Between the Wars is a mini unit that the students will be examining the changing government in Russia, Upheaval in the West and the rise of Dictatorships. Some of the people and events we will be studying are Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Trotsky, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Hitler and Mussolini. We will cover topics such as the development of communism, the Great Depression, the rise of dictators and events leading to WWII.
Unit 4 Essential Questions
- What were the social, political, and economic conditions that led to the origin and development of the first Communist state?
- What were the economic conditions that created the Great Depression and how did it provide a challenge to capitalism as an economic philosophy?
- What are the ideological foundations of fascism and communism and how did they develop in Russia, Germany, and Italy?
- How did the battling political philosophies of democracy, communism, and fascism fight for the will of the populations of Europe and Asia?
- Explain how a new government developed in the Soviet Union under the leadership of Lenin and Stalin.
- Describe how western democracies began to recover from WWI and how that recovery was shattered by the Great Depression.
- Discuss how China was torn by civil war and how Southeast Asia and India began their push for independence.
- Identify how democracy, communism and fascism battled for supremacy in Europe and Asia