How did the Village of Deir Yassin come to be Fought Over in 1948 and Why do Sources A and B Differ on who was to Blame for the Arab Flight from the Village and Other Parts of Palestine at that time?
How did the Village of Deir Yassin come to be Fought Over in 1948 and Why do Sources A and B Differ on who was to Blame for the Arab Flight from the Village and Other Parts of Palestine at that time? Since Biblical times, the Jews had been moved from place to place with them only holding their only 'promised' state for a very small amount of time. The only wish the Jews had was to be in their holy city of Jerusalem but, after being banned from the city by the Romans, they dispersed around the world. In the late 5th century, the Romans abandoned Jerusalem and in the 8th century the Arabs began to live in the Palestine area. By the start of the 20th century, the Jews believed that God had promised that land to them and so it should belong to them. However, the Arabs, having lived there for 1100 years, did not want to become part of a newly-created state as they enjoyed Palestine as it was. The Arabs also believed Jerusalem to be a holy city. In 1516, The Ottoman Empire invaded Palestine, and for over 400 years, the Arabs did not have control over their land either. Both the Arabs and the Jews got their chance to have a homeland during the First World War. As the Ottoman Empire was supporting the Central Powers, the British decided that they would support an independent state to try and hinder the Turks. This intention was promised in the MacMahon Letter in 1915, which said
What were the consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis?
What were the consequences of the Cuban Missile Crisis? Upon looking back at the Cuban missile crisis I feel most people look back in sheer amazement at how close the world came to a nuclear war. During the crisis that developed around the missiles placed of Cuba by the Soviet Union there were many key factors that led to it building up and finally Khrushchev backing down, I will now look at the consequences of the Crisis and what happened after. The reason why the USA had issues with the Cubans was because they suspected that they were holding weapons of mass destruction on the island for the Soviets, this quite obviously worried them and they wanted the missiles to be removed. After the missiles were removed as part of the resolve of the crisis Cuba stayed highly armed but not armed with nuclear missiles. It also stayed under communist leadership, in the USA the crisis had a big effect on people's views towards communism and in particular their anti-communist views. To turn back communism critics of the USA had wanted them to invade Cuba. However the crisis showed how wrong they were to invade Cuba would be a very high risk. Whereas communist Cuba was merely a convince for the USA, a nuclear war would have been the end of the world. Communism had been such a big part of the reason for the bad relationship between USA and USSR but after the Cuban missile ended. This was
cuban missile crisis and the bay of pigs
6 a) What happened at the Bay of Pigs, Cuba, in April 1961? In January 1961, the USA broke off diplomatic relations with Cuba. This caused Castro to think the USA were about to invade. It was clear that the USA would no longer accept a Soviet satellite at the heart of its sphere of influence. In April 1961, President Kennedy supplied equipment to 1400 anti-Castro fighters so that they could invade Cuba and overthrow him. The fighters landed at the Bay of Pigs and were met by 20,000 Cuban troops armed with modern weapons and tanks. The invasion was a huge disaster and Castro captured or killed all the fighters within a few days. B) Why did the USA place a naval blockade around Cuba in October 1962? On the 14th of October 1962 Americas spy plane U-2 flew over Cuba and took photographs of what appeared to be nuclear missile sights that were clearly being built by the USSR. More photos from the following days showed that some of the sites were finished whilst others were still being built. Army experts said that the most advanced of the bases could launch missiles in just one week. There were also reports of around 20 Soviet ships sailing towards Cuba carrying nuclear missiles. Kennedy was informed of the situation on the 16th of October. He had 5 options of things to do in this situation. One option was to do nothing that was disbanded as to do nothing would be a sign of
Why did Gorbachev introduce the policy of 'Perestroika' and what were its successes and failures?
