LESSON 51

Topic: How successful were the economic policies implemented by Perón between 1946 and 1955 - data

TASK 1: Study these tables and try to summarize the information about  the economic situation in Argentina between 1945-1955

TASK 2: Study these two diagrams (focus on the Peronist period and Post-Peron era:

1) GDP per capita of Argentina (% of the US) - here

2) Depreciation of currency in Argentina - here

- Analyze the breaking point in this time period (especially years 1947-48).

- Consider the reasons for the decline in 1947 (such as: decrease of foreign demand, Perón´s nationalization plans, inflation, Peron controlled fiscal policy = printing new money, massive investments into the industry and social benefits).

LESSON 50

Topic: What were the key features of Perón's economic policy?

Timeline

- First Term 1946-1951 (+ First Five-Year Plan 1947–1951)

- Second Term 1951-1955 (+ Second Five-Year Plan 1952–1955)

Aims

• Achieving economic independence through autarky.

• Transfer of foreign-owned companies to the state

• Repatriation of foreign debt.

• Support for nationalism through the development of industries, armament, and heavy industry.

• Obtaining full employment rates.

• Justiccialismo - making accommodations between competing economic and political forces i.e. capitalism, collectivism (= fascism), and communism.

• Provide immediate social benefits (health, education, pension) to the workers.

Task 1: Compare and contrast the nature of the First and Second Five-Year Plans (see documents above)

Summary I: The First Five-Year Plan proposed large-scale government intervention in the economy and the reassertion of Argentina´s control over its own economy.

Summary II: The Second Five-Year Plan was based on encouraging the growth of the heavy industry. After 1951, the emerging economic problems called for a review of policies.

Task 2: Study the key features of the first and the second five year plan and decide which elements were inspired by communist, capitalist or collectivist ideology.

LESSON 1-2

Topic: Introduction to IB and Paper 1

Important links:

- syllabus (see above)
- our Bible - IB-History Guide

- useful link - JSTOR

- useful link - inthinking.org

• Question 1: Comprehension of sources
• Question 2: Evaluation of one source for value and limitations
• Question 3: Comparison of two sources
• Question 4: Synthesizing sources and own knowledge in an analytical essay question

• Question 1: 5 marks
• Question 2: 4 marks
• Question 3: 6 marks
• Question 4: 9 marks

• watch these two videos about Paper 1
• both videos provide some good tips on how to get a highest possible score
• video 1 and 2 - here and here

LESSONS 1-2:

Topic: Introduction and Why Should We Care?

- The territory held by Japan during World War II – Mainland China, both Koreas, Hong Kong, Myanmar, Vietnam, Thailand, The Philippines, Malaysia, Singapore and Indonesia … was more than double the real estate the Nazis “acquired.” And the size of Japan’s occupied territory in terms of population numbers was monumentally greater than Hitler’s, too – approximately 463 million people.

- Whether one sees imperialism as a phenomenon determined by the nature of the metropolitan society, or as a response to international circumstances, it matters that Japanese imperialism came into existence in a way quite unlike that of Britain or France or Germany or the United States.

Q.: What is nationalism and imperialism?

Nationalism:

When the people of a country strongly support the interests of their own nation, possibly to the detriment of the interests of other nations.

Militarism:

When a government or the people of a country believe that it is necessary to have a strong military in order to both defend and to promote the interests of their country. AND - When military determines the course and trends in society - here, here, here, here, here

Imperialism:

Policy of extending power and dominion, especially by direct territorial acquisition or by gaining political and economic control of other areas.

Be aware: Imperialism is not colonialism!

Colonialism

When a country conquers and rules over other regions. Imperialism means creating an empire, expanding into the neighboring regions, and expanding its dominance far.

In Colonialism, one can see a great movement of people to the new territory and living as permanent settlers. Imperialism is just exercising power over the conquered regions either through sovereignty or indirect mechanisms of control.

Before we start our first Paper (Move to Global War) and its first case study (Japanese expansionism), it is necessary to ensure that you know and understand the most basic terms, events, and key figures.

What do you need to know?

• Download the textbook (in the next email).

• Research and write down the definitions of the following terms:

  • Militarism (check Padlet, lessons 1-2, or textbook p. 15)

  • Nationalism (check Padlet, lessons 1-2, or textbook p. 15)

  • Shogun

  • Tokugawa Shogunate

  • Commodore Perry’s mission in 1853

  • Treaty of Kanagawa

• As the next step, we will study the transformation of Japanese society. Due to unequal treaties (like the Treaty of Kanagawa), the Japanese government undertook deep and successful structural transformations of its military, social, and economic systems. This series of reforms is known as the Meiji Restoration in 1868 (= modernization of education, fashion and military, dismantling the feudal systém, establishing a limited form of democracy, new technologies in industry).

• Briefly research the Meiji Restoration.

• The Meiji Restoration was Japan’s response to Western colonialism. Similar reforms were undertaken in China, but with different outcomes.

• Read the comparison of the processes of modernization in China and Japan in the attachment.

Topic: What were the origins of Japanese militarism and nationalism?

- study timeline below (make sure you have some basic information about: Opium wars, Self-strengthening movement, Taiping rebellion).

- analyze this cartoon - here

- Asian responses to imperialism summary here

- By the early 20th century, many Asian intellectuals were looking beyond Western models.

- Some like Liang Qichao in China or Al-Afghani in Afghanistan and Turkey considered supranational movements, like pan-Asianism or pan-Arabism, but in the end they turned to their own traditions as a source of strength.

- Al-Afghani: Modernization hadn't secured the Ottomans against infidels, on the contrary, it had made them more dependent. The best defence against the West is Islam:

‘God does not change the condition of a people until they change their own’

Surah Ar-Ra'd - 11

- Liang Qichao = strong state, strong ruler! He was a critique of European imperialism, but it was also a call for a strong somewhat authoritarian state that could stand up to the West.

Growth of Japanese nationalism and imperialism:

• the determination to transform Japan into a Western- style power, which was linked to the desire for equality with Western powers

• Japan´s belief in its destiny as the leader of Asia

• the need to obtain raw materials and to secure markets in East Asia, and to stop other countries from doing this

• the need for strategic security (= reactionary imperialism see the text Shimazu Nariakira and imperialism)

• the actions of the Western powers in China

• fear of being dominated by the foreign country

• growing popular support for militarism and expansionism within Japan.

• state Shinto (1872-1945) and imperial cult

• Meiji restoration (1868) = industrialization of Japan (see pre-reading for the next lesson) 

Summary - here

LESSONS 3-4

Topic: Meiji restoration and dawn of the Japanese empire

Meiji Restoration in numbers:

Population Growth:

• In 1872, Japan's population was approximately 33 million.

• By 1910, it had grown to over 50 million, indicating a significant rise in population as industrialization improved living standards and healthcare.

Military Modernization:

• Navy: In 1868, Japan had a small and outdated navy. By 1905, during the Russo-Japanese War, Japan’s navy had grown into one of the world’s most powerful, defeating Russia's Baltic Fleet in the Battle of Tsushima. The fleet had 24 modern battleships and cruisers by this time.

• Army: The size of the Japanese army grew from a traditional samurai-based force to a modern conscripted army of 200,000 soldiers by 1905.

Education:

• Literacy rate: In the early Meiji period, the literacy rate was around 40%. By 1910, after the introduction of a national compulsory education system, the literacy rate had risen to around 90%, reflecting the success of educational reforms.

 GDP Growth:

• Japan’s GDP grew rapidly during this period. In 1870, its GDP was around $2.45 billion (in 1990 international dollars). By 1913, it had increased to $9.86 billion, reflecting the growth of industry and modernization of the economy.

Railway Expansion:

• Japan’s first railway line opened in 1872 between Tokyo and Yokohama (29 km).

• By 1905, the Japanese railway network had expanded to 7,000 kilometers of track, facilitating transport and commerce across the country.

Industrial Output

• Textile production: In 1868, Japan had little modern textile manufacturing. By 1913, Japan became one of the world’s largest producers of silk, exporting 27,000 tons of raw silk, which constituted 43% of the global market.

• Coal production: In 1875, coal production was just 600,000 tons annually. By 1913, this had increased to 21 million tons, crucial for powering industrial machinery and steamships.

Political system

• Highly centralized, bureaucratic government - diagram

Q. To what extent was the political system in Imperial Japan democratic?

• Study - Meiji Constitution (Chapter 1 + Chapter 2 + Article 32)

While the political system after the Meiji Restoration contained elements of democracy, such as an elected legislature and a constitution, it was far from a true democracy. Power remained concentrated in the hands of the emperor and the ruling elite (nobility and Genró), and political participation was limited to a small, privileged segment of the population. Japan's political system during this period is best described as a constitutional monarchy with oligarchic and authoritarian features, rather than a democracy.

• Imperial Rescript for Soldiers and Sailors (1882) - here

- This rescript was prepared by Prime Minister Aritomo Yamagata (= leading member of the genrō).

- Rescript stressed absolute personal loyalty of each individual member of the military to the Emperor.

- The national army is now some kind of personal guard of the Emperor.

- The Rescript also cautioned military personnel to avoid involvement with political parties or politics in general.

- The clause that the military was subordinate to civilian authority did not make it into the final draft.

Debut:

- Japanese invasion of Taiwan (1874)

• first overseas deployment of the Imperial Japanese Army and Navy

• revealed the fragility of the Qing dynasty's hold on Taiwan 

• encouraged further Japanese adventurism

Baptism by fire:

- First Sino-Japanese War

 (1894-95)

• Treaty of Shimonoseki

• ending Korea's tributary relationship with the Chinese Qing dynasty

• Japan was awarded the Liaodong Peninsula including the harbor city of Port Arthur, which it had conquered from China

• Problems with Russia, Germany and France

Russo-Japanese War (1904–1905)

• This was the first major military victory in the modern era of an Asian power over a European nation.

• Russia's defeat was met with shock in the West and across the Far East.

• Japan's prestige rose greatly as it came to be seen as a modern nation. Concurrently, Russia lost virtually its entire Pacific and Baltic fleets, and also much international esteem. This was particularly true in the eyes of Germany and Austria-Hungary before World War I. Russia was France's and Serbia's ally; its loss of prestige emboldened Germany in planning for war with France and supporting Austria-Hungary's war with Serbia.

1) Southern part of Sakhalin Island – Japan gained the southern half of Sakhalin Island, while the northern part remained under Russian control.

2) Lease of the Liaodong Peninsula – Japan obtained the rights to lease the Liaodong Peninsula, including the strategically important port of Port Arthur (modern-day Lüshun), which had previously been under Russian control.

3) Korean Protectorate – The treaty recognized Japan’s interests in Korea. Subsequently, Japan solidified its influence over Korea, which led to its annexation in 1910.

4) Railway Rights – Japan gained control over the southern part of the East China Railway, which Russia had built in Manchuria, securing strategic and economic advantages in the region.

• Although the war had ended in a victory for Japan, Japanese public opinion was shocked by the very restrained peace terms which were negotiated at the war's end.

• Two specific requirements, expected after such a costly victory, were especially lacking: territorial gains and monetary reparations to Japan. The peace accord led to feelings of distrust, as the Japanese had intended to retain all of Sakhalin Island but were forced to settle for half of it after being pressured by the United States

Lesson 5-6

Triple intervention (Q. 3 - practice)

VOLUNTARY - Sample Q1A and Q1B.

• Answer these sample questions if you want to practice more.

• You will receive my feedback if you send me your answers.

Topic: Japan after 1900

1) How did international events contribute to the growth

of nationalism and militarism?

2) Why was Manchuria so important to Japan?

3) How did Japan benefit from the First World War?

Lesson 6-7

Topic: Japan 1918-1925, Taishó democracy. Success or failure?

Summary:

• Emperor Taishō (1912–1926)

• Fragile democracy = financial scandals and election law violations eroded public support for the political parties.

• Fear of left-wing radicalism

• Opposition to Shidehara's policy of internationalism = It opposed the idea of aggressive policy in China and Japanese domination in Asia (see international treaties in 1920s and The US Immigration Act of 1924).

• TASK: Gradual shift in the balance of power in favor of the militarists. Review the text of the so-called Peace Preservation Law of 1925 and determine its significance for strengthening the influence of the militarists. Identify at least two relevant points. Peace Preservation Law, April 12, 1925 - source

• Emperor Taisho died in 1929 and new Emperor was celebrated with a revival of the idea of the emperor as a living god.

• Growing economic crisis = large division between the cities and rural areas, growing price of rice caused by good harvest and cheap imported rice, extension of power of zaibatsu and landlords, Wall Street Crash in 1929.

LESSONS 8-9

Topic: To what extend was the rise of militarism and authoritarianism in Japan caused by Shōwa depression?

- The Shōwa Financial Crisis occurred after the post–World War I business boom in Japan. Many companies invested heavily in increased production capacity in what proved to be an economic bubble. The post-1920 economic slowdown and the Great Kantō earthquake of 1923 caused an economic depression.

- study presentation

Consequences:

Throughout the 1930s, the impact of militarist and nationalist thinking in Japan continued to be important in encouraging an expansionist foreign policy:

Three main reasons:

1) Furthermore, crises at home in the government and in the economy allowed these forces to have the upper hand. 

2) Cooperation between the zaibatsu and the army.

3) The continuing political instability that existed in China.

LESSONS 11–12

1) Pre-reading (Years of Turmoil)

- textbook, p. 39–41

2) Sample questions (= homework):

- textbook, p. 41–42 (Source skills - q. 2 and 3).

LESSON 9-10

Topic: Crisis in Manchuria

Pre-reading, p. 29-38

• Make sure you understand the causes of Japanese aggression against China.

  • Chaos in China after 1911:

  • Fall of the monarchy

  • Warlord period

  • Northern expedition

  • Clash between the Guomintang and the CCP (Jiang Jieshi vs Mao Zedong)

  • Kwantung army

  • Zhang Zuolin

  • Japanese plans and previous provocation (shooting of Captain Nakamura, transportation of military materials to Mukden).

  • Mukden incident

• Response of the international community to Japanese aggression against China:

  • League of Nations (= Lytton Report)

  • the US (= Stimson Doctrine)

  • GB and France (= major European powers)

  • China (= Doctrine of non-resistance, no compromises, no negotiation with Japan vs active communist defense)

• Result of the Manchurian Crisis:

  • Japan violated the Kellogg-Briand Pact and the Nine-Powers Treaty.

  • Japan abandoned internationalism.

  • Japan left the League of Nations in 1933.

  • The Manchurian Crisis boosted Japanese nationalism, and it was an inspiration for other authoritarian leaders (Mussolini in Abyssinia).

  • The doctrine of non-resistance harmed the reputation of the Guomintang.

  • Japanese puppet state Manchukuo in Manchuria (Emperor Puyi I.).

Lesson 13

Lesson 14-15

Summary of all presentations on pp. 39-47.

Focus your attention on these events:

• Marco Polo Bridge Incident

• Rape of Nanking (Rape of Nanjing)

• Nanking Safety Zone + John Rabe

• Yellow River Flood

• Bombing Chongqing

• Greater East Asia Co-Prosperity Sphere

What were the results of the Sino-Japanese War for Japan?

• Indeed, up until this time, the Japanese army had been preparing for a major war with the Soviets rather than the Chinese.

• The hope was that China would quickly capitulate and would accept Japanese leadership in a new Asian order. This view underestimated the extent of Chinese nationalism and the outrage caused by such events as the Rape of Nanjing.

• Thus, despite their defeats, the lack of effective weapons and industrial support, the Chinese refused to agree to terms for peace. This meant that Japan had to fight on and push the Chinese further into the interior.

  This led to supply lines becoming overstretched and the Japanese forces becoming more vulnerable to Chinese guerrilla attacks.

• The key problem for Japan over the next few years was how to end the war in its favour. It pursued a number of strategies, including compromised peace terms, decisive military victory, and the setting up of an alternative Chinese regime that would agree to terms with them. None of these methods worked.

• It has been suggested that Japan entered into the war with China without a clear plan for how to end it. Indeed, Japan was still fully engaged in this war, with no end to the conflict in sight, when it attacked Western colonies in November 1941.

  
  

Events after 1937 significantly affected German-Japanese relations:

• Japanese View on Germans in WW2 - video

• With the start of the Meiji period (1868–1912), many Germans came to work in Japan as advisors and contributed to the modernization of Japan.

• At the end of the 19th century, Japanese–German relations cooled due to Germany's, and in general Europe's, imperialist aspirations in East Asia (= Triple Intervention).

• WW1 - Japan against Germany.

• After WW1, France and Germany were also very attractive for Japanese wanting to study abroad, as both countries kept their currencies undervalued in the 1920s. As German universities were considered superior to their French counterparts, 80% of Japanese students going abroad thus chose Germany.

• The idea of Pan-Asia was influenced by the German Pan-Germanic idea.

• After 1933, problems with anti-asian narratives in nazi ideology.

• In spring and again in the fall of 1933, German-Japanese relations were damaged when the Sturmabteilung (SA), a paramilitary branch of the NSDAP, took to beating up Asians studying at German universities. Japanese and Chinese officials complained about "Yellow Peril" propaganda in German newspapers, reports of German plans to ban interracial relationships, and ongoing violence against Asian students all over the country.

• Anglo-German Naval Agreement 1935 - Germany was, from the Japanese perspective, a future ally of Great Britain.

• Hitler had already laid down his plans in Mein Kampf, in which he identified Britain as a potential ally but also defined Japan as a target of "international Jewry", and thus a nation with which Germany could potentially form an alliance.

• Ironically, Germany originally had a very close relationship with the Chinese nationalist government. 

  But in 1937, Hitler concluded that Japan would be a more reliable geostrategic partner and chose to end his alliance with the Chinese.

• Anti-Comintern Pact 1936 (= Berlin, Italy, Japan). What is interesting, Japan and Italy signed Non-Aggression pacts with the Soviet Union.

• 1940 - Fall of France = Japan hoped Germany will defeat Great Britain soon.

• Tripartite Pact 1940 (= Axis Berlin-Rome-Tokyo) - see textbook, p. 47 - read Article 3 - who is supposed to be the "Power at present not involved in the European War or in the Japanese-Chinese conflict."

• Nazi Germany's government also included the Japanese people in their concept of "honorary Aryans".

LESSON 16–17:

Topic: Road to Total War

Q.: Was the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor successful?

To your notebook:

- what is the difference between total and global war?

- admiral Yamamoto and his plan

- look at US casualties after the attack on Pearl Harbor

- was the attack successful (according to the main aim?)

