Year 12 Ancient - The Exam...

Well, it seems that the exam was quite do-able...no major surprises, apart perhaps from the tourism at Pompeii question. Hopefully you all remembered that we did the gerousia in the trial, and I'm sure that Xerxes' foreign policy was a topic you were completely fed up with. The Greek World questions were both excellent, I thought, although the use of 'to what extent...' rather than 'evaluate' may have thrown you off a little.

Anyway, hope it all went well, and all the best for the rest of your exams. It's been quite a journey...

Year 12 Ancient - The End of The Road

For all the Ancient students sitting their exams on Monday:

GOOD LUCK!

Year 12 Modern - Recent Exam Questions

Hi folks. I thought I would post the Germany and Conflict in Europe essay questions that have been in the past three years' HSC exams. The new syllabus has only been examined since 2006, so these are the best questions to give you an idea of what they will ask you.

Read them, have a go at answering them, and focus on the wording of the questions, and the dot points that they cover.

Germany:

2008: (a) Account for the successes and failures of democracy in Germany in the period 1918– 1933. OR (b) To what extent can Nazism in power be seen as totalitarianism in the period 1933– 1939?

2007: (a) Explain how and why German social and cultural life changed in the period 1923-1939. OR (b) Assess the impact of Nazism on German foreign policy in the period 1933-1939.

2006: (a) Assess the importance of nationalism as a cause of the failure of democracy in Germany in the period 1918–1934. OR (b) To what extent was Hitler responsible for the development and implementation of Nazi racist policies in Germany in the period to 1939?

Conflict in Europe (only tested since 2006)

2008: (a) Evaluate the view that the air war determined the outcome of the European War. OR (b) Assess the significance of the Nazi-Soviet Non-Aggression Pact to the outbreak of war in 1939.

2007: (a) Evaluate the view that Operation Barbarossa was the major turning point of the European war. OR (b) To what extent did Allied and Axis strategies during World War II affect civilians?

2006: (a) Evaluate the view that the dictators Hitler and Mussolini were primarily responsible for the tensions that led to the outbreak of war in Europe in 1939. OR (b) To what extent was the Soviet Union (Russia) responsible for the Allied victory in the conflict in Europe?

Year 12 Ancient/Modern - Revision Advice

Hi Ancients and Moderns. The end is very nearly nigh, as we cruise into the home straight before the HSC next month.

We have started our revision in class (the whole syllabus has been tackled - hurray!) but you should now be formulating your home study plans.

Everyone has a different way of learning, but I will give you some very general tips.

1) First, print off a copy of the four relevant syllabus pages for your class topics. You can access them via the link to each syllabus to the left of this post.

Ancient: Pompeii, Sparta, Greek World 500-44BC, Xerxes
Modern: WW1, Germany, Conflict in Europe, Albert Speer

2) For each dot point in the syllabus, take a sheet of A4 paper, and try to write a page of notes on that point. You could do it as a mindmap, or as full sentences, or as dot points. Whatever works best.

3) If you can't scrape together a page of notes - you need to study that topic in more detail! Go back to your books and do some reading!

4) Then, have a go at some past exams. Go to this page to access past exam papers, from 2001 to 2008:

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/hsc_exams/

5) Download the papers, try writing responses in Word (set yourself the same time limit as you would have in the HSC), and email them to me. I will gladly read and comment on them.

6) Get used to all of the relevant terms used by the Board of Studies. Go to this page to make yourself familair with words like describe, outline, assess, explain, evaluate, account for:

http://www.boardofstudies.nsw.edu.au/syllabus_hsc/glossary_keywords.html

7) Make some judgements about what we have learned this year. As you are revising, ask yourself, 'What do I think about this?' Was Xerxes a tyrant? Was Speer a self-serving opportunist? Was Hitler a madman? Did the Great Depression cause the rise of the Nazi party? Was Sparta a democracy? Was the battle of Salamis really a turning point? Why did Germany lose WW1? Was the Treaty of Versailles too harsh? Did the Soviet Union win WW2 for the Allies? What is the most important building excavated at Pompeii? Should we display the casts of human bodies pioneered by Fiorelli?

