Overseas Empires in the Nineteenth Century: Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions. The wording and exact sources below are invented for practice purposes, but the structure follows the syllabus’s own: on Paper 1, Core Content questions are three-part structured essays, split (a), (b), (c); on Paper 2, one document question with up to seven sources is set on a single prescribed Core Content topic. Cambridge International holds copyright in its own papers; use these alongside the official past papers available through your school or Cambridge directly.

Related: Overseas empires revision notes

These questions cover key question 1.5 of Cambridge IGCSE 0470 and O Level 2147: why, and with what effects, nations gained and expanded overseas empires. The short extracts in Question 4 are genuine documents of the period; the questions on them are original.

Paper 1 style: Structured Questions

Question 1: Europeans in Africa

(a) Describe the French policy of assimilation in Senegal. [4]

(b) Why did Lugard use indirect rule in Northern Nigeria? [6]

(c) ‘Leopold II’s rule in the Congo was the most harmful form of European imperialism for Africans.’ How far do you agree? Explain your answer. [10]

Worked answer

(a) Any four: Africans who adopted the French language, education and culture could in theory become French citizens; the Four Communes of Saint-Louis, Gorée, Rufisque and Dakar elected a deputy to the French parliament; rule was direct, through French officials rather than local rulers; Faidherbe, as governor, extended French control inland and recruited African troops, the tirailleurs sénégalais; in practice very few Africans gained citizenship. [4]

(b) Explained reasons: Britain had few officials and little money to govern a huge area, so ruling through existing emirs was cheap; the Sokoto Caliphate already had an organised system of courts, taxation and administration that Lugard could use; keeping traditional rulers in place reduced the risk of revolt after the conquest of 1903; Lugard believed it was the best way to govern Africans according to their own customs, as he later argued in The Dual Mandate. [6]

(c) Agree: the Congo Free State was run as Leopold’s private business; forced rubber quotas were enforced by the Force Publique through hostage-taking, mutilation and killing; millions died; it was so extreme that international protest (Casement’s report of 1904, the Congo Reform Association) forced Belgium to take it over in 1908. Disagree: French rule also used forced labour and conquest and destroyed African states; British indirect rule changed the power of chiefs and caused problems where chiefs had not existed; all systems took land and political control. Judgement: most answers will agree that the Congo was the most extreme, but should show that the difference was one of degree. [10]

Question 2: India, 1857

(a) What happened at Meerut in May 1857? [4]

(b) Why did many Indians rebel against British rule in 1857? [6]

(c) ‘The events of 1857 completely changed British rule in India.’ How far do you agree? Explain your answer. [10]

Worked answer

(a) Sepoys who had refused the new cartridges were punished; on 10 May 1857 soldiers at Meerut rebelled, freed their imprisoned comrades, killed British officers and civilians, and marched to Delhi, where they proclaimed Bahadur Shah II as their leader. [4]

(b) Explained reasons: the rumour that cartridges for the Enfield rifle were greased with cow and pig fat offended Hindu and Muslim soldiers; annexations, including under the Doctrine of Lapse and of Awadh in 1856, angered rulers and many sepoys whose families came from Awadh; fear that Britain intended to convert Indians to Christianity and attack customs; grievances over pay and service overseas. [6]

(c) Changed: the Government of India Act 1858 ended East India Company rule; the Crown ruled through a Secretary of State and a Viceroy; Queen Victoria’s Proclamation promised religious non-interference and an end to annexations; the army was reorganised with more British troops; the Mughal dynasty ended. Continued: India stayed under British control and was run for British interests; British racial attitudes hardened rather than softened; most Indians still had no say in government. Judgement: the system of rule changed greatly, but the fact of British control did not. [10]

Question 3: The USA and Spain’s colonies

(a) Describe the terms of the Treaty of Paris (1898). [4]

(b) Why did the USA go to war with Spain in 1898? [6]

(c) ‘American control brought more benefits than harm to the Philippines and Cuba.’ How far do you agree? [10]

Worked answer

(a) Spain gave up its claim to Cuba; Spain ceded Puerto Rico and Guam to the USA; Spain ceded the Philippines to the USA; the USA paid Spain $20 million. [4]

(b) Explained reasons: sympathy for the Cubans fighting Spain since 1895, stirred by sensational newspaper reports of Spanish reconcentration camps; the explosion of the USS Maine in Havana harbour on 15 February 1898, which the press blamed on Spain; American economic interests in Cuban sugar and trade; strategic interest in naval bases and Pacific influence. [6]

(c) Benefits: US schools and the spread of English in the Philippines; public health and infrastructure works; an elected Philippine Assembly from 1907; Cuba freed from Spanish rule. Harm: Filipino independence was denied and the Philippine–American War (1899–1902) caused heavy civilian losses; the Platt Amendment limited Cuban sovereignty, gave the USA Guantánamo Bay and was used to justify intervention in 1906. Judgement: supported either way, but the best answers separate short-term material change from the loss of self-government. [10]

Source practice

Question 4: The debate over American imperialism, 1898–99

Source A — Rudyard Kipling, opening of the poem “The White Man’s Burden”, published in February 1899 and addressed to the USA: “Take up the White Man’s burden— / Send forth the best ye breed”.

Source B — from the platform of the American Anti-Imperialist League, 1899: “We hold that the policy known as imperialism is hostile to liberty and tends toward militarism, an evil from which it has been our glory to be free.”

(a) What is the message of Source A? Use the source and your knowledge to explain your answer. [7]

(b) How far do Sources A and B disagree about American expansion? [8]

Worked answer

(a) Source A urges Americans to take control of the Philippines and govern them, presenting empire as a duty of supposedly superior white nations towards colonised peoples. Context: it was published while the US Senate was debating the Treaty of Paris and as the Philippine–American War began, so it was intended to persuade Americans to keep the islands. Good answers explain the “civilising mission” motive and its racial assumptions. [7]

(b) They disagree fundamentally: Source A presents empire as a noble duty, while Source B says imperialism threatens liberty and leads to militarism, betraying American ideals. They agree only that empire would be a major change for the USA. Provenance explains the difference: a British imperialist poet supporting expansion against an American pressure group opposing it. [8]

Where marks are usually lost

• Describing an empire instead of explaining its impact on the colonised.
• Giving the motives without examples from the case studies.
• Assuming a source is unreliable just because it is biased — explain what its bias makes it useful for.

Frequently asked questions

How is IGCSE History 0470 Paper 1 structured? Paper 1 (2 hours, 60 marks, 40%) has Section A on the Core Content (eight questions, answer two) and Section B on the Depth Studies (two on each, answer one). Each question is a three-part structured essay worth 4, 6 and 10 marks.

Do 0470 and 2147 share the same Core Content? Yes. For 2024–2026, Cambridge IGCSE History 0470 and O Level History 2147 have the same Core Content key questions, so these questions suit both; only the papers’ weightings and IGCSE’s third component differ.

Which case studies does the syllabus name? French assimilation in Senegal (Faidherbe), British indirect rule in Nigeria (Lugard), Leopold II’s Congo, the British in India after 1857, and US expansion after the Spanish–American War of 1898.

Official syllabus

Cambridge IGCSE History (0470) and Cambridge O Level History (2147) syllabuses for 2024, 2025 and 2026, Core Content Option A key question 5 — 0470 syllabus, 2147 syllabus. Mark splits are illustrative.