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History Bridging Work

The aims of this Bridging work are:

Objective 1: To introduce students to new terminology that will support them in accessing A-level content.

Objective 2: To provide students with an activity that helps inform content that will be taught to them in the first half-term of Year 12.

Objective 3: Introduce wider reading/listening, an essential for success in A level History

INSTRUCTIONS:

Part 1:

Read the article entitled, Winston Churchill: 1900-1929. Complete the MS forms Quiz to demonstrate your understanding. Please use either the link below or the QR code to direct you to the quiz. External students who do not yet have a Nonsuch email account may not be able to complete the quiz. You do not need to worry about this, please complete the quiz in September when you have your log in details.

https://forms.office.com/r/xDG5j8J745

Part 2:

Complete a timeline of the key events in Churchill’s life from 1900-1929. Do this on a separate piece of paper and present to your class teacher on the first day back.

Part 3:

Defining Key Terms and the Political Spectrum of Weimar Germany. Use the handout entitled Germany 1919-1963 to define the key terms relating to the course. You should then read about the political parties of Weimar Germany and place each onto the political spectrum, annotating each with details of what they believed in and who supported them.

Part 4

Listen to the three episodes of the Rest is History Podcasts series on ‘Young Churchill’ to gain further insight into Churchill’s life.

239. Young Churchill: Born to Lead – YouTube

240. Young Churchill: Soldier of Empire (youtube.com)

241. Young Churchill: Prisoner and Fugitive (youtube.com)

Follow up:

Your bridging work will be assessed in the following way/s:

You will be awarded a colour for your bridging work. This will be determined by the quality and accuracy of the work produced.
You will be given a mark for the Churchill Quiz

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Winston Churchill: 1900-1929

History Bridging Work

The first part of our Year 12 Course on Britain 1930-1997 focuses on the later years of Winston Churchill. The course specifically demands that we understand and analyse contrasting interpretations of Churchill in the 1930s and as war leader in the 1940s. To provide context for this part of the course we are asking you to read the following about Churchill’s life between 1900-1929 which saw both great success and failure. Once you have finished reading, please complete the tasks that follow the article.

Winston Churchill was born in November 1874. He was the son of Lord Randolph Churchill and an American, Jennie Spencer.

Winston Churchill returned from the Boer War a national hero. In October 1900 at age 25, Winston ran for political office. He narrowly defeated a Liberal candidate to win one of the two Conservative Party seats in Oldham, Lancashire, beginning a political career that would last for over 60 years.

The Churchill’s were descended from John Spencer, the First Duke of Marlborough who had achieved notable military victories in the early years of the 18^th Century. His father, Lord Randolph Churchill was a Conservative Party MP who rose to hold the prestigious role of Chancellor of the Exchequer (the second most important job in government), albeit for just a matter of months.

The young Winston Churchill was born into privilege. He attended several prestigious school before joining the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst and graduated in 1893. Churchill would see action in India and the Sudan before leaving the army and becoming a journalist. Writing for the Morning Post, Churchill travelled as a war correspondent to South Africa to report on the Boer War. It was here that Churchill found some minor celebrity following is capture and subsequent escape from a prisoner of war camp.

A profile in Vanity Fair remarked: "He can write and he can fight... he is ambitious; he means to get on, and he love his country. But he can hardly be the slave of any Party." Indeed, within four years he would abandon the Conservatives for the Liberal Party and champion many causes of social and military reform.

Churchill entered Parliament a Conservative Party member as his father before him. The Conservative Party, associated with the Church of England, the monarchy, and the established upper class, was generally resistant to social change. Most of Churchill's relations, social class, and fellow army officers identified with the Conservative Party.

Churchill became increasingly disenchanted with the Conservative Party, disagreeing with its:

Attitudes of retribution and jingoism (super-patriotism) in the Boer War.
Apparent lack of concern about poverty.
Outmoded thinking about the military.
Growing protectionism toward trade.

Lord Randolph and a pregnant Jennie Spencer Churchill.

Winston Churchill on entering Parliament aged 25.

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Churchill became less convinced by the views of the Conservative Party and on 31 May 1904, at age twenty-nine, Churchill walked into the House of Commons chamber, bowed to the Speaker, and crossed the floor to the other side. He had joined the Liberals. It was a stunning event. Churchill had perfect timing. The Conservative Party shortly fell from office and a period of Liberal Party dominance began. Churchill's switch to the Liberal Party also offered him the opportunity to be a government minister. It was perhaps therefore no surprise that Churchill defected to the Liberals, he switched parties because it was best for his career. It did however lead to both hostility and distrust from Conservatives for many years.

