Stage 2 History- Full Year (20 Credits)

Topic 1. The Middle East

The Middle East is a region of cultural diversity and contested territories. Students investigate how the complex relationships between nation states in the region have been shaped by political, religious, ethnic, and cultural identities. They consider ways in which the involvement of external powers, the conflicts, and the attempts at peace brokering have contributed to the shaping of the modern Middle East.

A contested region

An overview of the Middle East from 1945–60. Examples include the diversity of nations and ethnic, religious, political, and cultural groups; the political and economic interests and influence of international powers; the control of oil resources; Palestine; the establishment of the state of Israel; and the significance of the 1952 Egyptian revolution, the 1953 Iranian coup d’état, and the 1956 Suez Crisis.

National and regional conflicts

The causes and course of one or more significant conflicts, and the short-term and long-term impacts on nations, states, regions, and peoples. Examples include the Arab–Israeli conflicts (1967, 1973); the Lebanese Civil War (1975–1990); the Iranian Revolution (1979); the Iran–Iraq War (1980–88); the Intifada (1987, 2000); the First Gulf War (1990); the Second Gulf War (2003); the Arab Spring (2011); the struggle of a people for national self-determination; and the impact of conflict on people’s lives and cultures.

Peace processes

The course and short-term and long-term impacts of peace processes and settlements. Examples include the role of key individuals, movements, nations, regional governments, international powers, and the United Nations in brokering ceasefires and peace settlements; the terms of peace settlements, including how they were negotiated, and how they were viewed by parties to the conflict(s); and the process of monitoring peace and preventing further conflict.

Unresolved issues

The ongoing nature of post-conflict issues. Examples include refugees and migration; persecuted minorities; pan-national militant groups; the recognition of and threats to national sovereignty; civil war; military incursions; border protection; and access to resources such as oil, water, and land.

Topic 2: Germany (1918–48)

From 1918 to 1948 Germany experienced the demise of an empire, the birth of a republic, the rise and fall of a dictatorship, and its division into two nations. These events had a profound impact on both Germany and Europe.

A background study introduces students to the end of the First World War, when the catastrophic experience of Total War had caused horrific losses to peoples and nations and left Germany a devastated and divided nation.

Focus areas

• The liberal experiment

• The changing economic conditions, including reparations, hyperinflation, and the Great Depression, and their impact across German society.

• The Weimar Republic's responses to political threats from the left and right, which challenged its stability and legitimacy.

• The changing nature of German culture and society as reflected by developments in architecture, art, music, and cinema.

• The creation and consolidation of a dictatorship

• The aims, methods, and appeal of the Nazi movement, which resulted in its move from political fringe to government.

• The role of key individuals and groups working for and against the Nazi accession to power culminating in the Enabling Act.

• The consolidation of the Nazi state including the institutionalisation of anti-Semitism.

• The experience of dictatorship for people and groups including women, minorities and those who resisted the Nazi state from within Germany.

• The defeat of the Nazi State/Third Reich in the face of external and internal opposition.

• The impact of the Second World War on the German people.

• The radicalisation of violence and terror including the 'Final Solution'.

• External and internal opposition and the defeat of the Nazi State.

• The post-war division and de-Nazification of Germany.

• The Nuremberg trials.

• The Berlin crisis in 1948.