Reply to queries

Hello,

First, for Jonathan's question "How successful was Hitler's rule?"

Note: The best answers to this question are the ones that qualify the success first and then go on to explain the more central impact of his rule in an organised manner. For example, political, economic and social. I'll do an answer but you are welcome to improve on it yourself.:)

Hitler experienced great economic success during his rule but created an atmosphere of fear through his secret police, restricted the freedom of expression and controlled many aspects of social life for the Germans. Despite this, he was genuinely well-loved by many and managed to strengthen and expand Germany before his defeat in World War II. Hence he was successful in many aspects of governance as a leader to a large extent.

Economically, Hitler was quite a success. His policy of rearmament and public works jump started the German economy. Big businesses benefitted and unemployment was greatly reduced. He also created the National Labour service that built schools, hospitals and highways and expanded the Civil Service. The reintroduction of conscription and the expansion of the military also absorbed the unemployed especially when the army increased to 1.4 million men.

Labour conditions also improved slightly with the introduction of the German labour Front. This was the only trade union tried to introduce cheap holidays and cruises as well as a programme for workers to own cars.

Hitler was a popular and well-supported leader but this was due to his massive control over many aspects of social life. In education, students were thought Nazi beliefs and that the treaty of Versailles was evil and that Germany needed to expand. Youths were forced to join Nazi youth organisations. Radio stations were controlled by the Nazis and publications had to go through the approval of Ministry of Propaganda. Joseph Goebbels, was brilliant at orchestrating the control over culture and ensured that even movies were pro-Nazi and that Hitler's radio broadcast were heard by all Germans. Although this restricted the freedom of expression and access to information for Germans, it did help Hitler become a massively popular leader. The Nuremburg rallies that involved hundreds of Thousands of people were a massive show of power by the Nazis and helped them achieve the support of the people. 

Politically, Hitler was a well supported leader of a party that by 1933 controlled a large portion of the reichstag. After he gets emergency powers given by the reichstag fire, he uses it to wipe out his opponents including the communists. The enabling act of 1933 allows him to ban all other political parties and establish his dictatorship. In a sense, he has ended the problem of proportional representation experienced bu the Weimar but in undesirable way. in the night of the long nights, he wipes out his own SA, the brown shirts and makes sure no one dares to challenge his rule. He does put in place a organized and very purposeful government but at the expense of all political freedom in Germany.

While Hitler experiences success, the social costs of his leadership is very high. Women and jews are forced out of jobs in order to reduce unemployment. Women are told to tend to just the family, church and children while jews are systematically removed from society and eventually slaughtered in the holocaust. 6 million would perish. Political opponents are killed off. Opposition to his rule are snubbed by the secret police and informants are encouraged. Even workers earned less although they worked longer hours and Germany and a massive trade inbalance in which they could not sell enough of their goods overseas.

Therefore, Hitler's rule might have been a success in terms of some its economic benefits and the genuine popularity of the man himself but it is a carefully engineered success with propaganda and expansionist plans fueling it. furthermore, many aspects of freedom in German life were restricted and many like women, workers and the jews suffered under his rule. Hence he is a success only in certain aspects of governance.

Model Answer: How successful

As requested by Alston here is a model answer of what a "how successful" type question will look like. Question: How successful was Stalin's leadership of Russia?

Stalin was a success to a great extent. He effectively modernised Russia through his five-year plans and introduced collectivisation. However, he used terror to make the people obey him and destroyed any politically opponents, drastically reducing the freedom of people in Russia.

He had success in modernising Russia but millions of peasants died in the process of agricultural modernisation.

Stalin took Russia from a backward state to a thriving modern state. His five-year plans increased resource production tremendously and Russia was producing its own iron, oil and steel. New factories like Magnitogorsk and other industries also were constructed. Many, were east of the Ural mountains.This industrialisation enabled it to fight Germany when they attacked. In the 1930s, free education, subsidised health care and leisure facilities like parks and gymnasiums were constructed to improve the lives of the Russians. Collectivisation also enabled Russia to modernise its farms by introducing tractors and machines.

However, there were failings in his leadership policies and decisions. Worker's conditions in the initial years of the five-year plans were horrible with dangerous and unhealthy conditions and long hours imposed. Many workers were also untrained, leading to spoilt machinery that could not be fixed. Furthermore, collectivisation led many farmers to burn or grow less crops causing a massive famine in which 10 million died. Many peasants, especially kulaks, were killed or sent to labor camps. Many of his political opponents were killed in his purges and there was no freedom of speech as anyone suspected of opposing him was arrested by the NKVD, his secret regime. HE also controlled education and culture, art and made sure people saw only positive images of him.

Hence, although Stalin's leadership of Russia was successful in many ways that he industrialised Russia and enabled her to defeat Germany, it was done at the expense of the workers and the killing of many peasants. His rule was brutal and he was responsible for both restricting the freedom of expression and the types of media people received as well as killing millions of peasants as a result of his plans as well as for keeping dissent against him in check.

SBQ- Surprised?

This post is done in response to the strange N level question that went "Are you surprised by what the source is saying? Explain your answer."

Now, unlike most questions, the skill this one is testing is not immediately apparent. Hence when encountering this type of question, it is necessary to take a sound grounded approach. Do it step by step.

1. You can try to guess at what the source is trying to test. Do ask yourself, how can I best answer this question with the skills that I have and plan your answer accordingly.

