IB DP History (DP History): Prescribed subjects – Practice Questions

These are original questions written for Marlbridge, for revision and practice on this content. They are not reproduced past-paper questions. They follow Paper 1’s four-question format and mark tariffs (3, 2, 4, 6 and 9 marks), but the four sources below are invented for this exercise – none is a real historical document, and none should be cited as one – and the IB holds copyright in its own papers. Use these alongside the official past papers available through your school or the IB store.

Related: Prescribed subjects revision notes and the prescribed subjects study guide.

IB DP History Paper 1 gives you one hour for four questions on four sources from your prescribed subject, for 24 marks. Part A below is a complete practice paper on Prescribed subject 4, Rights and protest (case study 1: the civil rights movement in the United States, 1954-1965). Part B gives a Question 4-style synthesis question, with indicative own-knowledge content, for each of the other nine case studies.

Part A: Practice paper – Rights and protest (US civil rights, 1954-1965)

Source A – Invented for practice: extract from a leaflet issued by a student protest committee in a Southern city, February 1960.

We sat at the lunch counter because we are tired of waiting. For six years the highest court in the land has said that separate is not equal, and still we cannot buy a cup of coffee in the store where we buy our books. We will sit quietly, we will be polite, and we will not strike back if we are struck. We ask every student to join us, to sit in turns, and to keep sitting until the counter is open to all.

Source B – Invented for practice: description of a newspaper cartoon published in a Northern city, May 1963. The cartoon shows a police dog straining on a leash towards a small group of schoolchildren carrying a banner reading “Freedom”. Behind the dog stands an official labelled “Southern Law and Order”. The caption reads: “Keeping the peace?”

Source C – Invented for practice: extract from a speech by a Southern member of Congress to his constituents, 1964.

This bill is not about fairness. It hands Washington the power to tell every lunch-room owner whom he must serve and every employer whom he must hire. Our people have kept order in their own communities for generations. The disturbances we have seen were caused by outside agitators who came here looking for trouble and for the television cameras.

Source D – Invented for practice: extract from a historian’s account of the movement, written in 2005.

The legislation of 1964 and 1965 was not handed down from Washington. It was pulled out of a reluctant federal government by local campaigns that made segregation impossible to ignore. The scenes from Birmingham shocked national opinion, and Selma did the same for voting rights. Johnson’s skill in Congress was real, but without the pressure from the streets there would have been nothing for him to pass.

Questions

1. (a) What, according to Source A, were the aims and methods of the student protesters? [3]

(b) What is the message conveyed by Source B? [2]

2. With reference to its origin, purpose and content, analyse the value and limitations of Source C for a historian studying opposition to the civil rights movement. [4]

3. Compare and contrast what Sources C and D reveal about the reasons for civil rights legislation. [6]

4. Using the sources and your own knowledge, examine the importance of grassroots protest in achieving civil rights legislation between 1954 and 1965. [9]

Markscheme

1(a) One mark per point, up to 3: to end segregation at lunch counters; frustration that the 1954 court ruling had not been applied; peaceful sitting-in; refusal to strike back; recruiting other students to sit in turns until the counter is desegregated.

1(b) One mark per point, up to 2: Southern authorities used force, including dogs, against peaceful protesters, even children; the claim to be “keeping the peace” is presented as hypocritical; the cartoonist sympathises with the protesters.

2 Markbands (summarised from the guide’s Question 2 descriptors): 3-4 marks – explicit discussion of both value and limitations, linked to origin, purpose and content; 1-2 marks – limited or one-sided, or OPVL not linked to the topic.

• Value: origin – an elected Southern politician in 1964, the year of the Civil Rights Act; purpose – to persuade constituents to oppose federal legislation; content shows typical arguments of opposition: states’ rights, property rights and blaming “outside agitators”.
• Limitations: a public political speech aimed at voters, so it may exaggerate or omit racial motives; it represents one politician’s views rather than the range of opposition (for example, violent resistance by the Klan or state officials).

3 Markbands: 5-6 marks – detailed comparison and contrast with explicit links throughout; 3-4 marks – some discussion of similarities and differences, possibly unbalanced; 1-2 marks – superficial, or only similarities or only differences, or sources described separately.

• Comparisons: both agree that civil rights legislation was linked to the protests and the attention they attracted (C’s “television cameras”, D’s “scenes from Birmingham”); both see the federal government as the body that passed the law.
• Contrasts: C presents the legislation as an unwanted federal intrusion; D presents it as a just response to segregation. C blames “outside agitators”; D credits local campaigns. C treats the disturbances as illegitimate; D treats them as the decisive pressure.

