Standard Grade History at St.Paul's High School

Enquiry Skills Powerpoint

2007-04-26T11:38:00.000+01:00

This Powerpoint relates to The enquiry Skills question which asks you to describe the attitude of the author of the source.

Click here for the powerpoint.

Enquiry Skills Presentation

2007-04-17T08:39:00.000+01:00

Click HERE for the Enquiry Skills Powerpoint. It will open in a new browser. Just use 'back' to go back to this page.

Revising your K/U

2007-04-16T11:43:00.000+01:00

You should look at THIS site which gives excellent coverage of all the Knowledge and Understanding contain in the Standard Grade History course.

You should also look HERE for extra information.

HOMEWORK - Enquiry Skills Questions

2007-03-20T09:17:00.000Z

This WORD document is a series of Enquiry Skills questions based on the Scottish and British topic.
Just click on the title below and it will open in a new browser.

ENQUIRY SKILLS HOMEWORK SHEETS

The consequences of World War 1 for Germany (Powerpoint)

2007-03-20T08:58:00.000Z

This file is another Powerpoint covering the consequences of World War One for Germany.
Just click on the title below and it will open in a new browser.
The consequences of World War One for Germany.

Weimar Revision - Gustav Stresemann (Powerpoint)

2007-03-20T08:48:00.000Z

This powerpoint will help you with your revision of the Weimar Republic and the contribution of Gustav Stresemann to the 'Golden Age' of the short lived Weimar Republic.
Just click on the title below and the powerpoint will open in a new browser. Each click will give you a new screen.

Gustav Stresemann and the Weimar Republic

Here is an excellent link into a site about Stresemann if you want more detail. Click HERE.

The Nazis and Unemployment (Powerpoint)

2007-03-20T08:37:00.000Z

This file is a powerpoint that we have used in class. One or two of you said you wanted another chance to go over the file.
Just click the file and it will open in a new broswer. Each click will change the screens.
The Nazis and Unemployment

History Exam Guide

2007-03-20T08:10:00.000Z

This file is an excellent guide to the History exams. It gives good examples of types of questions and advice on how to answer them.
This file is a PDF file and you can print it off or copy it straight onto a disc or into your documents. One click of the mouse will open the file in a new browser.
Exam Guide (click)

History Podcast

2007-03-19T13:07:00.000Z

You can either double click these posts and they will play on the computer (you will either need speakers plugged in or earphones) or right click then 'save as' and download them to a file or device of your choice.

1. Why did World War One breakout?
2. The Treaty of Versailes
3 The League of Nations
4. Hitler's Rise to power
5. Nazi Germany

After the prelim...time to get serious about the May exam

2007-03-10T15:12:00.000Z

REVISION - Nazi persecution of the Jews

2007-03-06T10:44:00.000Z

Hitler attempted to make life so unpleasant for Jews in Germany that they would emigrate. The campaign started on 1st April, 1933, when a one-day boycott of Jewish-owned shops took place. Members of the Sturm Abteilung (SA) picketed the shops to ensure the boycott was successful.
The hostility of towards Jews increased in Germany. This was reflected in the decision by many shops and restaurants not to serve the Jewish population. Placards saying "Jews not admitted" and "Jews enter this place at their own risk" began to appear all over Germany. In some parts of the country Jews were banned from public parks, swimming-pools and public transport.
Germans were also encouraged not to use Jewish doctors and lawyers. Jewish civil servants, teachers and those employed by the mass media were sacked. Members of the SA put pressure on people not to buy goods produced by Jewish companies. For example, the Ullstein Press, the largest publisher of newspapers, books and magazines in Germany, was forced to sell the company to the NSDAP in 1934 after the actions of the SA had made it impossible for them to make a profit.
Many Jewish people now left the country. This included a large number of scientists including Albert Einstein. Most of these scientists went to live in Britain and the United States and later played an important role in developing technology that was used against Nazi Germany in the Second World War.

