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Summary IB History HL Paper 2 Essay Outlines - Authoritarian States (Hitler and Mao)
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IB History HL Paper 2 Essay Outlines for Authoritarian States (Hitler and Mao)
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Topic Prescribed ContentEmergence of ● Conditions in which authoritarian states emerged: economic factors; social
authoritarian division; impact of war; weakness of political system
states ● Methods used to establish authoritarian states: persuasion and coercion; the role
of leaders; ideology; the use of force; propaganda
Consolidation and ● Use of legal methods; use of force; charismatic leadership; dissemination of
maintenance of propaganda
power ● Nature, extent and treatment of opposition
● The impact of the success and/or failure of foreign policy on the maintenance of
power
Aims and results ● Aims and impact of domestic economic, political, cultural and social policie
of policies ● The impact of policies on women and minorities
● Authoritarian control and the extent to which it was achieved
Historiography
● Hitler
○ Structuralist
■ Ie. Hitler was an opportunist → NSDAP did not have long term plans
■ Historians: Timothy Mason, Hans Mommsen, Kershaw
○ Intentionalists
■ Ie. Hitler was a powerful ruler who had a “master plan”
■ Historians: Karl Bracher
○ Revisionists
■ Ie. looking into the positives
■ Historians: Irving
○ Misc. historians
■ AJP Taylor, Frank McDonough
● Mao
○ Revisionist
■ Historians: Dikotter
○ Anti-Mao
■ Historians: Jung Chang and Jon Halliday
○ Misc. historians
■ Spence, Lynch, Gray
1
,Emergence
To what extent did economic factors contribute to the emergence of two authoritarian states?
YES, it contributed
● Topic Sentence:
○ Hitler was an example that political extremism arises out of economic misery
○ Hitler’s “utopian dream could only have prospered in the dark of a very black night” -- Frank
McDonough
● The Economic Crisis of 1923
○ Ruhr Crisis + Hyperinflation
■ After WWI, the cost of reparations and the loss of income from territories lost in the ToV
caused economic problems
■ France and Belgian occupied the Ruhr area (industrial heartland)
■ Weimar government supported wages even as production collapsed by printing
money → inflation
■ Destroyed confidence in Germany’s currency and the Weimar constitution →
contributed to anti-republicanism → basis for support for authoritarian and
totalitarian movements
■ Savings were rendered useless → people on fixed incomes or pensions were ruined →
barter economy
■ Evidence
● There were 1000 billion mark notes
● November 1923, at its peak: one loaf of bread was 200 billion marks
● Money used as fuel to burn
● Children making toys, playing with money
■ Extremists used the opportunity to uprise against the government
● Eg. Beerhall Putsch (1923)
○ Coup by the NSDAP → unhappy with the terms of ToV, including
the reparations and concessions
○ Failure but trial and sentencing spread Nazi ideology nationally for the
first time
● Failures of the Stresemann Era (1923 - 1929)
○ Reliant on US loans
■ Vulnerable to problems if they were withdrawn
○ Wall Street Crash (1929)
■ Loans from the US were recalled
■ Unemployment went from 1.3 million to 3 million in one year
● By 1933, 6 million → 1/3 of German workers
○ Appointment of Heinrich Bruning (1930) → “Hunger Chancellor”
■ Deflationary economic policies
● Increased taxation
● Reduced welfare benefits
2
, ● Inequality and poverty
○ Majority of the Chinese population were peasants → approx. 80%
○ China’s economy was largely agricultural up till mid 20th century → was vulnerable to
natural disasters (eg. millions of peasants lived in valleys, would be affected by floods from
the Yellow River)
○ Only 4% of the population controlled 50% of the land
○ Peasants were exploited by landlords for high rent → rent were sometimes up to half of their
produce
○ CCP advocated for land redistribution and believed that peasants can lead a revolution and
overthrow feudalism
● Nanking Decade (1927 - 1937)
○ Jiang focused on military expenditure → never fell below 40% of the total government
expenditure → did not focus on alleviating economic pressures on peasants
○ No interests in improving conditions in the countryside → although they expected to
implement measures to alleviate poverty, they were largely unachieved:
■ Ending landlord control and exploitation of the peasants
■ Extension of property rights to peasants
■ Protection of peasants against excessive rent
■ Guarantee of fair prices for agricultural products
HOWEVER, there were also economic successes → brought back faith for the republic and the GMD
● Achievements of the Stresemann Era (1923 - 1929)
○ Dawes Plan (1924) → showed Germany’s commitment to paying reparations
○ France and Belgium withdrew from the Ruhr area in 1925
○ Production continued in Germany’s industrial heartland
○ Improved Germany's economy overall BUT Nationalists saw the Dawes Plan as a weakness
of the Republic → giving into the Allied powers and ToV
● Achievements of the Nanjing Decade
○ Chinese banks were brought under the central controls of the Bank of China
○ The Shanghai stock exchange became an international financial market
○ A National Resources Commission was set up to develop Chinese industries and negotiate
foreign trade deals
○ Government subsidies were provided to the Chinese film industry → became internationally
renowned
○ Led to improvement in China’s economy overall BUT still disregarded the peasant population
3
, To what extent did social factors contribute to the emergence of two authoritarian states?
YES, it contributed
● Topic sentence:
○ “The origin of the Right…lies always in the challenge of the Left” -- Nolte
● The Left
○ Division between the Right and the Left
■ Fear of the Left increased due to the establishment of the USSR and the growth of
Socialist/Communist movements in western Europe
■ Elites aligned themselves with the NSDAP with the fear of Communism
● “If you look at conservative elites, 90% of them share close aims with the Nazis,
such as their fear and hatred of Communists” -- Stephan Malinowski
○ Division within the Left
■ The Left failed to unite against the Nazis, in defense of the Republic but also in terms of
self defense
■ Hostility between SPD and KPD → communist Spartacus uprising crushed by SPD
led government (Friedrich Ebert)
■ KPD leaders murdered → accused SPD of being traitors, supporting bourgeois,
capitalist democracy
■ KPD openly vilified SPD as ‘social fascists’ → distracting working class from Marxist
goals + helping grow capitalism + NSDAP
● KPD believed that the NSDAP were capitalism’s hired thugs
● Social division due to WWI
○ German military leaders claimed that Germany’s defeat (1918) was because of the ‘stab in
the back’ theory → groups began to be demonetized
■ Germany lost WWI because of betrayal of internal enemies (eg. Weimar politicians,
Jews, Bolsheviks)
■ Notion was widely believed and propagated by right-wing
■ Government leaders who signed armistice were deemed “November Criminals”
○ BUT Hindenburg and Ludendorff knew that Germany would be defeated
■ Weakened by blockage
■ Own allies collapsed
■ Superior resources of Allied powers (after USA joined the war)
■ Breakdown of military discipline in Germany
○ Fueled hatred for extremist groups, such as the NSDAP → Beerhall Putsch (1923)
■ Coup to seize power of the Bavarian government
● Inequality
○ Majority of the Chinese population were peasants → approx. 80%
4
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