4 Markbands: 7-9 marks – focused response using sources and accurate own knowledge, with effective synthesis; 4-6 marks – mostly focused, uses sources and some own knowledge, with some synthesis; 1-3 marks – limited focus, sources described or own knowledge only.

• From the sources: A (sit-ins as student-led protest), B (national sympathy from Birmingham), C (opposition acknowledges protest drove the bill), D (grassroots pressure as decisive).
• Own knowledge for grassroots importance: Montgomery Bus Boycott (1955-56); Greensboro sit-ins (1960) and SNCC; Freedom Rides (1961); Birmingham (1963) and Kennedy’s civil rights address; March on Washington (August 1963); Freedom Summer (1964); Selma (March 1965) and the Voting Rights Act.
• Other factors: legal action by the NAACP and Brown v. Board (1954); federal leadership, especially Johnson’s skill after Kennedy’s assassination; Cold War pressure on US image abroad; television coverage.
• Judgement: for example, grassroots protest created the pressure, but legislation required federal political leadership.

Part B: Question 4-style synthesis questions for the other case studies

Use these with your teacher’s source sets or past papers. Each would be worth [9] and should combine sources with own knowledge.

PS1 Genghis Khan. “Using the sources and your own knowledge, examine the reasons for the military success of Genghis Khan.” Own knowledge: unification of the tribes (1206); decimal organisation and discipline; mobility and horse archers; use of captured engineers for sieges (Jin campaigns); intelligence and terror (Khwarazmian campaign); weaknesses of opponents.

PS1 Richard I. “Evaluate Richard I’s leadership during the Third Crusade.” Own knowledge: Acre (1191) and the execution of prisoners; Arsuf (1191); decision not to besiege Jerusalem; Treaty of Jaffa (1192); disputes with Philip II and Leopold of Austria.

PS2 Granada. “Discuss the reasons for the fall of Granada in 1492.” Own knowledge: Nasrid civil war and Boabdil; the union of Castile and Aragon; artillery and sieges (Alhama 1482, Málaga 1487); isolation from North African help; negotiated surrender (Treaty of Granada, 1491).

PS2 Mexico and Peru. “Examine the importance of indigenous allies in the Spanish conquests.” Own knowledge: Tlaxcalan alliance and the fall of Tenochtitlan (1521); Malinche; smallpox; the Inca civil war and Cajamarca (1532); steel and horses; later resistance (Manco Inca).

PS3 Japanese expansion. “Discuss the effectiveness of international responses to Japanese expansion, 1931-1941.” Own knowledge: Lytton Report and Japan’s exit from the League (1933); limited response to the war in China (1937); US embargoes on oil and scrap metal; the Tripartite Pact (1940); Pearl Harbor.

PS3 German and Italian expansion. “Examine the reasons for the failure of collective security in the face of Italian aggression, 1935-1936.” Own knowledge: Abyssinia; limited League sanctions excluding oil; the Hoare-Laval Pact; Suez Canal left open; Anglo-French concern about Germany and the Stresa Front.

PS4 Apartheid South Africa. “Evaluate the reasons for the ANC’s move to armed struggle by 1961.” Own knowledge: failure of the Defiance Campaign and petitions to change policy; Freedom Charter and the Treason Trial; Sharpeville (1960) and the banning of the ANC and PAC; Mandela and Umkhonto we Sizwe; government repression.

PS5 Rwanda. “Examine the reasons for the failure of international intervention to prevent the genocide in Rwanda.” Own knowledge: Arusha Accords (1993); UNAMIR’s limited mandate and Dallaire’s warnings; withdrawal of Belgian troops after peacekeepers were killed; US reluctance after Somalia; reduction of UNAMIR in April 1994; Operation Turquoise.

PS5 Kosovo. “Discuss the reasons for NATO intervention in Kosovo in 1999.” Own knowledge: removal of autonomy (1989); KLA attacks and Serbian reprisals; Račak (January 1999); failure of Rambouillet; fear of a refugee crisis and memory of Bosnia; Russian opposition at the UN Security Council.

Frequently asked questions

Why are the sources here invented? So that you can practise the skills on fresh material without reproducing copyrighted papers. Real Paper 1 sources are genuine documents, images and historians’ extracts.

Is there a word count for Question 4? No, but with about 23 minutes you should aim for a short, planned essay of three or four paragraphs.

Can I use Source D’s historian as “own knowledge”? No. Everything in the sources counts as source material; own knowledge means facts and arguments not given in the sources.