The number of Jews emigrating increased after the passing of the Nuremberg Laws on Citizenship and Race in 1935. Under this new law Jews could no longer be citizens of Germany. It was also made illegal for Jews to marry Aryans.
The pressure on Jews to leave Germany intensified. Hitler, Joseph Goebbels and Reinhard Heydrich organized a new programme designed to encourage Jews to emigrate. Crystal Night took place on 9th-10th November, 1938. Presented as a spontaneous reaction of the German people to the news that a German diplomat had been murdered by a young Jewish refugee in Paris, the whole event was in fact organized by the NSDAP.

During Crystal Night over 7,500 Jewish shops were destroyed and 400 synagogues were burnt down. Ninety-one Jews were killed and an estimated 20,000 were sent to concentration camps. Up until this time these camps had been mainly for political prisoners. The only people who were punished for the crimes committed on Crystal Night were members of the Sturm Abteilung (SA) who had raped Jewish women (they had broken the Nuremberg Laws on sexual intercourse between Aryans and Jews).

After Crystal Night the numbers of Jews wishing to leave Germany increased dramatically. It has been calculated that between 1933 and 1939, approximately half the Jewish population of Germany (250,000) left the country. This included several Jewish scientists who were to play an important role in the fight against fascism during the war. A higher number of Jews would have left but anti-Semitism was not restricted to Germany and many countries were reluctant to take them.
The universities were purged of Jews. Over a thousand people lost their jobs. Rust justified his actions by claiming that: "We must have a new Aryan generation at the universities, or else we will lose the future."
By the end of 1941 over 500,000 Jews in Poland and Russia had been killed by the Schutz Staffeinel (SS). At the Wannsee Conference held in January 1942, Nazi leaders discussed what became known as the Final Solution. It was eventually decided to make the extermination of the Jews a systematically organized operation. After this date extermination camps were established in the east that had the capacity to kill large numbers including Belzec (15,000 a day), Sobibor (20,000), Treblinka (25,000) and Majdanek (25,000).

It has been estimated that between 1942 and 1945 a total of 18 million were sent to extermination camps. Of these, historians have estimated that between five and eleven million were killed.

Railways (Revision 5)

2007-02-19T11:27:00.001Z

Railways In Scotland
Plans for a railway between Edinburgh and Glasgow began soon after the opening of the Liverpool & Manchester Railway in 1830. However, Parliament did not give permission for the first early railway in Scotland until 1838. This impressive railway took four years to build and was opened in 1842. The Edinburgh & Glasgow was fairly level but this meant building large viaducts and three long tunnels. At Glasgow a cable-worked incline was necessary to reach Glasgow Station. In 1865 the Edinburgh & Glasgow Railway was taken over by the North British Railway.

The growth of railways started later in Scotland than England. The first major line, the Edinburgh & Glasgow, was not opened until in 1842. The Caledonian Railway was established in 1845. Beginning at Carlisle, it went to Glasgow via Edinburgh. Another of its lines went from Carstairs to Edinburgh. In 1848 the Caledonian Railway provided the first through service from Scotland to London. All the locomotives used on the line were painted in what became known as caledonian blue

Railways - Revision 4

2007-02-19T11:22:00.000Z

Economic changes·
Coal could be transported across the country, quickly and cheaply to be used as either a domestic fuel, an industrial power source, or to be converted into coal gas in most towns and cities.
·The coal, iron and steel industries received a tremendous boost from the railway building "boom" or "mania", and contributed to coal mining becoming one of Scotland’s largest employers. · Factories were built close to railways as they could be used to transport raw materials and finished goods.
·More than 100,000 people were employed by railway companies, by 1860. ·Railways encouraged the development of a quicker and more reliable postal service, improving private and business communications. People living in large cities has access to a communications system as cheap, convenient and almost as quick as email (with three mail deliveries a day). In emergencies, telegrams could be sent, using telegraph wires built alongside the railway lines.
·Towns and cities close to railways, and particularly those places where engines and carriages were built and/or repaired, grew in size (e.g. Glasgow, Kilmarnock and Perth). At one time, Glasgow built 25% of the world's steam locomotives.
·Farms and fishing ports could send fresh food almost anywhere in the country, cheaply.
·Improved transport led to the development of company brands that were known nationally e.g. Pullars of Perth (cleaning and dry cleaning), various sweet manufacturers (Rowntree, Cadbury and Fry), and beer brewers such as Guinness and Bass.

