CHST504 International Relations 1900 – 1945
ESSAY INFORMATION AND SUGGESTED THEMES
Outline
Should consist of one double-spaced page with a description of your proposed essay, an argument if you have one and/or your approach to the subject and the significance of your topic to international relations if not obvious. (Approximately 250 words.)
A one or two page annotated bibliography should accompany the essay description. This should consist of the author, title, publisher, city, and year of publication of the book, journal article, or other source and what the source offers for your essay.
You will be assessed on the uniqueness of you subject and the depth of your sources. The use of acadmic articles, many of which are available online through the Ryerson Library is encouraged. (These are not considered “websites.”) If you are not familiar with academic article databases like JSTOR, go immediately to a librarian at the Ry Library and ask them to show you how to use these databases. You can access them from home and many (but not all) articles are available for downloading in full text.
You may at any time after submitting a proposal, change your approach, sources, and even completely change your topic but check with me first if you change your topic.
Essays should be 2,500 words in length (approximately 10 pages of 12 pt text double spaced), they should be based on a minimum of five sources (not including course texts), and should not be based on unapproved Internet websites, (2 marks deducted for every Wikipedia or like citation), encyclopedias, course textbook, etc. If you intend to include websites, provide their URLs in the proposal for approval. Print material, or primary sources available via an internet website, are not considered “websites.”
Essays must have a bibliography and preferably footnoted citations in the MLA/Chicago style. Citations must include a precise page number for every citation. Essays that do not provide a page number in the citations (or no citations) will be automatically failed. See Course Outline for preferred citation style and this link for citation formats www.aresearchguide.com/8firstfo.html
The best essays will attempt to resolve some kind of controversy or historical debate and will often feature sources that are contradictory. As a historian you should critically engage your sources and attempt to resolve these contradictions with your own analysis and opinion. History is as much interpreting events as recounting events of the past—why and how things happened are as essential to a history essay as an account of when and what happened. The past is not a “done deal”—it is constantly changing every time it is written about.
Suggested Essay Themes
Here are a few ideas and themes describing some possible topics for an essay:
At the turn of the 20th century:
How did imperialism OR nationalism OR industrialization shape international relations at the turn of the 20th century?
What factors led to the outbreak of the First World War?
The Great War:
What were the war aims OR military strategies of the various belligerents in World War I?
How was the Great War the first truly global conflict?
The Peace Settlements:
Why did the Paris Peace Settlement fail to preserve peace in Europe?
Was the Treaty of Versailles responsible for the outbreak of the Second World War?
To what extent did self-determination resolve conflicts between nation-states?
Emergence of Communism:
What was the impact of the Bolshevik Revolution on international relations in the immediate post-World War I period?
How did the foreign policy of the Soviet Union shape international relations in the 1920s and 1930s?
Far East:
How did the rise of Japanese imperialism shape international relations in the Far East?
Can the Manchurian Incident be considered a turning point in Far Eastern international relations?
What were the main causes of the outbreak of the Sino-Japanese War of 1937?
Rise of Fascism:
How did the rise to power of Adolph Hitler shape German foreign policy between 1933 and 1939?
What were the chief goals of the Italian foreign policy under Benito Mussolini? Were any of them achieved?
Why did appeasement fail to preserve peace in the 1930s?
Middle East:
How did the conflicting promises of the Great Powers and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire during World War I shape the post-war settlement in the Middle East?
Compare and contrast British and French policy in the Middle East in the interwar years.
World War II:
What factors contributed to the outbreak of the Second World War?
Why was Nazi Germany militarily successful in the first two years of the Second World War?
Compare and contrast the American and Soviet contributions to the allied victory in World War II?
Foreign Policies:
Was the United States isolationist in the interwar years?
Was the widespread policy of appeasement responsible for the outbreak of the Second World War?
Historical figures and their impact on international relations:
With the permission of the instructor, you can write on any historical figure of your interest:
Arthur Balfour
Edward Benes
Leon Blum
Aristide Briand
Neville Chamberlain
Chiang Kain-Shek
Winston Churchill
Georges Clemenceau
Adolf Hitler
John Maynard Keynes
William Lyon Mackenzie
Lenin
David Lloyd George
Mao Tse-Tung
Benito Mussolini
Nicholas II
Joseph Stalin
Woodrow Wilson
Etc.
Treaties and conferences (impact on international relations):
With the permission of the instructor, you can write on any specific treaty or conference of your interest:
Balfour Declaration
Treaty of Brest-Litovsk
Fourteen Points
Kellogg-Briand Pact
Treaty of Lausanne
Locarno system
Monroe Doctrine
Washington Naval Conference
Etc.
Crises and wars (causes or consequences):
With the permission of the instructor, you can write on any war, crisis or conflict of your interest:
Sino-Japanese War
Balkan Wars
Boxer Rebellion
Corfu Crisis
Dreyfus Affair
International Monetary Fund
Ruhr Crisis
Sino-Japanese War
Etc.