Hi so my next essay is about Conflict In Europe but I'm abit foggy on how to approach the question in terms of the structure and how to properly link the different factors to the question without falling in the trap of telling a narrative.
The statement is "To what extent was conflict in Europe a result of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact".
Hey there,
Great answers so far. I do Conflict in Europe so feel like I could be some help.
Structure would go something like this:
first paragraph would be acknowledging that the Non-Aggression Pact did play a role in the onset of conflict in Europe. Include the nature of it and in particular what Hitler's aims were. You could include that he was intentionally misleading in order to try and achieve his foreign policy goals. Stalin despised Germany but was willing to adopt such measures because the Soviets were not ready for war. You can choose to the extent to which it contributed, depending on how you want to form your response. Personally, I would say it had an impact, but a limited impact compared to other factors which more directly link to how conflict in Europe began.
This leads me onto focusing on a range of other factors in your following paragraphs. I would say these had a far greater impact on instigating conflict in Europe.
This would be Nazi foreign policy (in particular Lebensraum because it involved taking over land that wasn't theres and thus aggressive in nature). This was a threat to the power of Britian and France who still had large empires and wanted to maintain that.
Appeasement/failure of collective security (League of Nations) could also be factors to talk about.
Appeasement in particular: gave into Hitlers demands and didn't act quickly enough
Collective security: couldn't reject the proposals by dictators such as Hitler and Mussolini due to the nature of the international political climate; they were all interested in nationalist objectives rather then contributing to internationalism and peace.
This structure will allow you to fully address the question and encapsulate all factors. Not only will you answer this question but come trial/HSC you'll be ready to go for a wide range of questions too with this material.
In terms of your issue with narrative, I had a similar problem too. The advice my teacher gave me was to integrate more historiography, as this will support my argument rather then me retelling facts or asserting something. I would encourage you to maybe try the same and you might avoid retell.
Hope this helps