Essays and Research Papers on European History

A 7 page paper discussing Josef Mengele, the "Angel of Death" of Auschwitz. Mengele escaped the Allies who liberated Auschwitz and the fled to South America where he lived out his days and died a natural death. His remains were examined in 1985, but many refused to believe that Mengele finally had been found until DNA ...

10 pages in length. Quickly losing ground and heading for defeat, Hitler realized that he had to come up with a military attack that would impede the Allied progress; as such, the Battle of the Bulge was waged with overwhelming fervor. This, the last major offensive by the German Army, was devised as ...

An 8 page discussion of the Cold War. Contends that this period was anything one of peace and security. Provides examples of the friction which existed between the United States and the Soviet Union, the events culminating in the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, the dissolution of the Soviet Union, and the changing role ...

A 5 page essay that contrasts Erasmus' The Praise of Folly and Bartolome de Las Casas' defense of Native Americans, A Short Account of the Destruction of the Indies. Erasmus detailed the urgent need for reform in the Catholic Church, and Las Casas castigated his Spanish government for its treatment of indigenous populations in the ...

An 18 page paper which examines the social, economic and political repercussions of war in both countries. Bibliography lists 11 sources.

A 5 page essay that gives an overview of Arthur Waley's text on the First Opium War. Waley points out that other books written on the Chinese Opium Wars do not give adequate attention to the Chinese official most involved in the First Opium War, which was Lin Tse-hsu, who was sent by the Emperor ...

8 pages in length. The writer discusses how the appeal of Fascism in 1930s Germany can be primarily attributed to the appearance of much needed national support in the overwhelming presence of authoritarian principles. Bibliography lists 6 sources.

5 pages in length. Although the Enlightenment promoted the ceaseless quest for progress, its universal and optimist ideas showed both positive and negative aspects after the French Revolution. In the same way, everyone in Europe did not equally benefit from the Industry Revolution. If one were to have been born a peasant ...

This 16 page report discusses the economic perspectives of: the German Empire that was founded in 1871; the turn of the 19th to the 20th century and Germany’s economic standing; World War I years; the years between the wars; World War II; post-war recovery; the Wirtschaftswunder (“economic miracle”); and, the “second” reunification. It shows how it came about that the German ...

This 5 page paper looks at propaganda as used by the Germans during the First World War. Specific posters are described. Germany's use of news media is explored. Bibliography lists 5 sources.

An 8 page paper which discusses and analyzes the Battle of the Atlantic in WWII. Bibliography lists 10 sources.

An 11 page paper discussing how the policies of Stalin's successor affected the people of the former Soviet Union. Under Khrushchev, there were several areas in which Russian citizens could expect to live longer lives than under Stalin, but Khrushchev did not materially improve the plight of the people in terms of any sort of freedom. Any ...

(5pp) Man seems to be comfortable in warfare, whatever the time period. Each side engaged in the "noble fight" feels that it is in sole possession of the only possible answer. In this discussion "domination" and independence clash strongly throughout the world during a period of less than seventy five years. Bibliography ...

A 6 page research paper that outlines the life and career of Klemens von Metternich (1773-1859), who was the Austrian statesmen who became the principal arbiter of post-Napoleonic Europe. Bibliography lists 5 sources.

A 10 page research paper that examines Daniel Defoe's A Journal of the Plague Year and relates it to Galileo's Dialogue on the Two Chief World Systems, Ptolemaic and Copernican. The writer examines how the philosophy of the Enlightenment, which was the culmination of the scientific revolution begun by Galileo, was reflected in Defoe's account ...

This 5 page paper considers the way in which the United Kingdom recovered form the depression of the 1930's. Measures such as devaluation, trade tariffs and withdrawal from the gold standard are all discussed. The bibliography cites 6 sources.

A 5 page paper which discusses the reasons why the British people quickly changed from supporting the Liberal Party to supporting the Conservative Party after WWI. The source used for this discussion is Ross McKibbon's "Class and Conventional Wisdom: The Conservative Party and the Public in Interwar Britain." No additional sources cited.

A ten page paper which looks at Khrushchev’s secret speech of 1956 and considers the impact which it had on the USSR, the international community, and Khrushchev’s own political future. Bibliography lists 10 sources.

A 5 page paper which examines the rise and fall of the post-WWII Social Democratic Consensus in Britain. The paper discusses the reasons behind this approach, the reasons for its failures, Butskellism, and how some of this involved other countries such as Germany. The text used for examining this subject is "Britain Since 1789" by Pugh. No additional sources ...

This 10 page paper looks at the growth in the UK economy and its relationship to the export market. The paper uses statistical measures such as GDP, inflation, as well as import and export rates to ascertain the correlation and graphs are used to enhance the understanding for the student. The bibliography cites 10 ...

10 pages in length. Russia went from one totalitarian lunatic to another when Stalin took over Lenin's reign. While he mirrored the vast majority of Lenin's unsavory political tactics, there was one element that he devised on his own that even Lenin thought to be unacceptable: the Great Purge. Clearly, this historically bloody ...

A 10 page paper which discusses the woman's suffrage movement of Ireland. Historical information is provided which presents some of the key characters and strategies of the women's movement. Bibliography lists 5 sources.

This 5 page paper provides an overview of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec, Canada and the Volga River in Russia. The rivers are compared and contrasted. Bibliography lists 4 sources.

A ten page paper which looks at the historical and political elements which gave rise to the formation of Sinn Fein and the IRA, and the way in which the movement contributed firstly to the armed struggle in Ireland and secondly to the peace initiatives which commenced in the 1980s and culminated in the Good ...

An 8 page paper which discusses Paul Fussell's book, "Doing Battle" and Siegfried Knappe's "Soldat." The paper addresses who the authors are, what the books are about, why they were written, and their significance to the reader as it relates to WWII. No additional sources cited.