1. In early 1925, Hitler published Mein Kampf. What were his ideas, what did he say should be Germany’s objectives? How does Lebensraum figure in?
2. Why could Stalin make the claim that Soviet involvement in the European front of World War II was the decisive factor that led to Hitler’s defeat as opposed to the Allied efforts in Western Europe?
3. Well before the Bolshevik Revolution Lenin expressed his aims for Russia. What was the role of the Bolsheviks in the Revolution (as opposed to the Mensheviks’ view)? What role did Leon Trotsky have in the Reds fight against the Whites? Why did the Reds win? ), on Lenin see what he said in What is to be Done?)
4. What was the Stalinism of the 1930’s? Why did Stalin conduct the massive purges of the 1930’s? What was the result of them?
5. What were Deng Xiaoping’s 4 Modernizations, starting in 1979? Why did he implement them? What was the students’ 5th modernization?
6. Mutually Assured Destruction (MAD), its effect on the US and USSR approach to their nuclear capabilities and how they dealt with each other. Note MAD is not used by the book, détente, which is almost the same thing, is.)
7. What did the reformers in Japan’s Meiji Reformation (1868-1912) try to do? What did they do domestically? What did they try to do in foreign affairs? What was the new role of the Emperor?
8. What did the Treaty of Versailles (1919) between the victorious Allied Powers and the defeated Central Powers accomplish? Why did the League of Nations fail?
9. Who was Kemal Ataturk (d 1938)? What did he do for Turkey, militarily and later politically?
10. What was Czar Nicholas I’s (r 1825-55) ‘official nationalism,’ introduced in 1833, its three theories, and its aims? What was his Russification policy?
11. How did the breakdown of communism in the Soviet Bloc countries (Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Romania, Poland, and East Germany) in 1900-1991 lead to the collapse of the Soviet Union. What was the effect on the 15 states in the Soviet Union and on the Cold War.
12. Explain Darwin’s theory of evolution as outlined in his Origin of the Species, also noting natural selection. Also explain Herbert Spencer’s social Darwinism? Explain how it influenced early 20th century Japan. For Darwin and Spencer, see Combined ; for Spencer’s effect on Japan (as supremacist nationalism),
13. What was Otto von Bismarck’s contribution to the strengthening of Prussia and the unification of Germany as an Empire in 1871?
14. Outline the assault by Friedrich Nietzsche (d 1900) on western culture. Include an explanation of his aphorism: God is dead.