SPECIFICATION INFORMATION:

•   AQA

  These webpages have been written to address the third section: 'Origins and outbreak of WWII' of the Conflict and tension: the inter-war years, 1918–1939 specification and the recommended Scheme of Work.

•   OCR

  The OCR unit on International Relations: the changing international order 1918–1975 covers a wide subject-area, but you will be able to use these pages to deepen your knowledge on 'Tension in Europe in the 1930s, the policy of Appeasement and outbreak of war in 1939'.

  

Contents:

1.  Hitler's Aims

2.  Eight Steps to War

3.  Appeasement

4.  Sudetenland - Appeasement in Action

5.  After Munich - The End of Appeasement

6.  The Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939

7.  A Wider Perspective

8.  Interpretations

9.  Causes of WWII Cascade

10.  Self-test

  

Click the yellow arrow for advice on:

•  How to STUDY this topic:
  • 1.   Start by reading some easy sources – for instance, Peter Moss, or the ‘Basics ’ sheet in the ‘Going Deeper’ panel on this page.  Get a grasp of the basic story.

    Make a list of key dates - leave space to add other dates you may discover during your studies. 

    It might be an idea to do this before you study this unit in class.

  • 2.   Work through the study sections 1-6 above.  You can do this over time as you study the topics in lessons.

            Take advantage of some of the links to explore, more deeply, aspects of the topics which attract your interest.  Try to become ‘an expert’ on some issues.

  • 3.   Read my comments about the need for a Wider Perspective, and study the historiography, to learn how historians have interpreted the causes, and to consider what YOU think about the debates.
  • 4.   Plunder the Cascade webpage to help you write any essays you are given.

•  How to REVISE this topic:
  • 1.   Pre-revision:
    Skim-read the study pages in this unit to refresh your memory of what you have learned in the lessons.
  • 2.   Four weeks to go:
    Go through the topics on the Cascade webpage; for each, use the yellow arrows to think FIRST how you would answer, before checking against my suggestions.
  • 3.   Three weeks to go:
    Choose the revision factsheet which suits you best from the ‘Going Deeper’ panel, and learn it off by heart; get someone to test you on it.  Then, using the yellow arrows to check your answers, do and re-do the Self-test until you can get every question ‘right enough’.  Also, suss out the Smartass list of specialist terms with which to wow the examiner! 
  • 4.   Two weeks to go:
    Invite a friend to revise with you and do the Revision Activities together, using them as an opportunity to share all you know.
  • 5.   Last week:
    Go through the blue Exam-style Questions for your specification to rehearse how you will tackle the kind of questions you will meet in the exam.  Spend the last evening re-revising your chosen revision aid.