HSC Modern History Question Thread

[sudodds]

And thanks to birdwing341 and sudodds for the help!!

No worries!! Good luck 

[annika.stanton]

Hey! I'm currently working on last minute practice essays/ essay plans for Germany in the National Studies section and I'm a little stuck on what else I should be discussing in this question:

Assess the influence of the German army on the successes and failures of the Weimar Republic by 1933.

The only thing I can come up with is the 1920 Kapp Putsch. Any help would be awesome! 

[jakesilove]

Hey! I'm currently working on last minute practice essays/ essay plans for Germany in the National Studies section and I'm a little stuck on what else I should be discussing in this question:

Assess the influence of the German army on the successes and failures of the Weimar Republic by 1933.

The only thing I can come up with is the 1920 Kapp Putsch. Any help would be awesome! 

Ooft, that is a brutally specific question. Like, far out. My stomach is crawling just thinking about having to answer that.

I think the smart way to answer this question is to limit your discussion of the German army. So, spend 50-60% of the essay assessing the impact of the Army of successes/failures, but then claim OTHER factors played a greater role (ie. economic, social, political factors) and talk about those for 40% of the time. Like, you just can't fill an essay with this.

Hmm. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you can be super clever. Yeah, let's be super clever. Remember back in 1919, when good old Ebert was trying to build a brilliant new republic, but needed to support of the Army (Groener), resulting in the 'state within a state' Ebert-Groener pact? Well, that (arguably) planted the seeds for the Kapp Putch, but also for a maintained German nationalism/militarism, conceding that the Army should and would play a significant role in the future of the Weimar Republic. Perhaps, it even maintained an inner circle of militarists, of right wing old-German supporters, who through propaganda and fear, coupled with external economic factors, allowed for the rise of the NSDAP? Tricky, tricky...

Basically, if BOSTES throws you under the bus with a question like this, then think about how you can stretch it into something you're more comfortable with. Don't get me wrong; you need to answer the specific questions given to you. However, if you can work the question into something more... convenient, then that will only benefit you.

That's all that I can think of off the top of my head. Totally fair question to be stuck on though!

Let me know if I can help with anything else, or get more specific in my response.

Jake

[pughg16]

Hey! I'm currently working on last minute practice essays/ essay plans for Germany in the National Studies section and I'm a little stuck on what else I should be discussing in this question:

Assess the influence of the German army on the successes and failures of the Weimar Republic by 1933.

The only thing I can come up with is the 1920 Kapp Putsch. Any help would be awesome! 

I think what Jake said was pretty good....
We had a horrible question like that for our trials....but it was about the role of the German army in the german government between 1918 & 1933.
I think I said about the Ebert-Groener pact & Kapp Putsch, then my next paragraph was about the 'Golden Era'...(dont ask me how i linked this tho!) then about the night of the long Knives (this may not link tho)
But I think you could say it only had a moderate impact, with other majors economic factors e.g. the depression playing a large role in accelerating the end of the republic.
Hope that helped a bit!

[Celeriac]

Thank you to birdwing and Jake for answering my question 

I have another question about Germany though. For the feature/theme "the nature and role of nationalism", does this mostly link to Nazi racial policy, the key tenets of Nazism and maybe dolchstosslegende (since right-wing nationalists supported the legend)? I'm not sure what else it can link to. Maybe nationalists within the German army?

[jakesilove]

Thank you to birdwing and Jake for answering my question 

I have another question about Germany though. For the feature/theme "the nature and role of nationalism", does this mostly link to Nazi racial policy, the key tenets of Nazism and maybe dolchstosslegende (since right-wing nationalists supported the legend)? I'm not sure what else it can link to. Maybe nationalists within the German army?

Yeah definitely, I think you've covered the main points. Generally, I think nationalism supported the rise of right-wing reactionary parties, for the reasons you've outlined above. You can really talk about whatever you want for something as broad as nationalism; the important part is that you have a strong thesis. Decide to what extent nationalism played an important role in the downfall of Weimar, and go from there. Sounds like you know your shit!

[pughg16]

Thank you to birdwing and Jake for answering my question 

I have another question about Germany though. For the feature/theme "the nature and role of nationalism", does this mostly link to Nazi racial policy, the key tenets of Nazism and maybe dolchstosslegende (since right-wing nationalists supported the legend)? I'm not sure what else it can link to. Maybe nationalists within the German army?

Perhaps even the nature of Nazism, and Hitler's nationalistic appeal in his speeches, and also the Nazi salute & swastika.
You could even link nationalism back to the end of WW1, and how Germany, a proud military nation, was given sole blame for the war, and how this would have impacted on their nationalistic sentiment?

[Celeriac]

Thank you for that!

One final question: for a question such as "Assess the influence of Nazi propaganda, terror and repression on the German people", would it be okay to discuss many different aspects of propaganda (e.g radio, film, newspapers, theatre, literature, etc)? I'm concerned by doing this I'd end up being too descriptive even though it'd be linked to the idea that Germans were constantly exposed to Nazism, thus being impacted immensely. However without referring to these specific examples, I feel that I wouldn't be able to sustain 1-2 paragraphs on propaganda.

[jakesilove]

Thank you for that!

One final question: for a question such as "Assess the influence of Nazi propaganda, terror and repression on the German people", would it be okay to discuss many different aspects of propaganda (e.g radio, film, newspapers, theatre, literature, etc)? I'm concerned by doing this I'd end up being too descriptive even though it'd be linked to the idea that Germans were constantly exposed to Nazism, thus being impacted immensely. However without referring to these specific examples, I feel that I wouldn't be able to sustain 1-2 paragraphs on propaganda.