Why did Gorbachev introduce the policy of 'Perestroika' and what were its successes and failures? Gorbachev wanted to reverse the economic decline of the Brezhnev years by the 'restructuring' of the Soviet economy. He was convinced the central planning was not working as he believed this and the obvious falsifying of official statistics of production had led to stagnation and a lack of initiative amongst workers and managers. He wished for perestroika to have an element of competition into the work place by debilitating state monopolies and encouraging some free enterprise; the prices which were determined through supply and demand, as well as better working conditions and motivation, thus would replace the subsidising by the state and thus reinvigorate the economy. Gorbachev also needed to reinvigorate the Soviet economy if it was to have any chance of competing with Ronald Reagan's United States of America. Reagan had decided to escalate the arms race especially through the Star Wars programme and if Gorbachev failed to improve the economy it was clear that they would lose the Cold War. Gorbachev also wanted a political form of perestroika to halt corruption within the Party and end the 'stability of cadres'- instead of the alleged continuity of experience, end the creeping corruption within the party, thereby allowing less criticism of the government. Economic
Discuss the reasons why Germany was central to Cold War rivalry between 1945 and 1949.
Discuss the reasons why Germany was central to Cold War rivalry between 1945 and 1949 Germany surrendered to the allied forces in May 1945, this signalled the end of WW2 in Europe. The expected calm after the war, which may have been expected, was not to be. Trouble had already surfaced at the conferences of Tehran and Yalta conferences. The Potsdam conference in July and August of 1945 was to prove that relations between the USA and Russia were not going to run smoothly especially on decisions concerning Germany. Both camps wanted different things to come out of the post war Germany but this evidently caused problems. Not only was there a lack of decision concerning Germany but in the years that followed the implication of the Marshall Plan and other American economic initiatives in Germany proved to cause friction with Russia. The Berlin Blockade in June 1948, which lasted until May 1949, was a further reason why Germany was central to Cold War rivalry during the years in question. Other reasons such as the Czech coup in 1948 were key to Cold War rivalry but Germany was the key reason why rivalry emerged. This was because it was geographically in the centre of Europe, its economy was seen as the lynchpin of the European economy as a whole especially in the USA and it controlled the Ruhr, which was seen by George Kennan as one of the 5 key economic areas of the world.
Why has there been conflict between Israel and her Arab neighbours since 1973?
Why has there been conflict between Israel and her Arab neighbours since 1973? There are a number of key reasons for why there has been conflict between Israel and her Arab neighbours, especially the Palestinians, since 1973. One key reason is to do with Israel and the Arabs disputing who owns the land of Israel. This has led to conflict because both feel they have a claim to it. Originally Israel was called Palestine and was inhabited mainly by Jews. They believe that God gave the land to them. When the Romans conquered Palestine, the Jews were forced to leave and fled to different destinations across the globe. However Jews felt unwelcome in these other countries and faced constant persecution. In 1897 the Jews demanded their own state in part of Palestine, their original homeland, however this was now occupied by Palestinian Arabs. Jews began to emigrate to Palestine. The Holocaust increased the demand for an independent Jewish state, when 6 million Jews were killed. The United Nations decided to partition Palestine creating one Jewish state and one Palestinian state; but Palestinians didn't agree with this. They believed it wasn't fair as their state was smaller, even though they made up the majority of the population, and believed that their fellow Arab countries could easily defeat a future Jewish state. The state of Israel was created and Palestinians fled to refugee
Keeping Mandela in prison between 1964 and 1990 was a mistake(TM)
'Keeping Mandela in prison between 1964 and 1990 was a mistake' Do sources B-G prove that this interpretation was correct? Nelson Mandela was born in 1918 and was the nephew of a chief. He later became the leader of the ANC and a lawyer. In 1961 he set up 'Spear of the Nation' which he later was given a life sentence because of this. In the 1960's in South Africa, apartheid was separating the Whites and Blacks. Apartheid made sure that, the White South Africans were far superior to the Black South Africans. Nelson Mandela was a very big problem to the Whites as they wanted Apartheid to be maintained in South Africa. The Whites thought that putting Nelson Mandela in prison would be a great solution as they wanted to isolate him, silence him and were trying to end his leadership to the ANC. They also thought that making sure that he had no contact with society would mean he'd lose his faith, however this was not the case. The Spear of the Nation was then formed by Nelson Mandela in 1961 which disrupted the government by acts of sabotage and violence. After been arrested and taken to court Nelson Mandela was then imprisoned and given the life sentence in 1964. However due to the tremendous support that the world showed towards Mandela the judge in the court didn't want to give him capital punishment. Sources which support this are C, G and B. Another group that was like Spear
In 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why did the Americans decide to carry out these attacks? Explain your answer.