Remember - take a stance, and support it with evidence.

8) For each topic, memorise four or five short and general quotes. Quotes always look good in an essay! Find some that you could sue in a wide range of essays. Maybe some Pliny for Pompeii, Herodotus for Xerxes/Greek World, Plutarch for Sparta...

9) If there are gaps in your knowledge - now is the time to fill them. Email me - I'm here to help!

Good luck!!

Year 12 Modern - End of WW2 PowerPoint

As promsied, here is the PowerPoint we watched on Tuesday. It summarises the last few years of the war, from Stalingrad to Berlin:

The End of World War Two

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by tomgriffith | Upload your own presentation

You can download it here.

Year 12 Modern - The End of World War Two

Hi Modern folks. Welcome back after the trials, and welcome to the end of the war. We are going to polish off the Conflict in Europe topic by the end of next week, and then it's on to some good old-fashioned revision.

First: a few of the online resources we used in class yesterday, inlcuding some rather cool Nazi newsreel footage. I'll put the PowerPoint up soon as well.

You can access an animated map with an overview of WW2 here.

Here is the Youtube clip showing the rescue of Mussolini in 1943:



And here is the clip showing the Battle of Kursk:



And finally, the last film footage of Hitler, awarding medals to some alarmingly young Hitlerjugend members:

Year 12 Ancient - Persepolis

Hi guys, and welcome back after the trials. The verdict seems to be: more on Greek World, more on Xerxes, more on Sparta...which is fine, because that's what we'll be doing. You are getting better and better at Pompeii (you have been tested on it three times, now) but we will come back to that some time before the end of term.

In today's lesson, we looked at this great website from livius.org, focusing on the building and reliefs at Persepolis. it really is worth a closer look, if only to see some of the beautiful ruins that still remain after 2500 years. Click on the links and enjoy.

Year 12 Ancient - Xerxes/Persian Wars Sources

Just a quick post. I have compiled some of the most relevant chunks of Herodotus, to provide some quotes on Xerxes and the Persian Wars.

You can access them here.

All the best in Monday's exam, I'm sure you'll all do wonderfully!

Year 12 Ancient - Xerxes in The Persians

Some more quotes for you to play around with. The following are all from the play The persians, written by Aeschylus (a Greek) who actually fought at Salamis. Despite being fictional, the play is about real events, and gives us a fair idea of the Greek view of Xerxes: tyrannical, impetuous (acted before thinking), ill-fated, and hubristic (let his pride take him over the edge).

Quotes about Xerxes from the Play The Persians by Aeschylus

“The mighty Xerxes from Darius sprung”

“Deep were the groans of Xerxes when he saw This havoc; for his seat, a lofty mound Commanding the wide sea, o'erlook'd his hosts” [watching Salamis]

“Xerxes, ill-fated, led the war”

“Xerxes sent forth the unwise command, The crowded ships unpeopled all the land”

“The impetuous Xerxes, thinning all the land.” [of people, that is]

“The impetuous Xerxes learn'd; these caught his ear With thy great deeds, as winning for thy sons Vast riches with thy conquering spear, while he Tim'rous and slothful, never, save in sport, Lifted his lance, nor added to the wealth Won by his noble fathers. This reproach Oft by bad men repeated, urged his soul To attempt this war, and lead his troops to Greece.” [This is saying that Xerxes had never done anything of worth, and so he led his troops to Greece to try to secure his legacy]

“The unpeopled land laments her youth By Xerxes led to slaughter, till the realms Of death are gorged with Persians”

Year 12 Ancient - Sources on Sparta

Another bunch of ancient sources for your study purposes...this time on Sparta. I have included the full translation of Plutarch's Lycurgus just because it is so important.

