IGCSE World History: The Twentieth Century 1919-1989 — Revision Notes

Condensed recall notes for Core Content Option B: The Twentieth Century, 1919–1989, Cambridge IGCSE World History 0470, 2024–2026 series. Use these alongside the full study guide on Option B for explanation and evidence — these notes are for fast recall of the six key questions in the final stretch of revision.

Key question 1: Was the Treaty of Versailles fair?

• Three main peacemakers, three different aims: Wilson (USA) — Fourteen Points, self-determination; Clemenceau (France) — weaken Germany permanently for French security; Lloyd George (Britain) — firm enough for public opinion, not so harsh it destabilises Europe.
• Know the Treaty’s key terms: territorial losses, military restrictions, reparations, the War Guilt Clause.
• Know its social, economic and political impact on Germany to the end of 1923 specifically — this is the exact window the syllabus sets.
• Be ready to weigh contemporary opinions on the Treaty, not just modern hindsight.

Key question 2: To what extent was the League of Nations a success?

• Structure, aims, membership — including its key structural weakness: no standing army, and not all major powers were members.
• 1920s peacekeeping successes: Vilna, the Aaland Islands, Corfu, Bulgaria.
• Humanitarian work: refugees, health, working conditions, slavery.
• 1930s failures: the Manchurian crisis (Japan) and the Abyssinian crisis (Italy) — both exposed the League’s weaknesses once the Depression-era climate made collective security harder to enforce.

Key question 3: How far was Hitler’s foreign policy to blame for war in 1939?

• Chronological chain to memorise: rearmament (breach of Versailles) → Saar plebiscite → remilitarisation of the Rhineland (1936) → Rome–Berlin Axis and Anti-Comintern Pact → Spanish Civil War involvement → Anschluss with Austria (1938) → Sudeten crisis and Munich Agreement → Polish crisis (triggers British/French declarations of war, Sept 1939).
• Know appeasement as a deliberate British and French policy choice — exam questions expect this to be discussed, not just Hitler’s actions narrated alone.

Key question 4: Who was to blame for the Cold War?

• 1945 summit conferences and the breakdown of the US–Soviet wartime alliance — the alliance rested on the shared aim of defeating Nazi Germany, and once that goal was achieved in 1945 the underlying capitalism-versus-communism ideological divide, set aside for the war, quickly resurfaced.
• Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe to 1948.
• Occupation of Germany and the Berlin Blockade — the flashpoint that hardened the division of Europe. The Soviet blockade aimed to force the Western powers out of West Berlin, but the Berlin Airlift supplied the city by air for nearly a year, widely seen as a clear Western victory and Soviet failure — and as proof that neither side was yet willing to risk direct military conflict over it.
• Formation of NATO and the Warsaw Pact as the resulting military blocs.
• Exam questions expect both US and Soviet actions weighed, not one-sided blame.

Key question 5: How effectively did the USA contain communism?

Three case studies, each with its own reasons for involvement, tactics used, and reasons for the outcome:

• Korea (1950–53) — triggered by North Korea’s invasion of the South.
• Cuba (1959–62) — the Cuban Revolution and the Missile Crisis.
• Vietnam (1955–75) — reasons for US involvement, strategy and tactics used, and reasons for eventual US withdrawal.

Key question 6: How secure was Soviet control over Eastern Europe, 1948–c.1989?

• Hungary (1956) and Czechoslovakia (1968) uprisings and the Soviet response to each.
• The Berlin Wall (built 1961).
• Solidarity in Poland — a sign of weakening Soviet control.
• Gorbachev’s personal role in the collapse of Soviet control by the late 1980s.

Command word reminders

Option B answers are marked on how well a judgement is supported, not on volume of narrative. When a question asks “how far,” “to what extent” or “who was to blame,” structure the answer around at least two competing factors and reach an explicit conclusion in the final sentence — examiners reward a clear, evidenced verdict over a balanced list that never actually decides anything. When a question instead asks candidates to “describe” or “explain,” specified content (the named events, treaties and figures above) should be used as precise evidence rather than generalised background.

Quick recall checklist

• Can I name Wilson, Clemenceau and Lloyd George’s Versailles aims without mixing them up?
• Can I explain both a League of Nations success and a League of Nations failure with a named example for each?
• Can I list Hitler’s foreign policy steps 1933–39 in the correct order?
• Do I understand appeasement as a policy choice, not just a description of what Britain and France failed to do?
• Can I compare Korea, Cuba and Vietnam as three case studies of one containment policy, rather than three separate stories?
• Can I explain why Soviet control weakened between 1956 and 1989 using at least three named events?

How to approach it

Since every key question in Option B is a judgement question, not a narrate-the-facts question, pair each bullet point above with one sentence of your own that reaches a conclusion — for example, “the League succeeded at small-scale peacekeeping in the 1920s but failed where major powers had strong interests, as Manchuria and Abyssinia show.” Revising this way builds exam-ready judgements directly, rather than leaving the analysis step to be improvised under timed conditions.

Related resources

• IGCSE World History: The Twentieth Century, 1919-1989 (Cambridge 0470)
• IGCSE History: The Nineteenth Century 1848-1914 — Revision Notes

Official syllabus

Cambridge Assessment International Education, Cambridge IGCSE History 0470 syllabus for 2024, 2025 and 2026: https://www.cambridgeinternational.org/Images/649636-2024-2026-syllabus.pdf (verified 2026-09-02).