REVISION 3 - ENQUIRY SKILLS (German Topic)

2007-02-14T13:31:00.000Z

Enquiry Skills

Source H

By 1916 the Germans had already started the story that their food shortages was due to the British ‘hunger blockade’. Yet Germany had not imported food before the war. The truth is that the Germans starved themselves. They took millions of men from the land for the armies. High prices encouraged the peasants to send their pigs and cattle to market. Then supplies ran short. 1916 saw a bad harvest, followed by a bitter winter. Turnips became the staple diet.

An Historian writing in 1963

Source I

We have gone through a strange week – the worst week the German people have had to face. No coal, electric light turned off, the gas turned down, and practically no food. There seems to be no more potatoes. Each of us has been given what they call potato-flocken. I know no English word for it. They seem to be dried potato peelings – you have to soak them overnight then rub them through a sieve. We had that half-pound, five pounds of turnips, three and a half pounds of bread, and that was all.
I went the rounds of the restaurants and I managed to get some cabbage or a tiny piece of chicken, or edible toadstools, and I bought some tinned fish, but it passes my understanding to know how the poor are managing.

A letter written by an Australian woman living in Germany, February 1917

Source J

We have no meat. Potatoes cannot be delivered because we are short of 4000 trucks a day. Fat is unobtainable. The shortage is so great that it is a mystery to me what the people of Berlin live on. The workers say ‘Better a horrible end than an endless horror’.

A member of the German Government 1918

1.Discuss the attitude of the author in Source H toward the causes of the food shortages in Germany during the first World War. (4)

2. How far do sources I and J agree about the hardships of life in Berlin during the last two years of the First World War? (6)

3. How useful is Source H as an explanation of the causes of the shortages in Germany during the First World War? (4)

PRELIM REVISION 2 - THE BRITISH HOME FRONT

2007-02-09T13:24:00.000Z

On 8th August 1914, the House of Commons passed the Defence of the Realm Act (DORA) without debate. The legislation gave the government the power to stop criticism of their war effort, imprison without trial and to take over any resources for the war effort. During the war publishing information that was thought to be of use to the enemy became an offence and could be punished in a court of law. This included any description of war and any news that was likely to cause any conflict between the public and military authorities.In August 1914 the British government established the War Office Press Bureau which could censor news and telegraphic reports from the British Army and then issue it to the press. After complaints from the USA the British government decided to look again at how the war was reported. After a Cabinet meeting on the subject in January, 1915, the government decided to change its policy and to allow selected journalists to report the war.
DORA was also used to control civilian behaviour. This including regulating alcohol consumption and food supplies. In October 1915 the British government announced several measures they believed would reduce alcohol consumption. A ‘No Treating Order’ laid down that people could not buy alcoholic drinks for other people. Public House opening times were also reduced to 12.00 noon to 2.30 pm and 6.30 to 9.30 pm. Before the law was changed, public houses could open from 5 am in the morning to 12.30 pm at night. The Ministry of Food did not introduce food rationing until January 1918. Sugar was the first to be rationed and this was later followed by butchers' meat. The idea of rationing food was to guarantee supplies, not to reduce consumption. This was successful and official figures show that the intake of calories almost kept up to the pre-war level.

