AQA GCSE History (8145): Paper 1 Section A Period Studies — Revision Notes

These notes condense AQA GCSE History 8145 Paper 1 Section A, the period study, for fast revision. Use the section for your school’s option – America 1840-1895, Germany 1890-1945, Russia 1894-1945 or America 1920-1973 – plus the technique sheet for the six questions, which is the same for every option. Full explanations are in the period studies study guide; practice is in the period studies practice questions.

Syllabus coverage

AQA GCSE HISTORY (8145) – 3.2.1 SECTION A: PERIOD STUDIES – AA America, 1840-1895: Expansion and consolidation; AB Germany, 1890-1945: Democracy and dictatorship; AC Russia, 1894-1945: Tsardom and communism; AD America, 1920-1973: Opportunity and inequality. Each option has three parts, and all three are tested every series.

Technique sheet: questions 1-6 (40 marks)

Q	Marks	Do this	Avoid this
1 Differ	4	State the main difference in what A and B say, with a short quotation from each	Describing each separately
2 Why differ	4	Explain using who wrote each, when and why (provenance)	“One is biased” without detail
3 Convincing	8	Test each interpretation against your knowledge, then judge which is more convincing	Ignoring one interpretation
4 Describe	4	Two features, each with a developed detail	Explaining causes
5 In what ways	8	Two or more changes, each explained with evidence	Narrative with no “change”
6 Essay	12	Both bullets explained, then a reasoned judgement on which mattered more	One bullet only; a conclusion that just repeats

AA America, 1840-1895 – key dates

Date	Event
1845	“Manifest Destiny” coined
1846-47	Mormon trek to Salt Lake under Brigham Young
1848-49	California Gold Rush
1851	First Fort Laramie Treaty
1857	Mountain Meadows Massacre
1859	John Brown’s raid on Harpers Ferry
1861-65	Civil War (Lincoln vs Jefferson Davis)
1862	Homestead Act
1864	Sand Creek Massacre
1865	13th Amendment
1866	Fetterman’s Trap; Civil Rights Act
1869	Transcontinental railroad completed
1876	Battle of the Little Big Horn
1877	End of Reconstruction
1887	Dawes Act
1890	Wounded Knee; frontier declared closed

Big picture: expansion west brought conflict with Plains Indians, Mormons and between North and South; consolidation after 1865 meant one nation, settled Plains and Native Americans confined to reservations.

AB Germany, 1890-1945 – key dates

Date	Event
1890	Wilhelm II dismisses Bismarck
1898, 1900	Navy Laws
1912	SPD becomes largest Reichstag party
Nov 1918	Kaiser abdicates; Armistice
1919-20	Spartacists; Versailles; Kapp Putsch
1923	Ruhr occupation; hyperinflation; Munich Putsch
1924-29	Stresemann era: Rentenmark, Dawes Plan, Young Plan
1929-32	Depression; Nazi seats 12 to 230
Jan 1933	Hitler appointed Chancellor
Feb-Mar 1933	Reichstag Fire; Enabling Act
June-Aug 1934	Night of the Long Knives; Hitler becomes Führer
1935	Nuremberg Laws
1938	Kristallnacht
1942	Final Solution co-ordinated at Wannsee
1943	White Rose leaders executed
July 1944	Bomb plot

Big picture: democracy grew, was weakened by war and crisis, and collapsed in the Depression; the Nazis ruled through popularity, propaganda and terror until defeat.

AC Russia, 1894-1945 – key dates

Date	Event
1894	Nicholas II becomes Tsar
1905	Revolution; October Manifesto
1906-11	Stolypin’s reforms and repression
1915	Tsar takes command of the army
1917	Abdication (Feb/Mar); Bolshevik revolution (Oct/Nov)
1918	Brest-Litovsk; Civil War begins
1921	Kronstadt; NEP
1924	Lenin dies
1928	First Five-Year Plan
1929	Collectivisation; Trotsky exiled
1934-38	Kirov murder; Purges and show trials
1941	German invasion – Great Patriotic War
1943	Stalingrad victory
1945	Red Army reaches Berlin

Big picture: Tsardom collapsed under war and its own failures; Lenin built a one-party state; Stalin transformed and terrorised the USSR and led it to victory in 1945.

AD America, 1920-1973 – key dates

Date	Event
1920	Prohibition begins
1927	Sacco and Vanzetti executed
1929	Wall Street Crash
1932	Roosevelt elected
1933	New Deal begins
1941	Lend-Lease; USA enters war
1950-54	McCarthyism
1954	Brown v Board of Education
1955-56	Montgomery bus boycott
1963	March on Washington; Equal Pay Act
1964	Civil Rights Act; Great Society
1965	Malcolm X assassinated
1966	National Organization for Women founded
1968	Civil Rights Act; King assassinated
1972	Equal Rights Amendment passed by Congress
1973	Roe v Wade

Big picture: opportunity (boom, post-war prosperity, civil rights gains) always coexisted with inequality (poverty, racism, gender discrimination).

Worked example: question 2

Explain why the authors of Interpretations A and B might have different views about the Stresemann era. [4]

Strong answer pattern: “Interpretation A was written by a German banker in 1928, when US loans were still flowing, so he stresses recovery. Interpretation B is by a farmer writing in 1932, after the Depression, who had never shared the prosperity, so he stresses its weakness.” (Both authors here are invented examples.) Use the ascription – that is where the marks are.

Common mistakes and exam traps

• Spending too long on questions 1-2 (4 marks each) and rushing question 6.
• In question 3, quoting the interpretations at length instead of testing them against knowledge.
• Treating question 4 (“Describe”) as “Explain”.
• In question 6, not comparing the two bullets in the conclusion.
• Dates mixed up across options (for example, Sand Creek 1864 versus Wounded Knee 1890).

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to know historians’ names? No. AQA says the interpretations do not require knowledge of historiography.

How many words is each interpretation? Around 50-100 words, each with an ascription telling you who wrote it.

Can question 6 cover more than one part? Yes, it may focus on one part or on a development that runs across parts.

Self-test

1. Which 1887 law broke up reservations? The Dawes Act.
2. What did the Enabling Act allow? Hitler’s government to pass laws without the Reichstag.
3. What replaced War Communism? The New Economic Policy (1921).
4. Which 1941 policy supplied Britain? Lend-Lease.
5. How many marks is question 6? 12.

Official specification

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