AQA GCSE History (8145): Paper 1 Section B Wider World Depth Studies — Revision Notes

These notes condense AQA GCSE History 8145 Paper 1 Section B, the wider world depth study. Find your school’s Conflict and tension option – the First World War, the inter-war years, East and West, Asia, or the Gulf and Afghanistan – and learn its timeline, then use the technique sheet for the four questions (40 marks + 4 SPaG). For full explanations see the wider world depth studies study guide; for practice see the wider world depth studies practice questions.

Syllabus coverage

AQA GCSE HISTORY (8145) – 3.2.2 SECTION B: WIDER WORLD DEPTH STUDIES – BA the First World War, 1894-1918; BB the inter-war years, 1918-1939; BC East and West, 1945-1972; BD Asia, 1950-1975; BE the Gulf and Afghanistan, 1990-2009. Each has three parts; all three are tested every series.

Technique sheet: questions 1-4

Q	Marks	Do this	Avoid this
1 Source analysis	4	Use the source’s content and its provenance to show how it supports the view	Describing the picture only
2 How useful	12	For each source: content, provenance, context – what it is useful for	“It’s biased so it’s useless”
3 Write an account	8	A sequence of events linked by cause and consequence (“this led to…”)	A list of unlinked facts
4 How far do you agree	16 + 4 SPaG	Both sides, developed with evidence, then a clear judgement	Sitting on the fence; ignoring spelling and grammar

BA The First World War, 1894-1918

Date	Event
1882 / 1894	Triple Alliance / Franco-Russian Alliance
1904 / 1907	Entente Cordiale / Anglo-Russian Entente
1905, 1911	Moroccan crises
1906	HMS Dreadnought launched
1908-09	Bosnian crisis
28 June 1914	Franz Ferdinand assassinated
Aug-Sept 1914	War; Schlieffen Plan fails at the Marne
1915	Gallipoli
1916	Verdun; the Somme; Jutland
1917	USA enters; Passchendaele; Russia leaves the war
1918	Spring Offensive; Hundred Days; Kaiser abdicates; Armistice

BB The inter-war years, 1918-1939

Date	Event
Jan 1918	Fourteen Points
June 1919	Treaty of Versailles
1920	League of Nations begins; Vilna seized
1921	Aaland Islands; Upper Silesia
1923	Corfu
1925	Greek-Bulgarian dispute; Locarno
1928	Kellogg-Briand Pact
1931	Manchuria
1934	Dollfuss murdered
1935	Saar plebiscite; conscription; Stresa Front; Anglo-German Naval Agreement; Abyssinia invaded
1936	Rhineland remilitarised; Axis; Anti-Comintern Pact
1938	Anschluss; Munich
1939	Czechoslovakia occupied; Nazi-Soviet Pact; Poland invaded

BC East and West, 1945-1972

Date	Event
Feb / July 1945	Yalta / Potsdam; atomic bombs
1947	Truman Doctrine; Marshall Plan; Cominform
1948-49	Berlin Blockade and Airlift; Yugoslavia splits; Comecon; NATO
1949	Communist victory in China; Soviet atomic bomb
1955	Warsaw Pact
1956	Hungarian uprising
1957	Sputnik
1960	U2 shot down; Paris summit collapses
1961	Gagarin; Bay of Pigs; Berlin Wall
Oct 1962	Cuban Missile Crisis
1968	Prague Spring; Brezhnev Doctrine
1969	Apollo 11
1972	SALT 1

BD Asia, 1950-1975

Date	Event
June 1950	North Korea invades South
Sept / Oct 1950	Inchon landings / Chinese intervention
1951	MacArthur sacked
1953	Korean armistice
1954	Dien Bien Phu; Geneva Agreement
1962	Strategic Hamlets
1963	Diem overthrown
1964	Gulf of Tonkin
1968	Tet Offensive; My Lai
1969	Vietnamisation begins
1970	Cambodia; Kent State
1972	Nixon visits China
1973	Paris Peace Accords; US withdrawal
1975	Fall of Saigon

BE The Gulf and Afghanistan, 1990-2009

Date	Event
1980-88	Iran-Iraq war
Aug 1990	Iraq invades Kuwait
Jan-Feb 1991	UN coalition liberates Kuwait
1996	Taliban take Kabul
11 Sept 2001	Al-Qaeda attacks on the USA
Oct-Dec 2001	US/UK operation in Afghanistan; Taliban overthrown; UN conference in Bonn; Karzai leads interim government
2002-03	Weapons inspectors in Iraq
Mar-Apr 2003	Invasion of Iraq; Saddam’s regime falls
2003-09	Insurgency in Iraq; Taliban resurgence in Afghanistan

Worked example: question 3 account

Write an account of how the Berlin Blockade increased tension between East and West. [8]

Chain: Western zones merge and introduce a new currency (1948) -> Stalin blocks road and rail routes to West Berlin -> the Allies fly in supplies for almost a year -> Stalin lifts the blockade (May 1949) -> NATO is formed, and Germany splits into two states. Each arrow is a “this led to” link – that is what earns the higher level.

Worked example: question 4 plan

“The main reason for the outbreak of war in 1939 was the policy of appeasement.” How far do you agree? [16 + 4 SPaG]

1. Agree: appeasement let Hitler rearm, remilitarise the Rhineland (1936) and take Austria and the Sudetenland (1938) unopposed, convincing him Britain and France would not fight.
2. Disagree: Hitler’s own aims (overturning Versailles, Lebensraum) drove events; the Nazi–Soviet Pact (August 1939) freed him to invade Poland; the League’s failures over Manchuria and Abyssinia had already weakened collective security.
3. Judgement: say which mattered most and why, for example that Hitler’s aims were the main cause and appeasement allowed them to be achieved without war until 1939.

Write in full sentences with accurate spelling, punctuation and grammar: the four SPaG marks are awarded on this question.

Exam traps

• Question 1: forgetting provenance.
• Question 2: treating usefulness as reliability only.
• Question 3: no consequence links.
• Question 4: weak judgement; careless SPaG.
• BB students: confusing the League’s 1920s successes with its 1930s failures.
• BD students: mixing Korea (UN war) with Vietnam (no UN force).

Frequently asked questions

What is a narrative account? A connected story that explains how events caused or led to an outcome.

Are SPaG marks only on question 4? In Section B, yes – 4 marks on the essay.

Do sources always include a cartoon? Not always, but visual sources are common, so practise cartoons and posters.

Self-test

1. Which crisis in 1908-09 involved Bosnia? The Bosnian crisis.
2. Name a League success in the 1920s. The Aaland Islands (1921).
3. What year was SALT 1 signed? 1972.
4. When did Chinese troops enter the Korean War? October 1950.
5. When did Iraq invade Kuwait? August 1990.

Official specification

AQA GCSE History (8145) specification, version 1.3, sections 3.2.2 and 4.4.1 – aqa.org.uk.