Comprehensive Upper-Secondary History Bullet Notes 2024

Treaty of Versailles (TOV)

• Differing Aims of the Big Three
  • USA (Wilson)
  • Desired a ‘just & lasting’ peace; feared harshness ➔ future German revenge.
  • Promoted 14 Points + League of Nations (LoN).
  • Britain (Lloyd-George)
  • Domestic pressure for punishment (war losses, submarine blockade).
  • Still wanted German economic revival for trade & as buffer against communism.
  • France (Clemenceau)
  • Pursued maximal punishment (huge casualties, devastation of French soil, security fears).
• Key Terms / Impacts on Germany — “GARGLE”
  • War-Guilt (Art. 231) – legal basis for all other penalties.
  • Army limited (≤ 100{,}000; no subs / air-force; Rhine demilitarised).
  • Reparations fixed at £6.6 bn ⇒ hyper-inflation.
  • German lands lost (Alsace-Lorraine, Polish Corridor, Saar coal 15 yrs etc.)
  • League of Nations exclusion.
  • Extras: Anschluss ban with Austria.
• Debate on Justice
  • ‘Taste of own medicine’ (cf. Brest-Litovsk) vs. excessive blame & crippling economy.

League of Nations in the 1920s

• Aims: collective security, arbitration, sanctions.
• Successes
  • Upper Silesia plebiscite (1921) – peaceful partition.
  • Greek–Bulgarian crisis (1925) – ordered withdrawal.
• Failures / Limits
  • No USA; Britain & France war-weakened.
  • Members put self-interest first (Vilna 1920, Corfu 1923).

Rise of Hitler (Weimar to 1933)

1. Structural Weaknesses

• Proportional representation ⇒ fragile coalitions (20 govts by 1933).
• Art.48 emergency powers; later exploited.
• Labelled “November Criminals” for signing TOV.

2. Economic Crises

• Hyper-inflation 1923 (egg: 0.08 ℳ ➔ 5{,}000 ℳ).
• Great Depression (US loans recalled, mass unemployment).

3. Nazi Appeal

• Hitler’s charisma & oratory; scapegoating Jews/Marxists.
• Re-organisation: nationwide cells, Hitler Youth, SA/SS intimidation, Goebbels propaganda.
• Political deals: after elections July/Nov 1932 → Chancellor Jan.1933.

4. Power Consolidation

• Reichstag Fire Feb.1933 ➔ Decree + arrest of communists.
• Enabling Act Mar.1933 (dictatorial legislation).
• One-Party state July 1933.
• Night of Long Knives Jun.1934 eliminates SA opposition.
• Führer position Aug.1934 (Army oath).

Impact of Nazi Rule

Economic

• Massive public works, Reich Labour Service ➔ unemployment down.
• New Plan 1934 & Four-Year Plan 1936: subsidies to heavy industry; big-business alliance.
• Banned trade-unions ➔ German Labour Front; wages frozen, hours ↑.
• Militarisation (conscription 1935, 1.4 m army by 1939).

Social Control

• Propaganda Ministry; Nuremberg rallies; radio loudspeakers.
• Censorship via Reich Chamber of Culture.
• Police state: SS, Gestapo, concentration camps.
• Persecution of ‘undesirables’: Nuremberg Laws 1935, Kristallnacht 1938, Holocaust.
• Women: “Kinder, Küche, Kirche”; motherhood medals.
• Hitler Youth / BDM – indoctrination + pre-military training.
• Limited but real resistance (White Rose, Edelweiss Pirates, July 1944 plot).

Militarist Japan & Asia-Pacific War

Causes of Militarism

• Weak party politics (9 PMs 1921–1932, corruption scandals).
• Economic woes: inflation, rural poverty, banking collapse, Great Depression (exports ↓ 20\%).
• Army autonomy (Mukden Incident 1931, Feb.26 coup 1936).
• Ultranationalist successes: Manchuria conquest, assassinations (1932).

Political/Economic Impact

• Army enter cabinet; Tojo PM 1941.
• Heavy-industry focus; zaibatsu profits soar; labour unions suppressed.
• Education & thought-control: “Fundamentals of Our National Polity”, censorship police.

