VCE History Revolutions Question Thread

[oJL8A99A]

Can someone explain Witte and Stolypin's roles in creating revolutionary tensions for AOS1 Russia please? 

[TheCommando]

Can someone explain Witte and Stolypin's roles in creating revolutionary tensions for AOS1 Russia please? 

Witte was the minister of finance up until 1903. His task was to ensure Russia modernised in the most efficient and quickest ways possible. One of the ways he did this was through setting up factories in the cities and his trans siberian railway (21 july 1904). Witte attempted to modernise Russia through incentivising capital inflow from allied nations or foreign nations, this was achived by the low wages and long hours worked from the people. His modernisation created a growth in workers moving into the capital with the hope of improving their lives, the growth outmatched the cities ability to provide homes for the workers meaning the firms provided housing for the workers. This resulted in firms taking advantage of workers. A 1904 survey found that there were on average 16 people per aparetment with 6 people per room. Likewise the factory managers made workers work long days and week (12 hour days) in unsafe and unhygeninc conditions where people often got injured. This would hgrow a proletariat class suspectible to revolutionary ideas as their lives was a misery and they thoughtber  their lives would improve but it only got worse

Stolypin was the finance minister who replaced Witte. He helped regain the tsar's power. The october manifesto (26 october 1905) saw the tsar agree to create a duma which would represent the nation as deputies within the duma would be elected by the people and no laws could be pass until approved by the duma. Along with Nicholas Stolypin was able to regain the tsars power by implenting the electoral laws (it was him not the tsar who created this law right??). What the electoral laws did was recude the ability of the  ordianry poor like peasants and proleteriants to vote as they would obviously vote for the radcial deputies who challenged the tsars authority. (As was the case with the first duma who were dismissed bbecause of this)  it now took 230 landowners' vote to elect one deputy where as it took 125000 industrial workers votes to elect one deputy

[K888]

Hey i was just wondering for the russian revolution, how did the provisional government have a middlclass parlimentary democracy and why do utalk about think when answering the question 'how did the formation of the provisional government in Feb 1917 contribute to the developmentt of the russian revolution'?

Alrighty, so, to answer the middle class stuff - all you have to do is look at the make-up of the PG. The core was drawn from a provisional committee of Duma deputies. It first had 12 ministers - seven Kadets (one of these being Miliukov), the first prime minister was Lvov (a wealthy landowner and also minor royal, I believe), and the only true socialist was Kerensky (an SR).
Now, compare this to the make-up of Russian society. The majority of people were not middle class - I think from here, you can probably explain yourself why this difference was an issue. Imagine being a Russian peasant, and hearing that the Tsar has been overthrown, only to hear that he's been replaced by people who are, to you, effectively the same.

Moving on to the second part of your question - I think, with the info I've given you, you can probably answer why the middle class make-up of the PG was important in creating a revolutionary situation. They didn't really represent the Russian people - leading to disenchantment, etc. and so on and so forth.

There was other stuff like the rise of the Petrograd Soviet, the fact that the Provisional Government was exactly that - provisional - so it didn't have a mandate, wasn't elected by the people and it was a temporary government (so their decrees weren't necessarily respected). Plus, the Bolsheviks outright objected to the PG.
Additionally, they had the issue of what to do with WWI - keep their promises to the Allies, or withdraw? Remember the economic situation in Russia at the time. But either way, Miliukov's telegram that committed Russia to the war was essentially a monumental fuck up.


I hope this has given you the info to go and have a crack at the question yourself. Just let me know if you need any further clarification

[mindy.mcewen]

This is in the Study Design for AOS2...

 How did the new regime consolidate its power?

I was wondering how you would answer this for the French Rev? Like through the Terror, Committees of Public Safety/General Security? That kind of thing or? 

[K888]

This is in the Study Design for AOS2...

 How did the new regime consolidate its power?

I was wondering how you would answer this for the French Rev? Like through the Terror, Committees of Public Safety/General Security? That kind of thing or? 

Hey, I didn't do France, but I hope I can give some help regardless

Basically when you're answering that question, you need to think of the different ways the regime could consolidate its power, which generally falls into the categories of: political, social and military. I guess economic could also make its own category. I don't know the other revolutions, but there seems to the be theme that the new regime often resorted to violence, completely eliminating opposition and the like to consolidate power.

Ask yourself: how did they eliminate or address political opposition? How did they gain the support of the people - what social reforms were made to help them consolidate power? What other reforms did they make - did economic reforms help them stay in power? Did they violently suppress opposition, and if they did, how so?

From the limited knowledge I have of France (and from a quick google), what you've said seems to be pretty good Just think of the challenges that the regime faced, and how it addressed those challenges to stay in power.

To provide an example answer, in Russia - the Bolsheviks consolidated their power through Sovnarkom decrees that were to lead to social reform (gaining the support of the people), they eliminated political opposition by shutting down the Constituent Assembly, they instigated the Red Terror, and they used the Cheka.

All the best for the exam tomorrow! What other revolution are you doing?

[madic]

Can someone explain the social and economic inequalities for China AOS1 as a cause of the Revolution?
I have very little on this and have stupidly ignored it because I assumed I'd have to incorporate the Qing (obviously outside of the Study Design) in it

[mindy.mcewen]

Thanks for that!  ..makes heaps more sense now..!

I am also doing the American Revolution....

[K888]

Can someone explain the social and economic inequalities for China AOS1 as a cause of the Revolution?
I have very little on this and have stupidly ignored it because I assumed I'd have to incorporate the Qing (obviously outside of the Study Design) in it

So, I admittedly don't know how things have changed with the new study design, but I reckon that whilst it's important to know this, it'd be pretty stiff if you got a question specifically on the inequalities.
VCAA have historically had a strong focus on ideas, leaders, movements and events (with events and ideas being particularly important) - which, y'know, is stated in the study design, because these 4 components are the foundation of any revolution.

