Spanish Civil WAR, critical commentary on 4 primary and secondary Essay

Spanish Civil WAR, critical commentary on 4 primary and secondary source materials including literary or film sources - Essay Example The following discussion will examine the question whether or not the defeat of the Republic was inevitable. The sources for the analysis will include a variety of primary sources including a painting, a novel, a journal, and a newspaper article. Secondary sources will be employed to add context to these primary sources. Together this historical evidence will be mined for the causes of the Republican defeat in the spring of 1939. The conclusion will then return to the inevitability of the Nationalist victory. Comparing the aerial bombing of Guernica to the atomic bombs dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki or the Allied firebombing that engulfed Dresden, Oxford Professor Raymond Carr describes it as merely a minor act of vandalism. However,viewed in the context of 1936 it was a terrifying, revolutionary and effective operation. According to Preston, â€Å"Guernica was the first total destruction of an undefended civilian target by aerial bombardment.† (Preston, 2006, 5) Precise casualty figures remain a subject of debate amongst historians but on the seventieth anniversary of the attack the BBC summarized historical opinion, â€Å"The figures for the number of casualties in the bombing are still disputed, but most historians think between 200 and 250 people were killed and many hundreds wounded. â€Å" (BBC, 2007) Also, Guernica was the historic capital of the Basque nation and as such its destruction was designed to terrorize the Basque and undermining their resistance to the Nationalist forces. A second element of Prestons description of the event is also significant. Guernica was attacked by the Condor Legion, German aircraft and aircrew seconded to the Nationalist forces to aid in their victory and gain experience in aerial bombardment. Simply put, they were military professionals. Technologically, the Republicans could not match them. Guernica had no anti-aircraft defenses and the

The economic consequences for Ukraine in joining the Thesis

The economic consequences for Ukraine in joining the Russia-Belarus-Kazakhstan customs union - Thesis Example 1 Overview Statistics of Ukraine Economic Status p. 19 Fig. 2 Real Sector Performance of Ukraine p. 20 Fig. 3 State Budget Execution p. 21 Fig. 4 main State Budget Indicators for 2012-2013 p. 21 Fig. 5 Map of the Commonwealth of Independent States p. 22 Fig. 6 A Look at the Economic Picture for the CU in 2010-2011 p. 25 Fig. 7 EEU Timeline Implementation Infrastructure p. 29 Fig. 8 Nominal GDP of BRK Countries and Ukraine, 2000-2011 p. 32 Fig. 9 Structure of Gross Value Added in BRK and Ukraine, 2005 and 2010 p. 33 Fig 10 Structure of Industry by Branch in BRK and Ukraine, 2005 and 2010 p. 34 Fig. 11 Belarus Foreign Trade by Country Groupings p. 35 Fig. 12 Russia Foreign Trade by Country Groupings p.37 Fig. 13 Kazakhstan Foreign Trade by Country Groupings p. 39 Fig. 14 Ukraine Foreign Trade by Country Groupings p. 40 Fig. 15 Kazakhstan Foreign Trade Developments p.41 Fig. 16 Russia Foreign Trade Developments p.42 Fig. 17 Belarus Foreign Trade Developments p.43 Fig. 18 Ukraine Foreign Trade Developments p.44 Fig. 19 Service Imports p. 45 Fig. 20 Service Exports p. 46 Fig. 21 Belarus Export/Import Charts p. 47 Fig. 22 Kazakhstan Export/Import Charts p. 47 Fig. 23 Russia Export/Import Charts p. 48 Fig. 24 Common External Tariff of the BRK Customs Union p.50 Fig. 25 Gas Production Forecast Table 2005-2016 p. 52 Fig. 26 Gas Production Forecast Table 2014-2021 p. 53 Fig. 27 Major LNG Fields and Pipeline Network p. 54 Fig. 28 Global Competitiveness Index (GCI) Rankings p.55 Fig. 29 Mutualism in Europe: The Diverse Realities of the EU p. 57 Fig. 30 Common Principles of European Mutual Societies p.58 Fig. 31 Import Tariffs Before and After the Customs Union Creation p. 51 Fig.32.Global Financial... The purpose for this paper is to look at the surrounding circumstances of the Ukraine, what state the economy is in, what Ukraine’s main resources are, and how export and import situations would benefit if Ukraine were to join the Customs Union. In one section, three examples of Ukraine’s position in the marketplace will be examined with a projected analysis gleaned from literature review research as to whether joining the Union on a limited basis would be better or whether joining as a full member would be best, and finally, how Ukraine would manage by not joining at all. Consequently, this analysis would present a picture in time, based on certain circumstances only. War and natural disasters can strongly disrupt any strategic plans, no matter how carefully set up. Notwithstanding unexpected occurrences, perhaps other Unions may decide to relax some of their rules in order to bring Ukraine in to membership. For now, the European Union, while once a possibility, seems to be sidelined by Ukraine’s current political environment. The research motivation is to compare the various literature reviews by expert economists and scholars of scenarios and resulting factors of Ukraine joining the CU under various structures of membership. In that capacity, literature review is necessary for finding the picture currently available for the Ukraine and for the Customs Union through economic trends over the last few years and to bring that forward into the comparative analysis. The question in this thesis is to ‘determine how the Ukraine will fare economically if it does join the Common Union currently consisting of Russia, Kazakhstan and Belarus.’