Expansion & War

• LoN failure in Manchuria ➔ Japan quits 1933.
• Sino-Japanese War 1937; Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere.
• US oil embargo 1941 ➔ Pearl Harbor 7/12/1941.

Outbreak of WWII in Europe

League Failures 1930s

• Disarmament Conference 1932–34 collapses.
• Abyssinia crisis 1935–36 shows impotence.

Hitler’s Foreign Policy

• Leaves LoN 1933; secret rearmament (army 550{,}000, Luftwaffe 2{,}500 planes).
• Saar plebiscite 1935 (90\% return).
• Remilitarises Rhineland Mar.1936.
• Anschluss Mar.1938.
• Munich Agreement Sept.1938; occupies rest of Czechoslovakia Mar.1939.
• Nazi-Soviet Pact Aug.1939 divides Poland ➔ invasion 1/9/1939.

Appeasement Rationale

• War-weariness, re-armament time-lag, TOV sympathy, anti-communism, US isolationism.

WWII Turning Points & End (Europe & Asia)

• Allied Strengths: US production & manpower after 1941; RAF + radar; Soviet resilience (Stalingrad, Kursk; war-economy moved east). Island-hopping & atomic bombs in Pacific.
• Axis Weaknesses: Hitler’s micromanagement & two-front war; German poor naval/strategic planning. Japan: army-navy rivalry, overstretched empire, lack of local support.
• Outcomes: VE-Day May.1945, VJ-Day Aug.1945 after Hiroshima/Nagasaki.

Cold War Origins (Europe 1945–1955)

• Ideological clash capitalism vs. communism; pre-war mistrust.
• Wartime conferences: Yalta (Feb.1945) tentative unity; Potsdam (Jul.1945) rising tensions (atomic secret, Poland).
• Iron Curtain & Soviet satellites via “salami tactics”.
• US Containment: Truman Doctrine (aid to Greece/Turkey), Marshall Plan US\$13 bn.
• Soviet counter-measures: Cominform 1947, Comecon 1949.
• Berlin Blockade 1948–49 ➔ Airlift; formation of FRG/GDR; NATO 1949 vs. Warsaw Pact 1955.

Korean War 1950–53

• Post-WWII partition along 38^{\circ}N; Kim Il-sung vs. Syngman Rhee.
• Superpower proxies: NSC-68, Sino-Soviet Treaty 1950.
• North invades 25/6/1950; UN (mainly US) intervention; Chinese entry Oct.1950.
• Stalemate near original line; armistice July.1953 ➔ DMZ.
• Consequences: NATO re-armament, SEATO, enduring division.

Vietnam War 1954–75

• Geneva Accords 1954 split at 17^{\circ}N; elections blocked by Diem.
• Viet Cong insurgency; Ho Chi Minh Trail.
• US escalation: advisors ➔ Gulf of Tonkin Resolution 1964, half-million troops; search-and-destroy, Agent Orange, Napalm.
• Tet Offensive 1968 shocks US public.
• Vietnamisation under Nixon; Paris Accords 1973; Saigon falls Apr.1975.
• Aftermath: US foreign-policy rethink, ASEAN formation, détente.

End of Cold War

1. Soviet Economic Decline

• Command economy stagnation: growth → <0\% by late 1970s.
• Huge military & proxy-war burdens (Afghanistan 1979–89).
• Consumer shortages; worker disillusion.

2. US Pressure

• Reaganomics revived US growth; defence budget surge + SDI (“Star Wars”).
• USSR forced into costly competition it could not afford.

3. Gorbachev Reforms 1985–91

• Glasnost (openness) – free debate, media freedom.
• Perestroika – limited market mechanisms; inefficiencies + shortages persist.
• New thinking in foreign policy: cut defence, withdraw from Afghanistan, INF Treaty 1987.
• Eastern Bloc liberalisation ⇒ Berlin Wall falls Nov.1989; USSR dissolves Dec.1991.

QUICK FORMULA / STAT MENTION

• Hyper-inflation example 1\text{ egg}:0.08\,\text{ℳ}{1913}\rightarrow5000\,\text{ℳ}{1923}.
• Reparations 6.6\,\text{bn}; German army ≤ 100{,}000.
• Marshall Aid 13\,\text{bn} to 16 countries.