In 1945, atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Why did the Americans decide to carry out these attacks? Explain your answer. The Americans decided to carry out these attacks for a variety of interrelated factors; the conglomeration of these factors led to the deployment of atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. No one factor was entirely responsible for the dropping of the bombs, however some factors are more significant than others. One significant factor is that the tension between the USA and USSR was building, for various reasons. One reason for this tension was a misunderstanding, a disagreement, related to the Polish government; Hitler had been defeated, allegedly committing suicide on the 30th April 1945, and Poland was liberated, meaning it needed a government. The Russians wanted to impose a Communist, Russia-orientated government in Poland, whereas the Americans had wanted a more balanced approach to government. This misunderstanding led to American contempt for Russia, seeing them as liars and deal-breakers, although this was never voiced by President Roosevelt. President Roosevelt died unexpectedly on the 12th April 1945, leaving President Truman in charge, worsening American relations with Russia. This is because Roosevelt, familiar to Molotov and Russian diplomats, was no longer there, leaving them with an unfamiliar entity, Truman. Truman had
Berlin Blockade
Exam question -Berlin Blockade a) What was the Cold war? The cold war was a period of time when there was great tension mainly between the two super-powers: United States and the USSR but also their allies and surrounding countries. This occurred between the end of the Second World War and the early 1990s. The main disagreements were to do with control or political influence in the countries liberated from Germany after the war. USA and USSR had very opposing views on what system these countries should have. USA wished for countries to be socialist; whereas USSR wanted to influence communism. Rather than going at each other in an all out war, they attempted to obtain their way through subtle methods. b) Why did tension between the Soviet Union and the West increase after the Potsdam conference? Tension between the west and the Soviet Union increased after the Potsdam conference because of the many disagreements that were discussed there and the clear different political views of the two opposing sides. One of the disagreements at Potsdam was how hardly Germany should be punished. Stalin wanted to cripple them completely, whereas Truman believed that this may lead to another Treaty of Versailles. Failure to come to an agreement on this subject increased tension between the Soviet Union and the west. It was a similar case when it came to reparations. Stalin wanted large
Who was to blame for the start of the Cold War?
Who was to blame for the start of the Cold War? In 1945, just after World War II, the alliance between the United States, Britain and the USSR ended. An intense rivalry between communist and non-communist nations led to the Cold War. It's called the Cold War because it never led to armed or "hot" conflict. At the end of World War II, at the Yalta Conference, Germany was divided into four occupied zones controlled by Great Britain, France, the Soviet Union, and the United States. Berlin was also divided into four sections. No agreement marked the start of the Cold War. When the USA decided to drop the atomic bomb on Japan, the USSR was upset that America had secretly developed the bomb. Churchill, Truman and Atlee were angry that Stalin had already signed a border treaty agreement with Poland. By 1948, Russia controlled Poland, East Germany, Hungary, Romania, Bulgaria and Czechoslovakia. Churchill was first to refer to this as an Iron Curtain that divided Europe. The Allies were angered that the free elections promised by Stalin at the Yalta Conference were not held and adopted a new foreign policy of containment to keep communism to the areas where it was already in affect. The Truman Doctrine of 1947 stated that America would help any non-communist country to resist communist pressure. The Marshall Plan involved sending large amounts of American money to help non-communist