18

Why did the Schlieffen Plan fail in 1914?: Belgian resistance and the British Expeditionary Force slowed the advance, Russia mobilised faster than expected, and the Germans were stopped at the Battle of the Marne (September 1914).
Why did the Western Front become a stalemate?: Defensive weapons and trenches (machine guns, artillery, barbed wire) made attacks across no man’s land very costly, so neither side could break through.
What happened at the Battle of the Somme (1916)?: A British and French offensive from 1 July to November 1916, partly to relieve the French at Verdun. The British suffered about 57,000 casualties on the first day. Tanks were first used there in September 1916.
What was the Gallipoli campaign (1915–16)?: An Allied attempt to knock the Ottoman Empire out of the war and open a route to Russia. It failed, and the Allied troops were evacuated.
Why did the USA enter the war in April 1917?: Germany’s unrestricted submarine warfare and the Zimmermann Telegram, in which Germany proposed an alliance with Mexico against the USA.
Why did Germany ask for an armistice in 1918?: The Spring Offensive failed, the Allies (with US troops) counter-attacked, the naval blockade caused food shortages, and Germany’s allies collapsed. The armistice was signed on 11 November 1918.

3.2 Depth Study B: Germany, 1918–45

What were the weaknesses of the Weimar Constitution?: Proportional representation produced many small parties and unstable coalitions, and Article 48 let the president rule by decree in an emergency.
What caused the hyperinflation of 1923?: Germany fell behind with reparations, so France and Belgium occupied the Ruhr in January 1923. Workers went on passive resistance, and the government printed money to pay them.
How did Stresemann help the Weimar Republic recover?: He introduced a new currency (Rentenmark), agreed the Dawes Plan (1924) to reschedule reparations with US loans, signed the Locarno Treaties (1925), and brought Germany into the League (1926).
What was the Munich Putsch (November 1923)?: Hitler’s failed attempt to seize power in Bavaria. He was jailed, wrote Mein Kampf, and decided to win power by elections.
How did Hitler become chancellor in January 1933?: The Depression boosted Nazi support (the largest party in the Reichstag in July 1932). Conservatives such as von Papen persuaded President Hindenburg to appoint Hitler on 30 January 1933, believing they could control him.
How did Hitler turn chancellorship into dictatorship, 1933–34?: The Reichstag Fire (February 1933) was used to restrict freedoms; the Enabling Act (March 1933) let him make laws without the Reichstag; the Night of the Long Knives (June 1934) removed rivals; and when Hindenburg died (August 1934) he became Führer.
How did the Nazis persecute Jews before the Second World War?: A boycott of Jewish shops (1933), the Nuremberg Laws (1935) removing citizenship and banning marriage with non-Jews, and Kristallnacht (November 1938) attacks on synagogues, homes and businesses.

3.3 Depth Study C: Russia, 1905–41

What happened in Russia in 1905, and why did the Tsar survive?: After Bloody Sunday (January 1905) strikes and mutinies spread. Nicholas II survived by issuing the October Manifesto, promising a Duma, which split his opponents, while the army stayed loyal.
Why should 1905 and 1917 be treated as separate revolutions?: 1905 failed to remove the Tsar, while 1917 succeeded. They had different causes and different outcomes.
Why did the Tsar fall in February 1917?: The strains of the First World War (defeats, food and fuel shortages, inflation), Nicholas taking personal command of the army, and Rasputin’s influence at court. When troops in Petrograd joined the protesters, he abdicated.
Why were the Bolsheviks able to seize power in October 1917?: The Provisional Government stayed in the war and delayed land reform. Lenin’s slogan “Peace, Bread and Land” won support, and Trotsky organised the Red Guards through the Petrograd Soviet.
Why did Lenin replace War Communism with the New Economic Policy (1921)?: War Communism caused famine and unrest, including the Kronstadt mutiny (1921). The NEP allowed peasants to sell surplus grain and small businesses to trade privately.
What were Stalin’s Five-Year Plans and collectivisation?: From 1928 the Five-Year Plans set targets for heavy industry. Collectivisation merged peasant farms into collective farms; resistance, including by kulaks, was met with deportation, and millions died in the famine of 1932–33.
What were the purges?: Stalin’s campaign of terror in the 1930s, peaking in 1936–38: show trials of leading Bolsheviks, a purge of the army officers, and mass arrests and executions by the secret police (NKVD).

3.4 Depth Study D: The United States, 1919–41

What caused the US economic boom of the 1920s?: Mass production (such as Ford’s assembly line), new consumer goods, hire purchase (credit), advertising, and Republican policies of low taxes and tariffs to protect US industry.
What was Prohibition and why did it fail?: A ban on alcohol from 1920 (18th Amendment). It was widely ignored, led to speakeasies, bootlegging and organised crime, and was repealed in 1933 (21st Amendment).
Which groups did not share in the 1920s boom?: Farmers (overproduction and falling prices), workers in older industries such as coal and textiles, and many Black Americans and immigrants.
What caused the Wall Street Crash of October 1929?: Overproduction and falling demand, speculation on shares bought on credit (buying on the margin), and weak banks. Confidence collapsed and share prices fell sharply on 24 and 29 October.
What was the New Deal?: Franklin D. Roosevelt’s programme from 1933 to bring relief, recovery and reform, using “alphabet agencies” such as the CCC, AAA, TVA and NRA, and later the Social Security Act (1935).
Who opposed the New Deal?: Republicans and businessmen who thought it cost too much and interfered too much; critics such as Huey Long who said it did not go far enough; and the Supreme Court, which struck down the NRA in 1935.

3.5 Depth Study E: The Second World War in Europe and the Asia-Pacific, 1939–c.1945

What was Blitzkrieg?: “Lightning war”: fast attacks by tanks and motorised infantry supported by aircraft. Germany used it to defeat Poland (1939) and France (May–June 1940).
Why was the Battle of Britain (1940) important?: The RAF prevented the Luftwaffe from winning control of the air, so Germany postponed its planned invasion of Britain.
Why was the Battle of Stalingrad (1942–43) a turning point?: The German Sixth Army was surrounded and surrendered in February 1943. Germany never recovered the initiative on the Eastern Front.
Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941?: To cripple the US Pacific Fleet so that Japan could seize resource-rich lands in South-East Asia, after the USA had cut off oil exports to Japan. The attack brought the USA into the war.
Why was the Battle of Midway (June 1942) a turning point?: The US Navy sank four Japanese aircraft carriers, ending Japanese expansion in the Pacific.
How did the Second World War end in Europe and Asia?: After D-Day (6 June 1944) and the Soviet advance, Germany surrendered on 8 May 1945. Atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima (6 August) and Nagasaki (9 August), and Japan surrendered, signing on 2 September 1945.
How should you prepare the European and Asia-Pacific theatres?: As related but distinct strands, each with its own causes, course and actors, while showing connections (for example how events in Europe affected Japan’s strategic calculations).