Sources on Xerxes and the Persian Wars to follow...

You can access the Sparta sources here.

Year 12 Ancient - Sources on Pompeii/Herculaneum

Hi everyone. As promised, here are some ancient sources you can quote in your exam responses for Pompeii & Herculaneum. I have included some grafitti inscriptions, commerical wax tablet inscriptions, and the letter from Pliny the Younger about the eruption.

Sources on Sparta, Xerxes and the Greek World will follow soon...

You can view the document as a webpage here.

Year 12 Modern - Trial Exam Advice

Well, the Trial HSC will be this Friday. A bit of last-minute advice for all you Modern students...

For WW1, focus on perspective, reliability and usefulness of sources. Be prepared to write extended responses on the larger topics: for example, the nature of warfare on the Western Front, the reasons for the stalemate, the changing attitudes of soldiers and civilians, the effects of 'total war' on civilians, the turning points of the conflict, and the aims of the Big Three at Versailles.

For Germany, remember you will have a choice of two essays. Usually, one will focus on Weimar, the other on Nazi Germany. Be sure that you know all about the problems faced by the Weimar Republic, how the Nazis achieved power, and the nature of Nazi society from 1933-1939, as well as Nazi foreign and religious policy.

For Speer, have a working knowledge of his career (maybe memorise ten important landmarks in his life). Make a list of all of his achievements and failures. Formulate an opinion on his significance as a historical personality. Be able to argue whether he was a successful person, or an unsuccessful person, and back it with evidence. Have an opinion on the guy!

For Conflict in Europe, know the steps leading to war (LA-SCRAMCUP, dictatorships, failure of the League of Nations), and the chronology of the war from 1939 to 1943. Have a detailed knowledge of the early successes of Germany (Poland, Denmark, Norway, France, Belgium, Holland, Luxembourg, Yugoslavia, Greece) as well as the failed Barbarossa campaign up to and including the Battle of Stalingrad. Revise the Battle of Britain, the Battle of El Alamein, and the effects of the war on civilians in Britain and Germany. Make sure you know about Nazi racial policies in Europe.

Have a go at some practice exams on the BOS website. Try this link for last year's paper.

Most of all - good luck! Email me if you have any problems on thomas.griffith@det.nsw.edu.au

Year 12 Ancient/Modern - Poll Results

Sorry it's taken a while...but here are the latest poll results:

The Battle of Stalingrad got 100% of the votes for 'most interesting battle', of the three we study. Which I agree with...an incredible and tragic event in world history.

As for Athenian statesmen, 44% of you thought that Themistocles was the greatest, with Aristides close behind on 33%. The rest of you went for Pericles.

New poll up after the trials.

Year 12 Modern - Civilian Statistics

Hi Year 12. Here is a rather badly copied-and-pasted screenshot of the notes from yesterday's lesson. It gives a list of civilian-related statistics from WW2, for both Britain and Germany. You should be able to click on the image and see it in a higher resolution.

Year 12 Ancient - Archaeologists of Pompeii

Hi guys. This PowerPoint contains a bunch of slides all about the archaeologists who have worked at Pompeii, from Fiorelli onwards. I have borrowed this presentation from online, so it is not my own work. It has enough information to help you fill out the worksheet I handed out during the tutorial. Grab one from me in class if you didn't get one.

Archaeologists of Pompeii

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by tomgriffith | Upload your own presentation

You can download it here.

Year 12 Ancient - Delian League PowerPoint

Hi Ancients. Here is the PowerPoint on the Delian League. It's a bit text-heavy, but has lots of info.

The Delian League

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by tomgriffith | Upload your own presentation

You can download it here.

Year 12 Modern - Enabling Act/Article 48

Hi folks. There has been a request for clarification regarding the difference between Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, and the Enabling Act.

