Create a 30-40 word response to each of the below statements.
Statement 1
R. J. B. Bosworth wrote a book on this subject called Mussolini's Italy: Life Under the Fascist Dictatorship, 1915-1945. He called this "one of the twentieth century's most notorious political experiments." Mussolini and his "Fascists were the original totalitarians, espousing a cult of violence and obedience that inspired many other dictatorships, Hitler's first among them."
His main argument is that "many Italians resisted its ideology, finding ways, ingenious and varied, to keep Fascism from taking hold as deeply as it did in Germany."
What are your thoughts on this argument? Why do you think there was a difference in Italy and Germany in terms of resistance to Fascism?
Statement 2
During 1890 to 1939, there were some significant changes in developments with Europe's economy. With Europe being the top dog in the world when it comes to the economy, they were pretty up there and dominated. The industrial side caused many changes which were noticeable. One of the significant changes that were noted was the fact the life expectancy of a person was 47 years old. But with all new advances of food supply, new advancements in health and the simple thing such as clean water increased the life expectancy of a person. In 1940 the average life expectancy of a person was 60, which in my opinion is a dramatic jump. New developments of sanitation and the creation of the small pox vaccine was one of the developments of this era. With Europe dominating the industrial market, the population grew.
With the population growing many flocked to other areas in Europe to seek employment opportunities. Many different areas in Europe offered seasonal jobs such as farming. With the growth within Europe there was job creation, health advancements were just a few things that were significant that contributed to Europe's growth.
Statement 3
With the increase in industrial work came numerous social developments in Europe during the late 1800s and early 1900s. The grueling life of factory work offered no protection from sickness or unemployment. Issues like this sparked the formation of organizations such as friendly societies and trade unions. In high industrial producing areas such as Great Britain, strike activity became more prevalent. Friendly societies were quite popular as they offered a form of insurance. Business owners united to form cooperative retail organizations, where they could get lower priced goods.
The role of women during this time period was also significant. The British Women's Cooperative Guild "established a reputation as a self-governing organization of working-class housewives" (Gabin). A momentous change that brought about discomfort to traditional male counterparts was the simplification of machines, which enabled the employment of women at a cheap rate. Despite working double the hours and for half the wage a man earned, women were influential in the success of emerging department stores.
Although this overall time period was a difficult one for workers, improvements in social quality of life were attempted. Pensions for elderly workers were put in place and laws protecting women and children workers were enforced, however and unfortunately, loosely. Despite the poor and crowding living conditions, workers found ways to enrich their lives by forming clubs. Additionally, churches offered an alternative for education and socialism in an attempt to avoid social unrest.
Statement 4
WWI seems like it was one large blunder after another that wasted lives and accomplished nothing. It started about a month after Archduke Ferdinand of Austria was assassinated in Serbia. This is the most recognized and well known reason for the start of WWI. The Central powers consisted of Germany, Austria-Hungary, Turkey, and Bulgaria. The Entente was France, Britain, Russia, Japan, Italy, Portugal, Greece, and Romania. The US was not allied with the Entente but fought on their side. WWI was the most destructive conflict up to this point (Biddiss, 72). It saw the first use of aircraft, tanks, machine guns, better artillery, and chemical weapons. These combined with the horrors of trench warfare saw huge losses of life. Austria-Hungary lost over 950,000 men (Biddiss, 148). Russia around 3 million and total deaths are estimated at 10 million (Biddiss, 53). The horrors of trench warfare brought "Shell Shock" to the public eye. Soldiers were diagnosed with shell shock (PTSD) and it was treated like a mental illness. The Richmond War Hospital was set up to treat these cases from the war and had some success (Kelly, 24). Following WWI, the male population was severely decreased which affected the birth rates in many European countries. Industry and agriculture was destroyed in parts of Europe the economy of most countries was ruined. Inflation was out of control and the Central Power countries could not pay their debts and reparations. WWI was very destructive and lead to economic depression low birth rates that took almost until WWII to recover from.