In Italy and Germany, charismatic leaders led fascist movements to power, seizing control of the post-World War I governments. Fascism promised to solve economic problems through state direction, although not ownership, of production. The movements also promised to counteract the provisions of the Treaty of Versailles by rearming the military and by territorial expansion. The efforts of fascist governments to revise the Treaty of Versailles led to World War II, a conflict even more violent than World War I. During this second great war, the combatants engaged in wholesale destruction of cities, deliberate attacks on civilians, and the systematic destruction of their enemies' industrial complexes. The Nazi government in Germany undertook the annihilation of Jews from the whole continent (the Holocaust), as well as the murder of other targeted groups of Europeans. At the end of the war, the economic and political devastation left a power vacuum that facilitated the Cold War division of Europe.
Reading Schedule:
Authoritarian States (Pgs. 904 - 906) Stalin's Soviet Union (Pgs. 906 - 915) Mussolini and Fascism in Italy (Pgs. 915 - 917) Hitler and Nazism in Germany (Pgs. 917 - 928) The Second World War (Pgs. 928 - 939) |
Assignments
While most of the lost and troubled generation found newness in the unconsciousness or in the efforts to twist the rules of "rational" art, there was also something real and vital which would become their experience. In the 1920's and 30's, liberal democracy was faced with a grave crisis and its greatest challenge, fascism.
Rehearsal for War: Spain's Civil WarThe horrors and destruction that would be unleashed during the second world war were first put on display during the Spanish Civil War. In this assignment you will read about the destruction wrought by modern warfare.
Hitler's Master PlanIn this assignment you will collect evidence to either support or refute that World War II was the result of a plan manipulated and controlled by Hitler.
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The Summer of 1940After the policy of appeasement proved to fail to stop the ambitions of Hitler, the allied nations had to decided how to deal with German aggression. After the summer of 1940 Britain, France, the U.S.S.R and the U.S.A had to devise a way to defeat the Axis powers. In this assignment you will analyze the process undertaken by the Allied nations.
The HolocaustHitler's Third Reich launched its "Final Solution" to the "Jewish Question" in January 1942 - the project eliminated the Jews of Europe and their ancient culture, which continued until the Nazi defeat in 1945.
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