Notes, abstracts, papers, exams and problems of History

End of the War: Allies are Victorious

9. END OF THE WAR: ALLIES ARE VICTORIOUS

1. - 1943 British forces gained control of North Africa and Italy, forcing Mussolini to surrender.

2. - In June 1944, Allied forces landed on Normandy, France. D-day.

3. - In May 1945, Germany surrendered. In August 1945, the United States used the atomic bomb with Japan. World War 2 was over.

End of the War: Results of the War

10. END OF THE WAR: RESULTS OF THE WAR

1. - United States and Soviet Union emerged as the most powerful countries in the world.

2. - In 1945, some 50 nations formed the United Nations, an international peacekeeping organization.

Cold War: Definition

11. COLD WAR: DEFINITION

It was a period of tense rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union.

New Technology & Tactics

Tank corps & RFC growing in importance; awareness of importance of these new weapons.

Significant improvements to tank technology & tactics in particular. Tanks employed en masse and with infantry filing behind to ‘mop up’.

Improvement of artillery; ‘Creeping Barrage’ made more effective by better communications & ‘106 fuse’ shells designed to explode horizontally.

Battle of Arras & Failure of Nivelle

Designed as a diversion to Nivelle’s upcoming offensive.

Element of surprise achieved with only short artillery bombardment preceding the attack. Artillery also far more effective.

Infantry approached German trenches through tunnels to minimize casualties.

Efficacy of ‘Combined Arms Tactics’... Continue reading "World War I Battles: New Technology and Tactics" »

The Decline of the Hispanic Monarchy

Felipe III had the largest empire in the 17th century. He disliked ruling the country, so he delegated his authority to a valido, which was a kind of prime minister that depended on the king's favor. He faced several problems, but he was able to maintain its extension due to his pacifist policies:

• He signed a peace with England with the Treaty of London (1604).
• The Twelve Years' Truce with the Netherlands from 1609 to 1621 maintained peace, although it was an indirect way of recognizing the Northern Provinces' independence as the truce was not able to be renewed and then at the Thirty Years' War it was confirmed in the Treaty of Westphalia.
• Peace with France was signed in 1598.

During his reign, the Moriscos... Continue reading "The Decline of the Hispanic Monarchy in the 17th Century" »

German Unification: A Historical Overview

Until the 19th century, Germany was a conglomeration of more than 300 German-speaking political entities. The railway and the Zollverein, a customs union founded in 1834, reduced the barriers among the German states and helped to create a sense of economic unification that set the groundwork for the political unification of Germany.

Bismarck's Role in Unification

The process was led by Otto von Bismarck, chancellor of Prussia. His foreign policy was based on the Realpolitik.

The Prussian Military's Influence

The Prussian military played a key role in the German unification. It was commanded by Field Marshal Helmut von Moltke, who organized a formidable army due to its size, organization (creation of a General... Continue reading "German Unification: From Fragmentation to Empire" »

Participants

Allies: France, UK, US, and the Soviet Union (from 1941)

Axis Powers: Germany, Italy, and Japan

Causes

• Germany's quest for revenge after the Treaty of Versailles
• Expansion of totalitarian ideologies (Fascism, Nazism)
• Rise in militarism and nationalism, leading to territorial claims
• Economic depression during the 1930s

Steps to the War

• Japanese invasion of Manchuria in 1932
• Annexation of Ethiopia (1935) and Albania (1939) by Italy
• Annexation of Austria (1938) and Czechoslovakia (1939) by Germany
• German-Soviet Nonaggression Pact (1939)

Spark of the Conflict

German invasion of Poland using the Blitzkrieg method (September 1, 1939)

Stages

1st Stage

Victory of the Axis Powers, invasion of Poland (quick attack using planes and tanks)

Denmark, the Baltic... Continue reading "World War II: Causes, Stages, and Aftermath" »

The French Revolution: A Timeline

The Assembly of Notables

Why did that happen?

France was in a dire state due to wars. King Louis XVI called upon the nobles to convince them of a new financial plan.

What was it?

The Assembly of Notables was a group of important nobles who tried to solve France's tax problems but failed to reach a solution.

Why does it matter?

This was the last Assembly of Notables. It did not solve anything. It led to Louis XVI dismissing his finance minister and calling the Estates-General.

Meeting of the Estates-General (1789)

Why did that happen?

France still needed to find a way to raise money. Louis XVI called the Estates-General to address France's financial crisis.

What were the Estates-General?

It was a meeting of the general... Continue reading "French Revolution: Key Events and Timeline 1789-1793" »

England in the Eighteenth Century

Two parables exist about the making and meanings of the British Empire. The first involves a man shipwrecked on a desert island. Despair gives way to resolution, Protestant faith, and ingenuity, allowing him to subdue his environment. He encounters a black man, names him, and makes him a servant. Daniel Defoe’s Robinson Crusoe (1719) portrays empire-making as seizing land, planting it, and changing it, employing guns, technology, trade, and the Bible to impose rule and subordinate those of different skin pigmentation or religion.

Critique of Empire: Gulliver's Perspective

Gulliver observed that locals were deemed "harmless people" due to their perceived weakness. Consequently, their lands were seized and renamed.... Continue reading "England's Empire in the 18th Century: Expansion and Critique" »

Medieval Spanish Society: 8th-14th Centuries

Social Structure

Society was based on estates and had a pyramidal structure. At the top was the king.

• Privileged Estates
  • Nobility:
    • High nobles or ricoshombres (counts, marquises, and dukes) lived from their lands.
    • Low nobility, infanzones: in service of a member of the high nobility.
  • Clergy: Bishops, abbots, and grand masters of military orders.
• Non-privileged Estates
  • Peasants: The largest group. They were either owners or coloni of the land they farmed. Coloni were dependent on a feudal lord.
  • Bourgeoisie: Became more important as the cities grew bigger.

The Coexistence of Three Cultures

In the Christian kingdoms, Christians, Mudejars, and Jews all lived together. There was peaceful coexistence for a large part... Continue reading "Medieval Spanish Society, Culture, and Art: 8th-14th Centuries" »

UNIT 1: THE 18TH CENTURY. THE AGE OF ENLIGHTENMENT

1. Enlightenment:

• In what century and in what country did it begin?

During the 18th century, in France

• State three characteristics of the Enlightenment

Confidence in reason = believing that is the only way to understand the world and achieve progress and happiness

Faith in human progress = achieved through the advances made in science, which should lead all people to happiness

• Indicate one important philosopher and describe his thinking.

Voltaire: 'Let us read, and let’s us dance; these two amusements never do any harm to the world'

2. The American Revolution

• Indicate two causes why they wanted to be independent

1) Discontent of the colonies who lacked representation in British parliament

2) The da park

The Burgos Trials and Public Opinion

When, in December 1970, fourteen people supposedly implicated in the Manzanas assassination went to military trial in Burgos, the prosecution requested the death penalty for six of their number. However, a massive sway of public opinion against the state (domestically and internationally) and the bad publicity that the trial had generated for the Franco regime forced the authorities to back down. The death penalties were commuted to life sentences.

ETA's Transformation and Factionalism

After 1970, ETA received many new recruits, some of former EGI members and many working-class youths from the industrial towns of the Basque Country. As a result, ETA became much more of an urban guerrilla movement and during... Continue reading "The History and Evolution of ETA: From Its Origins to the Death of Franco" »