- slide 8: U.S. government had no knowledge of a potential Japanese attack. What is Craig Shirley´s statement?

- Japanese domination in Pacific between 1941 and 1942

After-reading - summary

P. 42 = The Sino–Japanese War of 1937

P. 46 = Why did the conflict deepen after 1938?

P. 49 = Why did Japan attack Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941?

P. 53 = Perspectives Historiography

LESSON 18–19

Topic: Unification and Nature of Italian State since 1870

- 1861 – Italy is unified (except Papel state/ Rome and Venezia and Tyrol) = Kingdom of Italy (king of Sardinia)

- 1870 – Final attack on Rome = fall of papal state = pope declarated diplomatical isolation = prisoner in the Vatican till 1929)

- problems of the new state (see presentation)

- evaluate the role of Giovanni Giolitti

- Scramble for an Empire - map:

• Italian Eritrea (1882–1947)

• First Italo-Ethiopian War (1895–1896) + Battle of Adwa D'oh! :-) 

• Italian Somalia (1889–1947)

• Libya (1911–1947)

• Italian Islands of the Aegean (1912–1945)

LESSON 20

Pre-reading: Political situation in Italy before WW1 and the impacts of WW1

LESSON 21–22

Topic: Fascist ideology

For the reasons why the Fascist Party also attracted left-leaning people, read the Fascist Manifesto and focus exclusively on the economic issues. Fascist Manifesto - text

Fascist corporatism- see diagram below

1) Social Darwinism and racism - discussion:

• European fascist movements typically espouse a racist conception of non-Europeans being inferior to Europeans (= Survival of the fittest).

• Italian Fascism emphasized that race was bound by spiritual and cultural foundations and identified a racial hierarchy based on spiritual and cultural factors.

• While Italian Fascism based its conception of race on spiritual and cultural factors, Mussolini explicitly rejected notions that biologically "pure" races were still considered a relevant factor in racial classification.

• Italian fascism was not based on antisemitism.

• 230 Italian Jews took part in the Fascists' March on Rome in 1922.

• 5 prominent Jewish founding members of the Fascist Party

• 1/3 of all Italian Jews were members of the Fascist Party

• Jewish community in Italy was very nationalist oriented (=New Italian state after 1870 had removed all anti-Jewish legislation - so they like the fascist idea of strong state)

• Since the movement's early years, there were a small number of prominent openly antisemitic Fascists such as Robberto Farinacci.

• There were also prominent Fascists who completely rejected antisemitism, such as Italo Balbo.

• The Fascists opposed to Zionism.

• BUT: Anti-Zionist Jews professed they were religious Jews as part of the Italian nation, while Zionist Jews declared that there was no dispute between Zionism and said that all Italian Jews held patriotic respect for Italy.

• In 1938, Fascist Italy passed the Italian Racial Laws which forbid Jews from their citizenship and forbid sexual relations and marriages between Italians and Jews.

prominent Jewish supporters:

1) Margherita Sarfatti was an influential Jewish member of the PNF and she helped write Dux (1926), a biography of Mussolini.

2) Another prominent Jewish Italian Fascist was Ettore Ovazza, who was a staunch Italian nationalist and an opponent of Zionism in Italy.

LESSON 22-23

Pre-reading: What is Fascism? / Mussolini´s rise to power

What factors contributed to Mussolini´s rise to power?

1) Very moderate social policy (Fascists could be attractive for the workers) - see Fascist Manifesto 1919 - here

2) Catch-all party = fascism was not based on a clear doctrine or theories, so it could appeal to a wide range of groups across the class divide. Italians embraced its demands for strict law, order and regaining a sense of national pride.

3) Two red years = Red revolutionary wave in Europe = political unrest and armed revolts around the world inspired by the success of the Russian Revolution and the disorder created by the aftermath of World War I. - map

4) Economic factors - crisis after the end of WW1. Italian Lira lost almost 39% of its value. By the end of 1920 the lira was worth only one-sixth of its 1913 value.

GDP per capita dropped from 5000 USD to 3900 USD.

In some Italian provinces the unemployment had been around 50%.

Inflation around 400%.

5) The Catholic Church preferred Fascists over Socialists/Communists = Fascists promised restoration of political relations with the Vatican and Pope Pius XI backed Mussolini as he saw the Fascists as a means of improving the position of the Church and cementing church-state relations.

Pope Pius XI called Mussolini a "man sent by Providence".

When Italy introduced anti-Semitic legislation, the pope publicly condemned this new legislation.

6) Blackshirts - here, here, here

7) Radicalization and politicization of the former soldiers and worker

8) Italy did not obtain all territories according to the Treaty of London.

LESSON 23–24

Topic: How did Mussolini consolidate his power?

• read p. 95–96

Additional information

1) Private army / violence

In February 1923, the Nationalists joined the Fascist Party = these nationalist groups had also their own militias that were organized outside the authority of the Italian state (Squadrismo). The local squadristi were brought into a black-shirted national militia which gave Mussolini a private army of 30,000 men.

The 1924 election saw blackshirt violence and vote-rigging. Most famously, in June 1924 fascist thugs abducted the leading socialist Giacomo Matteotti in broad daylight and stabbed him to death.

2) Support / reduction of hostility from potential rivals

Mussolini was effective at gaining support or at least reducing hostility from other potential rivals, for example reassuring Confindustria (= Italian small, medium, and big enterprises federation) that he would support big business, and gaining some support from the church with promises of Catholic education in schools and higher payments to priests

3) Failure of opposition

Despite fascist violence and vote rigging, in the October 1924 election, the opposition socialists and communists gained 2.5 million votes and 2 major northern cities (Milan and Turin) did not have fascist majorities.

Nevertheless, the opposition failed to provide a real challenge to Mussolini. The clearest example of this is the ‘Aventine Secession’ in the summer of 1924.

More information about the treatment of opposition - here

4) Personal dictatorship

From the start Mussolini was effective at putting himself into key positions being Prime Minister, Minister of the Interior and Minister of Foreign Affairs.

As Minister of the Interior he was able for example to instruct the police to ignore fascist violence. The Matteotti Crisis allowed him to increase his power by introducing press censorship (July 1924), and banning all meetings of opposition political parties. The Leggi Fascistissime (December 1925) banned opposition political powers and free trade unions.

5) Removing all potential rivals from his own party

There were no party conferences after 1925 and fascists who disagreed with Mussolini were removed in a series of ‘purges‘.

Potential rivals were removed e.g. Italo Balbo sent to Libya

6) Propaganda and cult of personality

Mussolini originated the model of dictator-as-cult-figure that was emulated by Hitler, Stalin, and others.

It was claimed that he worked 20-hour days. Instead a lamp was left on while he usually went to bed early.

Mussolini's military service in World War I and survival of four failed assassination attempts in 1925 and 1926 (for ex. Violet Gibson) were used to convey a mysterious aura around him.

Mussolini himself authorized which photographs of him were allowed to be published and rejected any photographs which made him appear weak or less prominent than he wanted to be portrayed as in a particular group - here, here, here, here here and here

LESSON 25–26

Topic: What factors influenced Mussolini´s foreign policy?

Aims:

- increase national pride

- consolidate domestic support for the regime

- revise the post-war settlement of 1919–20

- dominate the Balkans

- dominate the Mediterranean

- build an Empire (gain spazio vitale or living space) and - expand its territories in Africa

- foster the spread of Fascism in other countries

Topic: Dynamics of relations between policies and foreign policy.

This topic is not so relevant to Paper 1, but successful domestic foreign policy secured public support for Mussolini's ambitious foreign policy!

Aims:

-built strong nation

-support Italian industrialization

-motto: "Everything in the State, nothing outside the State, nothing against the State.”

- increase national pride

-consolidate domestic support for the regime

-restore Church-state relations

-create the perfect fascist woman and society + increase the birth rate

-fascitise the educational system

Examples:

1) Lateran Accords 1929
 

• The Church received its own sovereign state in the middle of Rome, the Vatican City, and the state restored the authority of the Papacy.  

• The Church also received 750 million lira in bonds as compensation for the territory lost at unification from the state.

• Compulsory religious education in all secondary schools.  

• The Pope recognized Rome as the capital of Italy, authorizing Mussolini as leader of Italy, and also more importantly, withdrew his support of the Catholic Popular Party; this effectively meant that Mussolini was now free of any political rivals. 

2) Schools and education:

• principles of ‘Believe, Obey, Fight’

• A photo of Mussolini in every classroom, pupils were given Mussolini notebooks, and the school day began with prayers and songs about the Duce - here, here, here

• 101 of 317 history textbooks were banned

• 1929 all teachers took a loyalty oath to the state, and a single textbook, the libro unico, was introduced, covering all subjects, which was clearly incredibly biased towards fascism  

• 1933, all teachers actually had to be party members and even had to wear their uniforms to work, and by 1938, due to the rather weak anti-Semitic racial laws, Jewish teachers and students were also dismissed.  

3) Economic and social policies

• Battle of Grain

• Battle of Lira

• Battle of Land

• Battle of Birth

Reading - Mussolini's foreign policy

• Mussolini's methods became more assertive and he was more aggressive diplomatically.

• He continued to assert anti-French territorial claims, but he moved away from his relatively good relationship with the British, instead fostering closer ties to Hitler's Germany.

Q.: What factors had an impact on Italy's foreign

policy in the 1930s?

1) The impact of the Great Depression in 1929

• Industrial output fell by 25% between 1929 and 1932.

• Unemployment grew to 2

  million.

• Investment from the USA was withdrawn, and Italian farmers were also badly affected by the collapse in grain prices.

• Industrial Reconstruction Institute (IRI): The IRI was founded in 1933 to manage the nationalized banks and the industries they controlled, becoming the largest state-owned industrial sector in Europe (outside the USSR).

• Thus, domestic economic actors may have been a factor in Mussolini's decision to invade Abyssinia and intervene in the Spanish Civil War; nonetheless, these wars came at a high price for the Italian economy.

• Even though taxes were increased, the wars led to an annual budget deficit of 28 billion lire by 1939.

2) Changing diplomatic alignments in Europe after 1933

• To demonstrate Italy's central role in European diplomacy, Mussolini held a meeting in Rome in 1933. Mussolini's intention was to develop an alternative to the League of Nations for European diplomacy. The Four Power Pact, or Quadripartite Pact, was signed on 15 July 1933 (= GB, Fr, It, Ger).

• Italy had promoted an independent Austria since the end of the First World War; therefore, Mussolini opposed the Anschluss. When, on 25 July 1934, Austrian Nazi supporters murdered the Austrian Chancellor Engelbert Dollfuss, Mussolini immediately mobilized his troops

  to the border to deter any attempt by Hitler to achieve Anschluss.

• Study Stresa Front on p. 133.

Events:

• Abyssinian War (since p. 134)

LESSON 27–28:

However, Mussolini used foreign policy in the 1920s to consolidate his domestic control in Italy, and by the 1930s Italy's foreign policy would become more Fascist in character.

- check the map and decide, what areas were relevant for Mussolini and his policy in 1920s and 1930s

- describe the differences between the Italian foreign policy in 1920s and 1930s (approach, methods, goals, causes) - use the worksheet below. 

make sure you are able to describe the the development and the nature of Italian actions in these 8 ares:

1) GB (= relationship, response)

2) France (= relationship, response)

3) French colonies in N. A.

4) Ethiopia/Abyssinia

5) Yugoslavia

6) Austria

7) Germany

8) Spain

Basic Information

New EE Guide - here

• The EE is compulsory for all students following the IB Diploma Programme pathway.

• Students can choose from one of two pathways: (i) the subject-focused pathway, e.g., History, or (ii), the interdisciplinary pathway, e.g., History plus another DP subject such as Global Politics, Economics, Geography

• All EEs are assessed against common criteria (including the interdisciplinary essay).

• The word count limit is 4000 words.

• To complete the EE as an academic essay takes approximately 40 hours of work by the student.

• It involves independent research and writing on a research question chosen by the student and based on a topic or issue that is of their personal interest.

• Students must attend 3 compulsory reflection sessions with their assigned supervisor.

• The reflections (Criterion E) are recorded on a separate document and must not exceed 500 words.

Topic: Mussolini's foreign policy in 1920s

• Mussolini pursued his goals, but he carried them out in one way in the 1920s and differently in the 1930s.

• In the 1920s, he tried to present himself as a reasonable actor in international relations. In the 1930s, foreign policy became more assertive in connection with the rise of fascist regimes in Europe.

• Mussolini used foreign policy in the 1920s to consolidate his domestic control in Italy.

1922/23 - Corfu incident = Mussolini invaded the Greek island of Corfu after an Italian official was killed on the Greek border with Albania. The League of Nations condemned this action and demanded that the Italians withdraw. Only when Britain threatened to use its navy did Mussolini agree to withdraw, but he also demanded payment of 50 million lire of compensation from the Greeks.

Mussolini had learned that he could only bully smaller states; he could not intimidate more powerful states such as Britain.

1920-1924 - Fiume Crisis = In the Pact of Rome, the Yugoslavs gave up the city, except the port.

1924 = Italian-backed leader, Ahmed Zog, took power in Albania, on Yugoslavia’s border.

Mussolini invested in Zog’s regime and helped to train the Albanian army. This led to an official treaty of friendship between the two states in 1926, through which Albania became an Italian protectorate.

1924 = Italy formally recognized the Soviet Union. Mussolini saw that the Soviet Union could be a useful tool in gaining diplomatic leverage over other powers.

Mussolini was hostile to France since the 1920s for several reasons:

● Italy had claims over the French territories of

Corsica, Nice, and Sardinia.

● Mussolini was jealous of French North Africa, and he supported opposition movements to French control in Tunisia and Morocco + He continued to support independence movements against the French in Morocco.

● Mussolini aimed to replace French influence in the Balkans and the territory around the Adriatic.

However, although his actions had been aggressive in the Balkans, Mussolini still wanted to present himself as a force for moderation in Western Europe:

1925: Treaty of Locarno = The seven agreements that resulted aimed to secure the post-war settlement

and normalize relations with Germany. The agreements confirmed Germany’s western borders with France and Belgium, but left its eastern border open for future negotiation.

1928 = Kellogg–Briand Pact, which denounced the use of war as a means to resolve disputes.

1928 = Revolt in Libya in 1922–28, which became a full-scale war, and was only put down with the use of massive force and mass executions.

1928 = Treaty of “friendship” with Abyssinia in 1928, despite his long-term ambitions of conquest there.

Italy saw the treaty as a basis for gaining economic advantages and a privileged position in Ethiopia, while Ethiopia remained wary of Italian aggression.

By the end of the 1920s, Mussolini was becoming frustrated with the failure of traditional diplomacy, but had to support the disarmament efforts of the League of Nations due to the weaknesses of the Italian armed forces.

Topic: The Second Italo-Ethiopian War

- Study presentation about the war and international reaction.

LESSON 30

Topic: Spanish Civil War in 1936–39?

- Textbook, p. 141-142 (esp. What were the results of intervention in the Spanish Civil War?)

- Read the text in the attachement about the International brigades and other international (esp. Italian) aid.

LESSON 31

Topic: Final reading, events 1938-1941

- Textbook p. 143–152 (final chapter of Case Study 2: Mussolini)

- Sample Q3 on p. 148 (read Examiner´s hint after you finish your answer)

Important events:

- Anschluss (

- Sudetenland crisis

- Invasion to Albania

- Changing diplomatic alignments in Europe after 1939

- Mussolini’s actions in the war up to 1941

Lesson 32–33

Topic: Why did Germany Surrender in WWI?

- combine your notes from pre-reading and this video (from 0:50).

- great impact on the course of war = Spring Offensive (Ludendorff Offensive)

- between April and November 1918, the Allies increased their front-line rifle strength while German strength fell by half - graph below

- summarize to your notebook:

Q.: What was the impact ofthe First World War and defeat on Germany?

- At this point Germany also faced severe domestic problems: strikes, political unrest, a mutiny from sailors at Kiel, and the impact of the Allied blockade which was causing drastic food shortages.

-  For the many Germans who thought they were winning the war, the armistice was a shock. This was to give rise to the idea that the German army had in fact never lost the war. The Dolchstosslegende or stab in the back theory developed, which explained Germany´s defeat by blaming the socialists of the new government for agreeing to an armistice just when Germany had been on the point of winning the war.

SOURCE: What is the message of this cartoon - here.

LESSON 34–35

Topic: The origins, principles, and ideology of Nazism

• The security and prosperity of late 19th century Germany made many Germans nostalgic for authoritarian government, something the Nazi movement was able to tap into in the early 1930s.

• Nazism’s ideology was shaped by Hitler’s beliefs in German racial superiority and the dangers of communism.

• It rejected liberalism, democracy, the rule of law, and human rights, stressing instead the subordination of the individual to the state and the necessity of strict obedience to leaders.

• It emphasized the inequality of individuals and “races” and the right of the strong to rule the weak.

Three major pillars:

1) Scientific racial theories (19th century - esp. Arthur de Gobineau):

• Gobineau stated he was writing about races, not individuals: examples of talented black or Asian individuals did not disprove his thesis of the supposed inferiority of the black and Asian races.

• Gobineau's primary thesis was that European civilization flowed from Greece to Rome, and then to Germanic and contemporary civilization. He thought this corresponded to the ancient Indo-European culture, which earlier anthropologists had misconceived as "Aryan".

• Superiority of Aryan culture

2) Pangermanism, German nationalism, and Kulturträgertheorie (Germany was a new state in 1871)

• All Germans and German-speaking people should live in one state.

• German culture is and always was superior to Slavic culture. Germans brought the civilization to less developed Slavic areas - for example, Ostsiedlung in the 12th century = migration of ethnic Germans into the territories in the eastern part of Europe.

• Hitler later created a new narrative = The term Aryan was reserved for Germans and the idea of Gross Deutschland = new German empire = two major parts = all areas occupied by German-speaking people + Lebensraum on East (former German areas).

3) Philosophy of Friedrich Nietzsche (idea of Übermensch)

• Christianity and Judaism must be replaced by some new concept.

• The Übermensch is someone who has "crossed over" the bridge.

• The Übermensch constantly improves himself.

• Nietzsche opposed racism and nationalism.

• All people can improve themself and become Übermenschen.

• Hitler converted this narrative = Germans are Aryans, therefore Übermenschen. Other inferior races should be terminated (= Survival of the fittest).