Here are the relevant sections of legislation:

Article 48, Weimar Constitution, 1919

"If a state does not fulfill the obligations laid upon it by the Reich constitution or Reich laws, the Reich President may use armed force to cause it to oblige.

In case public safety is seriously threatened or disturbed, the Reich President may take the measures necessary to reestablish law and order, if necessary using armed force. In the pursuit of this aim, he may suspend the civil rights described in articles 114, 115, 117, 118, 123, 124 and 153, partially or entirely.

The Reich President must inform the Reichstag immediately about all measures undertaken based on paragraphs 1 and 2 of this article. The measures must be suspended immediately if the Reichstag so demands.

If danger is imminent, the state government may, for their specific territory, implement steps as described in paragraph 2. These steps may be suspended if so demanded by the Reich President or the Reichstag.

Further details may be regulated by Reich legislation."

Enabling Act, 1933

"ARTICLE 1. In addition to the procedure for the passage of legislation outlined in the Constitution, the Reich Cabinet is also authorized to enact Laws. . . .

ARTICLE 2. The national laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet may deviate from the Constitution provided they do not affect the position of the Reichstag and the Reichsrat. The powers of the President remain unaffected.

ARTICLE 3. The national laws enacted by the Reich Cabinet shall be prepared by the Chancellor and published in the official gazette. They come into effect, unless otherwise specified, upon the day following their publication . . ."

The Difference?

Article 48 gives the President the power to suspend the Constitution, and civil rights, if they think that law and order are threatened. This was the power utilised by Hindenburg to appoint and dismiss chancellors between 1930-33, and to suspend civil rights after the Reichstag Fire.

The Enabling Act gives the Cabinet (that is, the Chancellor) the power to enact laws without them being agreed to by the Reichstag. The powers of the President, and the position of the Reichstag and Reichsrat, are not allowed to be altered by the Act.

So, Article 48 gave the President (i.e. Hindenburg)extraordinary powers; the Enabling Act gave the Chancellor (i.e. Hitler) extraordinary powers).

Year 12 Ancient - Delian League to Athenian Empire

Here is the introduction to an essay written by Thomas Ash, explaining the transformation of the Delian League into the Athenian Empire. Click on the link at the end to read the whole thing.

When Athens began to emerge as a Greek city state in the ninth century, it was a poor city, built on and surrounded by undesirable land, which could support only a few poor crops and olive trees. As it grew it was forced to import much of its food, and while it was near the centre of the Greek world, it was far from being a vital trading juncture like, for example, Corinth. Its army was, by the standards of cities such as Sparta, weak. Yet somehow it became the most prominent of the Greek city states, the one remembered while contemporaries such as Sparta are often forgotten. It was the world's first democracy of a substantial size (and, in some ways, though certainly not others, one of the few true democracies the world has ever seen), producing art and fine architecture in unprecedented amounts. It became a centre of thinking and literature, producing philosophers and playwrights like Socrates and Aristophanes. But most strikingly of all, it was the one Greek city that managed to control an empire spanning the Aegean Sea. During the course of this essay I will attempt to explain how tiny Athens managed to acquire this formidable empire, and why she became Greece's most prominent city state, rather than cities which seemed to have more going for them like Sparta or Corinth. [continue reading here]

For more info on the League, try this page.

Year 12 Modern - Civilians in WW2

Hi folks. the trial is rapidly descending upon us, and so we move on to our last topic that could be in the exam: civilians in WW2. We will be looking at the social and economic effects of the conflict on civilians in BRITAIN and GERMANY, as well as the HOLOCAUST and NAZI RACIAL POLICIES.

For a good summary of the Home Front in Britain, check out this BBC History page - WW2 People's War. It covers topics such as the Blitz, rationing, and internment of enemy aliens, with a focus on the stories of survivors.

You could also try this other BBC page, with a more political focus.

Also useful is this government site with a focus on school activities, based on the collection of the British National Archives.

