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Why did the British Foreign Secretary Arthur Balfour give an assurance to Britain’s Zionists that there would be a Jewish homeland in Palestine in 1917? This podcast gives a brief outline of the politics of the Balfour Declaration and Britain’s deals with the Arabs, French and Jews. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show
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How did Benito Mussolini manage to be appointed Prime Minister in 1922? This podcast explores the details of his rise to power from relative obscurity and his March on Rome. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the Show & Get Exclusive ContentBecome a Patron: patreon.com/explaininghistory▸ Join the Community & Continue the Conve
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What are the origins of Italian Fascism? In order to understand Fascism as a concept we have to delve into the 19th Century history of the country. The manner in which Italy was unified as a nation state led to a fundamentally divided country that was chaotic and unstable – an authoritarian idea like Fascism seemed to many on the right to be the solution to Italy’s weaknesses. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connec
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A general overview of the development of the trade union movement from the 1830s to the eve of the First World War. What factors led to the radicalisation of the movement and how did the two main parties, Liberal and Tory adapt to the ‘threat’ of mass democracy and the working class vote? Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support the
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One of the more overlooked aspects of the history of Soviet Communism is the last years of Trotsky’s life at Coyoacan in Mexico. This podcast explores the man and his feuds within his own movement, the plot to assassinate him and his relationships with his patron and eventual enemy Diego Rivera. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Supp
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Japan enjoyed spectacular military successes from December 1941 to February 1942, but from May to November that year was dealt a series of defeats that would ultimately spell doom for the Japanese war effort in the Pacific. Why was the Japanese advance halted in the South Pacific so quickly? Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subscribe and share.▸ Support
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The Five Year Plans involved and immense bureaucratic effort to industrialise Russia on a massive scale. Beyond the massive cost to the Russian people and the coercion of much of the population, there was also an immense degree of participation and consent in the grand historical undertaking to build socialism. This podcast explores the efforts of the Stakhanovites and other participants in the plans. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and exp
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Why did so many western intellectuals decide to offer their support to the Soviet Union in the 1930s? Writers like George Bernard Shaw, Freda Kirchwey and left intellectuals like Sidney and Beatrice Webb all gave Stalinism a veneer of legitimacy whilst hoping their own countries would stay steadfastly non communist. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the past to the present. If you enjoy the show, please subsc
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By the late 19th Century Russia was a rapid increase in acts of terrorism against the state, the assassination of government ministers, bombings of state buildings and attempts (eventually successful) on the lives of the Tsars. The terrorists were well educated members of Russia’s middle classes, waging their own war against the state on behalf of Russia’s peasants. Why? This Explaining History podcast attempts to address this question. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century th
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How did Germany’s defeat in World War One lead to a revolution that swept away the Kaiser and result in the rise of a liberal socialist government? What compromises and deals did the new administration make to prevent the spread of communism and how did that affect the development of the republic?Answers to all this and more are here in this Explaining History Podcast. Explaining History helps you understand the 20th Century through critical conversations and expert interviews. We connect the pa