Why did communism become established in Eastern Europe after the Second World War? - published: 15/01/2009
Essay - 7 pages - Modern history
On the 25th of April 1945, shortly before the official end of the Second World War, American and Soviet soldiers meet at the Elbe river. But to reach the Elbe river, the Russian troops had to come all the way across Europe, and so across Eastern Europe. By the end of the same year, seven states...
Why did Eritrea become independent?
Essay - 15 pages - Modern history
In 1993, the whole world was impressed by the state-of-the-art independence of Eritrea. Everything seemed to have been done by the rules : a declaration of independence in 1991, a notification to the UN and a referendum two years later. Being the last war of independence of Africa, it is tempting...
The history of the Jagiellonian university: The history of Krakow
Essay - 4 pages - Modern history
Since its foundation in 1364, the University of Krakow has known a destiny unique of its kind. It was the second university created in Central Europe after the one in Prague - created in 1348 - and before many others afterward like in Vienna (1365), Pécs (1367), and Erfurt (1379). All along the...
The classical realist and structural realist theories applied to the Kosovo crisis in 1998-1999
Essay - 6 pages - Modern history
Kosovo is mostly known as a region in the former Yugoslavia where, in 1998 and 1999, there was growing violence between the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which sought independence from Serbia, and the Serbian army and police, which were randomly attacking the province of the indigenous Albanian...
What historical factors played the greatest role in defining the Arab society and culture since the eighteenth century?
Essay - 6 pages - Modern history
From the seventh to the eighteenth century, the Arab World has formed a large area regrouping a Muslim population, sharing a common religion and culture. In different parts of the Islamic World, Islam was the bound between the Umma. Since the fourteenth century, the main part of the Arab world...
The emancipation proclamation
Essay - 3 pages - Modern history
President Abraham Lincoln entered the war in order to preserve the union of the United States rather than to abolish slavery. Indeed, he repeatedly emphasized that his paramount objective in the war was to save the union, not to free the slaves. However, Lincoln has been such pressured by...
Compare and contrast the causes and nature of the two 1917 Russian Revolutions
Essay - 6 pages - Modern history
“Every social group, every nationality, every region, every town, every village, had its own revolution”, wrote Christopher Read and indeed, 1917 proved to be for Russia a year of turmoil and change. Traditionally, however, 1917 is known as a year of two revolutions, February Revolution...
Mao's reforms: A total failure?
Essay - 5 pages - Modern history
“In time of difficulties, we must not lose sight of our achievements.” This quotation from the Communist leader Mao Tse-Tung (1893-1976) could perfectly apply to his economic policy. When Mao came to power in October 1949, China was out of a decade of war and its economy was still very...
Genocide: The case of Rwanda
Essay - 4 pages - Modern history
The situation in Darfur illustrates the difficulties the international community faces when it comes to deal with acts of genocide. Genocide has been defined as a crime in international law, an international Convention has been signed and international tribunals have been created to try...
Did Thatcherism bring an end to the 'post-war consensus?'
Essay - 7 pages - Modern history
Since 1979 the so-called 'Thatcher experiment' or the 'Thatcherism' was at the centre of many debates, partly because Mrs Thatcher's government has broken with many features of the postwar consensus and partly because her government's record is contested (Kavanagh, 1987,...
Was the Great Famine of greater significance for the histories of subsequent generations than for those of the period 1845 - 50?
Essay - 4 pages - Modern history
Ireland in the beginning of the 1840's had a population of eight million inhabitants of whom more than four-fifths lived on the land and it was one of the most densely populated countries in Europe. The prosperous phase which prevailed in Ireland at the beginning of the 1840's was unfortunately...
Abraham Lincoln
Essay - 3 pages - Modern history
Abraham Lincoln is considered to be one of the greatest American presidents who expressed himself as not simply a forceful war while demonstrating the vast power inherent in the presidency, but as a dictator, albeit in many accounts a benevolent and constitutional dictator. Lincoln, it is said,...
Pragmatism and idealism in the process of nation-building (1781-1788)
Essay - 7 pages - Modern history
“Idealism without pragmatism is impotent. Pragmatism without idealism is meaningless. The key to effective leadership is pragmatic idealism.” (Richard Nixon). Were the very first years of the new nation, born of the American Revolution, marked by a “spirit of pragmatic...
South Africa: Colonial expansion and British consolidation
Essay - 3 pages - Modern history
History of South Africa's colonization is undoubtedly one of the most complex, partly due to the fact that several colonizing nations and several native tribes were in interaction. What kind of evolutions knew South Africa from the second part of the 17th century to the end of the 19th century...
When the Japanese moved into Southeast Asia in 1941, local reactions to the occupying forces differed greatly. Evaluate the motivations that fueled these varying responses, taking into consideration particular local situations and periods of the war
Essay - 5 pages - Modern history
Raising the question of the reactions to the Japanese takeover in Southeast Asia is very delicate and original for many reasons. Firstly, Southeast Asia is a broad region and it is most likely that the reactions of locals will differ greatly from one place to another. Secondly, there is not one...