For Germany, you could try watching the World at War episode 'Inside the Reich', on youtube. here is the first instalment:

Year 12 Modern - D-Day Landing in Saving Private Ryan

Here is the youtube clip showing the first 20 minutes or so of the D-Day landings in Saving Private Ryan. The action is very realistic, shows the Omaha beach landings in real time, and displays the confusion and horror of warfare during the Normandy landings of 1944.

Year 12 Modern - Battles of WW2

Hi guys. Welcome back to Term 3. I'm sure you're all ready to work super-hard before the Trials in Week 4. We'll be covering the last sections of the Conflict in Europe syllabus in preparation for the assessment, but first, here are some links to webpages about the three major battles we need to know:

Battle of Britain
Battle of Stalingrad
Battle of El Alamein

By the way, the attached image is a map showing the location and range of German aircraft during the Battle of Britain.

Year 12 Ancient - Lives of Eminent Commanders

Welcome back to Term 3, Year 12 Ancient. We have an intensive few weeks coming up, where we will aim to finish the rest of the course, and begin revising for the Trial HSC. Tutorials will start next week, most probably on Monday afternoons at 1.30 or so. I will keep you posted on that.

For now, here are the links to the ancient Roman sources (written by Cornelius Nepos, c.50BC) on some famous ancient commanders:

Miltiades
Themistocles
Aristides the Just
Pausanias
Cimon

Remember, you need to know all five of these guys for the HSC, plus Eurybiades and Leonidas.

Year 12 Ancient/Modern - Poll Results

Hi guys, hope everyone is enjoying their holidays...and studying hard. There are plenty of old exam papers you can be looking at on the BOS website.

meanwhile, the latest poll results (a few days late, I know):

Why did Xerxes leave Greece after Salamis? According to 77% of you, it was because he was so humiliated after the battle.

And why did Hitler invade the USSR? 83% of you believed he wanted more territory (lebensraum), whilst 50% each (you could make mulitple responses) said it was because he hated communism, and because it had been his lifelong obsession. All pretty accurate, I would say - Hitler certainly did see the fight with Russia as an ideological and racial showdown, that was both inevitable, and necessary for Germany's survival.

Year 12 Ancient - Athens Documentary

If you get bored in the holidays...here is the History Channel docco on Ancient Athens. It is in three parts, so link through to the next instalments.

Have a great holiday!

Year 12 Modern - The World At War

The World At War was an incredible documentary series made in the 70s, covering the whole of WW2 in 26 one-hour episodes. You can access pretty much all of it on youtube, though in 10-minute segments. I am embedding the first sections of some of the most relevant episodes below. Just click on them to start watching, and then you can link through to the next instalments via youtube.

Episode 2: A Distant War (Poland - 1939)



Episode 3: France Falls (1940)



Episode 5: Barbarossa (1941)



Episode 8: Desert (North Africa, 1940-43)

Year 12 Ancient - Delian League/Athenian Democracy Powerpoint

Hi folks. Here is the PowerPoint we did last week, outlining the main points for the rest of the Greek World syllabus:

Delian League/Athenian Democracy

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by tomgriffith | Upload your own presentation

Year 12 Ancient - Delian League Map

Here is a map showing the major Greek alliances in the 5th Century BC - the Delian league (Athena and its allies) and the Peloponnesian League (Sparta and its allies). The Delian League was mainly an anti-Persian grouping, aimed at fostering trade, at freeing the Ionian poleis, and ensuring Athenian supremacy in the Aegean. The Peloponnesian League was mainly a defensive alliance, aimed at controlling the helots, bolstering Sparta's small population, and ensuring Spartan predominance in the Peloponnese. Over the decades following the Persian Wars, the two leagues jostled for power, and eventually conflict broke out between them, culminating in the destructive Second Peoloponnesian War (431-404BC).

