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