This 2 week Flex module discusses the following topics:

WEEK ONE: Inter-war years timeline & The Great Depression &The Wall Street Crash Impact to the U.S., Germany, and Great Britain
WEEK TWO:  The Rise of Dictators - Italy’s Benito Mussolini, Russia’s Joseph Stalin, and Germany’s Adolf Hitler & Supplementary Readings and Activities

With the end of World War I, the old international system was torn down, Europe was reorganized, and a new world was born. The European nations that had fought in the Great War emerged economically and socially crippled. Economic depression prevailed in Europe for much of the inter-war period, and debtor nations found it impossible to pay their debts without borrowing even more money, at higher rates, thus worsening the economy to an even greater degree. Germany especially was destroyed economically by World War I and its aftermath: the reparations to Britain and France forced on Germany by the Treaty of Versailles were impossibly high. 

 The political atmosphere of the inter-war years was sharply divided between those who thought the extreme left could solve Europe's problems, and those who desired leadership from the extreme right. There were very few moderates, and this situation kept the governments of Britain, France, and Eastern Europe in constant turmoil, swinging wildly between one extreme and the next. Extreme viewpoints won out in the form of totalitarian states in Europe during the inter-war years, and communism took hold in the Soviet Union, while fascism controlled Germany, Italy and Spain.

The extremist nature of these disparate ideologies turned European politics into an arena for sharp conflict, erupting in Spain during the late 1930s in the form of the Spanish Civil War, after which Francisco Franco became dictator. In Germany, Adolf Hitler's fascist Nazi Party came to power during the 1930s and prepared once again to make war on Europe. With Britain and France tied up in their own affairs, the path to World War II lay clear. 

We will explore this exciting period by investigating primary and secondary sources to reach important conclusions about Interwar Europe, 1919-39. Each week a video presentation will be given covering the events which occurred during the Interwar Period. An instructor guided quiz will follow as well as a an instructor guided source based series of questions on the attached activities. 

Study Skills: Students will be encouraged to take notes in the Cornell Notes format. These notes and other "revision" techniques will be both introduced and shared in the classroom to encourage proper note-taking for any course of study. The instructor will share ideas about both note-taking and "revision" techniques (e.g., mind-maps) to assist the student with a more efficient study methodology for this, or any course of study. 

Historical Source Analysis: Each student will be encouraged to evaluate a primary source (artifact or document) concerning its bias, trustworthiness, and usefulness to the historian. This will be posted in the classroom and will be the basis for student/instructor interaction. Other primary sources will be presented in the same context and, in turn will be evaluated by the students in the context of the topic for that week. These sources will complement the teacher-guided source based activity for that section of the course. 

Historiography: Students will evaluate the interpretations of notable historians via excerpts. They will compare and contrast these interpretations and work towards developing their own interpretation of the historical event. As these are presented and shared in the classroom page, students will interact with and constructively comment upon other student's genuine interpretations. 

Problem Solving: Students will be presented with classic exam-style questions. Through a process of "Deconstruct the Prompt" we will take apart the question, break it down into its known components and together scheme towards crafting a response to that question. Students will see and give comment upon each other's responses and, as a class we shall work towards presenting the best possible response to typical questions about the topic under study. 

The course is both informative and purposeful, ideally meant to prepare UK students for history exams. Yet the course is approachable for those who are interested in this exciting time period of British History. 

Students will be directed to a secure Google Drive for class materials.
Students will gain access to class videos via above Google Drive. 
Other materials/videos will be posted to the Outschool classroom.
Students may submit work via Outschool classroom or via Google Drive.
Interactive activities (e.g., Jamboard) will be utilized for this course. 

This 2 week Flex module discusses the following topics:

WEEK ONE: Inter-war years timeline & The Great Depression &The Wall Street Crash Impact to the U.S., Germany, and Great Britain
WEEK TWO:  The Rise of Dictators - Italy’s Benito Mussolini, Russia’s Joseph Stalin, and Germany’s Adolf Hitler & Supplementary Readings and Activities