Year 12 Modern - Flash Animations of WW2

Hi guys. As those of you who came to class this week may remember, we watched a pretty exhaustive (and exhausting) flash animation of the conflict in the East. You can find this fantastic resource (in English) here.

You can also find a flash animation outlining the course of the whole war here.

There is a whole range of multimedia resources on WW2 on the BBC History wesite. You can also search around on this site for some equally great WW1 movies, galleries, animations, and interactive sites.

Year 12 Ancient/Modern - Poll Results

Hurray! The biggest voting numbers yet! I guess it could have something to do with the assessments last week...(which I hope went well, by the way...)

When it came to Hitler's biggest mistake in WW2 - 69% of you said it was his invasion of the USSR. Certainly, that would be the view of most modern historians.

As for the most interesting battle in the Persian Wars - 71% of you went with Thermopylae. That must be The 300 effect. 19% of you voted for Salamis, and the rest went with Marathon. Surprise, surpise - nobody voted for Artemisium, Plataea, or Mycale.

Year 12 Modern - Speer and the Holocaust

Just a bit of extra info on Speer...here is an article from Britain's Guardian newspaper, from 2007. It refers to his knowledge about the Holocaust.


"A newly discovered letter by Adolf Hitler's architect and armaments minister Albert Speer offers proof that he knew about the plans to exterminate the Jews, despite his repeated claims to the contrary.

Writing in 1971 to Hélène Jeanty, the widow of a Belgian resistance leader, Speer admitted that he had been at a conference where Heinrich Himmler, the head of the SS and Gestapo, had unveiled plans to exterminate the Jews in what is known as the Posen speech. Speer's insistence that he had left before the end of the meeting, and had therefore known nothing about the Holocaust, probably spared him from execution after the Nuremberg trials at the end of the second world war.

It helped earn him the name of "the good Nazi" and the image of a genius architect who had misguidedly slipped into Nazi circles to further his career. Instead of facing death as many top Nazis did, Speer served 20 years in prison, mainly for using slave labour.

In the letter to Jeanty, written on December 23 1971, Speer wrote: "There is no doubt - I was present as Himmler announced on October 6 1943 that all Jews would be killed". He continued: "Who would believe me that I suppressed this, that it would have been easier to have written all of this in my memoirs?"

Speer, who died in London in 1981, denied knowing about the Holocaust in his best-selling 1969 book, Inside the Third Reich, as well as in lengthy interviews with the British author Gitta Sereny, who wrote a biography on him.

The letter is part of a collection of 100 between Speer and Mrs Jeanty, an author, written between 1971 and 1981, recently found in Britain. They are due to be auctioned at Bonhams, London, on March 27."

Year 12 Modern - Exam Advice

Modern History will have their next major assessment on Tuesday afternoon, in the double. The format will be as follows:

Time Allowed: 70 minutes

Part 1: 25 marks (35 minutes)
Essay question on Conflict in Europe, using 'assess' or 'evaluate'.

Assess = make a judgement of value
Explain = make a judgement based on criteria

So the question will ask you to make some sort of judgement about some aspect of the background to WW2. You should definitely revise the following points:

• the dictatorships in Italy and Germany
• the foreign policy actions of Mussolini (e.g. Abyssinia) and Hitler (LA-SCRAMCUP - League of Nations, Austrian coup, Saar plebiscite, Conscription, Rearmament, Anschluss, Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia, USSR-Nazi Pact, Poland)
• the failure of the League of Nations (especially in the Abyssinia crisis, and the Spanish Civil War)
• the policy of appeasement, followed by Britain and France until 1939
• the Nazi-Soviet Pact, signed in August 1939

I have provided some revision sites below.

