History ToK Questions

1. Why study history?

We study history in order to better understand how the relationship of cause and effect effects our lives. We use history to find patterns in what we did and how it changed our present environment.

 2. Is knowledge of the past ever certain?

Knowledge of the past is never certain. The very best we can hope for is a certainty of 99.9%, seeing as every piece of evidence has some degree of doubt associated with it. 

 3. Does the study of history widen our knowledge of human nature?

By studying history, we are able to see how and potentially why human beings act and react the way they do. So many variables are involved when trying to understand human behavior and an understanding of history is vastly important.

 4. Can history help in understanding the present or predicting the future?

History can be useful in predicting the future because if we understand patterns that formed in the past, we may be able to recognize patterns as they form. 

 5. To what extent does emotion play a role in an historian’s analysis? Is (historical) objectivity possible?

Emotions play a large role in how a historical event is portrayed. Emotions cloud judgement and skew the information both accepted and conveyed by the historian. 

 6. Why do accounts of the same historical event differ? Whose history do we study?

Historical events differ because of the differences in perception the historians have. Each will view the same event through slightly different means and thus interpret the event in different ways. 

 7. What determines how historians select evidence and describe/interpret or analyse events?

A historian selects evidence based upon preconceived notions that fit his or her viewpoints. Things that don't fall into the viewpoints will either be ignored or have little to no emphasis placed on them.

8. What problems are posed for the study of history by changes in language and culture over time?

Changes in language pose a big problem because when words are translated, they may lose their connotative meaning. This present problems when ideas are trying to be conveyed either from one historian to another, or when one piece of evidence needs to be translated.

 9. Can history be considered in any sense “scientific”?

Because history does not utilize the scientific method, it can not be called a science, but history uses other sciences such as anthropology and geology in order to gather evidence.

Stalin Questions

1.) Stalin had a masterful control over manipulation and used whatever his position may have been in the government to turn people against one another as well as constantly forming and breaking alliances.
2.)Stalin had hoped to industrialize Russia through programs such as new railways as well as initiating collectivized farming. Stalin also wanted to kill all those he perceived as enemies of Russia such as Kulaks and political opponents.
3.) Stalin would constantly pit one person against another until he was the last one remaining and thus constant increased his power over the government.
4.) Stalin's rule can be called a totalitarian regime to the fullest extent of the definition of the word. The Soviet government under Stalin was notorious for the outright murder of civilians and all those that opposed Stalin.
5.) The judicial system under Stalin had a habit of setting up dummy-trials in order to "convict" all those against Stalin of sabotage and were immediately put in the hands of the military. 

6.) Force was used on opponents that Stalin feared would not be effectively dealt with at trials. Secret police were mobilized and sent to assassinate upper level political opponents.

7.) Stalin tried to set the Soviet Union into the modern industrialized era.

8.) Any person or group that was in any way suspected of turning against Stalin was immediately shipped of to Siberia or other gulags. Stalin's secret police ensured that many people were much too paranoid to attempt any serious resistance.  

9.) Stalin had complete control over any lower political positions and was free to do simply as he wished.

10.) Stalin greatly pushed any Western expansion that eventually covered parts of Finland, the Baltic States, and Ukraine.

11.) Stalin was known for the mass censorship of anything that did not portray the Soviet Union in a positive light. this included all major forms of media. One of Stalin's positive notes being that women were allowed to exhibit many of the same policies as men in terms of working.

12.) Stalin actively persecuted religious leaders as religion went against the theory of Communism

13.) While Stalin may have built many more schools, especially in rural areas, and offered a larger opportunity of education, all schools were forced to teach along party lines.

14.) Artists were only allowed to create works that depicted life as good under Soviet rule, as this was part of the censorship that Stalin used. 

15.) During Stalin's rule, artists were hired to go back and remove people from photographs in order to alter their historical importance. Stalin used this in order to increase his popularity. 

16.) Women were no longer bound to the restrictions they were in other areas of the world. Women could now go out and work along side men and earn the same amount. The expectation of women being nothing more than mothers and housewives was reversed. 

17.) Religious groups and minorities were sent to gulags as they were seen as a threat to the Soviet Union by Stalin. 

OPVL - WWI Graphs

O: The graphs come from a secondary source from Britain

P: The graphs are intended to mathematically chart the included terms prior to WWI

V/L: The graphs serve as a valuable resource primarily because they offer numerical proof as to the might of countries in certain areas, many of which are shown in ratio to one another. The major limitation however is that it is impossible to know whether or not any of the information is accurate. The numbers given would easily have been subject to alteration by the government at hand. The numbers have little to no given context and as such, are not very helpful in deducing the impact industrialization has on the outbreak of war. 

HW 9

Compare:
     Division of ethnic groups with arbitrary country borders
     Power hungry dictator cites expansion and need of space as reason to attack
     Conflict between ethnic groups separate from main war
     Severe military miscalculation/ poor information
    

Contrast:
     Alliance system played little to no part in Iran-Iraq war
     Religion played only a small role in WWI
     No two-front war scenario
    

HW 8

Cause: Mao's personal paranoia
Cause: Increased "Western" ideas

Practice: Destruction of 4 Olds; (Old Customs, Old Habits, Old Culture, Old Ideas)
Practice: Red Guards given power above the police

Effect: Countless ancient artifacts and buildings were destroyed
Effect: Economic and Education systems brought to an absolute halt due to the turmoil in the government

HW 7

Mao's aims as a ruler:
1.) Remove as many Nationalists from mainland china as possible. This was achieved by as violent a means as possible.
2.) Increase diplomatic relations with the Soviet Union
3.) Industrialize as much of mainland China as possible
4.) Ensure order through out China

Mao's methods were mostly of violence. The Great Leap Forward was adapted from the Soviet 5 Year Plan, but to a much less successful scale. Mao's control over the people manifested itself in the "mini-revolution" where Mao had declared members of the party to be capitalist supporters which led to an outburst of violence against government officials. Mao was able to make laws about anything he wanted so the line between use of force and legality is somewhat blurry. A blockage was ordered for the city of Changchun, which led to roughly 330,000 deaths. Mao had refused to allow the civilians to flee the city, instead allowing citizens to starve nearly to death, only to have Communist soldiers enter the city and begin executing them. Some Communist soldiers had such moral problems with the executing of civilians that many committed suicide afterwards.The Great Leap Forward was seen as a failure because it placed much too much stress of meeting the quotas set forth which led to the lack of materials and supplies for the peasants. Poor weather was blamed and wide-set famine and starvation was common. Mao commonly set forth propaganda stating that only the Communists were the friends of the peasants. Mao's most common form of propaganda was slogans that were to be repeated by all party members. 

HW 6

1.) Mao's use of psychological warfare came in the dealings with forced starvation of the surrounded Nationalist troops. The lack of food was used as a way to convince the Nationalist troops to switch sides and join the Communists.
2.) The Communists themselves would describe themselves as a friend to the people and their beneficiaries, but many other sources describe them to be just as bad, if not worse than the Nationalists.
3.) People were encouraged to fight amongst themselves and turn in their neighbors for un-partylike activity, much as Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia had.
4.) Drafts were instilled in order to increase the number of either soldiers or laborers as well as "drafting" women into the army as support troops and cooks.
5.) The only part of land reform that mattered to Mao was the removal of all prior Land lords by violent means in order to rally the people in one violent cause.
6.) Mao primary goal was to secure power rather than provide for the common welfare of the people. Had his goal been to provide for common welfare, Mao would not have used policies of starving innocent people to death in order to convince them to change allegiances.