Preparing the Great War: The Schlieffen Plan
Essay - 3 pages - Modern history
Between 1905 and 1914, due to the instability of Europe dominated by alliances, every country in Europe was preparing for the war and developing war plans and strategies, which had to suit their conceptions of the war. Germany, which was allied with Austria-Hungary (which had a poor army), feared...
What to call the genocides of the Second World War and why?
Essay - 8 pages - Modern history
“Historians are not always trustful guides when we have to reconstitute past”. Those words, of Lucy DAWIDOWICZ -an American historian who wrote quite a lot of books about the historiography of genocides- directly aimed at criticizing historians of genocides, who treated the murder by...
"The major parties of the Federal Republic of Germany provide better models of the 'catch-all party' (Kirchheimer) than do those of the French Fifth Republic and post-war Italy." Discuss
Essay - 3 pages - Modern history
The Post war period was characterized by move towards spreading secular and mass consumer-goods societies. This note is valid in the Federal Republic of Germany, the French Fifth Republic, and post-war Italy. This major turn in societies had to be understood by political parties and translated in...
The Constituent Assembly (1789-1791) and its major reforms during the French Revolution
Essay - 2 pages - Modern history
The Constituent Assembly is the Assembly in power in France between July, 9th 1789 and September, 30th 1791. On July 9th 1789, the National Assembly (created on 17th June) proclaims itself the Constituent National Assembly. This means its primary task will be to draw up a Constitution and adopt...
Discuss the origins of the French Revolution - economically, politically, socially, and ideologically
Essay - 3 pages - Modern history
“Great revolutions which succeed make the causes which produced them disappear, and thus become incomprehensible because of their own success” (1), wrote Alexis de Tocqueville one hundred and fifty years ago. Yet, we will try all the same to understand what the origins of the French...
Impact of the French Revolution on 19th century France
Essay - 9 pages - Modern history
It is quite difficult to discuss the impact of the French revolution on the French society for the country had difficulty accessing stability in the 19th century. Indeed the intervening decades witnessed four major upheavals: in the 1790s, 1830, 1848 and 1870, which brought a whole variety of...
Transition Macedonia
Essay - 20 pages - Modern history
Throughout the centuries, the South-eastern corner of Europe has been the scene of many invasions and transcending civilizations. This left the trace of different cultures, religions and empires. One of the most evident cleavages in the region is religious cleavage between the Catholic Church,...
The civil rights movement - From counters to subs
Essay - 7 pages - Modern history
The Emancipation Proclamation abolished slavery (speech by Lincoln Sept.23nd 1862 ? 13th amendment in 1865); the 14th amendment declared everyone equal and the 15th gave the right to vote provided some very restrictive conditions were met. Between the Civil War and the 50's, however, the South...
The truths we cling to: Un-Americanism and the Dies Committee
Essay - 5 pages - Modern history
What does it mean to be ‘un-American?' For most of the twentieth century, a congressional committee took upon itself the mission of defining that vague and often misused term. The committee went through different iterations and attacked different targets. By 1946, one thing was clear: the...
The effect of black soldiers in the Civil War
Essay - 9 pages - Modern history
Throughout the history of the United States, Africans and African-Americans have consistently been treated as second-class citizens. This prejudice is most apparent and appalling in the system of slavery that lasted for more than two hundred years in the United States. In the 1800's tensions over...
The battle of Stalingrad 1942-1943
Essay - 9 pages - Modern history
The year is 1942. Nazi gains in the Soviet Union and North Africa have brought the Allies to the verge of destruction, while Japan continues to conquer island after island in the Pacific. Even Australia is in full panic mode, as occupied New Guinea seems likely to serve as the staging point for...
The historical conditions for the emergence of youth in Italian society
Essay - 5 pages - Modern history
To analyze history is to delve into a world of a complex mixture of social, political, economic, and technological interaction. Indeed, it is these elements that define and furthermore provide some form of a substantive characterization of the civilizations and societal structures that have...
The Meiji restoration and the dawning of Japanese modernity
Essay - 9 pages - Modern history
The Meiji Ishin, or Meiji Restoration culminated in 1868 in the abolition of the feudal Tokugawa bakufu and made way for the modern, Westernized Japan. The mid nineteenth century was a time of vast development around the world, and Japan was falling behind the industrialized nation states of...
Analyzing Oswald's relationship with the FBI
Essay - 4 pages - Modern history
The United States intelligence community is comprised of people who live their lives according to a code of conduct and the orders they receive from superior members of their hierarchical “family”. Members of the Federal Bureau of Investigation work closely with the United States...
Aboriginal Australians - Black response to white dominance 1788 - 1980
Essay - 8 pages - Modern history
It seems that a sad hallmark of indigenous peoples is their oppression and systematic elimination at the hands of foreigners. The Native American marginally survives today after centuries of conflict with Europeans. The Ainu of Japan were nearly entirely wiped out by half a millennium of...