Political factors:

• Treaty of Versailles 1918

• November Criminals = Dolchstoßlegende

• Antisemitism

LESSON 36–37

Topic: A brief history of Weimar Republic

Three periods:

1) 1919–1924 - The Postwar Chaos

- timeline below

- postwar instability

- between 1919 and 1922 there were 376 political assassinations. Of these, 354 went unpunished (Walther Rathenau, the German Foreign minister, was one of the left-wing politicians who was assassinated).

- important role of Freikorps = paramilitary groups  (you can watch this video)

- wave of the nationalistic or red revolutions and putsches:

• 1919 - a communist party called the Spartacists, led by Rosa Luxembourg and Karl Liebknecht, launched a rebellion. President Ebert called in the army and the Freikorps to put the rebellion down.

• April/May 1919 - Failed communist revolution in Bavaria. Crushed by the army very quickly. 

• 1920 - some members of the Freikorps attempted to overthrow the government. Its leader, Wolfgang Kapp, claimed that he would make Germany strong again. However, when workers in Berlin went on strike in support of the government, Kapp fed and the putsch collapsed.

• In January 1923, French and Belgian troops invaded the industrial heartland of Germany, the Ruhr, to force Germany to pay reparations owed to them. In response, the German government ordered passive resistance and strikes, thus denying the French various German goods and raw materials. The German government continued to pay the workers and to be able to do this they printed huge quantities of money, which exacerbated the inflation that already existed into hyperinflation. 

- hyperinflation 1923/24:

• what can you suggest about the hyperinflation in Germany from these pictures - here and here and here and here and here

• 1921: 330 Marks per dollar. 1923: 4,210,500,000,000 Marks per dollar.

• SOURCE: textbook p. 120
  Q.: According to Fulbrook, what was the impact of
  the hyperinflation of 1923?

2) 1924–1928 - The Golden of the Republic

- Germany experienced an economic recovery.

Gustav Stresemann, who acted first as chancellor and then foreign minister during 1924–29, the hyperinflation was halted.

- watch this video

- answer these questions:

• Why was the Weimar Period of 1924 - 1928 a Golden Age?

• Describe Stresemann´s actions against hyperinflation.

• What were the keyfeatures of Stresemann of foreign policy?

• Research: Rapallo Treaty 1922, Dawes Plan 1924, Young Plan 1929

- Check German unemployment during the golden age and the Nazi vote share (textbook p. 124, source A).

3) 1929–1933 - The Fall of the Republic

- the impact of the Depression on Germany

- Germany were not so much reliant on exports as they were on Am,erican loans, which had been propping up the Weimar economy since 1924. 

- from late 1929, no further loans were issued while American financiers began to call in existing loans.

- German industrialists lost access to US markets and found credit almost impossible to obtain.

- by 1932, German industrial production was at 58 per cent of its 1928 levels. The effect of this decline was spiralling unemployment (see p. 124).

- by the end of 1929, around 1.5 million Germans were out of work. Within a year, this figure had more than doubled. By early 1933, unemployment in Germany had reached six million, more than one-third of its working population.

- Depression affected all classes in Germany, not just the factory workers. Unemployment climbed markedly among white-collar workers and professional classes.

- 60 per cent of each new university graduating class was out of work

- The government of Heinrich Bruning failed to respond effectively to the Depression, passing tax increases and spending cutbacks rather than attempts to stimulate the economy.

- Public dissatisfaction with the economic conditions and the government led to a dramatic increase in voter support for Adolf Hitler and the NSDAP, which became the largest party in the Reichstag.

Q.: What factors allowed Hitler to become a dictator?

- pre-reading p. 123–126 (+ blue text on p. 126).

- p. 125 - Source C and D + question 3.

Topic: Political parties in the Weimar Republic

- pluralism 

- the political parties started to have a role in creating a government only in October 1918. They were massively inexperienced.

- the parties on the left were strong supporters of progressive taxation, government social welfare programs, labor unions, equality and economic opportunity for women. They were less nationalistic, militaristic and antisemitic than the parties on the right.

- the parties on the right were strongly nationalistic and supported large military. They were opposed to social welfare programs, labor unions and progressive taxation. They favored an economy directed by industrialists and landowners with large estates. They were antisemitic and favored traditional roles for women. 

- the Nationalists were a more traditional Conservative Party, while the National Socialists were a radical party wanting revolutionary change. Both parties publicly supported the Churches and the role of religion in society but some elements in the Nazi Party harbored hostility to traditional religion.

VOLUNTARY: Here you can find some summary or you can watch this video

Paper 2 essays present particular challenges to students in that they often involve the skill of dealing with examples from different regions and constructing comparative essays.

Duration: 1 hour and 30 min

Exam: Two standard IB essays

Question: Each question has to be chosen from a different topic.

Questions will include ones that are:

a) comparative

b) cross regional

Score: Questions are marked out of 15.

There are generic markbands for marking the essays.

If you want the reach the top score, you must: 

1) reflect on historiography

2) answer the question (command term)

3) provide detailed evidence/context

4) add critical analysis of the sources, events, or historiography

LESSON 38–39

Topic: Hitler's foreign policy

In retrospect, however, it is obvious that the continuity between the diplomacy of the Weimar Republic and the Third Reich can be misleading. The crucial point which showed that Nazi foreign policy was as revolutionary as its domestic counterpart was that Hitler saw revisionism merely as a step towards projects which were well beyond the ambitions of the Republic's statesmen. Although the Republic's politicians had a strong element of opportunism, even ruthlessness, they did not share Hitler's Social Darwinism and racialist vision. They also respected the traditions of European diplomacy and, under Stresemann, contributed much to international co-operation. One of Hitler's aims was to smash the multinational agreements, like the Locarno Pact, which had been carefully built up during the 1 920s.  Stephen Lee

• Hitler's main foreign policy aim after achieving power was to destroy the Versailles Peace Settlement, which had to be carried out alongside rearmament.

• 
  

Useful advice for writing essays for Paper 2.

Command terms - here

Example Questions for Essay Exam:

• "Control of opposition was the most important method used to maintain power in authoritarian states." Discuss with reference to two authoritarian states.

• Compare and contrast the impact of the policies of two authoritarian states on women.

• To what extent was authoritarian control achieved in two 20th century states?

• Compare and contrast the importance of propaganda to the emergence of two authoritarian states.

Sample Questions - here

LESSON 40

Topic: What you should know about the history of Latin America

Voluntary pre-reading - here

This text contains the basic information about the history of Latin America.

Summary:

• Latin American independence movements began due to long-standing internal grievances among elites and popular classes, combined with the collapse of Spanish and Portuguese imperial power after the Napoleonic invasions.

• Although independence initially caused severe economic decline, it later removed colonial institutions that had restricted long-term growth.

• Political order was achieved largely by excluding popular classes while securing property rights and liberal institutions favorable to elites (= landowners, Catholic Church, military) and foreign investment.

• By the late 19th century, elites managed to create more stable political regimes by excluding popular classes from political participation, often through constitutional changes that limited voting rights and suppressed rebellions.

• These regimes prioritized order, property rights, and economic growth, rather than broad democracy.

• Economic growth depended on raw-material exports and foreign capital, especially from Europe and later the United States.

• In the 20th century, populist movements expanded political participation but failed to create fully inclusive and stable states.

• Overall, the text portrays Latin American political regimes as evolving from unstable post-independence governments, to elite-controlled liberal states, to populist and Cold War–era regimes that expanded participation but often limited democracy and institutional development = list of military dictatorships in Latin America

Topic: Dictatorship In Theory And Practice

• There are many different types of dictatorships.

• Their classification is based on their leadership and support coalition.

• Dictators need to keep their support coalitions happy to stay in power.

• A dictator might be replaced by defecting members of their support coalition.

Type of dictatorship

• Monarchic dictatorship = is an autocracy in which the executive comes to and maintains power on the basis of family and kin networks.

  
  

• Military dictatorship = is an autocracy in which the executive relies on the armed forces to come to and stay in power. The military exerts complete or substantial control over political authority.

  • subcategory: Junta = state run by high-ranking officers of a military.

    
    

• Civilian dictatorship = is a form of authoritarian rule in which political power is concentrated in the hands of a civilian leader or civilian-led group, rather than being exercised directly by the military as an institution.

  • subcategory 1: A dominant-party dictatorship = single party dominates access to political office and control over policy, through other parties may exist and compete in elections.

  • subcategory 2: A personalistic dictatorship = leader supported by a party or military retains personal control of policy decisions and the selection of regime personnel.

LESSON 41-42

Topic: What is populism?

- Populism is not an ideology or coherent doctrine - it is the strategy how to spread your ideas and reach your goals.

- Populism is based on idea that society is separated into two groups at odds with one another - "the pure people" and "the corrupt elite".

- Hard working majority is exploited and undermined by elite minority.

- Populist leaders claim to represent the interest of average or working class citizens.

- Populist ideas have often coincided with charismatic demagogues.

- Populism is not necessarily good or bad (Hitler vs Roosevelt)

- Oftentimes this had led to popular movements and legal reforms OR other times it has cultivated in widespread ultra-nationalism and nativism.

- Populists could "represent" the majority inside the minority (for example ethnic or national).

- Right populism and Left populism (Trump vs Sanders).

- There are many local varieties of populism - for example: read paragraphs 35, 36 and 37 and compare the populism in Mexico and Argentina - here

Topic: What long-term factors led to Perón's rise to power?

• Argentina is the 2nd largest country in Latin America.

• 1816 - Independence from Spain

• The economy was based on the export of food such as wheat and meat and the importation of manufactured and luxury goods (= Agro-exporting model), largely from Europe (later in the 20th century US)

• Immigrants from Europe provided the country with a rural working class and skilled urban labourers, which in turn fuelled a continuous increase in agricultural output.

• European and American capital was invested in developing the Argentine railways and meatpacking, communications and service industries.

• Sustained level of growth until the Great Depression of 1929 (for example in 1913 GDP per capita was the same as in France and Germany and more than Spain, its former colonizer).

• The value of its exports dropped from $1,537 million (1929) to $561 million (1932).

• The unemployment rate never went above 10%.

• Prices of commodities plummeted (in 1933, 50% of their 1928 level).

• The Infamous Decade 1930-1943 - began with the 1930 coup d'état against President Hipólito Yrigoyen.

• This event was followed by a period of autocratic conservative rule. Argentine Presidents came to office either through coups or fraud in the election.

• Traditional parties were banned and opponents persecuted.

• Although the economic effects of the Depression were relatively short-lived, it became clear that there was a need to overcome the country´s economic vulnerability.

• The economic problems in the 1930s and the plan to industrialize Argentina only exposed the gaps between the rich and the poor.

• For example, the railroads designed by the British connected the provinces to Buenos Aires, but not to

  each other = the other provinces are economically and socially backwards = people pushed to Buenos Aires.

• The industrial boom was concentrated around Buenos Aires, Córdoba and Rosario).

• Rural workers arrived in the cities hoping to find jobs in factories, but lived and worked in very precarious conditions.

Text: Read the text from historian C. MacLachlan (Argentina: What Went Wrong? 2001) - see below

Q.: What, according to MacLachlan, were the basic problems with working conditions in Argentina?

• Many people were dissatisfied with the corrupt democracy of the Infamous Decade.

• The Infamous Decade ended on 4 June 1943 with the coup led by the GOU.

LESSON 43

Topic: What short-term factors led to Perón rise to power?

Perón's Early Life And Career

• His career was in many ways typical of the upwardly mobile, lower-middle-class youth of Argentina.

• Entered military school at 16 (officer ranks at the end). 

• Service in the Argentine army  - before WWI, the Argentine army was highly Germanophile = admiration of German order and military history)  

• Perón served as an attaché to Chile and traveled to Italy to observe the development of the Fascist state in 1938-1940.

• Perón returned to Argentina in 1941, used his acquired knowledge to achieve the rank of colonel, and joined the United Officers Group (Grupo de Oficiales Unidos; GOU)

• In 1943, he participated in a GOU coup to overthrow the civilian government, taking on the post of secretary of labor and social welfare in the new regime.

Pre-reading: Read p. 13–17

1) Argentina in WW2

2) GOU

3) Perón's early career

4) Rise to power - Secretary of Labor + Minister of War

Additional information:

AD3:

• After the coup of 1943, the CGT labour union, through mercantile labour leader Ángel Borlenghi, made contact with Perón. They established an alliance to promote labour laws that had long been demanded by the workers' movement, to strengthen the unions, and to transform the Department of Labour into a more significant government office.

• In exchange for the mediation of the Secretariat, which often benefited the workers over the employers, Perón expected the unions to recognize government leadership over their affairs. Perón made significant progress in his attempt to militarize the labour union.

• Before 1943 there was a split within CGT (CGT1 and CGT2). Perón dissolved the CGT2, claiming that it was dominated by communists. He restructured the CGT1 as one single union that responded to him.

Perón had a punitive mechanism at his disposal and could not enforce the loyalties of organised labour. But what he could do and did do was bind labour´s recently acquired privileges to his tenure in office. Union leaders understood perfectly well that if Perón lost power, the progress they had been making would swiftly deteriorate.

Joseph Page

If a law were to be proposed, Perón made the announcement. When delegations came to discuss the matter, Perón addressed them. When the law was signed, it was his hand that held the pen... As time went on, the entire national movement came to be seen as the personal and sole achievement of Perón... He was using them, not the reverse.

Robert Crassweller

• His social reforms on p. 15 + enforcement of the 8-hour working day, mandatory paid overtime, employers were required to justify dismissals, expansion of the pension system, sickness and workplace accident insurance for employees and introduced the obligation to conclude collective labor agreements.

  
  

• 1944 Earthquake in San Juan:

  - The military government placed him in charge of the entire rescue and social.

  - Ordered the transport of food, drinking water, medicine, and clothing to San Juan.

  - The army, under his authority, handled logistics and distribution = established field hospitals and emergency medical care.

  - In two months, Perón found a provisional accommodation for more than 35000 people (= temporary housing, barracks, and tent camps).

  - Created the National Fund for Aid to San Juan = funds were distributed directly to families affected by the earthquake, not only to institutions.

  - One-time cash payments were provided.

  - Reconstruction followed modern urban planning and earthquake-resistant standards.

  - Shelter for almost 1000 orphans.

  - Charity events in Buenos Aires (= firstly met Eva Duarte, his future wife) with the most famous Argentinian artists and celebrities.

Ad4

• Perón held the offices of Minister of War and Secretary of Labour simultaneously.

• After the fall of President Ramirez and the appointment of General Farrell, he became Vice-President.

• It strengthened his image as a “strong leader” capable of governing the state.

• He was able to build a network of loyal officers who later supported him.

• The army shielded him from pressure by conservative elites and the opposition = when he was arrested in October 1945, parts of the army remained loyal to him.

• Minister of War, he could prevent military interventions against strikes = the army was therefore not seen as an enemy of the working class.

LESSON 44-45

Topic: The role of ideology: What is Peronism and Justicialismo?

Starter:

We have a third position, in which we do not wish the individual to be exploited in the name of either capital or the state. We want the individual.. not to be an instrument serving the appetites of capital or state.

Juan Perón

TASK: Explain in your own words what Perón means here: what are the other two 'positions' he is referring to?

Starter 2: Perón claimed that 'Peronism is humanism in action'.

- What do you think he meant by this?

Study text below and answer these questions:

1) Which groups in society would have supported Peronism? 

2) Which groups would have opposed it?

Reading (voluntary) - visit jstore.org and read this artickle - Spencer Wellhofer, Peronism in Argentina - here.

- Summarize in your notebook and identify the nature of Peronism between 1946 and 1953.

LESSON 46

Topic: Factors that contributed to Perón’s rise to power = conditions of Argentina, methods used by Perón, and gathering support.

• Argentina declared war on Germany in March 1945 = it increased the unpopularity of the government, which hesitated to break relations with the Axis powers.

• Perón’s accumulation of power worried several sectors of society:

1) Industrialists and businessmen (= disliked the effects of Perón’s labour legislation, feared more government intrusion).

2) Landowners ( = saw their traditional relations with the rural workers affected by Perón’s policy).

3) Socialist/Communist trade unionists felt they were losing influence as Perón favoured the establishment of pararell unions loyal to him.

4) Traditional political parties (= suspended in 1943, worried that Perón would become the official candidate and use the state apparatus, media, and labour unions to win power).

5) Catholics = unhappy with Perón’s lack of morals as he was living with Eva Duarte.

In view of his failure to attract a business group to his heterogeneous coalition, and aware that in such circumstances the working class sector’s support was crucial, Perón radicalised his speech. He began to characterise his base of support as the people, while referring to the opposition as the oligarchy.

Ben Plotkin

• Perón resigned from all his positions on October 8, 1945, but Farrell allowed him to address the people for the last time from the balcony of his Secretariat.

• Following his resignation, there were civilian demonstrations against the military regime.

• Perón was arrested and sent to an island of the coast of Buenos Aires.

• CGT announced a general strike for October 18.

• The day before the strike, thousands of workers abandoned their posts and began to march toward the centre of Buenos Aires.

• Perón was called "Colonel of the people".

• October 17 - Perón was released and addressed 150 000 people on Plaza de Mayo.

It is unclear if the demonstration on October 17 was organized by CGT, if Eva Perón played a leading part in it, or if it was a spontaneous event.

Ben Plotkin

The elections of February 1946

• Elected in 1946 by male universal male suffrage (55%).

• Perón did not have a party structure of his own, but obtained the support of the Labour Party, Peronist trade unions, andother smaller parties like UCR.

• The opposition to Perón (Union Democratia - UD) lacked cohesion. It was a very heterogeneous organization, which included conservatives, communists, socialist and fraction of UCR.

• Very hard to agree on specific proposals that would please all sectors.

• UD candidate José Tamborini lacked popular appeal.

• U.S. Ambassador in Argentina Spruille Braden published the Blue Book in which he described Perón as Nazi Agent.

• Perón responded with the Blue and White Book. He accused the USA of interfering in the domestic policies of Argentina.

• Perón criticized the opposition by saying that they were not oligarchic, but that they were collaborating with foreign imperialistic power.

• Perón portrayed himself as a leader who defended the gains in social justice.

• Governmental mistakes = 2 months before the elections, the government granted a Christmas bonus to all workers, together with other social benefits. The employers complained that they did not have the time to make provisions for this extra pay, and the UD supported them in their claim. It appeared that if he lost the elections, these and possibly other benefits would be lost. It also weakened the appeal of socialist and communist parties, which became associated with the denial of the rights of workers.

REVIEW

Sample questions: Emergence of Authoritarian States

1) Analyze the role of the economy in the emergence of two authoritarian states, each chosen from a different region.

