Europe and the Wider World: The Twentieth Century
Europe and the Wider World: The Twentieth Century
The exam expects a clear grasp of causes and consequences across two world wars, the Cold War and European integration, argued with evidence rather than slogans.
Core content
- WWI: alliance blocs, the Balkan crisis, trench warfare, total war; the 1919 settlement and the League of Nations.
- Interwar: Russian Revolution 1917, depression, Mussolini, Hitler and Stalin; appeasement and the failure of collective security.
- WWII: expansion, occupation, the Holocaust, total mobilisation, 1945.
- Cold War: ideology, nuclear deterrence, NATO and the Warsaw Pact, Berlin, Cuba 1962, proxy wars, détente, 1989–91.
- New order: United Nations (1945), Universal Declaration of Human Rights (1948), decolonisation, EEC (1957).
Worked example Did the Treaty of Versailles cause WWII? It created grievance through war guilt, reparations and territorial loss, but the Depression, the weakness of the League and Hitler's own decisions are also causes. Reasoning: distinguish a long-term condition from a sufficient cause - a treaty does not fight a war.
Traps Single-cause answers. Confusing the League of Nations with the United Nations. Saying the Cold War was fought directly between the USA and USSR; it was fought through allies, aid, propaganda and proxy wars. Assuming 1945 brought peace rather than a new rivalry.