.........



.....,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,....Return to the main class page;
.....,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,....enter the Student Room; or
.....,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,....find another course.





OUR ANSWERS TO THE SOURCE-BASED QUESTIONS

1. Here are our combined answers for November 2010 and
2. June 2010.





I. Class schedule


Mondays, periods III and IV, ZK101, 205
Tuesdays, periods I and II, ZK206, 209
Fridays, periods VII and VIII, ZK101





II. The syllabus

The Cambridge International Examination board prescribes this:

...wwwwwwwwwwww...,,,,,,,,,,,,,.Source-based study:
...wwwwwwwwwwww...The Origins of the First World War, 1870–1914
In this study, candidates will explore how conditions and events in Europe during the period 1870–1914 led to the outbreak of World War I. Candidates will also need to examine the historical controversies on the origins of the war.

(More curriculum stuff here.)





III. Past A-level questions

Here is the question posed in June 2011, with the examiner's report on the answers.

I've put up all the papers, examiner's reports (r), and grade schemes (s).
Note that papers 11, 12 and 13 all cover our syllabus;
the actual questions are different for different timezones, to thwart cheating.
Question 1 is the compulsory source-based question on the First World War.
November 2011 (s)
June 2011 (r, s)
November 2010 (r, s)
June 2010 (r, s)
November 2010 (r, s)







IV. Resources

Here's a fabulous site for sources. Read through these to get the flavour of what source-based history is like.
2. Europe in 1914 had a precarious system of alliances; as it happens, when war came the actual teams worked out a bit differently.
3. This animated map shows you the course of the war.





V. Sarajevo, 28 June 1914

Francis Ferdinand was a curious fellow (“a man of uninspired energy, dark in appearance and emotion, who radiated an aura of strangeness and cast a shadow of violence and recklessness ... a true personality amidst the amiable inanity that characterized Austrian society at this time”). His quirks were a fanatical taste for hunting – 300,000 kills – and his odd marriage (for love, not dynastic coherence: which was silly). His sensible idea was the federalisation of the Hapsburg empire.
......Meditate on this map, and try to imagine what history would have been like if Francis Ferdinand had become Emperor and had his way!
......This didn't happen because the revolting Serb terrorists of the Black Hand shot him.
......Here's some footage of the murder, an excellent detailed article, and, best of all, a fine documentary.
......And the upshot: Nicholas II declares war, and Cousin Willy replies. (More on the Kaiser here.)
......This American cartoon titled ‘Chain of Friendship’ catches the comic horror of summer 1914.





VI. Some readings

1. Robert Gildea, chapter XV, pp. 403-435, has a good account of the background of war.
2. Visit the A-level site for a brief discussion of causes, a review of the background, and an excellent chronology.
3. Articles on the causes of the Great War – and on the swaying views of different schools of historians about those causes.
4. The Sarajevo crisis that finally tipped Europe over the edge was just the last in a line of near-misses: contemplate earlier crises, Bosnia, 1909 and Agadir, 1911.
5. The John Clare notes I have given you, with useful mnemonics.






VII. Film

The best way to revise, or even to open up the topic, is to watch (and make notes on) the BBC's 80th excellent anniversary documentary, Timewatch: Seeds of War (1994) (I, II, III, IV).
2. A quirkier BBC offering, The Great War and the Shaping of the 20th Century: Explosion (you can tell that since 1994 Iraq has subdued the BBC taste for just war!): here is I, II, III, IV,
3. A clip from the 1974 minseries Fall of Eagles, about the Bosnian Crisis of 1908









....If this vile teenager had only missed,
or if a guard had hit him with a sabre a few seconds earlier,
we might still be living in the civilised, pre-war age.
..........Email me by clicking on Princhip's forehead,
as hard as you can.