2) Examine the impact of war on the emergence of two authoritarian states, each chosen from a different region.

3) Analyse the methods used by one authoritarian state to establish power.

4) To what extent is charismatic leadership key to the successful establishment of power by authoritarian states?

LESSON 53

Topic: How did Peron deal with opposition?

Through his provision of concrete benefits, and his recognition of their individual and collective rights and interests, Perón became very popular among Argentine workers.  However, he never hid his admiration for Mussolini or even for Hitler.

Ben Plotkin

Opposition:

• Radical political opposition: study this presentation.

• Urban middle classes: Uran area = center of liberalism and home of many intellectuals. A significant part of the middle class did not experience an increase in living standards as they were affected by measures such as the freezing of rents, which for many were an additional source of income.

• Landowners and businessmen: The landowning class resented state intervention, which had significantly reduced their revenues of exports. Besides, by 1950, Argentina’s post-war export boom curbed, and inflation and corruption grew. There was pressure from businessmen for the government to limit improvements made to workers' conditions in exchange for increased investment in the business sector. Perón responded becoming more conservative and repressive and seized control of the press to control criticism of his regime. 

• Workers: In July 1952, Evita died of cancer, and support for President Perón among the working classes became more fragile - she had been the one to guarantee popular support in time of economic difficulties and shortages of goods.
  
  

• Catholic Church: Perón´s attempt to force the separation of church and state was met with considerable controversy. He imprisoned priests who opposed him and accused them of interfering in politics. In June 1955, church leaders responded by excommunicating him, and they encouraged a clique of military officers to plot his overthrow. 

• Military: Less funds for the army and decrease of his support. On September 19, 1955, the army and navy revolted, and Peron was forced to flee to Paraguay. In 1960, he settled in Spain.

Case studies: find out some basic information about these persons:

• Ricardo Balbín

• Jorge Luis Borges

• bishop Manuel Tato

Methods:

1) Nationalization the broadcasting system and monopolizing the supply of newspaper print and shutting down opposition papers, such as La Prensa.

2) At times, Perón also resorted to tactics such as illegally imprisoning opposition politicians and journalists, including Radical Civic Union (Jorge Luis Borges)

3) Centralizing the unions under his control.

4) Cult of personality -  hero-worship, and even an attempt to replace the Catholic religion with a secular one: the national Peronist religion. He took the cult of personality to sickening new heights, indoctrinating children at schools.

5) Peronization of nationalism and nationalization of peronism - see this text (p. 68–72)

6) Manipulation and popularity - see here

LESSON 48-49

Topic: Maintaining power

STUDY: Perón and his base of support (diagram below)

 Additional information:

Social Policy

• Real wages for industrial workers rose about 25–30% between 1946 and 1949, and after that 5% anually.

• Union membership expanded from roughly 500,000 in 1945 to over 2 million by 1951.

• The government established more than 300,000 new housing units through state programs.

• Paid vacations became mandatory; by 1950 around 1.5 million workers were covered.

• The Aguinaldo (13th-month bonus) became compulsory nationwide.

• The Eva Perón Foundation (FEP)

  • (1948–1955):

  • In 1951/2, distributed 400,000 pairs of shoes and 250,000 sewing machines, 500,000 cooking pots.

  • Built over 1,000 schools, hospitals, and homes (various estimates).

  • Provided direct aid to hundreds of thousands of poor families annually.

  • 200 milions USD budget + 17000 employees + own construction division.

Status of Women

• Women gained the vote in 1947 (Law 13,010).

• In the 1951 election, women voted nationally for the first time:

  • About 3.5–4 million women registered.

  • Women made up nearly half the electorate.

• Female political representation surged:

  • 23 female deputies and 6 female senators were elected in 1951.

  • Women held about 15% of seats in Congress — among the highest in the world at the time.

• The Female Peronist Party (PPF - founded 1949):

  • Led by Evita Perón

  • Organized thousands of neighborhood units.

  • Mobilized millions of female voters.

Peronis did not free women from their traditional roles in society. They were given political rights, it is true, but their real standing in society did not change radically. Women continued to figure in textbooks as mothers caring for their children, their workplace usually the home, and their business the family. Even Eva Peron in her book My mission, My Life explained that a woman's place was in the home, the female factory.

Monica Rein

Education and maintaining support among middle-class/students/democrats

• Primary school enrollment increased by roughly 20–25% between 1946 and 1955.

• Secondary school enrollment more than doubled in the period.

• University enrollment grew from about 50,000 (mid-1940s) to over 140,000 by 1955.

• Tuition at public universities was abolished in 1949, making higher education free.

• Adult literacy campaigns reached hundreds of thousands of workers.

Education and how Perón lost the support of the Catholic Church

• Since 1946 - Religion has been a mandatory subject in all schools in Argentina.

• The alliance between Perón and the Catholic hierarchy rested on a common hostility to liberalism and communism.

• The religious education law, however, limited the powers of the Church: teachers, curricular contents, and textbooks were designated by the State, after consultations with the Church if need be.

• Besides this, the rest of the school subjects were independent of religious influence and therefore followed the secular tradition of Argentine education.

• The Peronist government also introduced subjects such as Sports, hygiene, and sanitary care, which the Church deemed excessively concerned with bodily matters.

• Education became a vehicle for quasi-religious propaganda for the personality cult of the president and his wife, Eva.

• In June 1950, Perón appointed Armando San Martín, an anticlerical, as Minister of Education.

• During his second term, Perón resisted the Vatican's aspiration to promote the formation of Catholic-based political parties (i. e. Christian Democracy parties).

• In 1954, out of political rather than ideological reasons, the government suppressed religious education in schools and attempted to legalize prostitution, to pass a divorce law and to promote a constitutional amendment to separate State and Church.

• Perón publicly accused bishops and priests of sabotaging his government (such as bishops Manuel Tato).

• In 1955, Perón was excommunicated by the pople Pius XII.

Perón, in his early presidency, cultivated the Church carefully, recognizing its enormous influence in Argentine society.

Robert Crassweller

Perón’s confrontation with the Church destroyed one of the key pillars of support that had sustained his regime. The quarrel with the Church transformed many previously neutral sectors into active opponents.

Daniel James

Propaganda = targeting certain groups of his base of support

• New textbooks for all levels of education were commissioned by a committee of experts and they include: the words of the national anthem, the preamble to the 1949 constitution and some quotes from Perón's previous speeches.

  
  

• These books were supposed to convey clear Peronist messages wrapped in a great deal of nationalist rhetoric.

  
  

• Political indoctrination of the teachers - New teachers' guide

• Historians generally agree that hundreds to a few thousand teachers were removed for political reasons:

Juan Torre = argues purges existed but were not massive compared to later dictatorships. He emphasizes political pressure and intimidation alongside formal dismissals.

Daniel James - Notes the regime intervened heavily in universities after 1946. Highlights the removal of hundreds of opposition academics, but he did not provide any statistics.

• Book written by Evita Perón - My mission, My life became mandatory reading.

• Perón promoted national art = He encouraged the intellectuals and artists to join him in the effort of creating a national culture.

  
  

• The boom of Argentine cinema = workers and actors were unionized.

  
  

• 1954 Argentina's first international film festival in Mar del Plata.

  
  

• More than a visible censorship apparatus for the arts was self-censorship = authors and artists thought very carefully before they included anything that could sound vaguely anti-Peronist.

  
  

• Peronists magazine - New Argentina - were filled with news and photos of the ruling couple.

  Others - Peronist World - presented current events through the eyes of the party.

  
  

• Song = The Peronist boy/Peronist March - text here

  
  

• Mass rallies on every 1 May and 17 October on Plaza de Mayo (almost 200,000–500,000 people).

  Evita Perón funeral (2-3 million people filed past her coffin in Buenos Aires).

• By 1950, Argentina had over 1 million radio sets.

• Perón’s speeches were broadcast nationwide.

LESSON 47

Topic: Consolidation of Perón

• Perón’s consolidation of power can therefore be interpreted either as an authoritarian dismantling of pluralism or as a legitimate response to the political exclusion of the working class, depending on whether emphasis is placed on repression or popular consent.

Peronism was not the continuation of Argentine democracy by other means, but its negation.
Tulio Donghi

Constitutional guarantees were emptied of substance as power became concentrated in the executive

Carlos Fayt

Perón created a new political identity for the popular classes and incorporated them into the state.

Carlos Altamiran

LESSON 52

Topic: How successful were the economic policies implemented by Peron between 1946 and 1955?

Period 1946-1951

Peronist economy achieved a certain level of success.

• 1947 - paid off the nation´s foreign debt (esp. Dollar and Franks debts and in 1951 even British Pound debts)

  
  

• 1948 - Industrial production surpassed its agricultural outputs.

  
  

• The military budget was also increased - Peron never cut military spending.

The First Five-Year Plan

- The Constitution of 1949 explicitly prohibited the transfer of energy and resources to foreign hands.

- The interventionist agency was the El Instituto Argentino de Promoción del Intercambio (IAPI) = It acted as the sole buyer of Argentina's agricultural exports (mainly grain and oilseeds). It bought crops from local farmers at fixed, lower prices and sold them on the international market at higher world prices.

- The IAPI was a tool used to transfer wealth from the wealthy agricultural sector to the developing industrial sector and the urban working class.

- Immediately after WWII, global demand for food was high, and the IAPI accumulated massive foreign exchange reserves, but by the early 1950s, falling global prices and severe droughts turned the profits into losses.

- By using the IAPI to buy crops at low prices to fund the industry, the government discouraged farmers. This led to a "producer's strike" where land under cultivation dropped by millions of hectares, causing a collapse in export revenues.

- At the same time, he tried to keep prices low, but this attempt led to many problems. First, the rise in salaries pushed producers´cost up - salaries are a critical part of production costs. Second, because producers could not increase their prices, they either stopped producing or decided to sell part of their output on the black market at higher prices that would better cover their increasing costs.

- Perón increased salaries irrespective of whether the different economic sectors experienced improvements that would pay for the rise. BUT To sustain high spending and wage increases, the government turned to debt-financed redistribution and the Central Bank, which triggered high inflation.

- The vast foreign exchange reserves accumulated after WWII were quickly exhausted on nationalizations and social programs, leaving the country short of money to finish major infrastructure projects.

- Nationalization of British-owned railroads, the US-controlled telephone network, and French-owned dockyards, foreign-owned Central Bank (= direct control over fiscal policy = it allowed Perón to print money to fund his Five-Year Plan and provide cheap credit to industry, which eventually led to the high inflation rate seen by 1951).

- This was a very costly strategy - compensation was high as the government paid the price demanded by the owner, trying to avoid a serious international incident with the main trading and investment partners.

FYI:

$600 million USD = British-owned Railroads

$95 million USD = US-controlled Telephone Network

$70 million USD = French-owned railways

$200 million USD = other transactions.

The government spent roughly $1 billion USD on these nationalizations alone. While these moves were politically popular and sparked a sense of "Economic Independence," they exhausted the massive gold and foreign exchange reserves Argentina had built up during WWII, leaving the country vulnerable when commodity prices dropped in 1949.

The Second Five-Year Plan

• Inflation Control: Through a "price and wage freeze," inflation was drastically reduced from roughly 50% in 1951 to 4% in 1954.

  
  

• Agricultural Recovery: Reversing his previous stance, Perón incentivized farmers by raising the prices paid by IAPI and investing in farm machinery. This led to a recovery in exports and foreign exchange earnings.

  
  

• After a severe recession in 1952, the economy grew by roughly 4% in 1954 and 7% in 1955.

• Foreign Investment Opening: Perón realistically recognized that the state lacked capital. He successfully attracted foreign automakers (like Kaiser) and negotiated a landmark (though controversial) deal with Standard Oil of California to boost oil production.

BUT:

• The wage freezes and emphasis on "productivity" over "consumption" alienated the labor unions, Perón's core political base.

• While light industry grew, Argentina remained heavily dependent on imports for steel, heavy machinery, and fuel, which continued to drain the balance of payments.

• The Standard Oil contract was seen as a betrayal of Perón’s "Economic Independence" rhetoric. It sparked fierce opposition from both the left and the nationalist right, weakening his political authority.

• Despite gains in oil, the country suffered from a chronic electricity shortage that hampered industrial efficiency throughout the plan’s duration.

The Second Plan was an emergency correction. It successfully stabilized the currency and saved the agricultural sector, but the "belt-tightening" measures broke the social contract between Perón and the workers, creating the political vacuum that led to his exile.

Historiography

Historians disagree over the success of Perón’s economic policies. While Daniel James argues that they improved workers’ living standards and strengthened labour rights, Paul H. Lewis or Alan Knight contend that the policies were economically unsustainable and contributed to inflation and declining productivity by the early 1950s.

• Daniel James argues that Perón successfully integrated workers into politics and improved social conditions, but the economic model became unsustainable.

• Alan Knight / Paul H. Lewis suggests Perón’s policies worked during the post-war boom but failed when Argentina’s export earnings declined.

• Carlos Escudé argues Perón’s policies helped redistribute wealth and empower workers, creating a stronger domestic market.

• Terence Roehrig notes that higher wages and social programs expanded consumption and supported industrialization.

Reasons: Peróns (bad) Assumptions:

• Belief that the comparative advantages enjoyed by Argentina in the early years of the regime would continue indefinitely.

• The European economy will recover in the 1950s.

• The Cold War will develop into a 3rd World War = Argentina will be a main supplier of primary products for both fighting sides.

• Argentina can spend its wartime profits in the nationalization of companies.

IF you need review or more information:

Reading 1: textbook p. 41-43

Reading 2: scan in the next card p. 320–322

Reading 3: Read this text and make notes about Peron's successes and failures - here.

Case study: A Railroad Debacle and Failed Economic Policies - here

Topic: To what extent did Perón achieve total control in Argentina?

• Juan Perón, especially during his first presidency, 1946–1955, established strong but not absolute control over Argentina.

1. Political dominance

• Marginalised opposition parties have been restricted in their activity

• Used state power to weaken critics

• Built a mass political movement (Peronism) with strong popular support

2. Control of media and propaganda

• Censorship and pressure on newspapers

• Extensive use of propaganda, especially through
  Eva Perón

3. Trade unions and workers

• Brought unions under state influence

• Workers became a key support base → reduced independent labour opposition

BUT:

1. The military remained independent

• The army was never fully controlled

• Eventually overthrew him in the Revolución Libertadora = Navy forces bombed Plaza de Mayo in Buenos Aires and killed 300 civilians and over 1,000 injured.

2. Opposition still existed

• Political opponents, intellectuals, and parts of the middle class resisted

• The Catholic Church turned against him in the early 1950s

3. No totalitarian system

• Unlike regimes such as Joseph Stalin or Adolf Hitler,
  Argentina retained some pluralism.

• Repression existed, but was not all-encompassing

LESSON 54-55

Topic: To what extent did Perón's foreign policy contribute to maintaining power?

• Every authoritarian regime practices two separate foreign policies. First toward the international partners and second toward the domestic audience. Both policies might be different.

• Positive but sometimes even negative impacts could be presented by the state propaganda to the domestic audience and increase the popularity of the regime.

Historians generally agree that Perón’s foreign policy—particularly the “Third Position”—contributed to his legitimacy and short-term economic strength, but most argue that it was ultimately domestic factors, rather than international strategy, that determined his ability to maintain power.

Perón’s foreign policy contributed to a limited extent to maintaining his power. It helped build nationalist legitimacy and short-term economic support, but it was ultimately secondary to domestic factors. His fall in 1955 was driven by internal opposition rather than foreign policy failures.

Mario Rapoport

Foreign policy failed to significantly strengthen Perón’s regime. Argentina remained relatively isolated with no strong alliances or global influence. Perón policy lacked long-term effectiveness.

Joseph A. Page

Foreign policy helped Perón maintain power by building national identity and prestige, esp. thanks to his Third Position idea and Anti-imperialism.

Federico Finchelstein

1. Third Position (Tercera Posición)

• Perón avoided alignment with both the USA and the USSR

• Promoted Argentina as an independent power

• Boosted national pride and legitimacy

• Argentina joined the Non-Aligned Movement in 1973 during the third presidency of Juan Perón.

• Third Position had more symbolic than practical impact.

• Argentina remained relatively isolated diplomatically.

• Foreign policy did not significantly strengthen long-term stability.

2. Economic Independence

• Perón sought to reduce foreign influence by nationalizing key industries, such as the railroad and trolley systems bought from Great Britain.

• State control of trade through IAPI (Argentine Institute for the Promotion of Trade).

• Argentina still relied on exports (especially agricultural goods).

3. Regional Leadership

• Attempted to position Argentina as a leader in Latin America.

• Promoted closer ties with neighbouring countries, especially Chile and Brazil.

• Attempted regional economic cooperation and political coordination.

• Rivalry with Brazil limited leadership ambitions

• Lack of stable regional institutions

• Other countries often remained aligned with the USA.

• Perón’s regional leadership was aspirational rather than fully realised—it boosted prestige but did not translate into real control or lasting alliances (= Joseph A. Page).

4. Diversified Alliances

• Maintained relations with both the United States and the Soviet Union.

• Expanded trade with the United Kingdom.

• Relations with the USA were often tense.

• No strong, reliable strategic alliances emerged.

• Diversification gave Perón short-term flexibility, but did not provide the kind of security or economic stability needed to sustain long-term power.

Next stop... Guess who's coming to dinner again :-)

LESSON 56

Topic: Conditions in which authoritarian states emerged: impact of war, economic factors, social division, weakness of the political system

Additional information

• The Italians fought the Austrians and the Germans across a front in Northern Italy. Between 1915 and 1918 five million men were engaged in military service, mainly as conscripts.   

• Most of the conscripts were drawn from rural areas, as industrial workers were engaged in producing war materials. 

• The war was static and a war of attrition.

• Italian troops fought bravely, endured appalling conditions and were on low pay.

• At the Battle of Caporetto in October 1917 the Italians were surprised by an Austro-German offensive and suffered huge losses; 700,000 troops were pushed back by the more than 100 km.  The commander-in-chief blamed the cowardice of his troops and had thousands executed.  However, the Nationalists blamed the government.

• Despite the catastrophe at Caporetto, the Italian lines held, and Italy finally achieved a victory at the battle of Vittorio Veneto against the Austrians in October 1918.  By this time the German army was exhausted by the Anglo-French offensives on the Western Front.  Austria then sued for peace and an armistice was signed on 3rd November, 1918.