Part 2: 25 marks (35 minutes)
25-mark question assessing/evaluating the life of Albert Speer

Make sure you know:

• his personal background, and the main events in his life/career
• his main achievements (as an architect, as Minister of Armaments, as a Nazi, as a repentant war criminal, as a historical figure)
• his main failures
• the major controversies about Speer: did he know about the Holocaust? To what extent did he use slave labour? Was he complicit in demolishing Jewish residences? Was he a willing Nazi, or a man thrust into an important position by Hitler? Was he really sorry for what he did? Did his work as Armaments Minister make the war last longer than it would have?

The key to this question is to have an opinion, as you will be making a judgement about Speer. Make sure you back your opinion up with real evidence!!

Revision Links:

Causes of WW2:

http://www.johndclare.net/RoadtoWWII7a.htm
http://www.johndclare.net/causes_of_world_war_two_revision.htm
http://www.historylearningsite.co.uk/causes_of_WW2.htm
http://www.historyonthenet.com/WW2/causes.htm

Albert Speer:

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-2318929114565469665 (Video about Speer)
http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcfour/audiointerviews/profilepages/speera1.shtml (Audio interviews with Speer himself)
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/speer.html (Speer's own sworn testimony at Nuremberg)
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Holocaust/Speer1.html (Short bio of Speer)

Year 12 Modern - Battle of Britain

Hi guys. Sorry there hasn't been much Modern stuff recently, the Ancient classes had their assessment this week, so the focus has been on their material. I will hopefully be putting some exam advice up for you tonight, ready for Tuesday. For the moment, though, here is the very detailed and well-produced documentary on the Battle of Britain. I reckon this whole series (Battlefield Britain) is worth watching just for fun!

Year 12 Ancient - Exam Advice

Year 12 Ancient students will have their next assessment on Wednesday, in the double lesson. As you know, the format is as follows:

Time Allowed: 70 minutes

Part 1: 25 marks (35 minutes)
Essay question on the Persian Wars, using 'assess' or 'explain'.

Assess = make a judgement of value
Explain = relate cause and effect, make the relationships between things evident, provide why and/or how

So the question will ask you to make some sort of judgement about some aspect of the Persian Wars. Make sure you know:

• the causes and background of the conflict (persian expansion, Ionian Revolt)
  
• the details of the six major battles
• the contribution of Themistocles, Leonidas, Eurybiades, and Pausanias
• why the Greeks won and the Persians lost (you can find a sample essay on this dot point here)
  

Part 2: 25 marks (35 minutes)
10-mark question on Xerxes' rise to prominence (spend about 15 minutes on this)
Make sure you know:

• his family background
• his career before becoming king
• how he became king

15-mark question assessing his reign/career (spend about 20 minutes on this)
Make sure you know:

• his achievements/failures as a builder/engineer, a religious leader, a warrior, an administrator, and as king
• ancient and modern assessments of his reign

We will go through some practice questions on Tuesday. Any questions, send me an email. Good luck!

Year 12 Ancient/Modern - Polls Closed

Okay, so not many votes, but the results are still pretty clear this week...

All of you said that Hitler was to blame for starting WW2, but only 66% ascribed the complete blame to the Fuhrer.

88% of you believed that the Battle of Salamis was the turning point of the Persian Wars...so pretty overwhelming.

New polls up soon!

Year 12 Ancient - Past Exam Questions: Xerxes and Persian Wars

I have created a Word document that has the HSC exam questions on Xerxes and the Persian Wars from the 2004-2007 papers. They should give you an idea of how the questions are worded, and what content area is tested. You can download or view it here.

As you can see, the breakdown is this:

Xerxes' relationships with Persians/non-Persians 2007
Xerxes' achievements as king 2007
How Xerxes became King 2006, 2004
Xerxes' attempts to expand Persia 2006, 2004
Xerxes' personal background 2005
Xerxes' building program 2005
Xerxes' impact on Greece and Persia 2005
Xerxes' influence in his lifetime 2004

Assess the importance of naval battles 2007
Assess the contribution of Miltiades and Leonidas 2006
Evaluate the contribution of Themistocles 2005
Assess the significance of two military events 2004

Year 12 Ancient - Notes on Plataea and Mycale

You can access the class notes on Plataea and Mycale here. They are a bit brief but will serve as a foundation...

