HIS2317 : The Aftermath of War in Europe and Asia, 1945-56
- Offered for Year: 2025/26
- Module Leader(s): Dr Robert Dale
- Lecturer: Dr Konstantina Maragkou, Dr Katalin Straner, Dr Joseph Lawson
- Owning School: History, Classics and Archaeology
- Teaching Location: Newcastle City Campus
Semesters
Your programme is made up of credits, the total differs on programme to programme.
| Semester 2 Credit Value: | 20 |
| ECTS Credits: | 10.0 |
| European Credit Transfer System | |
Aims
This module focuses on problems faced by societies in Europe and Asia in the aftermath of the Second World War. It aims to survey a broad range of countries, within about a decade after the end of the War.
Core themes include:
-Justice: How did war crimes trials work? What similarities and differences were there between the trials in Nuremberg and Tokyo? How did different countries deal with people accused of collaborating with an occupation regime?
-Ongoing conflict: How did the Second World War spawn or transform other conflicts that continued in its aftermath?
-Reconstruction and healing: How did societies reconstruct from the damage of the War? What happened to refugees, the wounded, and traumatized? How did soldiers reintegrate into civilian life? In what ways were post-War social welfare initiatives shaped by the legacy of the War?
-The post-war political order. The post-war decade saw a dramatic and rapid transformation of the global political order. In Asia, the European colonies in South and Southeast Asia, and Japanese colonies in East Asia all gained their independence; while in Europe, Cold War divisions emerged alongside plans for integration in Western Europe. The module considers how these transformations were shaped by the legacies of War.
These questions will be pursued comparatively. A core aim of the module is for students to learn how to conduct comparisons, to understand for example; when it is appropriate or inappropriate to use a comparative methodology, and the sorts of conclusions that can be drawn from comparative study.
Outline Of Syllabus
Outline syllabus, intended as a guide only (topics may differ slightly):
- The Second World War in Europe and Asia + Introduction to the module
- Post-War Justice and Retribution: Dealing with War Criminals and Collaborators in the USSR
- Dealing with Collaborators in China, the Philippines, and Malaya
- War crimes on trial: Allied Justice in Nuremberg and Tokyo
- The aftermath of war in Southeast Asia: local resistance groups, returning colonial powers, and social-economic crises
- Decolonization - perspectives from the metropole
- Ivan's Peace: Demobilizing the Red Army in the Wake of War
- Rising from the Ruins: Rebuilding Soviet Cities
- Marshall Plan, European integration
- The New Global Economic Order: The IMF and World Bank
- The Chinese Civil War and refugees
- Refugees, Displaced Persons and the creation of the international refugee system after WWII
- Rebuilding the Soviet Family and Gender Relations in the Wake of War
- Getting Married and Divorced in War and Revolution: China and Japan
- The Korean War and the First Indochina War/Anti-French Resistance War in Vietnam
- Cold War in Europe
- State Socialism in Central and Eastern Europe Hungary
- 1956 in Hungary
- Making Sense of War: Memorialization, Monuments, and Museums
- War and memory in East Asia
- The Cultural Cold War
- Reviews and conclusions
Teaching Methods
Teaching Activities
| Category | Activity | Number | Length | Student Hours | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Guided Independent Study | Assessment preparation and completion | 69 | 1:00 | 69:00 | Researching, writing, and revising assignments: approx. 6 hours per week |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Lecture | 22 | 1:00 | 22:00 | Two lectures per week |
| Guided Independent Study | Directed research and reading | 66 | 1:00 | 66:00 | Reading assigned for seminars and lectures: approx. 6 hours per week |
| Scheduled Learning And Teaching Activities | Small group teaching | 11 | 1:00 | 11:00 | One seminar per week |
| Guided Independent Study | Independent study | 32 | 1:00 | 32:00 | Independent reading and research |
| Total | 200:00 |
Teaching Rationale And Relationship
SEMINARS encourage independent study and promote improvements in oral presentation, interpersonal communication, problem-solving skills, research skills and adaptability.
LECTURES enable students to gain a wider sense of historical argument and debate and how such debates operate, which also allows them to develop comparisons between different historiographical debates.
Assessment Methods
The format of resits will be determined by the Board of Examiners
Other Assessment
| Description | Semester | When Set | Percentage | Comment |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Essay | 2 | M | 35 | Written assignment (1500 words) |
| Essay | 2 | A | 65 | Final essay (2500 words) |
Assessment Rationale And Relationship
The written assignments will require students to examine primary sources, assessing their ability to understand context, the creators' likely intentions and audience, and to show how sources might support or undermine historians' interpretations of the history in question. These are key skills that feed-forward to the second written assignment, which is a final essay that requires students to research an answer to set problems. It assesses their ability to synthesize information, examine secondary and primary sources critically, and present a coherent, evidence-based response to a problem. The first written assignment and the feedback they receive thus prepares them directly for the second assignment.
Reading Lists
Timetable
- Timetable Website: www.ncl.ac.uk/timetable/
- HIS2317's Timetable