• Italian victory came at a huge human cost for the Italians, more than 600,000 had been killed and hundreds of thousands wounded.

• The government had mobilised the population to fight a ‘total’ war and this led to an increase in the number of industrial workers and in turn an increase in trade union membership and syndicalism.

• The war increased the political divisions in Italy:

  • Division among the political left (pacifists vs. interventionists).

  • The five million men who served in its army were politicised by their experience, and many deeply resented the liberal government for what they saw as the mismanagement of the war. 

  • Arditi - former Italian soldiers and veteran. After the war most of them were active participants in Gabriele D'Annunzio's coup in the city of Fiume and later they joined Mussolini's movement. The anti-fascist Arditi formed The Arditi del Popolo. Its members came from anarchist, communist, and socialist movements.

  • Division among the nationalists

  • Although popular with nationalists, territorial gains in the north of the country meant little to the poor in the south of the country (see Nord-South division).

  • Unclear position of the Church

  • The Catholic church was also uneasy about a war against Catholic Austria.

  • The Vatican refused to take sides, despite pressure from both the Central Powers and the Allies. This position stemmed from a desire to maintain moral authority and a need to avoid further polarizing European Catholics.

  • The diplomatic peace effort of Pope Benedict XV.

  • Despite his failures, Benedict XV’s efforts helped restore the Holy See's global moral influence, leading many countries, including Britain, to re-establish diplomatic relations.

    
    

• Italy gained, in the Treaty of St Germain, the province of Tyrol, the Istrian peninsular, the port of Trieste, the Dodecanses islands, a protectorate and a port in Albania, however it did not receive the port of Fiume nor Dalmatia. - map

• Nationalists strongly promoted irredentism even before WW1, which aimed to seize the Italian-speaking territories of the Austro-Hungarian Empire.

LESSON 57-58

Topic: Conditions in which authoritarian states emerged: impact of war, economic factors, social division, weakness of the political system

Economic factors before 1918

• Economically, there were underdeveloped regions throughout Italy, particularly in the south, where malnutrition, malaria, and cholera were widespread. The north, with prosperous cities like Turin, Genoa, and Milan, enjoyed higher living standards.

• Industry in Italy - map

• Southern question = deep socio-economic divide between the industrialized North and the agrarian, underdeveloped South of Italy.

• The north–south gap was intensified by language differences. Southerners spoke the Sicilian language or a variation of it: a language that developed from Latin and other influences independently of and prior to the Tuscan dialect that was adopted as the official Italian language.

• By the turn of the 20th century, illiteracy in the north was only 11 per cent but soared to 90 per cent in some areas of the south.

• Rise of the Mafia in Sicily.

• Mussolini will never solve the Southern question (!)

• After unification, peasants in the south had hoped for policies of land redistribution and agricultural modernization that would improve their living conditions, but these did not come about.

• Peasant revolts in demand for land, combined with the increasing claims for the improvement of working conditions in cities, contributed to the expansion of socialist and anarchist parties.

Economic crisis after WW1

• Economic impact - diagram

• Only about 16% of war costs were covered by tax revenue, forcing heavy reliance on debt and printing money.

• Italy's national debt-to-GDP ratio reached approximately 180% by the end of 1920.

• Wartime spending financed by printing money caused inflation to intensify = By 1920, the lira was worth only one-sixth of its 1913 value. External debt to the US and UK was over five times the value of annual exports by 1921.

• Large firms grew dramatically to meet military needs. For instance, the workforce at the Ansaldo munitions company surged from 6,000 to 110,000, and Fiat grew from 4,000 to 40,000 employees (= future supporters of Mussolini).

• Post-war demobilization led to a sharp rise in unemployment, which reached two million as soldiers returned to a peacetime economy.

• Traditional farming suffered as resources shifted to industry. Wheat production fell from 5.69 million tons in 1913 to 4.5 million tons by 1919.

LESSON 59

Topic: Conditions in which authoritarian states emerged: impact of war, economic factors, social division, weakness of the political system

After 1918

• Frequent changes of government (short-lived coalitions)

• Inability to create stable majorities in parliament

• Lack of strong leadership to deal with crises = Return of Giovanni Giolitti between 1920/21 (= trasformismo).

• 1919 - Introduced proportional voting, which led to fragmented parliaments.

• Rise of many small parties = no clear majority (If a party got 20% of the vote, it got roughly 20% of the seats).

• There was an effort to make parliament better reflect the will of all voters, not just elites (= Before the war, liberals dominated thanks to a system that favored them).

• After the war, they lost support and tried to reform the system to maintain influence.

• Elites wanted to integrate socialists into the system to calm tensions

• Failure to Control Violence:

1) Wave of strikes and factory occupations = Biennio Rosso (1919–1920)

• 1,663 industrial strikes in 1919, compared to 810 in 1913.

• More than one million industrial workers were involved in 1919.

  The trend continued in 1920, which saw 1,881 industrial strikes.

  Rural strikes also increased substantially, from 97 in 1913 to 189 by 1920, with over a million peasants taking action.

  185 metal-working factories in Turin had been occupied.

The socialist parties failed to see the revolutionary potential of the movement; had it been maximized and expanded to the rest of Italy, a revolutionary transformation might have been possible. Most Socialist leaders were pleased with the struggles in the North, but did little to capitalize on the impact of the occupations and uprisings. Without the support and quarantined, the movement for social change gradually waned. This hesitation led to the final division of the Italian Left after 1921.

William A. Pelz

2) The government failed to stop Squadrismo violence

• During Biennio Rosso, the local authorities and police often ignored or supported fascists.

• After the Biennio Rosso, it was difficult to control the Squadrismo; most of them were self-organized at the local level (= Mussolini would bring them under full control in 1926 by passing the Consolidated Public Safety Act = Squadrismo now became the Blackshirts).

• Rise of political violence = There were 207 political killings in 1921.

Uncontrolled violence was the most visible aspect of the weak Italian political system. This chaos got Mussolini an opportunity to be acceptable for the most parts of Italian society.

Stanley G. Payne

3) Division on the left - reformists, maximalists, revolutionaries.

• Reformist = moderate socialists led by Giacomo Matteotti. Socialism through evolution.

• Maximalists = radical socialists; socialism through (Italian) revolution.

• Revolutionaries = Communists, socialism through revolution according to the Soviet model.

LESSON 60–61

Topic: Successes and failures of Mussolini’s domestic policies - Battle of births

Topic: Successes and failures of Mussolini’s domestic policies - Battle of grain

Additional information

Wheat production 1881-1900 = 3,4 mil tons

Wheat production 1900-1914 = 5,05 mil tons

Wheat production 1915 = 4,6 mil tons

Wheat production 1917 = 3,8 mil tons

Wheat production 1918 = 4,4 mil tons

Since 1914 limited expansion of production due to WW1.

Wheat production 1922 = 4,3 mil tons

Wheat production 1923 = 6,12 mil tons

Large spike in 1923 credited to Mussolini but in fact he had nothing to do with it (better weather conditions).

Effectivity:

Successful for the poorer parts of Italy (south and islands) = increased by 160,000 Ha in the south.

Unsuccessful for the richer parts of Italy (north) = diminished by 61 Ha in the North and 65,000 ha in central Italy.

Increasing wheat yield but the increase was not steady and stable:

• decrease from 1923 to 1924 (bad weather)

• decrease in 1926 (weather)

• decrease in 1927 (Central and southern Italy experienced 3 months of drought)

• increase in 1929 (massive use of fertilizers).

Topic: Successes and failures of Mussolini’s domestic policies - Battle of land

Additional information

Previous project 1862-1924

• 597000 Ha of swamp drained

• 660000 Lira spent

From 1928 to 1938, the initiative did succeed in reclaiming:

• 80,000 Ha.

• Over 1 b. Lira spent

It was only one-twentieth of what the Fascist regime claimed in its propaganda, which claimed it would reclaim one-sixth of Italy's land.

Three-quarters of the reclaimed land was in the North. The South, which was most in need of such improvement, was largely neglected.

• 3500 new farms

• 147 new settlements/towns (like Littoria and Sabaudia)

These cities were designed in a modern architectural style (Rationalism) and were intended to serve as a showcase of the regime's success in 'conquering' nature and creating new living space for Italian peasants.

Topic: Successes and failures of Mussolini’s domestic policies - Battle of Lira

LESSON 62

Topic: How did Mussolini maintain his power? Treatment of opposition, propaganda, control of media

Treatment of opposition

The weakness of the political opposition to the fascist regime was not only due to repression by the state, but also because Mussolini ensured the support of political journalists who would have normally championed the opposition by offering them pay incentives and grants. 

He offered similar sweeteners to academics, including titles and generous pensions.  Any criticism of the state would lead to the immediate removal of all benefits. 

However, there was also a lack of cohesion and division within the opponents of the regime.  The Communists, for example, refused to work with any other group. Moreover, opposition to Mussolini was dangerous. 

Historians have estimated that by 1926 fascist squads killed around 2,000 people and the murder of Matteotti in 1924 had sent a clear warning that the fascists were prepared to use violence to silence their opponents. 

The regime’s secret police, the OVRA, tracked possible dissidents and had the support of thousands of informers.  It also had its own court that had tried more than 4,000 defendants by the end of the 1930s handing down more than 30 death sentences.  12,000 Italians were sentenced to house arrest, usually in isolated villages. Prison camps were set up on islands such as Lampedusa and these camps held up to 5,000 political prisoners.; however although conditions were harsh and there was sometimes torture of inmates, these camps were nothing on the scale of the concentration camps in Nazi Germany.

Creation of national and local archives (schedatura) in which e-ach citizen was filed and classified depending on their ideas, habits, relationships and any shameful acts or situations which had arisen; in this way, censorship was used as an instrument for the creation of a police state.

Despite this intimidation, the Communists maintained an underground resistance with 7,000 activists.  It published its own newspaper, L’Unita, and distributed anti-fascist propaganda.  As well as the Communists, another opposition party, Justice and Liberty, was founded by Carolo Roselli who aimed to form an alliance between the Socialists and Liberals. Based in Paris, he attempted to brief the international press about the real situation of oppression in Mussolini’s Italy. Pamphlets were smuggled into Italy to spread anti-fascist ideas, however the group had only a few thousand supporters.  Nevertheless, the regime took Justice and Liberty seriously enough to have Roselli murdered in 1937.

Use of of ideology and propaganda

I often would like to be wrong, but so far it has never happened and events have always turned out as I foresaw.

Mussolini

The role of Fascist ideology in Mussolini's rise to power has already been discussed. Once Mussolini was in power, many strands of the Fascist ideology were quietly forgotten as Mussolini wanted to reassure influential sections of society and also bring the more unruly elements of the fascist movement under control. So, for example, the anti-capitalist aspect was watered down in order for Mussolini to get acceptance from big business and the anti-Christian ideology was played down in order to get the Catholic Church on side. Also Fascism no longer talked about Republicanism and over throwing the monarchy.

Propaganda in Fascist Italy in the 1920s revolved around the personality of Mussolini - so much so that Fascism has been termed 'Mussolinism'. It presented Mussolini or Il Duce as an all-powerful, charismatic leader. Mussolini's face was projected everywhere. Sculptures of Mussolini appeared everywhere, the radio played his speeches, school children were told about his amazing personal abilities.

Propaganda was also a key component of his domestic and foreign policies:

• For example his 'economic battles' were launched with speeches which stressed the ideological messages of national pride, preparation for war nd the greatness of Mussolini as leader. They were not only statements of economic policy, they were designed to reinforce the cult of 'Il Duce' or Mussolinism'.

  
  

• Mussolini originated the model of dictator-as-cult-figure that was emulated by Hitler, Stalin, and others.

  
  

• It was claimed that he worked 20-hour days. Instead a lamp was left on while he usually went to bed early.

  
  

• Mussolini's military service in World War I and survival of four failed assassination attempts in 1925 and 1926 (for ex. Violet Gibson) were used to convey a mysterious aura around him.

  
  

• Mussolini himself authorized which photographs of him were allowed to be published and rejected any photographs which made him appear weak or less prominent than he wanted to be portrayed as in a particular group - here, here, here, here here and here

Control of media and press - text

Italian government had applied strict censorship rules from May 1915 onward. Parties opposed to the war (e.g., the Socialist Party) were scrutinized with particular severity. Mussolini thus inherited an Italian state already inured and amenable to a level of censorship, targeted in particular at speech and political activity regarded as disloyal or undermining the interests of the nation at large.

Guido Bonsaver

• Rather Mussolini contended that “Fascism requires militant journalism,” the country’s newspapers presenting themselves “as a solid bloc,” committed to “the Cause” and obscuring or outrightly burying any fact or story antithetical to it.

Even more than post-​factum censorship, Mussolini favored this kind of proactive steering of the press, hardly subtle and clearly defining his expectations as both military and civilian leader of the people.

David Damato

• Established a High Commission for the press in 1929. Inspired by Nazis, it was transformed into the Ministry of popular culture = no longer manipulating the press and suppressing certain ideas to be undertaken in an ad hoc or reactive manner.

• Following the Nazis, the Fascists dedicated more resources to compiling detailed lists of individuals and titles, all for the goal of “cultural reclamation” and purification.

• On the issue of censoring foreign language use, the idea of autarky effectively banned foreign languages, and any attempt to use a non-Italian word resulted in a formal censoring action = BUT = Censorship did not however impose heavy limits on foreign literature, and many works by foreign authors were freely readable. Those authors could freely frequent Italy and even write about it, with no reported troubles.

• In 1930, it was forbidden to distribute books that contained Marxist, Socialist or Anarchist like ideologies, but these books could be collected in public libraries in special sections not open to the general public. The same happened for the books that were sequestrated. All these texts could be read under authorization for scientific or cultural purposes, but it is said that this permission was quite easy to obtain = BUT = this has changed after 1938!

LESSON 64

Topic: The aims and effect of Mussolini's domestic policy

How successful were Mussolini's economic policies?

Mussolini was not an economist and at first did not have a coherent economic policy.  Nevertheless, as his political position became more secure Mussolini became more confident in pursuing a transformation of Italy. 

His ‘radical’ new way of organizing the economy was by establishing the first ‘Corporate State.’ = This system was, according to Mussolini, superior to capitalist economies like the USA and communist economies like the USSR.  After he had established the Corporate State Mussolini aimed to make Italy an ‘autarky’, or an economy that was self-sufficient. (study the material in the attachment).

At first Mussolini’s regime benefitted from a period of relative economic growth as exports of cars, textiles and agricultural goods doubled between 1922 and 1925. 

The appointment of an academic economist, Alberto De Stefani, as treasury minister, reassured skeptical big businessmen and his policies gained further support as he limited government spending which kept down inflation. 

Reducing government intervention and outlawing socialist and communist trade unions [in the Vidoni Palace Pact of 1925 = brought the fascist trade unions and major industries together] meant that the leading industrialists swung their support behind the regime. 

However, once his position was more secure, Mussolini moved away from courting the industrialists.  He dismissed de Stefani, and revalued the lira.

Historical Perspectives: Did Mussolini’s policies improve the Italian economy?

It has become a common conception that Mussolini did bring about some key improvements in the Italian economy, with foreign journalists praising his achievements at the time. 

Nicholas Farrell emphasizes the positive effects of fascist policies, modernizing industry, the vast public works programs and land reclamation initiatives which helped to make Italy a modern European state.  Indeed, millions of hectares of land were developed into farmland, the infrastructure improved - the fascists had made ‘the trains run on time’ and built thousands of kilometres of roads. Overall, both historians argue that productivity increased.

Edward Tannenbaum argues that ‘Economically Fascism was a failure.’  He suggests that the near autarky in grain production was at the expense of other key produce and that Italy’s overall economic performance in the 1930s was worse than any other major industrialized country. 

John Whittam also argues that businessmen were increasingly uneasy with the policies of autarky, and price and import controls.  He highlights the fall in the standard of living for the working classes and how many people joined the PNF merely to secure a job as unemployment rose.

Most historians agree that the Corporate State as a whole had failed to transform the economy and trade relations.  Martin Blinkhorn argues that in practice it was merely a disguise for the exploitation and oppression of labor.

LESSON 63

Topic: Consolidation of power

Additional information

Italian Youth

• In 1923, the school reforms passed by the regime were more conservative than fascist in nature, and they focused on rigorous examinations for the children at elite schools and institutions.  Radical fascists demanded a more coherent fascist program for education.

• Mussolini focused on the teachers, many of whom were viewed as either openly anti-fascist or unsympathetic to the regime.  

• In 1925 all teachers who were deemed ‘suspect’ were dismissed from their jobs, and from 1929 teachers had to take an oath of loyalty to the Duce. 

• The Fascist Teachers Association was established in 1931 and membership was made compulsory in 1937. 

• The Duce’s portrait was hung next to that of the King in every classroom. 

• A textbook for 8-year-olds made it clear that children should have total loyalty to the great leader: The eyes of the Duce are on every one of you… You must obey because you must.  What is the duty of a child? Obedience! The second? Obedience! The third? Obedience!

• In 1926, the Opera Nazionale Balilla [ONB] was set up.  The ONB organized youth groups and activities. The membership was not compulsory from the beginning; however, during the 1930s, membership was made compulsory for children from 8 years old and by 1937 it had 7 million members. 

• There was also an organization for university students, the Gruppi Universitari Fascisti [GUF], that aimed to create a Fascist elite by ensuring that older students continued to engage with fascist ideas and maintained their military training. 

The Fascist youth organizations had a powerful impact on youth growing up under the regime, although membership itself was by no means universal.  An estimated 30 to 40 percent of the population between the ages of eight and eighteen never joined at all, the vast majority of whom were probably working-class youth and young women, especially those who left school before the age of fourteen.  However, even before the enrolment was made compulsory, the overwhelming majority of middle class children joined either out of conviction or because of the material advantages offered, or as a result of teacher pressure, parental fears, or a single desire not to be excluded from such a highly visible form of sociability.  The generation born after World War I in Italy thus experienced Fascist regimentation as something entirely routine. Having had little or no contact with alternative organisations or cultural models

V. De Gazia

• Women group - Fasci Femminili (FF). 

• The FF had 750 000 members by 1939.  There was also a group for girls, the Picooloe Italiane for eight to twelve year olds and the Giovani Italiane for thirteen to eighteen years olds.

• In addition, the cost for female students to study was increased to discourage women from further education.  Restrictions were put on women at work to prevent them from having authority over men.