Whilst the Qing dynasty is out of the study design now (which, imo, sucks, as it, or rather, the knock on effects it had, play an important part in AOS1), I'd hope that you could talk about the lasting effects from it that occurred within the study design. Whilst the Qing was gone, change didn't happen overnight, and a lot of inequality still existed during the time of the republic - don't forget, the republic failed pretty miserably at addressing China's problems (in the way that people wanted them to be addressed).

- Consider the 21 Demands, and the economic impacts that had on China, and the dissatisfaction created within the Chinese people as a result.
- Think about how the inequalities led to the New Culture Movement, which rebuked traditional Chinese culture and not only promoted nationalist ideas, but also promoted Marxism (and was a contributor to the development of the CCP).
- What about Yuan Shikai and everything he did? His abdication, and the subsequent Warlord Era? How would that have impacted the Chinese people?
- There was also the death of Sun Yat-sen - his Three Principles of the People were a unifying ideology (what are the consequences of this?), and without him, there was a split in the GMD, Chiang Kai-shek rose to power (think of all the ramifications of this), etc.
- The Nationalist Decade - Chiang developed the city, but left the countryside to stagnate --> this led to both social and economic inequality for those living in the countryside (which was most of China - in 1930, Chiang's government only controlled ~25% of the population!)
- The persecution of the Communists - the Shanghai Massacre, the Encirclement Campaigns (and the subsequent Long March)
- Also consider how inequalities led people to support the CCP - the CCP gained some pretty significant peasant support as a result of their promises to improve life for the peasants and others. Think about the social reforms that the CCP instigated at Jiangxi, and how the CCP killed the exploitative warlords to gain peasant support.

In the end, I think it's just really important to think about what economic and social inequalities led to - it wasn't just like, for example, "the peasants were mistreated, and the revolution happened" - there was a flow on effect - the inequalities that the peasants faced, led them to do this that and the other, which helped the CCP gain support/led to dissatisfaction with the nationalists/etc. which contributed to a revolutionary situation.

I hope this made some sense and that it's clarified things for you. All the best for tomorrow!

[TheCommando]

Hey Commando!

I think the key point here is that not all nobles enjoyed and wanted to keep these privileges. There was a small minority of nobles - 'liberal nobles' - that weren't happy with the current system. These nobles looked towards England as a model of what France ought to become, i.e. a constitutional monarchy. Essentially, they learnt to challenge these traditional structures and to believe that a better society was possible.

There were actually instances of nobles 'giving up' their feudal rights and privileges. This led to the abolition of feudalism entirely on August 4th, 1789.

Quite a few historians have touched on this subject, so it's worth having a read around for anything of significance! I'll leave you with this quote from Doyle which I think explains it quite well:

In regards to your second question, I'm not quite sure what you're asking. Could you maybe elaborate?

Just reading it now and just thought i'd add onto this. Not all feudaliism was abolished since some feudalist things, the landowner or noble had to be first compensated before the feudal due was removed
Also it got removed later, where all feudal dues were removed witghout compensation. (Cant remeber when will look)

[mindy.mcewen]

The other one I am stuck on is "how did the consequences of rev shape new society" for America?

Is this referring to particular events/individuals/ideals that had an impact on revolution or? 

Thanks in advance...! 

[madic]

The other one I am stuck on is "how did the consequences of rev shape new society" for America?

Is this referring to particular events/individuals/ideals that had an impact on revolution or? 

Thanks in advance...! 

Hey! I'm completing Revs myself (just reading thru America AOS2 right now!) so I apologise if this isn't the best information.
But I do believe that is all inclusive of events/individuals/ideas. It's a pretty big idea that kind of stems across all of the key knowledge.
It's really just considering how events in AOS2 led to changes in the new society

For example:
- How no longer being apart of the British Crown caused need for some sort of political framework - which then led to the Articles of Confederation and, when this failed, the Constitution. An example of how the new society was shaped politically.

- The power of George Washington at war - how this shaped the morale of the Continental Army and thus the new society (especially how this leadership shaped him as a model of the republic, leading to his presidency). A social and political example.

- How the economic challenges (war debt, being unable to pay soldiers' salaries, Congress' lack of power over taxes and trade under the AoC) shaped the new society - (again, the change from the AoC to the Constitution is a big one here. Then you can consider how the Constitution further shaped society as it showed, through the ratification debates, the lack of unification that existed in the new society)

- How the revolutionary ideas were actually upheld by the new society - e.g. how 'liberty' did not extend to all (women, Native Americans, slaves being the primary examples)

Hope this somewhat helps!

[mindy.mcewen]

hey...thats awesome! Thanks heaps...!!
& gud luck with your exam tomorrow...!! 

[K888]

Just wanted to say good luck for tomorrow guys, you'll all smash it!
Send through any last minute questions if you have them tonight, but I won't be able to answer any questions tomorrow until a bit after midday as I have an exam myself

Please come back and discuss the exam afterwards, btw There should be a thread for it.

[Cactus Jack x Huncho]

Just wanted to say good luck for tomorrow guys, you'll all smash it!
Send through any last minute questions if you have them tonight, but I won't be able to answer any questions tomorrow until a bit after midday as I have an exam myself

Please come back and discuss the exam afterwards, btw There should be a thread for it.

appreciate your commitment and kindness man! We shall all kill the exam tomorrow!

[K888]

appreciate your commitment and kindness man! We shall all kill the exam tomorrow!

Not a single issue, always happy to help the revs fam