Churchill achieved his first ministerial post ten days after his 31st birthday. In 1905, he was appointed Undersecretary of State at the Colonial Office.

Churchill became a Cabinet member at age thirty-three with his appointment to the Board of Trade in 1908.

Winston immediately took the lead in a series of social reforms that would define the "New Liberal" Party. He became the Party's principal spokesman, sometimes speaking in place of the Prime Minister.

By 1914, at the outbreak of WW1, Winston Churchill was the First Lord of the Admiralty, a post which saw him in command of the British Royal Navy. It was here that he would taste one of his first serious setbacks.

Although the political head of the Royal Navy, the ambitious Churchill also fancied himself a military strategist. The young minister proposed a bold plan that would win the war. Abandoning his earlier plan to invade Germany from the Baltic Sear to the north, he now championed another proposal to strike more than 1,000 miles to the east. He proposed to thread his naval fleet through the needle of the Dardanelles, the narrow 38-mile strait that severed Europe and Asia in northwest Turkey to seize Constantinople and gain control of the strategic waterways linking the Black Sea in the east to the Mediterranean Sea in the west. Churchill believed the invasion would give the British a clear sea route to their ally Russia and knock the fading Ottoman Empire out of the war.

Britain’s war cabinet backed the plan. The first step would be an attack on the Gallipoli Peninsula on the northern side of the Dardanelles, an operation that Churchill, who now became the plan’s chief advocate, knew would be risky.

The Gallipoli Campaign was a disaster. 45,000 allied soldiers died and at least 250,000 were wounded. Fairly or unfairly, Churchill was the scapegoat. The Gallipoli disaster threw the government into crisis and the Liberal Prime Minister was forced to create a coalition government combining both ministers from the Liberal and Conservative Parties As part of their agreement to share power, the Conservatives demanded that Churchill be demoted. An act of revenge by the party he had deserted 10 years earlier. Churchill saw it this way and lamented ‘I am the victim of political intrigue…I am finished’.

The Gallipoli Campaign saw the British launch an attack on the Ottoman Empire (now Turkey). It was a disaster.

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The war had caused considerable damage to the Liberal Party who lost the 1922 General Election. To compound matters further, Churchill lost his own seat in the General Election of 1922. He was no longer a MP.

Amazingly, Churchill decided to re-join the Conservative Party and in 1924 he was not just back in Parliament (as a Conservative MP) but was made Chancellor of the Exchequer in the new government also. Churchill's appointment in 1924 to Chancellor of the Exchequer was a personal and political triumph. He now held the second-most powerful position in the country - just as his father once had.

Responsibility for the national budget presented many difficult issues, and Churchill's choices were not always well received by government or the public. Yet, he proved to be a tireless, creative and effective minister.

The nine-day General Strike of 1926 called on Churchill's skills as a negotiator and conciliator to help resolve the protest. Ever the journalist, he edited and produced a government newspaper during the strike.

He made some considerable errors as Chancellor however. The most significant was his decision to return Britain to the Gold Standard (which had been suspended during WW1). The policy, announced just before the Wall Street Crash of 1929 helped to worsen the impending depression’s effects on Britain.

Because the Conservative Party lost its majority in 1929, Winston Churchill had no Ministerial position for the next ten years. Although he retained his seat in Parliament, many thought Winston's career as a political powerhouse was over.

Winston used these "Wilderness Years" to expand his home at Chartwell, and embark on writing projects that fuelled his sense of personal destiny and that of the British people.

Despite this setback, Churchill resigned from government, picked up a gun and headed to the front lines in France as an infantry officer with the Royal Scot Fusilier. After several brushes with death, he left the trenches to return to politics in 1917 as the minister for munitions in a new coalition government headed by the Liberal prime Minister, David Lloyd George.

Following the end of the war, Churchill served simultaneously as the post-war Secretary of State for War and Secretary of State for Air from January 1919 until he became Colonial Secretary in February 1921. The British Empire reached its peak when the Great War brought more territory under its control.

