Germany + Conflict tension west and east

• Kaiser Wilhelm


  Difficulties of ruling Germany: the growth of parliamentary government; the influence of Prussian militarism; industrialisation; social reform and the growth of socialism; the domestic importance of the Navy Laws
• Impact of the First World War

  War weariness, economic problems; defeat; the end of the monarchy; post-war problems including reparations, the occupation of the Ruhr and hyperinflation
• Weimar democracy


  1. Political change and unrest, 1919–1923, including Spartacists, Kapp Putsch and the Munich Putsch

  2. The extent of recovery during the Stresemann era (1924–1929): economic developments including the new currency, Dawes Plan and the Young Plan

  3. The impact of international agreements on recovery

  4. Weimar culture
• The impact of the Depression

  Growth in support for the Nazis and other extremist parties (1928–1932), including the role of the SA; Hitler's appeal
• The failure of Weimar democracy

  Election results; the role of Papen and Hindenburg and Hitler's appointment as Chancellor
• The establishment of Hitler's dictatorship

  The Reichstag Fire; the Enabling Act; elimination of political opposition; trade unions; Rohm and the Night of the Long Knives; Hitler becomes Führer
• Economic changes under the Nazis


  Benefits and drawbacks; employment; public works programmes; rearmament; self-sufficiency; the impact of war on the economy and the German people, including bombing, rationing, labour shortages, refugees
• Social policy and practice under the Nazis


  • Reasons for policies, practices and their impact on women, young people and youth groups; education; control of churches and religion; Aryan ideas, racial policy and persecution; the Final Solution
• Control under the Nazis


  • Goebbels, the use of propaganda and censorship; Nazi culture; repression and the police state and the roles of Himmler, the SS and Gestapo; opposition and resistance, including White Rose group, Swing Youth, Edelweiss Pirates and July 1944 bomb plot
• The Alliance System


  The Triple Alliance; Franco-Russian Alliance; relations between the 'Entente' powers; the crises in Morocco (1905 and 1911) and the Balkans (1908–1909), and their effects on international relations
• Anglo-German rivalry


  Britain and challenges to Splendid Isolation; Kaiser Wilhelm's aims in foreign policy, including Weltpolitik; colonial tensions; European rearmament, including the Anglo-German naval race
• Outbreak of war


  Slav nationalism and relations between Serbia and Austria-Hungary; the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo and its consequences; the July Crisis; the Schlieffen Plan and Belgium; reasons for the outbreak of hostilities and the escalation of the conflict
• The Schlieffen Plan


  The reasons for the plan, its failure, including the Battle of Marne and its contribution to the stalemate
• The Western Front


  • Military tactics and technology, including trench warfare; the war of attrition; key battles, including Verdun, the Somme and Passchendaele, the reasons for, the events and significance of these battles
• The wider war


  • The war on other fronts; Gallipoli and its failure; the events and significance of the war at sea, including Jutland, the U-Boat campaign and convoys
• Changes in the Allied Forces

  Consequences of the Bolshevik Revolution and the withdrawal of Russia on Germany strategy; the reasons for and impact of the entry of the USA into the war
• Military developments in 1918 and their contribution to Germany's defeat


  The evolution of tactics and technology; Ludendorff the German Spring Offensive; the Allied advance during The Hundred Days
• Germany surrenders


  Impact of the blockade; abdication of the Kaiser; armistice; the contribution of Haig and Foch to Germany's defeat