• Women who had been involved in left-wing politics were persecuted.  Camilla Ravera had been a leading member of the Italian Communist Party which had been forced underground following the March on Rome.  Despite being wanted by the state, Ravera became the General Secretary of the clandestine party in 1927.  However, in July 1930 she was arrested and subsequently was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

• In addition, in 1927, the Jewish Women's Union was founded which aimed to challenge fascism and promote feminism.  The racial laws implemented in 1938 - see below - dealt a key blow to women's status in fascist Italy as the few females who had retained academic positions were of Jewish descent. 

Topic: What were the limitations of Mussolini’s domestic policies?

The main aims of Mussolini’s domestic policies were to set up the Corporate State, drive the Italian economy into greater productivity and ultimately autarky, establish a fascist society and consolidate the Duce’s personal control. 

The successes of his initiatives and programs were emphasized, such as the infrastructure projects and sporting achievements e.g. Italian victories in the football world cups of 1934 and 1938), whereas the failures were not mentioned. Some historians view his only real achievement in domestic policy as being the agreement with the Church.

The fact that Mussolini had to make the final decision on so many different issues led to serious delays in the system.  It not only led to bad decisions, it also meant that the Duce could not make sure his decisions were being carried out. Ultimately, the regime suffered from ‘confusion, delay and incompetence.’ [Robson].

Indeed, Mussolini never really changed Italian attitudes, and there seems to have been much outward conformity to the fascist state without much real conviction.  He tried to break ‘bourgeois thinking’ in Italian society and promote fascisation by, for example, making it compulsory in 1937 to replace the traditional greeting of a handshake with a fascist salute, and he even attempted to change the calendar, taking 1922 as the new year 1. 

However, these dictates were met with apathy and irritation. and directives on how women should dress (not to wear makeup or trousers) were derided.  In addition, there was resistance to the ‘Battle for Births’ program, and although the Dopolavoro was generally popular, Mussolini’s other social initiatives were not.  Most young people left school when they were 11 years old, many Catholic schools did not pursue the fascist curriculum, and membership of the ONB was not enforced.   It is also important to note that despite the best efforts of the Ministry of Popular Culture, often ridiculed and called ‘Minculpop’, fascist newspapers never achieved more than 10% of circulation.  The Vatican’s newspaper remained more popular and actually increased its readership from 20,000 to 250,000 in the late 1930s. Therefore, although Mussolini remained generally popular with the Italian public he was unable to enact a ‘fascist revolution’ in society.

Furthermore, some estimates have suggested that only 15% of the civil service was fascist in 1927.  Although the number of fascist party members increased in the 1930s, as people became aware that this was the only way to get promoted, the reality was that there was no ‘fascist revolution’ in government.  

Topic: Mussolini's social policy + minorities

Additional information

His approach combined assimilation, repression, and racial policies, which evolved over time, particularly after Italy’s alliance with Nazi Germany.

Assimilation Policies Toward Linguistic and Cultural Minorities

Denis Mack Smith: "Mussolini’s goal was not just to govern minorities but to erase their cultural identity and replace it with Italian nationalism."

When dealing with a race as inferior as the Slavic race, one must use the fascist stick. The borders of Italy should be defended by exterminating these barbaric Slavs.

Mussolini

Mussolini was not inherently anti-Semitic but used racism as a political tool to align with Nazi Germany.

Renzo De Felice

Treatment of African Minorities in Italian Colonies

Mussolini viewed Italy’s African colonies as an opportunity to expand Italian racial superiority and implement harsh racial policies.

Libya and Eritrea

• Libyan resistance (led by Omar Mukhtar) was crushed brutally.

• Concentration camps were set up in Libya, leading to the deaths of tens of thousands.

• Native populations had restricted rights and were forced into labor.

• Mussolini called Libyans "half-animals who must be taught their place."

  
  

B. Ethiopia (Second Italo-Ethiopian War, 1935-1936)

• Massacres and war crimes:

  • Use of chemical weapons (mustard gas) against Ethiopian civilians.

  • Graziani Massacre (1937): Italian forces killed thousands of Ethiopians in retaliation for an assassination attempt.

• Racial segregation policies similar to South African apartheid were introduced.

Italian colonialism under Mussolini was defined by extreme brutality and racial hierarchies.

Angelo Del Boca

R.J.B. Bosworth: "Mussolini’s fascism was a flexible ideology, using minority repression when politically useful but without a consistent doctrine."

Denis Mack Smith: "Fascism was never ideologically committed to racism until it aligned with Hitler, after which it became a defining feature."

LESSON 65-66

Topic: To what extent was authoritarian control achieved?

Mussolini had considerable power and enjoyed deference from colleagues but that an excessive desire for personal control and a highly bureaucratic approach to governing meant he was not able to effectively use the powers he had while the government became dysfunctional and lacked dynamism. His need to play the omnicompetent leader resulted in his isolation as a leader and insulation from advice on policy matters to the detriment of decision-making. Mussolini also never created the machinery to deliver his intentions from the center of government. The state bureaucracy retained considerable autonomy free of serious political encroachment, while attempts to extend the reach of central government by numerous public entities created bodies that were more managerialist than Fascist in their operational logic while local administrative bodies were able to retain considerable discretion to respond to local needs and political interests.

Peter J. Williamson

While authoritarian control in Fascist Italy was extensive and deeply infiltrated various aspects of life, it was not without limitations. Mussolini's regime successfully established a dictatorial system with significant control over politics, society, and the economy, but faced inherent challenges and resistance that ultimately contributed to its downfall.

James Bosworth

Mussolini's regime exerted significant authoritarian control, it was far from absolute and faced constant resistance and obstacles from various sectors of Italian society.

Anthony Cardoza

Limitations and Challenges to Mussolini's power

• Local Autonomy: Some regions retained a degree of local autonomy and resistance to central control.

  Furthermore, some estimates have suggested that only 15% of the civil service was fascist in 1927.  Although the number of fascist party members increased in the 1930s, as people became aware that this was the only way to get promoted, the reality was that there was no ‘fascist revolution’ in government.  

• Church Influence: The Catholic Church retained significant influence over Italian society. The Lateran Accords of 1929 created a complex relationship where the Church had a degree of independence.

  The Vatican’s newspaper remained more popular and actually increased its readership from 20,000 to 250,000 in the late 1930s.

  Most young people left school when they were 11 years old, many Catholic schools did not pursue the fascist curriculum, and membership of the ONB was not enforced.  

• Wartime Pressures: The outbreak of World War II and Italy’s subsequent military failures weakened Mussolini's control. The Allied invasion of Italy in 1943 and the subsequent collapse of the Fascist regime illustrated the limits of Mussolini’s power.

• Economic Inefficiency: Despite efforts to create a self-sufficient economy, Italy struggled with economic inefficiencies. The corporatist model led to bureaucratic inertia and corruption, hampering economic productivity.

• Industrial Discontent: Workers and industrialists often resisted the corporatist system. Strikes, though illegal, continued to occur sporadically, indicating underlying economic dissatisfaction.

• Cultural Plurality: Italy had diverse regional cultures and identities that resisted homogenization under Fascist ideology. Local traditions and loyalties often took precedence over national Fascist ideals.

  It is also important to note that despite the best efforts of the Ministry of Popular Culture, often ridiculed and called ‘Minculpop’, fascist newspapers never achieved more than 10% of circulation. 

• Bureaucratic Corruption: The Italian bureaucracy was rife with corruption and inefficiency. Many officials were more interested in personal gain than in implementing Fascist policies effectively.

• Lack of Successor: Mussolini did not cultivate a strong succession plan or a capable cadre of leaders who could effectively manage the state, leading to instability.

Presentation - Treatment of opposition

Additional information on the next card!

LESSON 67:

Topic: Introduction

Examination questions for this topic will require students to make reference to specific 20th-century wars in their responses, and some examination questions will require discussion of wars from more than one region of the world.

Example: 

• Compare and contrast the short-term causes of two 20th-century wars

• Compare and contrast the causes of two 20th-century wars, each chosen from a different region

• Compare and contrast the role of ideology in causing two 20th-century wars.

• Compare and contrast the role of economic factors in causing two 20th-century wars, each chosen from a different region.

• ’Wars are caused by economic factors.  With reference to two 20^th-century wars, each chosen from a different region, discuss the validity of this claim.

• With reference to two inter-state wars, to what extent do you agree that territorial factors were the main cause of war in the 20^th Century?

• With reference to two 20^th-century wars, examine the role of ideology as a cause of conflict.

• Compare and contrast the effects of two civil wars, each chosen from a different region

• With reference to two 20th-century wars, each chosen from a different region, examine the impact of guerrilla tactics on the outcome of the conflicts.

• Compare and contrast the effects of peacemaking after two 20th-century wars.

• Compare and contrast the role of technology in determining the outcome of two wars.

Topic: What is the general content?

- Causes of war: economic, political, ideological, territorial, as well as long-term and short-term.

- Practices of war: the different types of war:

1) Total war = is a war in which one of more combatants commit all of its resources to the war effort.

2) Civil war = is a conflict fought between two factions or regions of the same country.
3) Guerrilla war = it is more a tactic employed in war rather than a distinct type of war itself.

4) War between the states = is when two or more different countries become belligerents, and they utilize their national forces to fight.

5) The role of technology in the outcome of the war.

6) The role of the different theatres of war: land, sea and air, in terms of the outcome.

7) The extent of mobilisation

8) The impact of foreign powers.

- Effects of war: the territorial, economic, social and political impacts of war.

Essay writing:

Q.: For each war that you cover, you need to consider: The Causes of War

1) What were the long and short term causes of the war and which were more significant?

2) What were the economic causes of the war?

3) What were the ideological causes of the war?

4) How far were territorial issues a key cause?

5) What other factors contributed to the outbreak of war?

Q.: For each war that you cover, you need to consider: The practices of wars

1) What type of war is it and why? (civil, inter-state, or guerrilla)

2) How was the war fought on land, on sea and in the air?

3) If a civil war, what was the impact of foreign intervention?

4) How did technological changes impact on the fighting?

5) To what extent was the war 'total'?

Q.: For each war that you cover, you need to consider: The effects of war

1) How are peace treaties arrived at?

2) Overall territorial, political, economic, and social impact of wars.

Next stop: Paper 2 - Causes and Effects of 20th century wars!

LESSON 68-69

Topic: Long-term causes of the Vietnam War

• Before colonisation, land in Vietnam was often village-based, with communal elements and imperial oversight under the Nguyen Dynasty.

• Since 1887, the countries now known as Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia were under the control of the French = French Indochina - map

• French culture grew across the country.

• French colonial rule created a new landlord and bureaucratic class, which benefited from the French presence in Vietnam.

• This new class adopted the French culture and the Catholic religion.

• Large areas of fertile land—especially in the Mekong Delta—were confiscated and turned into plantations.

• Land was concentrated in the hands of French settlers and a small Vietnamese elite who collaborated with colonial authorities.

• Many peasants lost their land and became tenant farmers or laborers, often heavily indebted.

• Bao Dai was the final emperor of the Nguyen Dynasty.

• He ruled nominally under French supervision and his authority was limited; real power remained with the French colonial administration.

• Many Vietnamese saw him as a puppet ruler, lacking legitimacy.

• Early resistance against French rule -

  The First World War gave impetus to the growth of Vietnamese nationalist feeling; indeed, Ho Chi Minh went to the Versailles peace conference hoping to get the support of President Wilson who had advocated self-determination for all peoples = Wilson refused to meet him.

• Two fraction of the Vietnamese resistance movement - 1) the French could help Vietnam modernize and eventually achieve independence, 2) revolution is the only way to achieve independence.

• Till 1925, the movement lacked a coherent ideology, but by the end of 1925, most Vietnamese scholars rejected the idea that France was at all necessary for Vietnam's development.

• 1930 - Ho Chi Minh established ICP (Indo-Chinese Communist Party), which became the main opposition force to the French and then the Japanese during the Second World War - founding speech

• Connection: French colonialism = Vietnamese Feudalism and Nationalism + Communism = National independence.

• Attempts by the ICP to resist the French in the 1930s were largely frustrated. However, it survived and went underground. When the Japanese took over Indochina in the Second World War, it was Ho Chi Minh who took the lead in resistance.

• 1941 - Viet Minh (= League for Independence of Vietnam), a communist-led national independence coalition.

• The were a 10,000-member guerrilla force that operated with the Việt Minh. Ho Chi Minh oversaw many successful military actions against the Vichy France and the Japanese occupation of Vietnam during World War II.

• 1945 - Declaration of Independence of Vietnam (text)

• Despite Ho's declaration of independence, the Allies (Britain, USA, USSR, China) had agreed that, on the defeat of Japan, Indochina should be returned to France.

• Ho and the French made an agreement whereby France recognised Vietnam as an independent state within the French Union and Ho would allow 25,000 French troops to remain in Vietnam. However, this was seen by both sides as unsatisfactory and temporary.

• Despite promises during the Second World War to support independent nations and Roosevelt's anti-imperialist stance, Truman supported the French return to Vietnam. Ho Chi Minh made requests for help from the US (as you will have seen in the video above). He asked for US recognition for his Democratic Republic of Vietnam and when this failed, eventually persuaded the Soviets and the Chinese to recognise his state.

• First Indochina War 1946-1954 (Viet Minh vs French and Vietnamese loyalists).

• The French underestimated the strength of the Viet Minh which developed into a powerful fighting force. Unlike the French, who sought only a military solution, it was focused on both military and political aspects.

• American involvement in Vietnam started in 1950 when the US gave aid to the French government to help resist the forces of Ho Chi Minh, a Vietnamese nationalist who had been fighting for Vietnamese independence since before World War Two. In fact, the Americans had actually given aid to Ho during World War Two to assist in his resistance against the Japanese who had taken over the region. But in the growing hostility of the Cold War after the Second World War, Ho Chi Minh's credentials as a communist were emphasised far more than his nationalist credentials and so when the French refused to relinquish its hold over its ex-colony, Truman decided to help them defeat the Vietnamese forces.

• Key to explaining US actions in Vietnam are the events going on in the Cold War in Europe after 1947 and in Asia from 1949 with China's successful Communist revolution and then the invasion of South Korea by North Korea in 1950.  In addition, the 'Red Scare' inside the US, which was intensified from 1950 by 'McCarthyism', meant that Communists could not be tolerated. In this situation any US President would be expected to be 'tough' on Communism overseas. Indeed, following the Korean War, all US presidents accepted the idea encapsulated in NSC 68, and also in the concept of the Domino Theory articulated by Eisenhower, that the Soviet Union was a danger and that there was a real threat of communism spreading globally. This severely limited the course of action open to the US and meant that they had to support the French against what they saw as the spread of 'imperialistic communism'. By 1954, the US was funding 80% of the French war against the Vietnamese.

• Despite American aid, the French were defeated at the Battle of Dien Bien Phu in 1954.

• 194 - Geneva Accords = Vietnam would be temporarily divided at the 17th parallel:

  • North Vietnam under Ho Chi Minh

  • South Vietnam under a non-communist government (eventually led by Ngo Dinh Diem)

• National elections were supposed to reunify the country in 1956.

SUMMARY:

• Creation of a national resistance movement against foreign oppressors (French, Japanese, Chinese... Americans)

• Viet Minh became a dominant resistance movement.

• Movement had experience with guerrilla warfare.

• Huge social gap between the people.

LESSON 70

Topic: Short-term causes of the Vietnam War

• The USA did not sign the Geneva Accords.

• In response to the agreement, they attempted to strengthen the area south of the 17th parallel by supporting a non-Communist government led by Ngo Dinh Diem, which would be able to resist an invasion from the North.

• Who was Ngo Dinh Diem? = Nationalists and anticommunists from a traditional catholic Vietnamese family. He worked in the French colonial administration, and later he was also Minister of the Interior (1933). During the WW2, he collaborated with the Japanese, but they did not support him as the head of the Vietnamese state. After the war, he was seen as a great opponent of communism by the US.

• Based on a manipulated referendum in 1955, he established himself as president (with the help of the CIA and Edward Lansdale) — research Operation Passage to Freedom.

• The regime of Ngô Đình Diệm (1955–1963) in South Vietnam was characterized as an authoritarian, nepotistic, and staunchly anti-communist administration that blended Confucian, Catholic, and "personalist" ideologies. His rule was marked by significant internal repression and an inability to build a broad popular base.

• Supported by the US, Diem said that he did not feel bound by the Geneva Accords and refused to hold elections in 1956.

• Both regimes in the North and South tried to secure the loyalty of the population through a series of reforms =

  Ho Chi Minh’s reforms were more radical, ideologically driven, and aimed at transforming society along communist lines, while Ngo Dinh Diem’s were more conservative, unevenly implemented, and focused on maintaining an anti-communist state—with authoritarian tendencies but less systemic social restructuring.

• Major difference in land reform:

  1) Ho Chi Minh implemented radical land reforms inspired by communism. Land owned by landlords was confiscated and redistributed to peasants. This aimed to eliminate traditional elites and build a socialist economy.

  2) Ngo Dinh Diem introduced more moderate land reforms, like the “Land to the Tiller” idea. His government attempted redistribution but was less aggressive and often ineffective. Many large landowners retained influence, and reforms were inconsistently enforced. Diem soon became very unpopular and his regime was challenged by the guerrilla movement (Viet Cong).

• The US established SEATO (Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation), signed by Australia, Britain, France, New Zealand, Pakistan, the Philippines and Thailand.

• Despite the Geneva Accords establishing the neutrality of Laos and Cambodia, SEATO included South Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia as its 'protected areas'.

• It thus became a legal basis for further US actions in Vietnam.'

• In 1959, Ho Chi Minh decided to support armed struggle in the south of the country, represented by the guerrilla movement Viet Cong.

• In 1960, the National Liberation Front was established in the south, under which the Viet Cong’s combat units operated. The National Liberation Front sought to overthrow the government of South Vietnam and to unify all of Vietnam under communist rule.

• The attacks that began in 1959 continued to intensify. The year 1959 is considered the beginning of the war.

• US Military intervention = The Gulf of Tonkin Incident 1964 = it was the trigger for starting direct US military intervention in the Vietnam War - video

  
  

SUMMARY:

• The Geneva Accords were not respected.

• North-South division (communism vs anticommunism).

• Vietnamese in the north were loyal to the communist regimes.

