Course Contents

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Please note the content shown below is 2026 syllabus. This course is also available for 2027 syllabus. Please contact college for details.

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Detailed Content

• The Second Reich and the changing balance of power
• Anglo- and Franco-German tensions
• Bismarck’s foreign policy
• The structures of European diplomacy
• The New Imperialism and colonial rivalries
• Wilhelm II and Weltpolitic
• Serbia as a fulcrum of Great Power rivalry
• The Second International
• The outbreak of war in 1914
• The conduct of war
• War and revolution
• The Peace Settlement
• Case Study: The naval policy of Wilhelm II

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• Economic growth and social tensions
• Industrialisation in Germany and its impact on society
• Industrialisation and economic crisis in Tsarist Russia
• The impact of war on society and economy
• Case Study: Women in the Workforce During World War I
• Key Personalities: The Krupp Family
• Key Personality: Rosa Luxemburg (1871-1919)

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• Expression of natural identity through literature and the arts: The literature of World War I
• Key Personality: Wilfred Owen
• Church/State tensions in Germany and Italy
• Key Personality: Pope Leo XIII
• Anti-Semitism in France and Russia
• Key developments in science, technology and medicine
• Key Personality: Marie Curie (1867 - 1934)
• Case Study: The Invention and Early History of the Motor Car
• Key Personality: Karl Benz (1844 - 1929)

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• The Home Rule Bill, 1912-1914
• The Impact of World War I
• The 1916 Rising
• The rise of the second Sinn Féin party
• The 1918 election
• The War of Independence
• Partition
• Treaty and Civil War
• State building and the consolidation of democracy
• From Free State to Republic
• Northern Ireland – the Unionist Party in power
• The Impact of World War II, North and South
• Case Study: The Treaty negotiations, October-December, 1921

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• Impact of partition on economy and society
• Impact of world economic crisis
• From free trade to protectionism
• Impact of World War II.
• Case Study: Belfast during World War II

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• The Irish language after 1922
• Religion and education
• Promotion of cultural identity
• Key personality: Evie Hone (1894 - 1955)
• Case study: The eucharistic congress of 1932

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• Origins and growth of the fascist regimes in Europe
• The Nazi state in peace and war
• Communism in Russia: The regimes of Lenin and Stalin and the Stalinist state in peace and war
• Case Study: Stalin's show trials
• France: the Third Republic, 1920-1940, and the Vichy State
• Wartime alliances, 1939 - 1945
• Key personality: Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
• Key personality: Benito Mussolini (1883 - 1945)
• Key personality: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin (1870 - 1924)
• Key personality: Joseph Stalin (1878 - 1953)

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• Economical and social problems of the inter-war years, with particular reference to Britain and Germany.
• Case Study: The Jarrow march, October 1936.
• The Soviet alternative/Russian economy under Stalin.
• Society during World War II
• Anti-semitism and the holocaust
• Key personality: John Maynard Keynes (1883 - 1946)
• Key personality: Winston Churchill (1874 - 1965)

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• Nazi propaganda - state control and the use of mass media
• Case study: The Nuremberg rallies
• Church-state relations under Mussolini and Hitler
• Anglo-american popular culture in peace and war
• The technology of warfare
• Key personality: Jospeh Goebbels (1897 - 1945)
• Key personality: Leni Riefenstahl (1902 - 2003)
• Key personality: Bing Crosby (1903 - 1997)
• Key personality: Charlie Chaplin (1889 - 1977)

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• The elections of 1885 and 1886, issues and outcomes
• Dublin, 1913 strike and lockout
• The GAA to 1891

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