Year 12 Ancient - Xerxes PowerPoint

Hi folks. Here is the Xerxes PowerPoint from class. Make sure you look at the last four slides or so, as we didn't get to them the other day.

I will be posting some resources up soon to help you with your upcoming assessment...

Xerxes

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by tomgriffith | Upload your own presentation

You can also download it here.

Year 12 Ancient/Modern - Polls Closed

Here are this week's poll results:

For Ancient, 54% of you believe that Xerxes was a failure as a military commander; 27% each said that he was a great ruler, and that he was ifted in running domestic affairs. So you have not all been sucked in by the anti-Xerxes Greek sources!

For Modern, 40% of you asserted that the Allies should have gone to war with Hitler when he reoccupied the Rhineland; 30% each said they should have done so after he announced rearmament, or after he invaded Czechoslovakia. Based on that, none of you believe that the policy of appeasement should have been followed all the way to the invasion of Poland.

Year 12 Ancient - Salamis Documentary

Hi Salamis experts - here is the video we watched in class today, courtesy of the History Channel:

Year 12 Modern - D-Day Landings

Today is the 65th anniversary of the D-Day Landings, when 150,000 British, American and Canadian troops landed on 5 beaches in Normandy, in northern France. These landings saw the opening of a western front in the fight against Nazism, and within a year the German military machine had been crushed, and Hitler had committed suicide.

You can read this article on the BBC website, and from there you can find links to further information, maps and FAQs about the landings.

Year 12 Ancient - Aristotle on Sparta

Sorry to return to the topic of Sparta, but I am trying a small experiment: trying to establish if I can post word documents on google documents, and then see if you guys can access them. So here is an extract from Aristotle's On the Lacedaemonian Constitution, written around 340BC. I hope it works!

Year 12 Modern - WW2 Anniversaries

Some important anniversaries of events in World War Two are coming up in the next few days:

June 5th: 65th anniversary of the liberation of Rome (1944)

June 6th: 65th anniversary of the D-Day landings in France (1944)

June 22nd: 69th anniversary of the surrender of France (1940)
68th anniversary of the invasion of Russia (1941)

Keep an eye on the news for any stories about these events, especially the D-Day landings.

Year 12 Ancient/Modern - Poll Results

Here are the results of the latest polls:

62% of you thought that Persian expansionism was to blame for the Greco-Persian Wars

...and...

75% of you thought that Hitler's boldest foreign policy move was the recoccupation of the Rhineland.

New polls up soon.

Year 12 Modern - Conflict in Europe PowerPoint

As promised, here is the PowerPoint from last week which provides an overview of the whole topic.

Conflict in Europe 1935-1945

Uploaded on authorSTREAM by tomgriffith | Upload your own presentation

Year 12 Modern - Anniversary of Chamberlain becoming PM

I just read that it was on this day in 1937, that Neville Chamberlain - the famous appeaser of Hitler - became Prime Minister of Britain. You can read all about his checkered career here.

Year 12 Ancient - Xerxes Biographies

You will notice as we study this intriguing ancient king, that just about every account is biased against him. Either he was a greedy, tyrannical, stupid, vain, and hubristic man, or the sources we have are wildly anti-Persian.

While reading about Xerxes, always bear in mind - he ruled for 20 years, and had some major successes within his kingdom, despite his defeats in the Greco-Persian Wars: putting down three revolts, and building the great city of Persepolis, as well as extending the empire to the east.

Here are some of the online biographies I have found:

A short and comprehensive account of his life at biographybase.com

An anti-Xerxes article at sacklunch.net

An extract from the Histories, by Herodotus, about the incident where Xerxes allegedly had the sea whipped 300 times, to punish it for a storm that destroyed his bridge...