HSC Modern History Question Thread

[zayyy]

(very late i know) but thank you so much @Mada438 and @owidjaja , I feel better about the project- it had felt so dauting and complex before, I didn't know how to begin it! I've decided to pick Castro, and my question is "Assess the implications of Fidel Castro seizing power over Cuba" but I'm not sure if I should make it more specific !

Thank you so much though

[theyam]

Hi guys

If anyone has the time to give some feedback for my personality assessment task, that would be really really great. All the questions are in the google doc thingo

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_-_WpTOefD2gqERgOQg-hIqJh5V_vkgLtT9-Avrm80o/edit?usp=sharing

Thank you guys!
From theyam

[owidjaja]

Hey guys,
Just a question on Nazi racial policy, does this also include the disabled and the 'asocial'- I'm a bit confused with the Nazi's use of the term 'race' because my understanding of race is related to physical attributes and nationality but the Nazi's claim to purify the German race by emphasising on fitness and getting rid of the disabled.

[fantasticbeasts3]

Hey guys,
Just a question on Nazi racial policy, does this also include the disabled and the 'asocial'- I'm a bit confused with the Nazi's use of the term 'race' because my understanding of race is related to physical attributes and nationality but the Nazi's claim to purify the German race by emphasising on fitness and getting rid of the disabled.

Hey,

I would assume it does. The term “race” is used very interchangeably, so anything to do with excluding people who didn’t fit the Nazi description of the so-called master race. Here's a quick read about this whole race thing.

Hope this helps!

[cookienerd101]

Hi! I'm really struggling to work out how to answer the following question and how to structure:
"'The Holocaust was a direct result of Hitler's long held plan to exterminate European Jewry.' To what extent do you agree with this statement?"
Does anyone have any tips or advice? Thanks in advance (and PS this is in relation to the topic of Conflict in Europe)

[vic321]

Hi,
How would you go about structuring an essay on "Assess the social and economic impact of World War II on civilians in Britain and Germany"

Thanks!

[Mada438]

Hi! I'm really struggling to work out how to answer the following question and how to structure:
"'The Holocaust was a direct result of Hitler's long held plan to exterminate European Jewry.' To what extent do you agree with this statement?"
Does anyone have any tips or advice? Thanks in advance (and PS this is in relation to the topic of Conflict in Europe)

Was it? Was it a long-term plan or not? What do you think?
The first thing you need to do when it asks "to what extent" is to ask yourself what's your view on it?
Once you've established your view on its extent, you then need to argue it.
If you thought it was a long-term plan, what evidence can you put forward to argue your case?
Same for the other way round. If you believe it was not a long-term plan, then what factors indicate this?

Hi,
How would you go about structuring an essay on "Assess the social and economic impact of World War II on civilians in Britain and Germany"
Thanks!

Hey!
 I don't do the "conflict in Europe" topic, but I'd say to look at how you would structure the same essay on ww1.
There's a whole section for ww1 devoted to talking about the "home fronts" which is essentially what you're talking about here
What central ideas would you talk about for a similar question on ww1? I think you'll find a lot of them can be applied to the home fronts in ww2.

Some general examples could be like the German bombing campaign on Britan, which obviously had a large social and economic impact itself. Or the role of women in Nazi Germany and how Hitler didn't want them to help with the war effort. Also, later in the war when he was running out of soldiers, he recruited lots of younger teenagers and boys; a lot of whom perished which would lead to long-term economic impacts.

Hope this helps!

[Djackson]

Hey guys, how would you go about answering this question?

"Assess the key factors involved in Germany’s defeat in Europe. Investigate the period from 6 June 1944 until 7 May 1945."

[dancing phalanges]

Hey guys, how would you go about answering this question?

"Assess the key factors involved in Germany’s defeat in Europe. Investigate the period from 6 June 1944 until 7 May 1945."

Hey! I didn't study this particular topic but (if you are studying Conflict in Europe) there are fantastic notes on the conflict that you can download that may be of help

https://atarnotes.com/notes/?pag=1&state=0&key=conflict+in+europe&sort=date

[lavvylay]

Hi so my next essay is about Conflict In Europe but I'm abit foggy on how to approach the question in terms of the structure and how to properly link the different factors to the question without falling in the trap of telling a narrative.

The statement is "To what extent was conflict in Europe a result of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact".

[dancing phalanges]

Hi so my next essay is about Conflict In Europe but I'm abit foggy on how to approach the question in terms of the structure and how to properly link the different factors to the question without falling in the trap of telling a narrative.

The statement is "To what extent was conflict in Europe a result of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact".

