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Edexcel Unit 4: The Quest For Greatness (official thread!)

Anyone else sitting this paper on Wednesday? Anyone fancy hazarding a guess at the questions? I'm going to go for . . . Economy and relations with Germany.

Reply 21

Chowder

My teacher says the same thing - her bets are on the Italian economy and relations with Germany for the questions tomorrow.

Reply 22

Wedgie

1

yeah I am sitting the exam tomorrow eeeek past questions on germany include...
key factors to explain changing relationships with germany (june 02)
importance of ideology in creating the axis (jan 06)

hmm well as for guesses one question is always foreign the other domestic or at least 9/10 is so I am thinking something on germany/abyssinia and corporative state

Reply 23

JonnyRocket10

Anyone know where you can get any Unit 4 past papers?

Reply 24

TheOtherZoe

Apparently the Lateran Pacts and Spain came up in the January exam...so it's unlikely that they'll come up again. Saying that, it's dangerous to guess the questions and omit topics you don't think'll come up.

REALLY not looking forward to this :frown:

Reply 25

| Jamie |

1

We were told to break down the Fascist reign into 4 sections:

-Fascist control, the party and propaganda.
-Economic policy.
-Social policies and dealings with the Church.
-Foreign Policy.

Basically, I've made mind map for each and it's a pretty comprehensive way to cover everything, I find. If the rumours are true I reckon I'll do quite well on the German relations one (just need to know the various pacts/actions and dates, I'd imagine, and their relevance), and the Economic ones are usually fairly easy to structure. It's the ones to do with "was the Fascist regime a dictatorship" that get me umming and erring, as you have to learn all the different ways Mussolini dealt with the various sectors of government, as well as opposition etc. etc.

Anyway, good luck everyone :smile:

.

Reply 26

trey

Do you ever get questions juss about Social Policy though? because not much of what Mussolini did falls solely into this category

Reply 27

desmondmac

1

I havent studied what he did with various sectiosn of government...is that in the specification damnnnn

Reply 28

Rudrax

12

I'm actually regretting stumbling onto this thread. My revision is patchy at best but I'm hoping for a Churchy question or a Foreign Policy one but both came up last year didn't they?

Reply 29

Mook

9

So much for Economics!

Reply 30

Rudrax

12

Lol - what questions did you guys pick? Totalitarianism (having to write that about a million times got annoying) or FP?

Reply 31

desmondmac

1

Foreign policy...felt good in exam but not so sure now

Reply 32

Rudrax

12

desmondmac

Foreign policy...felt good in exam but not so sure now

I'm a dumbass and chose totalitarianism even though fp is my strongest area. The 1936 - 1939 threw me...

Reply 33

Mook

9

I think whichever question you chose you would have come out of this exam thinking you should have picked the other one . . . That's certainly how I felt. They were on a fairly even par - I for one found it really hard to choose, which isn't normally a problem.

Reply 34

arcoxia

ahhh. so annoyed as i only really half answered the question. i can't really afford to get less than 54 ums out of the 90. have to get around 100/120 in unit 6 for an A now

Reply 35

desmondmac

1

Rudrax

I'm a dumbass and chose totalitarianism even though fp is my strongest area. The 1936 - 1939 threw me...

1936-39 are really the only dates that are in the syllabus..why did it throw you off? Im a bit worried it went the wrong way with it. I didnt really think mussolini and Italy was ever prestigious abroad let alone it diminishing but i defined prestigious as important- having a role to play in the international scene. So basically i just went on about their increasing isolation from certain powers and the end to the makeweght balancing power which had been its cheif strength. I felt this fall was quite steady as munich agreement and gentlemens agreement (later on in period) suggested a possible return to this policy. so in that sense it answered the question. But i argued that the economic reality and burden of the absynnia war meant that the initial euphoria quickly descended into unfavourable attitudes to regime--- autarky failures too and diet issues resulting from that...So in the case of popular suppor at home i didnt agree that was as much of a steady decline. Not too sure bout this tho but was only way i felt i could tackle the "how far" element cause i kinda agreed that both diminished.

WHAT DO THEY HAVE AGAINST THE ECONOMY...i woulda KILLED it if it had come up

Reply 36

Lacrymosa

I totally messed up the totalitarianism question. I thought I was building up a logical argument in my essay but when I came out I thought... oh dear.

I talked about;

- The use of terror and violence with the OVRA/Secret police. General intimidation in the elections and the murder of Matteoti.
- Corfu incident.. Showing how it wasn't totalitarian because he gave in to Britain, the major power and had to form an alliance initially.
- Foreign Policy in the 30's. Ethiopian war shows the totalitariansm of the regime as he invaded to avenge the defeat in 1896 and to expand empire.
- Totalitarianist as initially Italian-German relationships were weak... M. feared Hitler's rising power and his designs on Austria. --> Stresa Front.
- Not so totaltarianist as after Ethiopia he formed an alliance with the major power of Germany.
- His most successful achievement was his least Facist/Totalitarinist with the Lateran Agreements, as Church made more lasting gains. Religious revival, new papal state with soverignity etc. but Mussolini gained respect and support of millions of Catholics.

Concluded by saying it's inaccurate to suggest it was totalitarian. It was to a certain extent as it was a dictatorship, but he allowed the existence of other major powers - Germany, Britain and the Church. This meant people weren't 100% dedicated to Fascism... but was this in fact possible? Mussolini realised it was necessary to form these alliances in order to gain prestige and popularity himself

Reply 37

Mook

9

desmondmac

WHAT DO THEY HAVE AGAINST THE ECONOMY...i woulda KILLED it if it had come up

Hmmmm precisely my thinking - although maybe not in block capitals. :smile:

Reply 38

trey

Lacrymosa

I totally messed up the totalitarianism question. I thought I was building up a logical argument in my essay but when I came out I thought... oh dear.

I talked about;

- The use of terror and violence with the OVRA/Secret police. General intimidation in the elections and the murder of Matteoti.
- Corfu incident.. Showing how it wasn't totalitarian because he gave in to Britain, the major power and had to form an alliance initially.
- Foreign Policy in the 30's. Ethiopian war shows the totalitariansm of the regime as he invaded to avenge the defeat in 1896 and to expand empire.
- Totalitarianist as initially Italian-German relationships were weak... M. feared Hitler's rising power and his designs on Austria. --> Stresa Front.
- Not so totaltarianist as after Ethiopia he formed an alliance with the major power of Germany.
- His most successful achievement was his least Facist/Totalitarinist with the Lateran Agreements, as Church made more lasting gains. Religious revival, new papal state with soverignity etc. but Mussolini gained respect and support of millions of Catholics.

Concluded by saying it's inaccurate to suggest it was totalitarian. It was to a certain extent as it was a dictatorship, but he allowed the existence of other major powers - Germany, Britain and the Church. This meant people weren't 100% dedicated to Fascism... but was this in fact possible? Mussolini realised it was necessary to form these alliances in order to gain prestige and popularity himself

I didn't mention Foreign Policy once.

Reply 39

serena_1001

for the foreign policy question did you have to talk about domestic policy as well in terms of how his popularity dimished at home? cos i only talked about his popularity diminishing in realtion to his foreign policy but i'm getting a bit unsure now

Edexcel Unit 4: The Quest For Greatness (official thread!)

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