Definitely refer to everything you've discussed above, just do so really succinctly. Make sure to be drawing conclusions, rather than just describing facts, but by the sounds of it you're totally aware of that!

Jake

[birdwing341]

Thank you for that!

One final question: for a question such as "Assess the influence of Nazi propaganda, terror and repression on the German people", would it be okay to discuss many different aspects of propaganda (e.g radio, film, newspapers, theatre, literature, etc)? I'm concerned by doing this I'd end up being too descriptive even though it'd be linked to the idea that Germans were constantly exposed to Nazism, thus being impacted immensely. However without referring to these specific examples, I feel that I wouldn't be able to sustain 1-2 paragraphs on propaganda.

Just to add on to Jake's stuff, if you feel like you'll be stretched to write 1/2 paragraphs on propaganda, then maybe write one specifically on resistance! So if I get this question I think I'll use a four paragraph structure - one para on propaganda, one on terror and repression, one on individual 'passive' resistance, which suggests that the Nazis couldn't prevent individual acts of resistance that didn't destabilise society from occurring, and one on institutional resistance such as the church (and I focus there on how they were able to resist on 'church' matters, but their focus was not on taking down the regime).

Feel free to ask any questions if you want to clarify anything else

And thanks to birdwing341 and sudodds for the help!!

No worries!! Ask anything anytime

[annika.stanton]

Ooft, that is a brutally specific question. Like, far out. My stomach is crawling just thinking about having to answer that.

I think the smart way to answer this question is to limit your discussion of the German army. So, spend 50-60% of the essay assessing the impact of the Army of successes/failures, but then claim OTHER factors played a greater role (ie. economic, social, political factors) and talk about those for 40% of the time. Like, you just can't fill an essay with this.

Hmm. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe you can be super clever. Yeah, let's be super clever. Remember back in 1919, when good old Ebert was trying to build a brilliant new republic, but needed to support of the Army (Groener), resulting in the 'state within a state' Ebert-Groener pact? Well, that (arguably) planted the seeds for the Kapp Putch, but also for a maintained German nationalism/militarism, conceding that the Army should and would play a significant role in the future of the Weimar Republic. Perhaps, it even maintained an inner circle of militarists, of right wing old-German supporters, who through propaganda and fear, coupled with external economic factors, allowed for the rise of the NSDAP? Tricky, tricky...

Basically, if BOSTES throws you under the bus with a question like this, then think about how you can stretch it into something you're more comfortable with. Don't get me wrong; you need to answer the specific questions given to you. However, if you can work the question into something more... convenient, then that will only benefit you.

That's all that I can think of off the top of my head. Totally fair question to be stuck on though!

Let me know if I can help with anything else, or get more specific in my response.

Jake

Yeah that question is very brutal!
When you mentioned the Ebert- Groener pact, could you possibly go into a bit more detail about what it was about (I don't remember learning this in class.. )
Other than that, this is super helpful. Thank you Jake! 

I think what Jake said was pretty good....
We had a horrible question like that for our trials....but it was about the role of the German army in the german government between 1918 & 1933.
I think I said about the Ebert-Groener pact & Kapp Putsch, then my next paragraph was about the 'Golden Era'...(dont ask me how i linked this tho!) then about the night of the long Knives (this may not link tho)
But I think you could say it only had a moderate impact, with other majors economic factors e.g. the depression playing a large role in accelerating the end of the republic.
Hope that helped a bit!

This is also super helpful, thank you so much! 

[jakesilove]

Yeah that question is very brutal!
When you mentioned the Ebert- Groener pact, could you possibly go into a bit more detail about what it was about (I don't remember learning this in class.. )
Other than that, this is super helpful. Thank you Jake! 
This is also super helpful, thank you so much! 

To be honest, the Wikipedia page is pretty good on this. Check it out!

[Celeriac]

Thank you again, Jake and birdwing 

I know I said my last post was my final question, but something else popped up.

Explain why the Nazis were able to consolidate power in the period 1933–1934.

Explain why? I'm not sure how I'd approach this. Lack of opposition? Maybe events that enabled the consolidation of power e.g the Reichstag fire and the hatred of communists since the end of World War I? It seems like a weird question to me since it doesn't ask how the Nazis consolidated their power but rather why they were able to. Would you talk about the general support Hitler had?

 

[jakesilove]

Thank you again, Jake and birdwing 

I know I said my last post was my final question, but something else popped up.

Explain why the Nazis were able to consolidate power in the period 1933–1934.

Explain why? I'm not sure how I'd approach this. Lack of opposition? Maybe events that enabled the consolidation of power e.g the Reichstag fire and the hatred of communists since the end of World War I? It seems like a weird question to me since it doesn't ask how the Nazis consolidated their power but rather why they were able to. Would you talk about the general support Hitler had?

Definitely a weird question. I like to always break down an essay into sub-categories, and work from there. Whilst the question sounds like it just wants you to recite facts, obviously that's not the case. I would deconstruct the question into economic reason, political reasons and social reasons. You're absolutely right; it's not HOW, it's WHY. So, you're kind of looking to reasons for the downfall of Weimar, plus potentially WHY NSDAP methodologies were successful. Just go with your gut answering this question; write out a solid thesis, and keep coming back to it. You seriously sound like you have a good understanding of the period, so I know you'll smash a weird question like this

[pughg16]

Steering off from Germany and into the Conflict in the Pacific frame of mind.. ...I have a question for conflict that I can't think of naything to say for it.
If thought about it for quite some time...and still can't come up with any ideas
 This is the 2011 conflict question:
"How successful was the Allied Occupation of Japan in achieving its aims to 1951?"
Would I have a paragraph on Demilitarisation of Japan, and one on restoring the nation to position of relative power in Asia....and ahy other ideas?
Any help is much appreciated thankyou!!!