• Armed resistance in South,

• US intervention - different nature - see here

• Cold War (= Research US political doctrines - Containment, Domino Theory, Quagmire theory)

LESSON 71-72

Topic: Practices of the Vietnam War = guerrilla tactics

STARTER: What is Guerrilla Warfare? - video

• In the Vietnam War, guerrilla warfare was important from beginning to end, but its role changed over time:

  A) Guerrilla warfare was the main method of fighting in the early stage of war (1950s–early 1960s)

  The Viet Cong operated in small groups, using ambushes and controlling rural areas.

  B) Guerrilla tactics were still important, but combined with larger operations in the middle phase (around 1965–1968).

  The regular army of North Vietnam became more involved.

  C) Guerrilla warfare became less dominant in the final stage (after 1968)

  Conventional warfare played a bigger role, led by North Vietnam.

• The National Liberation Front of South Vietnam (NLF) referred to as Viet Cong or VC, and the North Vietnamese Army (NVL) deployed these strategies in a land war against the US. 

• Even though the Vietnamese lacked aircraft, tanks, and artillery, their use of guerrilla strategy and tactics against the US ultimately was a key factor in determining the outcome.

• At first, the focus was on guerrilla warfare in the south whilst simultaneously improving the air defenses of the north. By the late 1960s, the Vietnamese were sufficiently confident that their strategy had damaged US commitment and morale to sustain larger military formations where they could hold the advantage.  These forces would still rely on retreat if necessary.

• The Vietnamese were able to use knowledge of the landscape to avoid open battle with the Americans, who had superior air and firepower, and to launch raids and ambushes.  Its forces could launch surprise attacks and then disappear back into the often dense forest.  The Vietnamese also had long-term experience of using guerrilla strategy against the Japanese and the French. 

• A key logistical route was developed, the Ho Chi Minh Trail, which stretched from North Vietnam to the South, and could move troops, equipment and supplies - map

  Research: The role of Ho Chi Minh Trail.

Key Guerrilla Tactics and Techniques

• Hit-and-Run Attacks: VC forces rarely engaged in direct, conventional battles. They would strike small patrols or installations swiftly, then vanish into the jungle or civilian population.

• Tunnel Networks: An estimated 200 miles of tunnels—such as at Cu Chi tunnels — There were hospitals, armouries, sleeping quarters, kitchens and wells underground. These tunnel systems could hide thousands of Vietcong which helped them fight their guerrilla war - scheme

  To counter these, the US sent in ‘tunnel rats’ or smaller build troops to search and destroy the tunnels. However, this proved ineffective as the Vietnamese often booby-trapped the tunnels with spikes, pits and grenades.

  Research - Củ Chi tunnels

• Booby Traps and Mines: Simple yet effective devices were used, including punji sticks (sharpened, filth-covered bamboo stakes), tripwire grenades, and repurposed US explosives, causing high anxiety and casualties.

• Camouflage and Civilian Integration: Soldiers wore no standard uniforms, making it impossible to distinguish between combatants and peasants, which protected them from air strikes and created high pressure on US troops.

  Viet Cong fighters could be women or children.

  The cells they worked in were very small so that if captured, they could not be tortured for information about others.

• Ambush Tactics: Troops utilized the Ho Chi Minh Trail for logistics and staged surprise attacks on transportation routes, often mimicking US signal practices to confuse air support.

• "Pocket Battle" / Encirclement: A tactical approach where guerrillas would lure reinforcements into a trap, attack with superior numbers at a specific point, and quickly withdraw.

• Research: Battle of Ong Thanh

While U.S. soldiers rarely lost in open engagements, but it was the persistence and constant harassment of the guerrilla forces that eventually led to the U.S. withdrawal from Vietnam in 1973.

Lewis Sorley

• American response to guerrilla tactics = Search-and-destroy (approx. 1965–1968) = strategy was designed to combat guerrilla tactics by using ground troops to locate communist units, destroy them with superior air and artillery support, and then withdraw.

• These missions sought to disrupt North Vietnamese Army (NVA) and Viet Cong (VC) supply lines, often targeting rural villages suspected of harboring enemy combatants.

• Troops were deployed by helicopter into remote areas (the "boonies") or enemy strongholds to engage in battle, frequently followed by destroying enemy resources.

• Zippo Missions - named after the Zippo lighters.

  A colloquial term for burning down villages and structures suspected of supporting the Viet Cong.

• Proved ineffective in the long run. While inflicting high casualties, the tactic failed to hold territory, allowing the Viet Cong to return once U.S. troops moved on.

• Search-and-destroy was largely replaced later in the war by smaller, more mobile missions = jitterbug missions. (= Named after the swing dance)

• It was an alternative to traditional, slow search-and-destroy methods.

• The goal was to entrap enemy units by using superior speed and aerial mobility.

• Example: Several companies of infantry would be landed by helicopter for short, rapid searches of high-probability areas like treelines or canals. If no enemy was found, they would quickly redeploy to another location, "jumping" around like a flea or a "jitterbug".

  Research:

  Operation Cedar Falls

  - U.S. forces discovered and destroyed extensive tunnel systems, seized 3,700 tons of rice, and captured over 500,000 pages of documents.

  - This operation weakened enemy infrastructure in the region so significantly that it contributed to the failure of the communist uprising in Saigon during the later Tet Offensive.

  Operation Junction City

  - While the entire headquarters was not captured, the operation decimated the Viet Cong's 9th Division.

  - Approximately 2,700 enemy soldiers were killed compared to 282 U.S. casualties.

  
  

Although these missions were tactically successful (high enemy casualties and destroyed supplies), they often had only a temporary effect. Once U.S. troops left an area, the Viet Cong typically returned to the cleared zones. This cycle meant that even a "successful" operation, such as the capture of Hamburger Hill, ended with the position being abandoned shortly after the battle.

Also the terrors against the people made American and the government of South Vietnam unpopular on the countryside which was beneficial for Viet Cong.

Fredrik Logevall

Summary: Perspectives

• Orthodox School = Emphasizes that the U.S. was doomed to fail due to a lack of understanding of Vietnamese nationalism and supporting a weak ally

• Revisionist School = Argues the U.S. could have won with a better strategy and that the war was a justified effort to contain communism.

LESSON 73

Topic: Were guerrilla tactics successful because of Soviet and Chinese support for the Vietnamese?

USSR

• During the Vietnam War, the Soviet Union played a pivotal role by providing crucial military aid to North Vietnam.

• Initially displaying limited interest in the conflict, Soviet involvement intensified following the fall of Nikita Khrushchev from power.

  The objective was not only to impede the United States but also to avoid direct confrontation with it. This shift in Soviet strategy became more pronounced in the late 1960s, coinciding with a decrease in China's influence due to the escalating discord between the two nations.

• Soviet military assistance encompassed essential components such as air-defense equipment, including radar and surface-to-air missiles, as well as comprehensive pilot training and the provision of aircraft, notably "some all-weather MIG fighters" and IL-28 light bombers.

• The Soviets also furnished North Vietnam with technologically advanced surface-to-air missiles, a capability beyond China's technological reach at that time. This contribution, while not without controversy, reportedly resulted in the downing of some U.S. planes.

• The Soviet Union, however, maintained a calculated approach, deploying only around 3,000 troops into the conflict, a significantly lower number compared to the Chinese involvement. This strategic restraint was a manifestation of the delicate geopolitical balancing act undertaken by the Soviets to obstruct the United States without triggering direct conflict.

• A key aspect of Soviet support was the dispatch of a group of military specialists from the Soviet Armed Forces to Vietnam, responding to a personal invitation from Ho Chi Minh. From July 1965 to December 1974, over 6,000 generals and officers, along with more than 4,500 soldiers, were sent as specialists to provide military and engineering assistance to the Vietnamese People's Army.

  In addition to the Soviet personnel, small contingents of auxiliary forces from other nations, including Bulgaria and Cuba, accompanied and supported the Soviet efforts in Vietnam. This collaborative endeavor underscored the multifaceted nature of Soviet military assistance during the Vietnam War, combining material support with on-the-ground expertise to bolster North Vietnam's military capabilities.

China

• After the Gulf of Tonkin incident in August 1964, there was a major escalation of China's involvement in Vietnam. 

  It actively coordinated with Vietnamese forces. In an attempt to counter the overwhelming U.S. airstrikes, Ho Chi Minh sought Chinese Anti-Aircraft Artillery (AAA) units during a meeting with Mao in May 1965. In response, the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) commenced its deployment into North Vietnam in July 1965, aimed at defending Hanoi and crucial transportation systems. The total Chinese troop presence in North Vietnam from June 1965 to March 1968 exceeded 320,000, peaking at 170,000 soldiers in 1967. 

• In that same pivotal year, the PLA and People's Army of Vietnam (PAVN) & Viet Cong (VC) reached a comprehensive agreement. This accord entailed the provision of substantial material support by the PLA, including uniforms, shoes, rice, salt, meat, fish, sesame and peanuts, beans, lard, soy sauce, white sugar, toothbrushes, toothpaste, soap, and cigarettes.

• This support allowed Hanoi to utilize its manpower for battles in the South, sustain vital transport and communication links between the North and the South, and acted as a deterrent against further US incursions into North Vietnam. 

• At the end of the war, the Chinese claimed to have spent over $20 billion in support of North Vietnam, deploying more than 320,000 military personnel, and incurring 4,000 casualties.

Perspective:

Ironically the foreign intervention favored the South in terms of raw numbers and dollars for much of the war. Ultimately, foreign intervention provided the material capability, but the political willpower and the North's ability to maintain a "total war" focus were the decisive factors.

Marilyn B. Young

LESSON 74

Topic: US intervention and strategies:

The US intervention in Vietnam covered the presidential term of four US presidents - diagram

1) President Kennedy - US strategy 1961-63

• Increased Military Advisers: One facet involved a significant escalation in the number of U.S. military advisers stationed in South Vietnam. By the time of Kennedy's tragic death, the number had surged to 17,000, demonstrating a substantial commitment to the region.

• Counter-insurgency Operations: Kennedy's administration initiated counter-insurgency operations against Communist guerrillas in the South. This encompassed aggressive 'search-and-destroy' missions aimed at the Vietcong, coupled with the utilization of defoliants like Agent Orange (1962-1971 = 20 million gallons = 20% of South Vietnam) to eliminate jungle cover. Furthermore, the United States supported the Strategic Hamlets Program = relocating villagers to fortified settlements ostensibly safeguarded from Communist threats.

  The program represented a deeper US role in shaping South Vietnam’s internal political and military policies. However, it was poorly implemented and often unpopular with peasants, increasing resentment toward the Diem government.

• Creation of 'Green Berets': To bolster the fight against Communism, Kennedy introduced the 'Green Berets,' a specialized U.S. military counter-insurgency force trained in guerrilla warfare. This represented a proactive measure to enhance the effectiveness of U.S. military engagement in the region.

• Encouragement of Reforms: Recognizing the need for social and political change, Kennedy encouraged South Vietnamese leader Ngo Dinh Diem to implement reforms. The intention was to address the root causes of discontent and win the support of the population.

Evaluation:

• Despite these efforts, the implemented measures failed to curtail the increasing success of Vietcong attacks on the South.

• Initiatives like the Strategic Hamlets Program and the use of Agent Orange backfired, alienating the local population.

• Meanwhile, Diem's unpopular policies, particularly those suppressing Buddhist practices, fueled widespread discontent.

  In 1963, a crisis erupted over Diem's anti-Buddhist measures, including laws banning the celebration of the Buddha's birthday. The Buddhist community responded with mass protests, including rallies, hunger strikes, and self-immolations = Thích Quảng Đức = photo

• The international community was appalled, especially when South Vietnam's First Lady, Madam Nhu, callously remarked, 'Let them burn, and we shall clap our hands.'

  • In response to these developments, Kennedy's government began to withdraw its support for Diem's regime. By the end of 1963, a coup orchestrated with the knowledge of U.S. intelligence resulted in the deaths of both Diem and his brother. However, the removal of Diem did not bring about the anticipated improvement in the situation.

• General William C Westmoreland believed that Diem’s assassination ‘morally locked us into Vietnam’.

Perspectives

Orthodox perspective = Although Kennedy never committed large-scale American combat troops to Vietnam- he understood the dangers of deeper intervention after the Korean War, failed Bay of Pigs invasion, and battle of Dien Bien Phu- he significantly deepened US involvement between 1961 and 1963. His policies transformed the conflict from primarily a South Vietnamese struggle into an increasingly Americanized war effort.

Revisionist historians often point to National Security Action Memorandum (NSAM) 263, which proposed withdrawing 1,000 advisers by the end of 1963.

However, orthodox historians stress that this was conditional on military success and did not indicate a full withdrawal plan.

The US was not fully in a position to withdraw from Vietnam in 1963. Although Kennedy showed some caution and approved limited troop reductions, Cold War ideology, fear of losing credibility, instability in South Vietnam, and existing American commitments made a complete withdrawal politically and strategically unlikely.

F. Logevall

2) President Johnson - US strategy 1964-1968

• Following President Kennedy's assassination in November 1963, president Johnson inherited a complex and deteriorating situation in South Vietnam.

• The absence of a stable government and the escalating strength of the Communist forces in the region created a challenging scenario. Johnson, like his predecessors, remained resolute in his determination to win the 'war against Communism' and prevent the feared domino effect.

• In 1964, faced with a worsening situation, Johnson sought to increase U.S. commitment to the conflict. However, to garner support from the American public and Congress, he needed a justification.

• This justification came in the form of the Gulf of Tonkin incident.

• Two days later, on August 4, 1964, the U.S. destroyers Maddox and Turner Joy were purportedly fired upon. Although ship radar indicated an attack, the situation was marked by confusion, and no physical evidence of assault was found.

• Despite the uncertainty, Johnson characterized the incident as 'open aggression on the high seas.' In response, the United States immediately bombed North Vietnamese installations.

• The day after the incident, Johnson addressed the U.S. Congress, urging them to pass the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution. This resolution granted the president the authority to 'take all necessary measures to repel any armed attack against the forces of the United States and to prevent further aggression.' Over the next six years, the Gulf of Tonkin Resolution served as the legal basis for U.S. involvement in the Vietnam War.

• With the resolution in place, the U.S. responded to the situation in Vietnam by launching Operation Rolling Thunder, a sustained bombing campaign against North Vietnam - video

• Simultaneously, in 1965, the U.S. deployed 100,000 ground forces to South Vietnam. Under the command of General Westmoreland, these troops engaged in 'search-and-destroy' missions. By 1968, the number of U.S. troops in Vietnam had surged to 520,000.

• The military response included not only bombing North Vietnam but also targeting the South to provide support for ground troops and disrupt enemy supply routes and bases. The extensive use of rockets, bombs, and napalm in South Vietnam had devastating effects on the local population, contributing to the tragic human toll of the conflict.

Evaluation

• More than 300 000 air attacks

• 864,000 tons of American bombs had been dropped on North Vietnam

• 52,000 casualties, including 21,000 deaths on the North Vietnam side

• Rolling Thunder had begun as a campaign of psychological and strategic persuasion, but it changed very quickly to interdiction, a tactical mission.

• Ho Chi Minh Trail in Laos or Cambodia was preserved even after the series of secret US operations (like Operation Barrel Roll, Operation Steel Tiger).

  
  

  Its ultimate failure had two sources, both of which lay with the civilian and military policy-makers in Washington: first, neither group could ever conceive that the North Vietnamese would endure under the punishment that they would unleash upon it. The civilians, moreover, did not understand air power well enough to know that their policies might be crippling it; second, the American military leadership failed to initially propose and develop, or later to adapt, an appropriate strategy for the war.

  Earl Tilford

LESSON 75

Topic: Tet Offensive and the final stage of the Vietnam War

Summary:

U.S. and South Vietnamese forces repelled attacks on over 100 cities, inflicting severe casualties on communist forces—estimated between 30,000 to 50,000. The Viet Cong, in particular, were severely weakened and lost much of their infrastructure in the south. BUT The sheer scale and coordination of the surprise attacks destroyed the credibility of the U.S. administration, which had been claiming victory was in sight.

The crisis led to President Johnson's decision not to seek reelection, the beginning of peace negotiations, and a gradual reduction of U.S. involvement.

The Tet Offensive proved that despite superior firepower, the U.S. could not easily win the war, leading to a slow, painful withdrawal.

The role of the failures of US military strategy in Vietnam up to 1968

• The bombing of North Vietnam meant that the North got increasingly involved in the fight against the US so that by 1967 virtually all first line combat troops of the VC were provided with modern Chinese and Soviet weaponry.

• The bombing raids in the North also failed to have any serious impact on the rural economy and failed to break the morale of the North. The US never understood the nature of the Vietnamese conflict. The Americans were involved in a civil war in a country that had fought against foreign domination for centuries; the Americans were portrayed as foreign aggressors and the Vietcong were able to portray themselves as liberators from foreign rule.

• The Vietnamese were fighting a total war, mobilising all their resources to fight the US; the US was trying to fight a limited war, and so was never put on a war footing. There was a lack of unity and coordination within the American military machine.

• The US also faced the problem of supporting a government in the south that was ineffective and corrupt. Diem's nine successors were all corrupt and oppressive and failed to improve public support or to improve the fighting quality of the AVRN which was very poor.

• The cost of war led to inflation in the US

• In the 1967 war, costing 2,000 million USD per month.

• Development of a ‘credibility gap’ as Johnson claimed war cost no more than 800 million USD per month.

• Cost of war continued to grow. US deficit increased from 10 billion to 30 billion USD and inflation rose further in 1968.

  Widespread opposition to the war due to economic cost.

• Johnson’s ‘Great Society’ program which aimed to improve education, healthcare, improve civil rights and eradicate poverty could not move forward as the government lacked funding.

• America’s youth became more politically active in the 1960s and Vietnam was the focus for much hostility towards the government.

  Political protests against war began in 1965 and grew throughout the war.

• The anti-war movement used a range of methods to protest the war, sit-ins, draft card burning and attempts to disrupt transport.

• In 1967, the Vietnam Veterans Against the War was formed, and the group participated in high-profile mass rallies against the war and US government policies.

• Political opposition from the public dramatically increased after the Tet Offensive in 1968.  Anti-war protests escalated.

• Government changed strategy in Vietnam; it halted bombing and initiated peace talks.

LESSON 76-77

Topic: President Nixon and 'Peace with honor' 1969-73

• Richard Nixon assumed the presidency of the United States in November 1968 with a distinct objective of orchestrating the withdrawal of American forces from the Vietnam War.

• During his election campaign, he had promised ‘peace with honour’ in Vietnam.

• He was resolute that any withdrawal should not convey a perception of American defeat or abandonment of South Vietnam; rather, it should secure a guarantee for the survival of the South Vietnamese regime.