REVISION TOPIC 1: GAS

2007-02-08T10:27:00.000Z

The German Army first used chlorine gas cylinders in April 1915 against the French Army at Ypres. French soldiers reported seeing yellow-green clouds drifting slowly towards the Allied trenches. They also noticed its distinctive smell which was like a mixture of pineapple and pepper. At first the French officers assumed that the German infantry were advancing behind a smoke screen and orders were given to prepare for an armed attack. When the gas arrived at the Allied front-trenches soldiers began to complain about pains in the chests and a burning sensation in their throats. Most soldiers now realised they were being gassed and many ran as fast as they could away from the scene. An hour after the attack had started there was a four-mile gap in the Allied line. As the German soldiers were concerned about what the chlorine gas would do to them, they hesitated about moving forward in large numbers. This delayed attack enabled Canadian and British troops to retake the position before the Germans burst through the gap that the chlorine gas had created. Chlorine gas destroyed the respiratory organs of its victims and this led to a slow death by asphyxiation. It is like drowning. It was important to have the right weather conditions before a gas attack could be made. When the British Army launched a gas attack on 25th September in 1915, the wind blew it back into the faces of the advancing troops. This problem was solved in 1916 when gas shells were produced for use with heavy artillery. This increased the army's range of attack and helped to protect their own troops when weather conditions were not right. After the first German chlorine gas attacks, Allied troops were supplied with masks of cotton pads that had been soaked in urine. It was found that the ammonia in the pad neutralized the chlorine. These pads were held over the face until the soldiers could escape from the poisonous fumes. Other soldiers preferred to use handkerchiefs, a sock, a flannel body-belt, dampened with a solution of bicarbonate of soda, and tied across the mouth and nose until the gas passed over. Soldiers found it difficult to fight like this and attempts were made to develop a better means of protecting men against gas attacks. By July 1915 soldiers were given efficient gas masks and anti-asphyxiation respirators.One disadvantage for the side that launched chlorine gas attacks was that it made the victim cough and therefore limited his intake of the poison. Both sides found that phosgene was more effective than chlorine. Only a small amount was needed to make it impossible for the soldier to keep fighting. It also killed its victim within 48 hours of the attack. Advancing armies also used a mixture of chlorine and phosgene called 'white star'.

The end of World War One

2007-01-22T13:19:00.000Z

Tsar Nicolas II of Russia

The End of the War: Russia
In 1917 the Tsar Nicolas II was forced to abdicate.
The Provisional Government or Duma ruled Russia in his place. The provisional government felt strongly that Russia should continue the war. However, after a disastrous summer offensive the provisional government lost much credibility.
A second revolution organised by the communist Lenin overthrew the provisional government. The communists signed the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk that extracted Russia from the war.
German troops were freed from fighting on the Eastern Front and were sent to the Western Front.

The End of the War: USA
Woodrow Wilson

In 1917 America President Woodrow Wilson declared war on Germany. Reasons for American involvement included fear that Allied war debts would not be paid, if the Allies should lose to the Germans.
Americans were also outraged by the German policy of 'sink-on-sight'. German submarines torpedoed all ships from any nation in the war zone.
The publishing of the Zimmerman Telegram, which outlined a German plan to induce Mexico to invade the USA, caused further resentment.

The End of the War: Ludendorff Offensive 1918

Eric Ludendorff

The Ludendorff Offensive differed from previous offensives. He used shock troops at numerous positions along the front at the same time and under the cover of fog. They were lightly kitted and moved fast.
They were very successful and the front moved 60 km southwards.
The momentum, however, could not be sustained. Finally the Allied troops were able to push the Germans back to the Hindenburg Line.

Kaiser Wilhelm

Armistice
The German population was starving as a consequence of the British blockade, and demoralised by the army's retreat. Germany lost the will to fight.
Ludendorff called on the government to negotiate an armistice.
Germany's allies (Bulgaria 20/9/1918, Turkey 30/10/1918 and Austria 03/11/1918) had already agreed to cease-fires with the Allies.
A German delegation met Marshal Foch on November 7, 1918 to discuss a cease-fire.
Foch gave the deputation demands of disarmament, release of Allied prisoners and withdrawal of troops to the River Rhine. He gave them 72 hours to discuss the demands. On the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month 1918, the Armistice came into effect. The war had ended.

Evaluating Propaganda

2006-02-12T11:18:00.000Z

Propaganda is always designed to make you support a point of view. It is designed for a certain purpose. It uses images and slogans to convince people to do something or to think about doing something. All the posters above date from the start of World War One. They all aim to get people to think a certain thing or to do a certain thing.
Q1. Evaluate each source.
Go through each source and identify the purpose of the poster. This means working out what the posters wants the person to do or to think. It is important that you say how this was done.

