History Notes

June Examination
Term 1:
The Rise of Nazi Germany:
• Vocabulary:
o Dictator – a ruler with power and makes laws
o Human right – rights protected by law
o Treaty – agreement between countries
o Reparations – payments for damages

The end of WW1:

• 1918 – German Kaizer overthrown
o Weimer Republic elected
o Germany made peace because they realized they would lose
o Germany surrendered in November 1918
o Treaty of Versailes gets drawn up
Treat of Versailes:

Hitler and the Nazis – 1920’s

• Germans were looking for a new solution
• In 1920, Adolf Hitler forms a political party (National Socialists German Workers
Party – NAZI)
• People thought Nazi party could solve problems
• 1923 – Hitler tries to seize power but fails.
• Jailed for 9 months and here he writes a book where he promises to make Germany
great again (Mein Kampf/ My Struggle).
• In the book he blames the Jews and wants create a ‘master race’.
The Great Depression
• 1929 – World Wide economic crisis
• Trade came to a stop, Factories and mines closed – people lost their jobs.
• 1932 – 6 000 000 people were unemployed
• Government struggled to solve problems cause by economic collapse – people lost
confidence in Weimar Republic

Failure of Wimer republic and support for NAZI party

• Weimar Republic first democratic party – not much experience.
• German Nationalists blamed the Weimar government for signing the Treaty. – seen
as traitors.
• Weimar constitution made it possible for president to make decisions without
parliament. – Democratic system starts to fail…
• Nazis promise to bring LAW and ORDER, JOBS, UNITE GERMAN PEOPLE and make
GERMANY STRONG AGAIN.
• Nazis used PROPANGANDA and INTIMIDATION to win votes

Enabling Act:
• Millions unemployed
• Nazi banned other political parties and closed down parliament.
• Hitler made himself the leader – he set up military and increased forces
• Nazi flag became national flag

Nuremberg Laws
• Boycotting Jewish Shops
• Discrimination against jews (Aryan race superior)
• It was because a jewish man killed a german diplomat

Persecution Groups:
• Political Opposition
• Jews
• Jehovah Witnesses
• Gypsies
• Mentally and Physically disabled people
Extermination Camps, Genocide, the Holocaust, and the Final Solution
• During World War II, the Nazi policy of persecution developed into one of genocide.
Known today as the Holocaust.
• Jewish people in Eastern Europe and the Soviet Union were rounded up and shot by
execution squads. They were buried in mass graves.
• After 1939, the Nazis set up death camps (or extermination camps),where Jews were
systematically killed.
• Most of these camps were built in Poland which had the largest Jewish population in
Europe
• The Nazi’s referred to their plans as the Final solution to the Jewish problem.
• Jewish people from all over Europe were taken to these camps in overcrowded cattle
trucks and on trains.
• Men were split from the women and children.
• At the camps they were forced to work and, once they were no longer able to do so
they were killed with poison gas.
• The most well-known camp is Auschwitz in Poland
• Many Eastern European Jews were killed
• Jews were not the only victims, mentally and physically disabled, intellectuals,
political opponents, homosexuals, Jehovah’s Witnesses and Gypsies
• Medical experiments performed by Dr. Josef Mengele
• Many died doing slave labour

Warsaw Ghetto
• 1939: Germans captured Warsaw - capital of Poland.
• Forced all the Jewish people to move into a small walled area of the city – Warsaw
Ghetto.
• The gates to the ghetto were guarded by soldiers; any Jew who left the ghetto was
shot.
• A wall, 3m high, surrounded the ghetto. The Nazis built it down the middle of streets
so that there would be no chance of people sneaking off
• 1941: there were nearly 500000 Jews living in the ghetto
• Very overcrowded condition – about 13 people/room
• Not enough medicine, food, or fuel to provide heating; many people were cold, sick
and starving
• Tried to keep their spirit – running schools, arranging activities such as reading
groups, lectures, and concerts
• Some people formed a secret historical society to keep a record of life in the ghetto
• 1942: Moved from ghetto to death camps, ± 300 000
• 1943: Nazis completely destroyed ghettos in other Polish cities
• Remaining 65 000 people decided to fight back
 • German army attacked the ghetto – Jews fought back until they ran out of food,
water and ammunition – nearly a month
• Eventually – Germans set ghetto on fire, threw poison gas – Jews were shot as they
ran out
• 130 survived
• Warsaw Ghetto – best known example of resistance