• To put this into practice, representatives from South Vietnam, the National Liberation Front (NLF) and North Vietnam met in Paris in January 1969. The US negotiator, Henry Kissinger, began to work on peace negotiations.

• However, this endeavour extended over a protracted period, spanning four years and witnessing the tragic loss of 300,000 Vietnamese lives and 20,000 American lives.

• The delay in actually signing a peace agreement is also indicative of the fact that Nixon was anxious to ensure that a complete withdrawal of US troops did not happen before the 1973 election.

The move towards US exit of Vietnam and also involved:

• a covert 14-month bombing campaign directed at the Ho Chi Minh Trail within neutral Cambodia, in an attempt to get North Vietnam to agree to peace terms

• The policy of ‘Vietnamization,’; this meant the gradual reduction of U.S. troop presence and the transfer of war responsibilities to the South Vietnamese government.

• Nixon Doctrine as articulated by the President in the source below:

  
  

The nations of Asia can and must increasingly shoulder the responsibility for achieving peace and progress in the area with whatever cooperation we can provide. Asian countries must seek their own destiny for if domination by the aggressor can destroy the freedom of a nation, too much dependence on a protector can eventually erode its dignity. But it is not just a matter of dignity, for dependence on foreign aid destroys the incentive to mobilize domestic resources – human, financial and material – in which the absence of which no government is capable of dealing effectively with its problems and adversaries.

• Consequently, from 1969 to 1973, the number of U.S. troops steadily diminished

• The peace negotiations, formally initiated in Paris on May 13, 1972, and protracted until January 1973 (after the US election), marked a pivotal phase where Henry Kissinger, representing the United States, engaged in intricate deliberations with the North Vietnamese.

• The negotiations were marred by a reluctance on either side to make concessions; the North insisted on inclusion in the government of the South, and both sides persisted in seeking tactical advantages on the battlefield to bolster their positions at the negotiating table.

• In a bid to assert pressure, the Americans, under the strategic guidance of President Nixon and Kissinger, utilized airpower, even extending bombing campaigns to targets in North Vietnam that were previously deemed sensitive.

• Concurrently, Nixon and Kissinger pursued a diplomatic strategy of 'détente' with the Soviet Union and China, aiming to cultivate improved relations with these major powers. This diplomatic overture was designed, in part, to leverage their influence to induce North Vietnam into accepting the terms of the peace settlement.

• The culmination of these protracted negotiations resulted in a peace settlement signed on January 27, 1973. The agreement stipulated the complete withdrawal of American troops from Vietnam, and both North and South Vietnam pledged to respect the demarcation line at the 17th parallel. Notably, the last contingent of American troops exited Vietnam a mere two weeks after the signing of the peace accord. 

• However, these accords did not result in peace for Vietnam. 

• Seizing the initiative, North Vietnam made significant advances, and by April 1975, Saigon, the capital of South Vietnam, fell under North Vietnamese control, marking a poignant conclusion to the prolonged conflict.

• By the end of 1975, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos had all fallen to Communist forces.

LESSON 78

Topic: The extent of mobilisation of human and economic resources

• Effective, totalitarian mass mobilization in North Vietnam sustained a protracted "people's war" that ultimately wore down U.S. political will.

• Conversely, the U.S. decision not to mobilize its National Guard or place the country on a war footing – paired with massive anti-war mobilization on the home front fractured domestic consensus and forced an American withdrawal.

N. Vietman Mobilisation

• Agricultural collectivization placed the food supply directly under state control, giving the communist party absolute leverage to manage resources and sustain soldiers in the south.

  
  

• 2 million soldiers and civilian laborers were mobilized to build and maintain the Ho Chi Minh Trail, neutralizing superior U.S. firepower through sheer logistics.

  
  

• This labor force managed a 12,000-mile maze of trails that successfully delivered over 1 million tons of weapons, food, and medicine to the southern front.

  
  

• North Vietnam’s absolute ideological mobilization allowed it to absorb approximately 1.1 million military fatalities while maintaining a force that grew to over 850,000 active troops by late 1968.

• 
  

• North Vietnam put together one of the largest female armies the world has ever known. They were put to work carrying supplies, working as spies and informers, worked in hospitals and doing manual labor but some distinguished themselves as fierce fighters and killers.

  
  

• More than a million Vietnamese women fought against the French in the 1950s and the United States in the 1960s and 70s. In the Vietnam War more than 40 percent of the region commanders were women. Most of the fighters were young and single.

U.S. Mobilization Decisions

President Johnson's decision to bypass the existing structural reserves forced a heavy reliance on a young, unstable draft pool.

• The National Guard Bypass: Out of a Ready Reserve strength of 695,000 men across 23 divisions at the start of major deployment in 1965, only 6,140 National Guardsmen were ever deployed to Vietnam.

  
  

• The Draft Pool: Between 1964 and 1973, the U.S. military drafted 2.2 million American men from an eligible pool of 27 million.

  
  

• Disproportionate Combat Risks: Conscripts made up 25% (648,500) of the total forces in-theater, yet they accounted for 30.4% (17,725) of all U.S. combat deaths. This structural imbalance highly accelerated public outrage.

LESSON 79-80

Topic: Effects of the Vietnam War - Vietnam

Background

• The Paris Peace Accords marked a pivotal moment, effectively removing the U.S. from active involvement in the Vietnam War.

• The agreement facilitated the exchange of prisoners from both sides, with the majority of American prisoners released during Operation Homecoming.

• However, despite the accord, both North and South Vietnam routinely violated its provisions, with the United States remaining largely unresponsive.

• Nixon's secret commitment to support South Vietnam with airpower, coupled with Secretary of Defense James Schlesinger's remarks during confirmation hearings in June 1973, underscored the U.S. intention to assist if necessary. By August 15, 1973, 95% of American troops and their allies had withdrawn from Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia.

• Despite the withdrawal, Nixon's presidency was marred by the Watergate scandal, culminating in his resignation in 1974.

• As the North Vietnamese launched their final offensive in 1975, the U.S. Congress, influenced by strong anti-war sentiment in the US and concerns about equipment loss to the North, refused increased military assistance for South Vietnam.

• President Thiệu subsequently resigned, accusing the U.S. of betrayal in a televised address.

Political impacts (= Consolidation of power)

• Unlike other recently unified and independent states, North Vietnam already had some experience in ruling and having taken over the South. Its long-term plan was to mould the newly reunified Vietnam into a socialist state, in the image of North Vietnam. Their key challenge thus was to extend one-party Communist rule over the South and to deal with any opposition to this plan.

• The speed of the final Communist conquest of South Vietnam took everyone by surprise and there was uncertainty as to what would happen next - would the South remain separate with its own government or would there be a coalition?

• A key obstacle faced by the North in its attempt to take over the South was the opposition to Communist rule.

• Large numbers of Communist officials were sent from Hanoi to take over all the top jobs in the South. Although Nguyen Van Thieu’s government and its American backers had fled Vietnam, there were many Vietnamese who had worked for the South left behind - Business people, civil servants and military officers from the South Vietnamese regime were quickly identified and arrested by the North Vietnamese.

• However, rather than being systematically executed, they were sent to re-education camps where they faced indoctrination, forced labour and brutality. Some people spent several years in camps. In total, about a million people in the former South Vietnam were subjected to some form of “re-education.”

• The people of South Vietnam were also exposed to re-education through propaganda. Special Peoples' Revolutionary Committees were set up in villages and western influences were discouraged. Bars and brothels were closed in Saigon which was renamed Ho Chi Minh City.

• The government established personal files on South Vietnamese citizens; these included every detail about these people's lives in order to determine whether they were 'good' or 'bad'.

• Anyone who had worked with the Americans, French or South Vietnamese government, or who owned property or businesses, were classified as 'bad'; those who were involved in resistance to the French or Americans, were usually put in the 'good' category and had more opportunities under the new system.

• Newspapers were shut down and records kept of those who attended religious services; not only Christianity but also Buddhism was viewed with suspicion. Books not supportive of the revolution were burned; in fact all art and literature created before 1975 was banned. All policies were enforced through the secret police, the Cong An.

Economic impacts

• The shattering impact of a ten-year war with the Americans meant that both rural and urban areas were ruined, the economy was shattered, and the people were exhausted.

• There were also political divisions. Vietnam remained one of the poorest nations of the world for the twenty years following the end of the war.

• In the north, 29 of the 30 provincial capitals had sustained heavy bombing damage from the Americans, one-third of them almost utterly destroyed.

• This chemical warfare directly targeted and decimated 20% of South Vietnam’s entire jungle coverage, poisoning the ecology and reducing long-term agricultural output.

• Immediately following the war at least 3 million Vietnamese were unemployed.

• The economy now followed the northern model and was centrally planned. With regard to agriculture, private property was confiscated and from 1975 to 1985 the government tried to implement collectivization.

• Private businesses were seized by the state and it was illegal to transport food and goods between provinces. Vietnam joined the COMECON and, until Gorbachev came to power, received approximately $3 billion per year in assistance from the USSR.

• However, these economic policies ended in a decline in production. Land reform in the South proved much harder than it had done in the North. Unlike peasants in the North who had mainly been victims of exploitative landlords in 1954, many peasants in the South by 1975 were much better off having received land from US sponsored land-reform projects.

• They had also heard propaganda stories from the government of South Vietnam about the impact of land reform in the North which made them very reluctant to embrace this policy. Communist officials sent to the countryside to implement collectivisation were thus met in many places with outright hostility and resistance; in some areas it had to be abandoned altogether.

• Where collectivization was established, the result was a drop in agricultural production:

'Collectivizing agriculture and setting uncompetitive prices … erased incentives for production in the countryside. Rather than producing more, Vietnamese peasants … simply cultivated enough land upon which to live rather than have to turn over any surplus to the state at fixed prices'.

Christopher Goscha

• With decreasing productivity, the economy contracted. In 1978, Vietnam fell 4.5 million tons short of its rice quota while cereal production also fell well short of expectations. Production was disrupted by peasant resistance but the country was also critically short of seed, fertiliser, pesticides, farming tools and machinery.

• Vietnam also faced floods in the late 1970s and a trade embargo form the US which further worsened the situation. Other countries and organisations bowed to US pressure and also stopped trading or sending aid to Vietnam.

• By 1979, civilians in Vietnamese cities were subject to food rationing. In the early 1980s there was also hyper inflation leading to further austerity measures (= 400%).

• As a result of this situation the CPB changed its economic policies in the 1980s in a series of reforms known as doi moi (‘renovation’).

• These reforms allowed the operation of small factories, businesses and service industries for profit. They led to an increase in growth and an improvement in living standards.

• They were not, however, accompanied by any political reform; Vietnam remained a one-party state. As a result of these reforms Vietnam achieved around 8 per cent annual GDP growth from 1990 to 1997 while foreign investment grew threefold and domestic savings quintupled.

LESSON 81

Topic: Effects of the Vietnam War - Vietnam II

Social impact

• The South felt the social consequences of the war the most. The movement of peasants to the cities, caused by the destruction of villages, created profound social disruption to Vietnamese society. Families became separated, and the family structure that was so important to Vietnamese culture was uprooted. By 1972, there were an estimated 800,000 orphaned children roaming the streets of Saigon and other cities. 

• Saigon in particular changed dramatically. The population of Saigon tripled during the Vietnam War to reach three million in 1970.

• The influx of refugees to urban areas also caused massive changes to the cities. Many of the refugees from the countryside were forced to live in makeshift camps where conditions were very poor; many of these people failed to find work and ended up begging on the streets. 

• The social structure of Saigon was also impacted by the huge American presence. Thousands of Vietnamese found jobs in the new businesses, hotels and restaurants. Others found work in more illegal activities. An estimated 500,000 South Vietnamese women became prostitutes during the war; most of these women were poor peasants from the countryside who had no other way of feeding their families.  There was also an active drug trade in Saigon during the war. Drugs were sometimes sold by children on street corners.

  An enormous black market existed for stolen goods with many of the items for sale coming from U.S. military shipments.

• Some of these activities were very lucrative and so a new wealthy urban class of Vietnamese developed which again changed the original social structure of Vietnam; indeed Vietnamese now sought activities  - illegal or otherwise - which would allow them to have a lifestyle where they could afford the new luxuries now appearing on the streets of Saigon.

  
  

Saigon was an addicted city, and we were the drug; the corruption of children, the mutilation of young men, the prostitution of women, the humiliation of the old, the division of the family, the division of the country – it had all been done in our name.

James Fenton

• Southerners, especially those tied to the Republic of Vietnam (RVN), faced discrimination post-1975, with property confiscations and exclusion from jobs  - all of which fostered resentment and caused even greater social divisions in Vietnam

• The destruction of homes mentioned above had created 11 million refugees by the end of the war.

• For many, the economic, social and political situation in Vietnam was intolerable and many left by trekking into China or by boat to other non-Communist countries (=Boat People)

• The first wave of people left in 1975. These were people who had worked with the Americans, and most were permanently resettled in the United States. But the departures continued, even without American or other international assistance.

• In 1977, approximately 15,000 fled to Southeast Asian countries; by 1978, this number had risen to 62,000. By 1979, it was clear that this was becoming a humanitarian crisis due to the number of 'boat people' dying during the unsafe journeys, and also because many countries started to refuse to take in the refugees.

  
  

  Perhaps as many as a quarter of the boat people who fled Vietnam after the war ended in 1975 drowned at sea or were murdered by pirates. Every country in the region prepared an excuse for rejecting them..Thailand did nothing to discourage the rapacity of its pirate fishermen whose treatment of the boat people seemed at times unbelievable. In Singapore Prime Minister Lee Kuan Yew said, 'If you don't have callouses on your heart you will bleed to death.' In Hong Kong and Taiwan Chinese fat cats..made fortunes by supplying unseaworthy craft....Since the end of the war in 1975 the united States has taken 560,000 refugees, Canada 94,000 and Australia 91 000.'

  J Pilger

  
  

• Hoa - After 1975 and the unification of Vietnam, it became clear that the prominence of the ethnic Chinese population (Hoa) in the private economic sector was contrary to the socialist vision of the new authorities.

  In March 1978, Hanoi decided to abolish ‘all trade and business operations of bourgeois tradesmen’; this meant getting rid of private trading and commercial activities that had for generations been the principal occupations of 80 percent of the Hoa.

• Immediately, more than 30,000 of the larger private business, a big proportion run by Sino-Vietnamese, were closed.

  These actions coincided with a marked deterioration in relations between Vietnam and China (linked to an increasingly hostile relationship with Cambodia, China’s ally). 

• Cambodia = In March 1969, President Nixon authorised secret bombing raids in Cambodia against Viet Cong headquarters (COSVN) thought to be in Cambodia. These ‘secret’ bombings (Operation Menu) were to last 14 months.  The result of these bombings was to push the Vietnamese Communists further into Vietnam - map

• When Lon Nol took over as President, a civil war situation developed in Cambodia. 30 Paris 1970, Nixon announced the invasion of Cambodia by US and ARVN troops to destroy Communist bases.

• This forced the Communists further into Cambodia. Support for the Khmer Rouge increased amongst the Cambodian peasants who were increasingly disturbed by the US bombing and by the actions of the ARVN troops. They also despised Lon Nol’s government which was corrupt and inefficient and reliant on the US.

•  By July 1970 the Khmer Rouge with North Vietnamese support, occupied over half the country.

• Over next few years the Cambodian army lost territory against the North Vietnamese and communist Khmer Rouge guerrillas and in 1975 Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge took over Phenom Penh. It was now 'Year Zero' and Cambodia became known as Democratic Kampuchea.

Topic: Effects of the Vietnam War - US

• The Vietnam War had a profound impact on the US. Not only did 58,000 Americans die in the war, but it left a divided country and a determination not to get involved in any other wars -  'the Vietnam Syndrome'.

• Meanwhile, Johnson's domestic programme of improving society for all, The Great Society, was seriously curtailed. In addition the American economy faced inflation, a weakened dollar and increased federal deficits as a result of the war.

Political impacts

• America’s youth became more politically active in the 1960s and Vietnam was the focus for much hostility towards the government.

• Political protests against war began in 1965 and grew throughout the war.   The introduction of the ‘draft’ led to more tension as only college students could defer and most of those sent to fight in Vietnam were from the back and white working classes.

• The anti-war movement used a range of methods to protest the war, sit-ins, draft card burning and attempts to disrupt transport. In 1967, the Vietnam Veterans Against the War was formed, and the group participated in high profile mass rallies against the war and US government policies.

• Political opposition from the public dramatically increased after the Tet Offensive in 1968.  Anti-war protests escalated.

• Government changed strategy in Vietnam; it halted bombing and initiated peace talks.

• President Johnson announces he will not seek reelection in March 1968

• At the Democratic Party Convention in Chicago in August 1968, opponents of the war came together. They had wanted the Democrats to select an anti-war candidate.

• Republican Richard Nixon won the election.

Economic impacts

• The economic ramifications of the Vietnam War were profound, exerting a notable impact on the United States during the 1960s. The burgeoning costs associated with the conflict precipitated a surge in inflation within the U.S. economy. By 1967, the financial burden of the war escalated to an alarming extent, reaching an expenditure of US$2,000 million per month.

• A disconcerting consequence of this escalating economic strain was the emergence of a 'credibility gap,' characterized by a stark disjunction between President Lyndon B. Johnson's reassurances and the factual magnitude of the war-related expenditures. Johnson, in an attempt to manage the perception of the war's financial implications, asserted that the cost was no more than US$800 million per month, thereby contributing to a perceptible erosion of public trust in the veracity of official statements.

• The fiscal constraints imposed by the escalating costs of the Vietnam War had deleterious implications for Johnson's ambitious 'Great Society' program. Envisioned as a comprehensive initiative to enhance education, healthcare, civil rights, and eradicate poverty, the program encountered significant impediments as the government grappled with a dearth of funding.

• The burgeoning financial commitments to the war effort impeded progress on vital domestic reforms, thereby exacerbating societal challenges and perpetuating socioeconomic disparities.

• Compounding the economic predicament, the cost of the war continued its upward trajectory, leading to a substantial increase in the U.S. budget deficit. The fiscal deficit burgeoned from $10 billion to $30 billion, a development that exacerbated the prevailing inflationary trends in 1968.

• The escalating economic toll of the war not only strained the nation's financial resources but also engendered widespread opposition among the populace. The economic cost of the conflict became a focal point of discontent, fostering a broad-based resistance to the war as citizens grappled with its tangible impact on their economic well-being.