Hey! I didn't study this topic but with this I'd structure it by having your first paragraph on whether the NSNAP did lead to the conflict in Europe, making sure to make it clear what extent it was responsible.

Your other 3-4 paragraphs should deal with other factors that led to it, but if you argue the NSNAP was to a significant extent responsible then in each paragraph you should try show how each factor contributed but was not as important as the NSNAP.

Hope that helped!

[Mada438]

Hi so my next essay is about Conflict In Europe but I'm abit foggy on how to approach the question in terms of the structure and how to properly link the different factors to the question without falling in the trap of telling a narrative.

The statement is "To what extent was conflict in Europe a result of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact".

Hey!
I don't do this topic as well (I do Germany and Speer, so you'd think i did but i don't-Weird right?)
Alternatively, if you argue that the conflict in Europe was not a result of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact to a significant extent (so you'd say some like a low-moderate extent) then you need to find other factors you believe caused the conflict in Europe and argue that those are just as/more significant than the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact and WHY

Good luck! 

[owidjaja]

Hi so my next essay is about Conflict In Europe but I'm abit foggy on how to approach the question in terms of the structure and how to properly link the different factors to the question without falling in the trap of telling a narrative.

The statement is "To what extent was conflict in Europe a result of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact".

Hey there,
So dancing phalanges and Mada438 both have great answers, but I've decided to give my input as well (I haven't done much with Conflict in Europe so it's great for me to consolidate knowledge).

Considering how it's a 'to what extent' question, you're given room to bring in factors. Personally, I would find it difficult to completely agree that the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact was the only reason it resulted in conflict in Europe. Here are some factors you can talk about:

Ineffectiveness of appeasement
Role of the League of Nations
Rise of fascism in Italy, which influenced Germany (not entirely sure if you can fully flesh this out into a paragraph but I would consider it as a point)

However, you can't just completely disagree with the question because then it looks like you're regurgitating a prepared response, so maybe you can discuss its significance in the first paragraph. Here are a few points on its significance:

Soviet Union was salty Britain/France didn't invite them to the Munich Conference but it was a bit strange to form an alliance with Germany since they're so ideologically different
USSR was also not impressed with the way Britain/France dealt with international affairs (e.g. Czechoslovakia, response to Ethiopia)
Initially stopped Hitler from having a two-front war

I'm not entirely sure if these points can be fully fleshed out into actual paragraphs but these are some ideas you may consider.

Hope this helps!

[henrychapman]

Hi so my next essay is about Conflict In Europe but I'm abit foggy on how to approach the question in terms of the structure and how to properly link the different factors to the question without falling in the trap of telling a narrative.

The statement is "To what extent was conflict in Europe a result of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact".

Hey there,
Great answers so far. I do Conflict in Europe so feel like I could be some help.
Structure would go something like this:
first paragraph would be acknowledging that the Non-Aggression Pact did play a role in the onset of conflict in Europe. Include the nature of it and in particular what Hitler's aims were. You could include that he was intentionally misleading in order to try and achieve his foreign policy goals. Stalin despised Germany but was willing to adopt such measures because the Soviets were not ready for war. You can choose to the extent to which it contributed, depending on how you want to form your response. Personally, I would say it had an impact, but a limited impact compared to other factors which more directly link to how conflict in Europe began.
This leads me onto focusing on a range of other factors in your following paragraphs. I would say these had a far greater impact on instigating conflict in Europe.
This would be Nazi foreign policy (in particular Lebensraum because it involved taking over land that wasn't theres and thus aggressive in nature). This was a threat to the power of Britian and France who still had large empires and wanted to maintain that.
Appeasement/failure of collective security (League of Nations) could also be factors to talk about.
Appeasement in particular: gave into Hitlers demands and didn't act quickly enough
Collective security: couldn't reject the proposals by dictators such as Hitler and Mussolini due to the nature of the international political climate; they were all interested in nationalist objectives rather then contributing to internationalism and peace.

This structure will allow you to fully address the question and encapsulate all factors. Not only will you answer this question but come trial/HSC you'll be ready to go for a wide range of questions too with this material.
In terms of your issue with narrative, I had a similar problem too. The advice my teacher gave me was to integrate more historiography, as this will support my argument rather then me retelling facts or asserting something. I would encourage you to maybe try the same and you might avoid retell.
Hope this helps

[henrychapman]

Hey everyone
I have an assignment due next week for modern and was wondering if anyone was willing to have a read/provide feedback on it?
It's attached to this document
Question is in relation to conflict in Europe. Exact wording is:
"To what extent was Nazi foreign policy responsible for the outbreak of the conflict in Europe in September 1939?"
Thanks in advance guys !