A Level World History: International History, 1870-1945 (Cambridge 9489)

This guide covers the International Option: International History, 1870–1945, an AS Level route through Papers 1 and 2 for Cambridge International AS & A Level History 9489.

Where this fits in 9489

At AS Level, candidates study one of three options — European (Modern Europe, 1750–1921), American (The History of the USA, 1820–1941), or International — each with four named topics, assessed via Paper 1 (a document question) and Paper 2 (an outline study), with the specific AS topics rotating between the two papers year on year. A school teaches one option, not all three, so the International Option is a genuine alternative route through 9489, not additional content alongside the other two.

Syllabus coverage

CAMBRIDGE AS & A LEVEL HISTORY 9489 — INTERNATIONAL OPTION: INTERNATIONAL HISTORY, 1870–1945

• 3.1 Empire and the Emergence of World Powers, 1870–1919 — the causes and impact of “New Imperialism,” and the emergence of Japan and the USA as world powers alongside the established European empires
• 3.2 The League of Nations and International Relations in the 1920s — the peace settlements, international tension in the early 1920s, the recovery of the mid-to-late 1920s, and the League’s record over the decade
• 3.3 The League of Nations and International Relations in the 1930s — the rise of extremism, why the League failed to keep the peace, appeasement, and the outbreak of war in 1939
• 3.4 China and Japan, 1912–45 — the Chinese “warlord era,” the Kuomintang-Communist struggle, the rise of the CCP, and Japan’s turn to military dictatorship

3.1 Empire and the emergence of world powers, 1870–1919

This topic opens with the causes of “New Imperialism”: the economic and political motives behind late-nineteenth-century imperial expansion, and the domestic support for it (or opposition to it) in Britain, France and Germany specifically. It then traces the impact of that expansion on international relations – disputes with China (including the Boxer Rebellion), Anglo-German tension over South Africa, and the Berlin Conference of 1884–85 as an attempt to manage rivalry between imperial powers. The topic’s second half turns to two new world powers emerging outside the established European empires: Japan, through rapid modernisation, victory in wars against China (1894–95) and Russia (1905), a treaty with Britain (1902), and its role in the First World War; and the USA, through the closing of its frontier, economic growth driving a need for overseas trade, the Spanish–American War (1898), and its eventual entry into the First World War.

3.2 The League of Nations and international relations in the 1920s

This topic follows a roughly chronological arc across the decade. It opens with dissatisfaction over the 1919–20 peace settlements (Versailles, Trianon, Neuilly, Saint Germain, Sèvres), reparations, and the contrasting reactions of victors and defeated powers – Germany’s “Diktat” being the clearest example. International tension remained high from 1920–23 (the Ruhr Crisis, the Corfu Incident, German hyperinflation) despite treaties such as the Washington and Genoa Conferences, the Rapallo Pact and the Treaty of Lausanne. From 1924–29, relations improved through economic recovery and a further sequence of agreements – the Dawes Plan, the Locarno Treaties, the Kellogg–Briand Pact and the Young Plan. The topic closes by assessing the League of Nations itself across the decade: its aims, membership and structure, its use of collective security in disputes such as the Aaland Islands, Vilna and Upper Silesia, its weaknesses, and the role of its Agencies.

3.3 The League of Nations and international relations in the 1930s

Where 3.2 tracks relative stabilisation, 3.3 tracks its collapse. The rise of extremism is explained through the impact of the Great Depression on political ideologies, the rise of dictatorships, foreign responses to the Spanish Civil War, and Hitler’s sequence of expansionist moves (rearmament, remilitarisation of the Rhineland in 1936, the Anschluss and Sudetenland crisis in 1938, and the seizures of Czechoslovakia and Poland in 1939). The League’s failure to keep the peace is examined through the failure of disarmament and its weak responses to the Manchuria and Abyssinia crises. Appeasement is examined as a specific British and French policy choice, shaped by economic and military considerations and changing relations with the USSR, running through the Rhineland, the Anschluss and the Munich Crisis over Czechoslovakia. The topic closes on the outbreak of war in 1939: British rearmament, the guarantee to Poland, the reasons for the Nazi–Soviet Pact, and the invasion of Poland itself.

3.4 China and Japan, 1912–45

This topic runs in parallel to, and partly overlaps with, 3.1–3.3’s European-centred narrative. China’s “warlord era” (1916–27) covers the disintegration of central authority under Yuan Shih-kai, the May Fourth Movement, the growth of the Kuomintang under Sun Yat-sen (including the Three Principles), and the Northern Expedition. It then follows Chiang Kai-shek’s conflict with the Communists from 1927–36 (the Shanghai Massacre, the Extermination Campaigns, the Long March of 1934–35, and the Xi’an Incident of 1936) before examining why the Chinese Communist Party gained support up to 1945 – the results of the Long March, Mao Zedong’s leadership, the Yan’an Soviet and land reform, the impact of war with Japan after 1937, and the Kuomintang’s declining popularity. A final strand examines why Japan became a military dictatorship in the 1930s, beginning from its international status in 1919.

How to approach it

Because this option’s four topics span very different regions and actors (European imperial rivalry, the League of Nations as an institution, and a separate East Asian narrative in 3.4), treat 3.4 as substantively distinct rather than trying to fold it into the same timeline as 3.1–3.3 – the syllabus itself presents it as a parallel strand, not a continuation. Within 3.2 and 3.3, the run of named treaties and conferences (Washington, Genoa, Rapallo, Locarno, Kellogg–Briand, Munich) is easy to blur together; anchor each one to the specific “key question” it answers (why tension remained high, why relations improved, why appeasement was pursued) rather than memorising a bare list of dates. Since Paper 1 and Paper 2 draw on the same four topics but rotate which are examined via document question versus outline study, secure knowledge of all four rather than concentrating revision on whichever seems most likely to appear.

Official syllabus

Cambridge International AS & A Level History (9489) syllabus for examination in 2026 — official syllabus PDF, section 3 (“Subject content – International Option: International history, 1870–1945”). Verified 2026-09-02.