Danger in the Balkans - by a pupil

2005-12-20T14:08:00.000Z

There was danger of a war starting by the beginning of the 20th century in the area known as the Balkans. There were a number of reasons for this. The Balkans used to be under Turkish rule but there were movements for independence. The first were the Greeks in the 1820s followed by Rumania, Serbia, Bulgaria and Montenegro who were granted their independence. The Turks no longer controlled the area.
When the Turkish Empire was falling apart the Russians showed an interest in the area. In Russia a new movement called Pan-Slavism developed. It aimed to create a federation of Slavs under Russian leadership. People in Russia saw this as a way of increasing influence in the area, and encouraged new independent states in the Balkans to look to Russia for support. Austria-Hungary and Russia were rivals and when Austria-Hungary found out about the Russians being interested in the Balkans, they found it alarming. Austria-Hungary was determined to keep control over the Balkans and extend their influence. This threatened to bring Austria-Hungary and Russia into conflict.

Serbia was the most powerful of the new Balkan states. It gained its independence in 1878, but Serbia was still not satisfied. The Serbians hated the fact that there was a lot of Serbs living in Bosnia under the control of the Austro-Hungarians. The Autrians had invaded the area in 1875. Austria-Hungary didn't want Serbia to get control of the area because they feared that a larger Serbia would threaten Austrian ambitions.

Archduke Franz Ferdinand - Background

2005-12-20T09:50:00.000Z

Franz Ferdinand was heir to the thrones of Austria and Hungary, and it was his assassination in June 1914 that precipitated the outbreak of World War 1.Prior to his death, Franz Ferdinand had considered various schemes to give the Slavic peoples of the empire greater political representation. Among other things, he explored the concept of a 'United States of Austria'. It is one of history's great ironies that Princip and the Black Hand assassinated the one Hapsburg who was genuinely concerned with attempts to re-think Austria-Hungary's relations with its ethnic minorities in an effort to create a peaceful association of nationalities under the flag of the Dual Monarchy.However, such schemes were abandoned following his death on 28 June 1914, and Europe was plunged into four years of war. His nephew Karl succeeded him as Austria-Hungary's heir apparent.

Kaiser Wilhelm II - Background Information

2005-12-20T09:29:00.000Z

Ascent: Emperor Wilhelm I dies 9-Mar-1888. Frederick III is crowned Emperor but cannot rule due to throat cancer and a ninety-nine day coma. Wilhelm II succeeds his father and is crowned Emperor (midyear) 1888.
Noteworthy Relations

Relatives Relationship Country
Crown Prince Wilhelm son Germany
Czar Nicholas II cousin Russia
King Edward VII uncle Britain
King George V cousin Britain
King Frederick III father Prussia
Queen Victoria grandmother Britain
Emperor Wilhelm I grandfather Germany

GermanyPolitics: Above all, the Kaiser wanted "a place in the sun" for the German people. The problem was the only places left were in the shade. There was very little room left for new colonization in the early part of this century. Never the less the Kaiser built up the German military machine and under the Tirpitz Plan, built a naval fleet to rival that of Great Britain. The term "saber rattler" sums up his politics as well as his personality. Historian Barbara Tuchman put it well when she referred to the Kaiser as "possessor of the least inhibited tongue in Europe".

The Kaiser was born with a withered left arm. This, together with having some tough footsteps in which to follow, led Wilhelm towards the military lifestyle. He loved his numerous uniforms and surrounding himself with the elite of German military society.

Why Schlieffen failed

2005-12-19T08:36:00.000Z

Explain why the Schlieffen plan failed.

How it all started...

2005-12-19T08:29:00.000Z

How did World War One start?.

The Balkans

2005-12-19T08:24:00.000Z

Explain why there was tension in the Balkans before 1914.

(you can click on the maps to see them full size. The map at the top of the page is post 1914 but it illustrates a major problem in the Balkan area)

Trouble in the Balkans

2005-12-19T08:18:00.000Z

How useful is this source as evidence of the concerns of European powers about the situation in the Balkans before 1914?

To be able to answer this question you must go through the process:

1. Who wrote or produced the source?
2. When was the source produced?
3. Which type of source is it?
4. Why was the source produced?
5. What does the source tell us?
6. How useful is the source?
(Source A is from a British newspaper 1910)

Welcome to St.Pauls's RC High School History Blog

2005-12-17T05:20:00.000Z

This Blog is designed to assist the work of Standard Grade History pupils at St.Paul's RC High School. Enteries include helpful material for pupils to study at home or in the library. Some of the elements were written by the individual pupils and covers an aspect of the course that the pupil found interesting and wanted to research for themselves.