AQA GCSE History (8145): Paper 1 Section A Period Studies — Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions. The two interpretations below are invented for practice and are not by real historians; the question types and marks follow the AQA 8145 specification’s own Section A structure (questions 1-6, 40 marks). Examination boards hold copyright in their own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available free from your board.

Related: Period studies revision notes | Period studies study guide

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AQA GCSE History 8145 Paper 1 Section A sets six compulsory questions on your period study. Part 1 below is a complete set for AB Germany, 1890-1945. Part 2 gives questions 4-6 for AA America 1840-1895, AC Russia 1894-1945 and AD America 1920-1973, so every option is covered.

Part 1: a full set on AB Germany, 1890-1945 (40 marks)

Interpretation A (invented) – From a history of Weimar written in 1990 by a German economic historian: “The Stresemann years were a genuine recovery. The currency was stable, factories were rebuilt with American money, and Germany sat once more among the great powers at Geneva. Had the Depression not struck, the Republic might well have survived.”

Interpretation B (invented) – From a memoir written in 1960 by a former Bavarian farmer: “People in Berlin spoke of golden years, but we saw nothing golden. Prices for our grain fell every season and the banks wanted their loans back. The Republic’s prosperity was borrowed, and everyone in the villages knew it.”

1. How does Interpretation B differ from Interpretation A about the Stresemann era? Explain your answer using Interpretations A and B. [4]

2. Why might the authors of Interpretations A and B have a different interpretation about the Stresemann era? Explain your answer using Interpretations A and B and your contextual knowledge. [4]

3. Which interpretation gives the more convincing opinion about the Stresemann era? Explain your answer based on your contextual knowledge and what Interpretations A and B say. [8]

4. Describe two problems Kaiser Wilhelm II faced in ruling Germany. [4]

5. In what ways were the lives of young people in Germany affected by Nazi policies? Explain your answer. [8]

6. Which of the following was the more important reason why Hitler was able to establish a dictatorship by 1934: the Enabling Act; the Night of the Long Knives? Explain your answer with reference to both reasons. [12]

Worked answers

1. A sees a “genuine recovery” – stable currency, rebuilt factories, international respect. B sees prosperity as “borrowed” and limited to the cities, with farmers suffering falling prices and debt. The difference is over whether the recovery was real and widely shared.

2. A’s author is an economic historian writing in 1990, with access to national figures on output and trade, so focuses on the recovery visible in the statistics. B’s author was a farmer who lived through the period, whose own experience was of falling grain prices; agriculture was already in difficulty before 1929, so he stresses weakness. They also had different purposes: an overview of the economy versus a personal memory.

3. A is convincing because the Rentenmark ended hyperinflation, the Dawes Plan (1924) brought loans and investment, and Locarno (1925) and League membership (1926) restored Germany’s status. B is convincing because recovery depended on short-term US loans, which were recalled after 1929, and farmers faced falling prices and debt in the late 1920s. Judgement: B is more convincing about the fragility of recovery, as the speed of the collapse after 1929 shows; A is right that there was real recovery in the cities.

4. (Two features, each developed.) Militarism: Prussia and the army had huge influence, and officers answered to the Kaiser, not the Reichstag. Growth of socialism: industrialisation created a large working class; the SPD grew to become the largest party in the Reichstag in 1912, alarming the Kaiser. Other acceptable features: managing a Reichstag that controlled the budget; the cost of the Navy Laws.

5. Education: teachers had to join the Nazi Teachers’ League; subjects such as history and biology taught Nazi racial ideas; physical education was increased. Youth organisations: the Hitler Youth and League of German Maidens became compulsory, training boys for the army and girls for motherhood; many enjoyed camps and sport. Opposition: some young people rejected control, such as the Edelweiss Pirates and Swing Youth, and faced arrest. Wartime: older Hitler Youth members served in anti-aircraft units. Explain how each changed lives.

6. Enabling Act (March 1933): allowed Hitler to make laws without the Reichstag for four years; used to ban trade unions (May 1933) and all other parties (July 1933); gave dictatorship a legal basis. Night of the Long Knives (June 1934): removed Röhm and the SA leadership, which threatened a “second revolution” and worried the army; won the army’s support, so when Hindenburg died in August 1934 Hitler became Führer and the army swore loyalty to him. Judgement: for example, the Enabling Act was more important because it created the legal power from which every other step followed – or the Night of the Long Knives, because without the army no dictatorship was secure. Either can reach the top level if the reasoning is clear.

Part 2: questions 4-6 for the other three options

AA America, 1840-1895

4. Describe two challenges faced by the pioneer migrant farmers on the journey west. [4]

5. In what ways were the lives of the Plains Indians affected by the coming of the railroads? Explain your answer. [8]

6. Which was the more important reason for conflict on the Plains in the 1860s: the discovery of gold; the failure of the policy of concentration? [12]

Answer guidance: 4 – crossing mountains and rivers with wagons; disease such as cholera; shortages of food and water; the Donner Party disaster (1846-47). 5 – railroads brought settlers and hunters; the buffalo herds were destroyed; the railroads split the herds and the hunting grounds; tribes were pushed onto reservations. 6 – gold rushes drew miners across Indian land (the Bozeman Trail to the Montana goldfields led to Red Cloud’s War); concentration under the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty broke down as settlers ignored boundaries and tribes followed the buffalo, leading to Sand Creek (1864). Judge which made conflict more likely.

AC Russia, 1894-1945

4. Describe two features of the 1905 Revolution. [4]

5. In what ways were the lives of peasants affected by collectivisation? Explain your answer. [8]

6. Which was the more important reason why the Bolsheviks won the Civil War: the leadership of Trotsky; the weaknesses of the Whites? [12]

Answer guidance: 4 – Bloody Sunday (January 1905); strikes and the St Petersburg Soviet; the Potemkin mutiny; the October Manifesto. 5 – loss of private land and animals; kulaks deported or killed; grain quotas; the famine of 1932-33; some peasants moved to cities and factories. 6 – Trotsky’s Red Army, discipline, armoured train and commissars against divided White generals, long supply lines and lack of peasant support. Reach a judgement.

AD America, 1920-1973

4. Describe two features of the Ku Klux Klan in the 1920s. [4]

5. In what ways were the lives of African Americans affected by the Second World War? Explain your answer. [8]

6. Which was the more important reason for the progress of the civil rights movement in the 1950s and 1960s: Martin Luther King’s peaceful protest; the actions of the federal government? [12]

Answer guidance: 4 – white robes and hoods, cross burnings; anti-Black, anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish and anti-immigrant; membership of millions; political influence in some states. 5 – service in the armed forces, though in segregated units; jobs in war industries; continued migration north; greater confidence to demand equal rights after fighting for freedom abroad. 6 – King: Montgomery, Birmingham, the March on Washington (1963), Selma; federal government: Brown v Board (1954), troops at Little Rock (1957), the Civil Rights Acts (1964, 1968). Judge how far each depended on the other.

Where marks are usually lost

• Question 1: no direct comparison.
• Question 3: no contextual knowledge.
• Question 6: no judgement in the conclusion.

Frequently asked questions

Must I answer all six questions? Yes. Section A questions are all compulsory.

How do I write a top-level question 3? Evaluate both interpretations with your own knowledge, then decide which is more convincing and why.

Official specification

AQA GCSE History (8145) specification, version 1.3, sections 3.2.1 and 4.4.1 – aqa.org.uk.