World War Two in the Pacific Ocean

• America against Japan
o 1930’s: Japanese government under control of the army
o Like Nazis, Japan had an aggressive and expansionist foreign policy
o It needed raw materials for its industries – build up an empire; taking over
parts of Asia
o 1931: took 0ver the Chinese province of Manchuria
o 1937: attacked China – Chinese fought back but the Japanese took over large
areas of China.
o 1941: Japan attacked other parts of South East Asia – US became worried
o Concerned American trade with Asia would be affected
o The US government – applied trade sanctions and stopped oil supplies to
Japan
o The Americans hoped this would force Japan to stop its attacks
o Japan needed to import all their oil
o Japanese decided to attack the USA and destroy the American navy in the
Pacific
o Without a navy, the US would not be able to stop them from taking over
other parts of South East Asia – where there was oil
• Attack on pearl harbour
o On 7 December 1941, Japanese places attacked the American naval base Pear
Harbour – Hawaii
o Complete surprise to the Americans – large part of their fleet was destroyed,
as well as many planes which were bombed on the ground
o Following day, US and Britain declared war on Japan
o Germany and Italy declared war on the US
o Japanese also attacked the British bases at Singapore and Hong Kong and
occupied large parts of South East Asia, the Philippines and Indonesia.
o Japan also attacked and occupied many islands in the Pacific.
o Under Japanese occupation, people were treated very cruelly
o The attack on Pearl Harbour was not as successful , the Americans were able
to re-build their navy and fight back
• Japanese Americans moved to internment camps
o Large number of Japanese Americans (JA) lived in the USA
o After attack on Pearl Harbour, people turned against them
 o Anti-Japanese feeling was encouraged by government propaganda
o About 120 000 JA in the western states were arrested and forced to live in
internment camps
o US government thought that they might be Japanese spies
o Japanese Americans in other parts of USA were not arrested but many of
them were attacked, and even murdered
o Many JA in camps were forced to sell their properties at low prices
o Most stay in the camps until the end of the war
o In 1943 the American government allowes JA to serve in US army, about 33
000 volunteered (thousands from the camps)
o Some of the all-Japanese units in the US army received an above average
number of awards for bravery
o Not all Americans supported the internment policy
o In 1988 the US government formally apologised and paid compensation to
survivors
• Japanese expansion and atrocities in china
o Between 1937 and 1945, the Japanese army was in control of parts of China,
they were responsible for some terrible atrocities
o They regarded Chinese as inferior people and treated them extremely cruelly
o Worst single example: Japanese army marched into the Chinese city of
Nanking; they murdered 300 000 civilians and raped 20 000 women. Many
people were murdered in the most brutal ways. Some were buried alive
o Many men and women were sent to work as slave labourers in Japanese
factories and mines
o Thousand of women were forced to become sex slaves for the Japanese army
– comfort women
o Many Chinese prisoners were used for inhuman medical and chemical
weapons experiments

Term 2:

• Terminology:
o Cold War – Tension between superpowers (never fought directly)
o Super Powers – Most powerful countries after WW2 (USSR vs USA)
o Iron Curtain – Symbol of cold war, described division of East and West Europe
o Trauman Doctrine - A Policy set by President Truman. established that the
United States would provide political, military and economic assistance to all
democratic nations under threat from external or internal authoritarian
forces.
o Marshall Plan – USA offering aid packages, food and economic assistance to
Europe
 o Berlin airlift – Transportation of supplies by plane
o NATO – Military alliance of western Europe (USA). North Atlantic Treaty
organisation
o Warsaw Pact – Military alliance of eastern Europe (Russia)
o Arms Race – competition between USA and USSR with regards to nuclear
weapons.

