IB History SL flashcards

33 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

OPVL

A source-evaluation framework standing for Origin, Purpose, Value and Limitation. Origin covers author, date and document type; purpose covers intent and audience; value and limitation must be tied to the specific enquiry question.

Provenance

The circumstances in which a source was produced: author, date, place, type of document, audience and context. Provenance shapes how far a source can be trusted as evidence.

Cross-referencing sources

Comparing two or more sources on content and then on provenance. Differences in content are explained by differences in author, audience, timing or access to information.

Inference in comprehension

Drawing a conclusion not explicitly stated in a source but supported by its wording. Paper 1 comprehension marks reward stated points plus valid inferences with source support.

Value of a biased source

A propaganda source is limited as evidence of actual conditions but valuable as evidence of the regime's intended message, techniques and target audience.

Purpose versus content

Content is what a source says; purpose is why it was made and for whom. Two sources can report the same content for entirely different purposes.

Limitation of hindsight

Later accounts, memoirs and histories know how events ended, so they may impose coherence or justification absent at the time. This limits their value as evidence of contemporary thinking.

Authoritarian state

A state where power is concentrated in one leader or party, political opposition is suppressed, and the media, education and economy are subordinated to regime survival.

Rise to power factors

Conditions such as economic crisis, weak institutions and war defeat combine with the leader's methods: propaganda, violence, elite alliances and exploitation of constitutional procedures.

Consolidation of power

The process after gaining office of making authority permanent: purges of rivals, secret police, single-party laws, media control and economic policy that builds or coerces support.

Intentionalist interpretation

A historiographical position holding that Nazi policy, including the Holocaust, stemmed from Hitler's long-held ideological goals and deliberate direction rather than improvised responses to circumstances.

Structuralist interpretation

A historiographical position arguing that Nazi radicalization emerged from competing bureaucracies and pressures within the regime, with Hitler as arbiter rather than sole planner.

Long-term causes of conflict

Underlying conditions such as alliance systems, nationalist rivalry, imperial competition and arms races that make war possible over years or decades before any crisis.

Immediate trigger

The short-term event that sets off a conflict, such as an assassination or invasion. It explains timing rather than underlying willingness to fight.

Total war

Conflict in which belligerent states mobilize entire economies and populations, blurring the distinction between combatants and civilians and extending war to production and morale.

Comparative essay criteria

Explicit standards used to compare two cases, such as methods of control or extent of popular support. Organizing by criterion rather than by case produces genuine comparison.

Thematic study scope

The defined region and period named in a thematic question. Evidence and arguments must stay inside that scope, addressing regional rather than purely national developments.

Decolonization

The post-1945 process by which colonies in Asia, Africa and the Caribbean achieved independence, driven by nationalist movements, weakened imperial economies and Cold War pressure.

Regional integration

The process by which states pool sovereignty or coordinate policy across a region, through trade agreements, customs unions or supranational institutions such as the European communities.

Unintended consequences

Outcomes that were not foreseen or desired by decision-makers, such as economic disruption or refugee movements produced by a policy aimed at another goal.

Intended versus actual outcome

The distinction between what policymakers sought and what resulted. Assessing both reveals the gap between policy design and implementation.

Change and continuity

An analytical pairing requiring identification of what altered, for whom, how quickly and how deeply, alongside what persisted despite apparent transformation.

Cold War in the regions

Superpower rivalry projected into Asia, Africa and Latin America through aid, proxy forces and alliances, shaping local conflicts and post-colonial alignments.

Multicausal explanation

An account identifying several causes and assessing their relative weight and interaction, rather than attributing an outcome to a single factor.

Relative significance

A judgment ranking causes or consequences against stated criteria such as scale, duration or depth of impact, applied consistently throughout the argument.

Contingency

The role of chance and choice in events, holding that outcomes were not inevitable. Arguments using it must be flagged as speculative rather than asserted as fact.

Historical significance criteria

Standards for judging importance: impact at the time, depth and durability of effects, number of people affected, and relevance to later developments.

Perspective versus bias

Perspective is a viewpoint shaped by position and context and is analytically useful; bias is distortion. Historians explain perspectives rather than dismissing them.

Essay thesis

A clear, arguable statement of the line of argument in the introduction, which the body paragraphs develop and the conclusion resolves.

Primary source

A document or artefact produced at the time of the events studied, offering contemporary perspective but potentially limited by censorship, restricted information or self-interest.

Secondary source

A later account interpreting events, offering synthesis and hindsight but carrying the author's framework and selection of evidence.

Silences in the record

The absence of certain voices from surviving sources, often reflecting censorship or unequal access. Analysing silences reveals power structures in the record.

Memoir as evidence

A retrospective personal account valuable for the author's perspective but limited by hindsight, reputation management and selective memory.