Exam Skills: The Inter-War Years 1918-1939 (AQA GCSE History: Wider World Depth Study (Paper 1: Section B)): Exam Questions

How useful are Sources B and C to an historian studying the League of Nations? Explain your answer using Sources B and C and your contextual knowledge.

Source B: Adapted from a recruitment pamphlet published by the League of Nations Union in 1925. The League of Nations Union was a British organisation formed in October 1918 which promoted the ideals of the League of Nations. By the mid-1920s, it had over 250,000 supporters.

'The League has achieved so much in the last four years; it has prevented war between Sweden and Finland; settled the disagreement over Upper Silesia, and created an International Health Office.

The League has not achieved more because it does not have, as yet, the support of the whole world. So this means there is a need to tell people about the League.

Taxpayers, businessmen, ex-soldiers, and women should all join our Union to demand the prevention of future wars.'

How useful are Sources B and C to an historian studying the remilitarisation of the Rhineland? Explain your answer using Sources B and C and your contextual knowledge.

Source B: An extract from a letter sent on 7 March 1936 from the German Government to the British Government.

'Today we have returned military forces to Germany's Rhineland in order to defend our frontiers. The Locarno Pact has been broken because France has made an alliance with the USSR against Germany. We still want peace in Europe and are ready to make new agreements to achieve it.'

How useful are Sources B and C to an historian studying the Treaty of Versailles? Explain your answer using Sources B and C and your contextual knowledge.

Source B: A cartoon published in a major American newspaper in 1919 commenting on the Treaty of Versailles.

The title of the cartoon was ‘All that is left is the Fifteenth Point’.

This source has been removed due to third-party copyright restrictions.

Source C: Adapted from a British newspaper article, published in June 1919.

The author was a war correspondent during the First World War and also attended the Paris Peace Conference.

'The Treaty of Versailles is the result of seven months hard work by the Allies and is a great achievement. The German Empire with its brutality and uncontrolled hunger for conquest is at an end. The world now looks forward to the end of warfare itself. The Treaty stands for civilisation and is the greatest combined effort of goodwill and justice ever made.'

How useful are Sources B and C to an historian studying the policy of appeasement? Explain your answer using Sources B and C and your contextual knowledge.

Source B: Adapted from a statement issued by Neville Chamberlain and Adolf Hitler following the signing of the Munich Agreement, in September 1938.

'We, the German Chancellor and British Prime Minister, have met again and agreed that the relationship between our countries is most important both for ourselves and Europe. The Anglo-German Naval Agreement of 1935 and the successful Munich conference show our countries’ desire to avoid war between us. We are determined that talking shall be the way of solving any issues concerning our two countries.'

Source C: A cartoon published in a widely read and respected American newspaper, 7 October 1938.

Source C not reproduced here due to third-party copyright restrictions

How useful are Sources B and C to an historian studying the League of Nations? Explain your answer using Sources B and C and your contextual knowledge.

Source B: Adapted from a pamphlet about the League of Nations written in 1919 by Jan Smuts.

Smuts was a South African military commander of Allied troops in the First World War and he attended wartime meetings with the British Government. Smuts signed the Versailles Treaty on behalf of his country. He helped to write the rules of the League of Nations.

'The League of Nations must become essential in settling disputes between nations; keeping the peace must be its key task. However, the League needs to do more than prevent wars from breaking out; it should also be a protector of ordinary people.

On a daily basis the League should try to help workers of all nations. It must be a normal part of international life that nations cannot ignore'

How useful are Sources B and C to an historian studying the Abyssinian Crisis? Explain your answer using Sources B and C and your contextual knowledge.

Source B: A cartoon published by the British newspaper Punch in 1935. The cartoon is entitled “The Awful Warning".

Source B not reproduced here due to third-party copyright restrictions

Source C: Adapted from the memoirs of Anthony Eden, Facing the Dictators, published in 1962.

Eden was a leading member of the British government throughout the Abyssinian Crisis.

"During an adjournment, a private Anglo-French meeting was held. It showed no agreement was possible. I said that the League had lost greatly in prestige in many countries. A despairing message had been received from the Abyssinian government… I said that the threat of poison gas was not to Africa only. Dictator states might well use gas in Europe.”

How useful are Sources B and C to a historian studying Anschluss in 1938?

Explain your answer using Sources B and C and your contextual knowledge.

Source B: An extract from When Hitler Took Austria (2008).
The author, Kurt von Schuschnigg, was the son of the former Austrian Chancellor who was forced to resign just before the Anschluss.

"Crowds on that March 12 included the unconvinced and the skeptical, as well as the curious. People gathered as if drawn by a magnet; but their presence did not endorse the new political environment, nor did it contradict the findings of recent government polls [that between 65 and 70% of Austrians wanted to retain independence from Germany].”

Source C: A painting by Austrian artist Alfred Pirkkert entitled Anschluss, painted c.1928.

Source C not reproduced here due to third-party copyright restrictions