Churchill remained a MP after the 1929 election defeat but now out of government and out of favour within the Conservative Party he entered his ‘wilderness years’. The photograph here shows Churchill with the film star Charlie Chaplain in Los Angeles in 1929. Churchill is aged 55.

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Bridging Work

Germany 1918-1963

Following the end of the First World War and the abdication of the German Kaiser in 1918, democratic elections were held throughout Germany to elect a National Assembly which would write a new Constitution. The Constitution would set out the rules by which Germany would be ruled. This Constitution was written in a small town named Weimar and hence the period of Democratic government which ruled Germany between 1919-1933 became known as the Weimar Republic.

To understand the political instability of the Weimar Republic you will need an understanding of the main political parties and the meaning of terms such as nationalist, socialist and liberal.

Nationalist in Weimar Germany

A nationalist is someone who strongly identifies with and supports the interests of their own nation, often placing it above those of other countries. Nationalism can involve promoting national sovereignty, culture, and identity. Nationalists in Weimar Germany wanted to restore Germany's former strength and prestige after its defeat in World War I and the harsh terms of the Treaty of Versailles. They often blamed Germany’s problems on the treaty, the democratic government, and internal “enemies” like communists and Jews.

Example: The German National People's Party (DNVP) was a key nationalist party. It rejected the Weimar Republic, supported a strong authoritarian state, and wanted to restore the monarchy..

2. Socialist in Weimar Germany

A socialist supports a political and economic system where the means of production (like factories and land) are owned by the community or the state, aiming for more economic equality and social welfare. Socialists in Weimar Germany wanted a fairer distribution of wealth and workers' rights, often calling for government control of industry. Some supported democratic methods, others favored revolution.

Example: The Social Democratic Party (SPD) was a major socialist party that supported democratic socialism and the Weimar Republic.

The more radical Communist Party of Germany (KPD) also identified as socialist but wanted to overthrow the Weimar Republic in favor of a Soviet-style system.

3. Liberal in Weimar Germany

A liberal generally supports individual freedoms, civil rights, democracy, and social progress. In economics, liberals may favor free markets with some regulation. In Weimar Germany, Liberals supported democracy, civil liberties, and the rule of law. They generally favored moderate reform and a capitalist economy with limited government interference.

Example: The German Democratic Party (DDP) was a liberal party that supported the Weimar Republic and constitutional democracy.

Liberals were often caught between more radical left- and right-wing groups, and their influence declined as the Republic weakened.

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4. Left Wing in Weimar Germany

Left-wing groups pushed for social equality and workers' rights. They often disagreed on strategy, ranging from democratic socialism to revolutionary communism.

Example: The SPD (moderate left) and KPD (far-left) were both left-wing but deeply divided.

The Spartacist Uprising in 1919, led by communist revolutionaries like Rosa Luxemburg, was a left-wing attempt to bring a socialist revolution to Germany.

5. Right Wing in Weimar Germany

Right-wing forces in Weimar Germany supported traditional values, a strong state, nationalism, and were often anti-democratic. Many opposed the Republic and sought a return to authoritarian rule.

Example: The Freikorps, right-wing paramilitary groups made up of ex-soldiers, violently suppressed communist uprisings.

The NSDAP (Nazi Party) began as a far-right nationalist movement and ultimately overthrew the Republic when Hitler came to power in 1933.

Party	Initials	Who were they?
Centre Party	Z	A Catholic political party which was on the rigth of the political spectrum. It gained most support from Catholic workers and the middle class
German National People's Party	DNVP	A nationalist party formed in 1918 to protect the land owning classes. They did not support the Weimar Republic.
Germany Democratic Party	DDP	A left wing party formed in 1918. Supported the Weimar Republic. Most support came from liberal intellectuals and businessmen.
Communist Party	KPD	Formed in 1918. Opposed the Weimar Republic and wanted to establish a communist Germany.
Nazi Party	NSDAP	Formed in 1919 as the German Workers Party. A nationalist and racist party which oppose the Weimar Republic. Appealed to all sectors of society after 1929.
German People's Party	DVP	Formed in 1918, it was a liberal right wing party. It opposed the Weimar Republic but took part in governments. Most support came from the upper middle class and employers.
Social Democratic Party	SPD	Formed in 1875, this socialist party was the Weimar Republic's strongest supporter. Received more votes than any other party up to 1932. Most support came from workers and the lower middle class.