OCR History exam

Strengths and Weaknesses of the Weimar Republic

Weaknesses

• Artical 48, said that in an emergency the president didn't need the Reichstag to agree any new laws he made, the Reichstag didn't know what the 'emergency' had to be.
• Proportional representation, Weimar voted for parties each party was given seats in the Reichstag reflecting the amount of votes they got, there were tiny parties that didn't have enough seats to get a majority and no government got laws passed in the Reichstag.

Strengths

• Bill of rights, guarenteed every German citizen freedom of speech and religion.
• The vote, all men and women 20+ were given the vote.
• Elected president, there was an elected president and elected parliament the Reichstag made the laws and appointed the government.
  

Problems with the Weimar

French invasion of the Ruhr, The Kapp Putsch, The Munich Putsch, Hyperinflation

The Ruhr invasion

France didn't believe that Germany had run out of money so they invaded a rich industrial part of Germany, the Ruhr. When invading, France believed they could take goods and coal for the reparations payment. When the Ruhr was invaded Germany lost even more money because they couldn't sell their goods because of this, the Weimar decided to print more money which led to Hyperinflation.

The Munich Putsch

Hitler tried to take advantage of the crisis of the Weimar by instigating a rebellion in Munich. Hitler plotted the putsch with two nationalist politicians, Kahr and Lossow, they called of the rebellion days before they were meant to attack so Hitler got the SA troops to threaten Kahr and Lossow and force them to rebel. 9th October Hitler and the Nazi party marched into Munich, Kahr had already called in police and the army so when Hitler and the Nazis got to Munich they were met by the police. Hitler was arrested 2 days after the putsch and imprissoned for 9 months.

Wall Street Crash (1929)

October 1929, American economy crashed and left the USA with no money, the dawes plan stopped immediately and Germany went into economic depression, the Weimar Republic couldn't control unemployment and infaltion.

After the Wall Street crash German people were angry at the Weimar Republic and wanted a stronger government, it was perfect time for extremist parties to try to gain power. Hitler decided the only safe and succesful way to gain power was to be voted into power by the German people, they had to persuade people to like and vote for them. Hiter was able to get the support from the rich industrialists that owned businesses in Germany that were worried about the Weimar taking their business and sharing it amongst Germany.

People accepted Hitler because:

• he told them he'd target unemployment
• workers were promised cheap holidays
• businessmen knew that their businesses were safe and no trade union would get in their way
• farmers were promised money if they produced more food
• the army was made much more powerful 

Hitler became Chancellor of Germany in 1933 and in 1932, the Nazi party got the majority of the vote.

The Reichstag fire 1933

March 1933 another election was called by Hitler to get the majority of the vote, a week before the election the German Reichstag was burned down. The Nazis blamed the communists, Hitler used the fire to put down the communists and an emergency law was made to ban communists from taking part in the elections.

The Enabling law 1933

Hitler brought this law to give himself total power, it said that he could bring in any law he wanted without support from the Reichstag.

The night of long knives 1934

Squads of ** men broke into houses of the Rohm and other leading figures in the SA and arrested them, Hitler ordered the ** to arrest and kill 400 SA leaders including Rohm.

Civil service - only Aryan Germans were allowed to work for the government.

Women - were encouraged to be 'good Nazi wives and mothers', the three K's (Kinder, Kirche and Kurche - Kids, Kitchen and Church).

Employment - women and jews were forced to leave work and were replaced by Aryan men, trade unionsists were banned, all workers belonged to the German labour front.

Propaganda - all propaganda was censored to fit Nazi beliefs and ideas, newspapers, books, radio, posters, adverts, fillms and plays were made to support the Nazi party.

Children - children were made to join Nazi youth groups (Hitler youth) and were taught Nazi beliefs in school, girls were taught how to be mothers and wives.

