GCSE HISTORY (MODERN WORLD) SPEC B

The History Department offers Revised History Syllabus B (Modern World History) offered by AQA. As an option choice, this course is of considerable value for the understanding of some major issues of the Modern World. History is something we all make every day of our lives. History is in the making now – you will shape it.

The course aims that you will have opportunities to acquire knowledge and understanding of the Twentieth Century – the century that you were born into.

It was a century of Dictators – Hitler, Mussolini, Lenin, Stalin:

Who were they?

What did they believe?

What did they do and for what reason?

It was a century of Conflict – War and Revolution:

Why did World Wars One and Two break out in Europe?

What was the Cold War? The Cuban Missile Crisis?

It was a century of Ideas:

Capitalism, Socialism, Communism, Totalitarianism, Nationalism, Appeasement, Nazism, Fascism:

What do these ideas mean?

Why have these ideas been so powerful?

It was a century of Personal Suffering:

The Western Front, The Great Depression, The Holocaust, Racism, Intolerance, Terrorism, Hiroshima, Nagasaki, Vietnam.

It was a century of Technological Change:

Mass Production, New Industries, Development of the Atom Bomb

The following is an outline of our intended programme of study for your daughter in her History GCSE. One option from Section A International History (25%) and one from Section B British History (12.5%)

YEAR 10

Section A : Study of Option V 1900-1949 (Seven Key Issues)

Subject Content for Paper 1: Conflict in the Modern World

Key Issue 1 : Why did tension increase in Europe between 1900 and 1914?

The alliance system and the Arms race, Moroccan Crises 1905 & 1911, Bosnian Crisis 1908-9

Key Issue 2 : Why did the assassination at Sarajevo lead to the outbreak of war in 1914?

Sarajevo, Austria/Hungary and the Serbs, the Schlieffen Plan, events leading to the outbreak of war.

Key Issue 3: How did the Treaty of Versailles establish peace?

Paris Peace Conference; Woodrow Wilson, Lloyd George, Clemenceau – their views and motives, main terms of the Treaty of Versailles – territorial changes, military restrictions, war guilt and reparations

Key Issue 4: Why did the League of Nations frequently fail in its aims to keep peace?

The League of Nations – membership, organisation, powers and peacekeeping role, crises of Manchuria (1931-2) and Abyssinia (1935-6).

Key Issue 5: How did Hitler challenge and exploit the Treaty of Versailles in the period 1933 to March 1938?

Hitler’s aims and expansionist policies, the Saar, Rhineland 1936, Austria 1938

Key Issue 6: Why did appeasement fail to prevent the outbreak of war in 1939?

Appeasement and Chamberlain, Hitler, Aryan supremacy and lebensraum, Sudetenland and Munich Agreement, Czechoslovakia, March 1939, growing tensions, including role of USSR, Nazi Soviet Pact, Poland and outbreak of war.

Key Issue 7: Why did the USA and the USSR become rivals in the period 1945 to 1949?

East-West idealogical gap, decisions made at Yalta and Potsdam, and their importance, attitudes of Stalin and Truman, Soviet expansion into Central and Eastern Europe, Iron Curtain, Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Berlin 1945-48, Berlin blockade and airlift

SECTION B Britain in the World Wars

Option Y: Britain in the First World War

Key Issue : What was the part played by Britain in the defeat of Germany in the First World War?

The BEF, trench warfare, Britain’s contribution to the Western Front, using the Battle of the Somme as an example, new weapons – tanks and planes, the war at sea, blockades and Jutland, the contribution of Empire troops, the end of the war.

Key Issue: How did the war change life in Britain?

Changing attitudes at home, censorship and propaganda, the changing role of women, recruitment, rationing and effects of submarine warfare.

YEAR 11

GCSE students study two options for Paper 2:

Option B – Germany 1918 – 1939 (37.5%)

Option C – The USA 1919 – 1941

and complete coursework:

British History: 12.5% World History 12.5%

The changing role and status of women in Britain since 1900
Evacuation in World War II

Option B: Germany 1918 – 1939 (Parts 1-4)

Part 1: Weimar Republic 1918-1933

How far do the early problems of the Weimar Republic suggest that it was doomed from the start?

Origins of the Weimar Republic, effects of the Treaty of Versailles on Germany, Problems of the Weimar Republic 1918-1924, political weakness; political challenges from the Left and Right, Spartacists, Kapp Putsch, Munich Putsch, invasion of the Ruhr, hyperinflation.

How far did the Weimar Republic recover under Stresemann?

Recovery of the economy, the Dawes and Young Plans, the role of Stresemann, inability of the Weimar Republic to cope with the Depression.

Part 2: Hitler and the growth of the Nazi Party to 1933

How did the Nazi Party develop its ideas and organisation up to 1929?

Early career of Hitler, founding of the Nazi Party, Munich Putsch, Mein Kampf, decline in support in the Stresemann years.

How was Hitler able to become Chancellor in January 1933?

Growth in support for the Nazis 1929-1933 and its reasons, elections of 1932, invitation to lead coalition government, 1933.

Part 3: Establishment of a Nazi dictatorship 1933-34

How did Hitler change Germany from a democracy to a Nazi dictatorship, 1933-34?

Reichstag Fire, Election of March 1933, Enabling Act, elimination of political opposition – political parties, Trade Unions. Night of the Long Knives, death of Hindenburg, Hitler becomes Führer.

Part 4: Nazi rule in Germany 1934 –1939

What were the main features of totalitarian dictatorship in Nazi Germany?

One party law and order, the SS and Gestapo, cultural, racial and religious persecution, control of education, youth movements and the media, censorship and propaganda

To what extent did the German people benefit from the Nazi rule in the 1930’s?

Economic policy, increased employment through public work programmes, rearmament and conscription, self-sufficiency, effects of Nazi policies on people living in Germany.

Option C: The USA 1919-1941 (Parts 1-4)

Part 1: The Growth of Isolation 1919-1922

How did the USA react to the end of World War 1?

Rejection of the peace treaty, reasons for refusing to join the League of Nations.

How did the policies of the American Government encourage isolation ?

Tariff policy, Fordney-McCumber Tariff of 1922, immigration controls, quota system of 1921

Part 2: The Promised Land? The USA in the 1920s

How far did the USA achieve prosperity in the 1920s?

Mass production (e.g. Ford and the motor industry), consumer boom – Hire Purchase, purchase of shares, stock market boom, continuation of poverty (e.g. farmers), Afro Americans

The ‘Roaring Twenties’ is this a good description of the USA in the 1920s?

Ku Klux Klan and racism, Prohibition, organised crime e.g. Al Capone, developments in entertainment e.g. Hollywood, jazz, the flappers

Part 3: America in Depression 1929-1933

Why did the USA fall into depression in 1929?

Problems of the 1920’s (e.g. over-production, lack of credit control, unequal distribution of wealth, tariff controls)

Part 4: Recovery from Depression 1933-1941

What measures did Roosevelt introduce to deal with the Depression?

Election of FDR, the fireside chats, banking crisis, New Deal and the Alphabet Agencies: TVA; NRA; WPA; CCC; AAA

How far was the New Deal successful in ending the Depression in the USA?

Effects of the New Deal in achieving its aims, limitations, opposition to it, impact of World War II on American economic recovery.