2. Remember, the goal is to answer the question always answer it first.

3. Engage the source. When you answer the question, remember to use evidence from the source to backup your response.

4. Do check your contextual knowledge and compare it to what the source is saying. Do this according to what the source is asking you. For eg: I am not surprised because I know that..... and this supports what the source says.

5. Check the source against what others are saying.

6. You can look to see if the source has a desired outcome.

It all depends on the question. The most important part is to actually engage the source using quotes.

Please post questions if you have any

Japan vs China in early 20th century

There was an excellent question in class today asking about why Japan and China are antagonistic towards each other. There is quite a bit of back history about it and I'll just put down what I do remember and know.

China first. China has a history that dates back thousands of years through any dynasties and kingdoms. The most important one arguably was the Qin where the first emperor united China. Ironically, his reign lasted only 27 years and his dynasty collapses after that. China's dynasties have always gone through cycles of rising and falling. The last dynasty with an emperor was the Qing dynasty that lasted from 1644 til 1911. In the meantime, the Japanese had harassed the eastern seaboard of China and Korea even before this period.

The biggest cause for the fall of the dynasty in 1800s was the entry of Western powers into China and a series of rebellions, boxer, Taiping that helped weakened the government. The disastrous opium wars also sped up the demise of the dynasty while corruption and a resistance to accept the technology and knowledge of the West left china in a stagnant state to be carved up by people like France, Britain, Germany and of course Japan. these countries easily gained low taxes for trade and areas that they completely controlled (remember Japanese vs. Chinese Section?) due to China's inability to defend itself.

Sun yat-sen. Of all the reformers that emerged as a result of the decay of the dynasty, he has gone down in History as one of the most important. He had to go into exile because of persecution by the Qing but helped spread the message for change and raise funds to topple the Qing. In fact, when the revolution took place in 1911, he was not in China. His progressive thoughts and leadership helped inspire the revolution. The problem was that a thousands year old way of government will not disappear overnight and China was plunged into a feudal like warlord era after 1911.

Chiang Kai-shek succeeds Sun as leader of the Kuo Min Tang, the party which Sun forms to become the government but never quite does. However by 1929 and on, the warlords had been contained and China quite united under the banner of this government. This resurgence is what the Japanese feel would threaten their interest in Manchuria.

Japan-Has a culturally rich history that has similarities in the cycle of feuding kingdoms, unity and decay that China experiences. While medieval Japan was largely agricultural and insular, two things have persisted into modern Japan, a respect for the military and a military culture based on the older samurai honor codes that favors and values strength and loyalty.

Hence you have a situation where Japan due to internal reasons needs to have an aggressive foreign policy and is led by soldiers who believe in war to gain strength and empire and with an almost fanatic loyalty to the emperor. Their fear is that if China gets too strong, they will lose their hold on Manchuria and be expelled. Instead, they choose to consolidate their position by conquering Manchuria and deeply upsetting the Chinese in the process.

Of course, Chinese politics is very complex in this period and in the background of the growing strength of the KMT is the threat of the Chinese Communist Party trying to overthrow the KMT. But that is altogether an exciting but different part of the history of this period.

Hope this helps.

http://www-chaos.umd.edu/history/imperial3.html#manchus

SEQ model answers.. as promised during class

Hello. I'll give general guidelines for SEQ explanations before I start.

Firstly your explanations always always need to be clear and concise with some specific examples and be able to answer the question using the example.

Secondly, round your answer with a strong concluding paragraph that weighs the factors and shows that either one is more important or all are inter-related and reliant on the other factors to work. This is the tough part. As I said, a summary will not do. You must make a stand on which is truly the most important factor and why.

For 1(a), possible last paragraph:

As Singapore is a Multi-ethnic, multi-religious society, managing perceptions of different races and ensuring equal treatment for all religious groups are essential in maintaining the balance. However, managing international threats is the most pressing as while religious and racial perceptions can be managed through developing common spaces and respecting minority rights, international threats are caused, trained and inspired by external organisations like Al Queda or the Jemaah Islamiyah(JI) in Indonesia which are not fully under our control. The communal tensions caused by terrorism are the most recent developments and more efforts are needed to bridge the doubts and misunderstandings caused by the threat of the JI.

For 1(b)

Developing a National Identity would still be the most effective way of managing multi-ethnic, multi-religious Singapore. This is because Singapore has many different races and religions. Even when given opportunities to interact, in Common Spaces, they might still stick to their own racial and religious groups after activities because of communal bonds. Furthermore, protecting minority rights only tackles the issue on the political front and equality amongst the races might not equate to good and open communication and relations between them. Hence developing a national identity is the factor that bonds Singaporeans ,despite our differences, together and fosters a sense of belonging that becomes the commonality between groups. It also would give groups more reason to protect the harmony of the country and develop open dialogue and communication to prevent communal tensions from harming our country.

Alternative 1 (b)

Common Spaces is the most effective. (quantifying part) As Singapore is a multi-ethnic, multi-religious society, the way we can get along is by developing respect and understanding of each ethnic group that can only come about through interaction and activity provided by common spaces. Most Singaporeans are still ambiguous or developing a sense of nation so that's still in the works and hence might not be effective. Protecting Minority Rights only works on the legal and social status aspects but does little to foster good relations between the races. Just because all rights are protected does not mean the communities get along. Hence, in order for there to be harmony, we must be able to have chances to interact and understand each other to develop good relations and respect and this is achieved through common spaces.

Hope this helps, please leave questions as comments.