Yalta Conference - Feb 1945 the allied leaders met at Yalta in Ukraine to plan what would happen to Europe after Germany's defeat. Stalin, Roosevelt and Churchill agreed that Stalin would agree to enter the war against Japan, Germany would be divided into 4 (American, French, British and Soviet), Europe would be seen as a 'Soviet sphere of influence'.

Potsdam Concerence - July 1945, Churchill was replaced by a new primeminister Clement Attlee half way through the conference, the conference was dominated by rivalry and suspicion. They disagreed about what to do with Germany, Stalin wanted to cripple Germany to protect the USSR and also disagreed over reparations, Stalin wanted compensation for the amount of deaths in the war.

Iron Curtain - Churchill described the border between the Soviet USSR and the West as an Iron Curtain in his speech in 1946.

Truman Doctrine - 1947 American intervention in Greece marked a new era in the USA's attitude towards world politics which became known as the truman doctrine. The USA was prepared to send money, equipment and advice to any country which was threatened to communism.

The Marshall plan - Truman believed communism succeded when people faced poverty and hardship so they sent George Marshall, the American General, to asses the economic state of Europe. What he found was a ruined economy that owed $11.5 billion to the USA and extreme shortages of goods.

In 1945 the allies decided to split Germany in 4, Berlin was also split into 4. The USSR took reparations from it's zone in Eastern Germany but Britain, France and USA tried to improve the conditions in their zone. In June 1948 Britain, France and USA united their zones into one new country, West Berlin. On the 24th June, Stalin cut off rail and road links to West Berlin (Berlin Blockade), the West saw this as an attempt to starve West Berlin into surrendor so they supplied West Berlin by air instead.

Causes

• 1959: Fidel Castro gained power of Cuba
• Castro nationalised American businesses and companies
• America stopped all aid to Cuba
• Castro turned to the USSR for help
• Castro became a communist
• CIA funded, trained, armed and transported 1,300 Cuban exiles to invade Cuba (Bay of pigs)

Consequences

• Kennedy's reputation improved (he looked like a hero)
• America had to remove their missiles on Turkey
• USSR couldn't use America's withdrawal as propaganda
• USSR humiliated when America counted their millies onboard ships.

Why did Krushchev send missiles to Cuba in 1962?

• The USA had far more long range missiles than the USSR
• Putting missiles on Cuba balanced out the nuclear balance
• It strengthened the position in the USSR
• It protected Cuba after the bay of pigs incident
• To scare and threaten the USA

• Support for the Diem government - Diem refused the 1956 election and Eisenhower didn't try to make him have one either. Diem knew that the USA would carry on supporting him because he prevented a communist victory in the South. Diem's government favored the landowners at the expense of the peasants, landowners forced peasants to pay high taxes + made them work for nothing.
• The Gulf of Tonkin - South Vietnamese cammando's attacked North Vietnamese radar stations in the Gulf of Tonkin 1964, USS Maddox assisted in the attack by monitoring the signals sent out by the radar stations. 3 North Vietnamese torpedo boats headed for the Maddox which open fired and sank 1 of the boats.
• Domino theory - Eisenhower's foreign policy followed the domino theory, this was the idea that the countries of South East Asia were closely linked, if one fell to communism then so would the others. USA were convinced China + USSR were planning to spread communism throughout Asia.
• Geneva agreement - The French asked Eisenhower to send American troops to help, they agreed to meet in Geneva 1954. The Vietminh wanted early elections so the people could elect a government for the whole of vietnam. They agreed that Vietnam would be temporarily divided in two along the 17th parallel.

Diem - capitalist, North

Ho Chi Minh - communist, South

US tactics: 

bombing, chemical weapons, search and destroy

US public opinion turned against the war because of the tactics they were witnessing as the war was televised and un-censored for the first time.

Vietcong tactics:

guerrilla warfare, booby traps, spike traps, ho chi minh trail, hug and hold.

Because the vietcong hid in the jungle, the US struggled to find them and have one to one combat with them so they had to choose more violent methods like bombs.