Extended Essay 1 in History HL
Author: Szymon Rzepka
Topic: Technological progress of weapons and its impact on the infantry tactics in the second half of the 19th century.
(Temat: Rozwój uzbrojenia i jego wpływ na taktykę piechoty w drugiej połowie XIX wieku.)
Abstract
The wars of the second half of the 19th century played an important part in shaping the political picture of the modern world. This period was also a time of a fast development of the technology. The impact of the technical progress was visible in the weapons that were available during this period. The fully understanding of the tactics and warfare is impossible without consideration of the armaments used in those times, as the usage of available munitions is significant part of any military doctrine.
There were certain important wars in the 19th century, from which three were chosen in order to analyze them from the point of view of the technological progress, the Crimean War, the American Civil War and the Franco-Prussian War. All of them were important from the political and military point of view. At those times, infantry was the most numerous part of any modern army, consequently the analyze of the infantry warfare and the impact of the technological progress on it would be significant part of the understanding the warfare of that period in general. The aim of this work is to examine to what extent did the technological progress affected the infantry warfare in three selected wars.
The general conclusion that emerges from this work is that the tactics and methods of fight in the discussed wars were not adjusted to the changes that appeared in the armaments, creating a huge gap between capability of destruction presented by army, and the tactical usage of this power by the commanders. Another conclusion is that although the developed armament caused heavier causalities and led to a new method of warfare, were not fully understood by the military leaders, theorists and planners of the world.
Extended Essay 2 in History HL
Author: Paweł Pokorski
Topic: Causes of the failure of the German opposition to the Nazi regime.
(Temat: Przyczyny klęski niemieckiej opozycji wobec reżimu nazistowskiego.)
Abstract
Nazi Germany was one of the most oppressive twentieth-century European states characterized by an extremely racial ideology and aggressive foreign policy which finally led to the outbreak of the Second World War. The aim of this essay is to account for the reasons why the opposition of the German society to such an immoral form of rules was so rare and also to establish the causes for the unsuccessfulness of some of the attempts made to confront the regime.
The reasons for the narrow scope of opposition in the German society, including youngsters, will be researched and the relation between the persecutions of Jews and the opposition will be analysed too. It will be followed by investigating the reasons for the failure of the Communist opposition as well as by the analysis of the attitude of the United Kingdom and the United States towards the German oppositional movements. Finally, causes of the unsuccessfulness of the military opposition will be investigated. The research will be based on the analysis of the range of secondary and some primary sources.
There are three sources to which the reasons for the narrow scope of opposition and its failure can be traced back, the society which was characterized by conformity and lacked the ability to organize its oppositional actions properly, the regime itself, its propagandistic appeal, economical and territorial successes and persecutions against opponents, as well as the lack of interest in helping the opposition among the officials of the United Kingdom and the USA.