The Nuclear Age and Cold War

• Increasing Tension between allies after end of WW2 In Europe
o USA, Soviet Union and Britain formed a ‘Grand Alliance’ in the fight against
Nazi Germany
o Although tensions between them, they co-operated
o But once Germany surrendered tensions increased and the alliance broke up
• USSR vs USA and the west
o Basic disagreement between Union of Socialist Soviet Republics (USSR) and
its allies and the USA - believed in completely different political and
economic systems
o USSR – communism
o US and allies – capitalism and democracy
• Tension between the USSR and the West
o The tensions started in 1917, when a communist government took control in
Russia during a revolution.
o From then there was suspicion and fear between the West and the USSR
o The USSR and the West had different ideas about what to do about Germany
after the war
o Britain and the USA did not want to punish Germany because they knew,
from their experience after World War I, that this would not work
o The USSR, which had suffered the most from the German invasion during
World War II, wanted Germany to pay reparations
o The Soviets wanted to keep control over countries they had freed from Nazi
occupation in Eastern Europe
o USA had developed a new weapon – kept secret from the USSR
o In May 1945, when the war in Europe ended, the tensions became even
worse:
o The West thought that the USSR was trying to spread communism all over
Europe
o USSR thought that the US was trying to dominate Europe
o Most pressing issue facing both sides was the end of the war in the Pacific,
where Allied soldiers were facing fierce resistance from the Japanese
The division of Germany and the building of the Berlin wall.
• The division of Germany
o end of WWII, the Allies divided Germany into 4 sections to keep it from
regaining power.
o US, Great Britain, France, & Soviet Union each controlled a section.
o The Soviet section became “East Germany” and the reunited sections became
“West Germany”.
o Berlin was also divided into East & West.
• Berlin Blockade and airlift
o During the Cold war, there were many “hot spots” (areas of extreme
tension).
o The earliest hot spot was Berlin.
o At the end of World War II, Germany was divided into four occupation zones:
o American, British, French, and Soviet
o The Soviets controlled the eastern part of Germany, the western countries
controlled the western part of Germany.
 o The capital, Berlin, deep within Soviet-controlled territory, was also divided
into four occupation zones.
• The Berlin blockade and airlift
o In June 1948, the Soviets blockaded all land and water traffic into western
Berlin hoping to make Britain, France, and America leave the city.
o In response, the United States and Great Britain began an airlift.
o After nearly a year the Soviets reopened the landing routes as they realised
the West was not going to give up Berlin.
o The tension between the two superpowers had resulted in Germany divided
into two countries :
o East Germany, with East Berlin as its capital and a communist dictatorship
o West Germany, with Bonn as its capital , was a democratic and capitalist.
• The building of the Berlin wall
o Berliners hated living under communism.
o West Berlin and freedom were just a crossing away.
o About 3 million people fled to West Berlin looking for political freedom and a
better life. Most of the refugees were young and highly educated, East
Germany needed their skills.
o The East German government wanted to stop this.
o In August 1961, East Germany built a 103 mile wall between East and West
Germany.
o Guarded by Soviet troops, with machine-guns posts, barbed wire and
searchlights. Anyone who tried to cross was shot.
o The Berlin Wall stopped the flow of refugees from East to West Germany.
o The Berlin Wall became the most famous symbol of the Cold War, a sign of
clear division between communism and capitalism.
o Over the next 28 years many people were killed trying to escape from the
East to the West.
• The end of the Cold War
o In 1989 the communist government in Eastern Europe collapsed, the Cold
War and the Soviet Union broke up.
o The changes started when Mikhail Gorbachev became the leader of the
Soviet Union in 1985. while supporting communism he believed it was time
for change and introduced two new policies:
o Perestroika: to rebuild the Soviet economy which was facing many problems.
This included bringing in some capitalist aspects.
o Glasnost: gave the Soviet people the opportunity to speak freely and criticise
the government.
o Since 1945 the Soviet Union crushed any form of resistance or escape from
Eastern Europe.
o Gorbachev’s new reform gave people of Eastern Europe new found hope.
o During 1989, there were huge protests all over Eastern Europe. Protestors
called for the communist rule in East Germany, Poland, Bulgaria,
Czechoslovakia , Hungary and Romania to end.
 o In November 1989, East Germans marched to the Berlin wall and when
guards refused to open fire on them, they started chipping away at the wall
(by hand). Bulldozers were later brought in and the symbol for division and
the Cold War had fallen.
o The following year people voted for East and West Germany to be reunited
as one country.
o Gorbachev held a number of meetings with the American president, Ronald
Reagan.
o Tension began to ease between the two superpowers.
o Both leaders agreed to reduce the number of weapons in their countries.
o At the end of 1989 the leaders of the two superpowers agreed that the Cold
War was over
o Many of the republics in the Soviet Union resented Russia’s control.
o After other countries threw off communism, they wanted to do the same.
They started breaking away from the Soviet Union.
o Not everyone in the Soviet Union supported Gorbachev’s reform. People
thought that they went too far, others thought they didn’t go far enough.
Eventually he forced to resign.
o The Communist Party no longer had control, the 15 republics became
independent states.
o By the end of 1991, the Soviet Union no longer existed.

Summary of Berlin Airlift, Wall and Blockade.

• Berlin Wall – Why was it built?
o Soviet wanted to divide Berlin and stop the moving of people
• What was the impact?
o 136+ People died trying to escape
o Families were separated
o Jobs Decreased
• Countries controlling
o East → Soviets
o West → NATO
• Berlin Blockade – What happened?
o Soviet blocked western allies railway, road and canal access
• How did it increase tension?
o The airlift gave people hope
o Soviets plan failed
• Why did it take place?
o Soviets blocked US because they thought they were trying to ruin their
economy and influence their people
o Different goals:
▪ Soviet → Destroy Germany
 ▪ US → Reconstruct it
• Berlin Airlift – Why did it take place?
o People needed to survive and get necessities
o They did not stop it because they did not want war.
• What was the impact?
o Made people pro-western
o US did not give into soviet aggression and brought attention and
understanding to berlin
• Involved?
o US, Britain and france