Cambridge IAL History case studies

Cambridge IAL History · Put your knowledge to work in context.

Cambridge International AS & A Level History (9489) is a written, essay-based qualification covering modern history of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It is designed for learners who have already built historical skills at Cambridge IGCSE or O Level and who want to develop them further: the syllabus emphasises historical knowledge alongside the skills of historical research, independent thinking and informed judgement, and it asks learners to work with cause and consequence, continuity and change, similarity and difference, significance, interpretations and historical evidence. The Cambridge IAL History case studies are 5 cases and about 2,540 words.

Judging 'turning point' in the Habsburg 1848–49 revolutions

Your class is preparing a 25-mark essay: 'The 1848–49 revolutions were a turning point in the Habsburg Empire.' The teacher supplies four short extracts. A is a private letter from Metternich in April 1848 insisting that the dynasty's foundations are intact.

588 words, about 3 min 2

Testing 'no army' as the explanation for League failure in Manchuria

A mock Paper 2 question asks: 'The League of Nations failed in Manchuria because it had no army.' You have four items. Item A is the Lytton Report (October 1932), which condemned Japan's actions but proposed autonomy for Manchuria under Chinese sovereignty.

483 words, about 2 min 3

Assessing whether the New Deal 'fundamentally changed' federal-state relations

You are answering a 25-mark question: 'The New Deal fundamentally changed the relationship between the federal government and the states.' Your source pack contains: A, Roosevelt's 1936 Madison Square Garden speech attacking 'economic royalists'; B, the Supreme Court's 1935 Schechter decision striking down the National Industrial Recovery Act; C, a 1935 radio address by a businessmen's association warning that federal regulation threatens local self-government; D, a historian's table of federal outlays as a share of GDP and federal employment, 1930–1940. You have 35 minutes.

486 words, about 2 min 4

Weighing machine, ideology and contingency in Stalin's rise

A Level essay: 'Stalin's victory in the leadership struggle owed more to his control of the party machine than to ideology.' You have three interpretations. A argues that the ban on factions and Stalin's use of the General Secretariat made opposition impossible.

501 words, about 3 min 5

Qualifying Brown v. Board as the 'key turning point' in civil rights

A Level essay: 'Brown v. Board of Education (1954) was the key turning point in the African American struggle for civil rights.' Your source pack includes: A, the Brown judgment declaring segregated schools unconstitutional; B, the 1956 'Southern Manifesto' signed by southern members of Congress; C, a 1957 report describing federal troops escorting Black students into Little Rock Central High School; D, a table showing that in 1964 only about 2 per cent of Black students in the former Confederate states attended schools with white students.

482 words, about 2 min