2008 History
Advanced Higher
Finalised Marking Instructions
© Scottish Qualifications Authority 2008
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Northern Britain from the Romans to AD 1000
Part 1
Each question is worth 25 marks
Question 1
How far does the evidence support the view that Agricola’s achievements are still “of great
renown”?
The candidate is expected to be familiar with the achievements claimed for Agricola by his son in law
Tacitus and to evaluate them critically in the light of the available evidence. Candidates who are
familiar with the most recent research on the Gask Frontier may well not take the traditional view of
Agricola but candidates unaware of this research may still score high marks depending on how well
they argue their case.
The candidate might be expected to use such evidence as:
Evidence for Agricola’s achievements still being “of great renown.”
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Candidates who have persevered to the end of The Agricola will recognize that the quotation in the
question comes from the third last sentence of the book, referring to the Governor’s achievements.
Tacitus, a primary source, painted a brilliant picture of five years’ campaigning in North Britain,
culminating in a sweeping victory at Mons Graupius.
There is masses of archaeological evidence for a long, geographically widespread and substantial
Roman presence in North Britain in Flavian (which includes Agricolan) times.
Nothing like the success of Agricola was attributed in contemporary sources to the two other
invaders of North Britain, Lollius Urbicus, the Governor for Antoninus Pius, and Emperor Severus,
who campaigned in person with his son Caracalla.
According to Tacitus, Agricola’s fleet was the first to circumnavigate Britain, proving it was an
island.
According to Tacitus, Agricola was awarded the ornaments of a triumph by Emperor Domitian, the
highest possible honour.
Evidence against Agricola’s achievements still being “of great renown.”
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Tacitus, the Roman Historian and significantly the son in law of Agricola, was never the less
writing four years after the death of Agricola and four years after he had last seen him. It’s not as if
he had carefully checked his facts with the former Governor of Britain. Indeed he proclaimed in his
book The Agricola that he had set out to “honour” his father in law.
Tacitus is generally recognized as having put style before substance and as having painted a
stereotypical picture of a great Governor and General rather than a rigorous historical portrait.
There are hints in The Agricola that two of Agricola’s predecessors as Governor, Cerealis and
Frontinus, had campaigned in North Britain. There is now undisputed archaeological evidence for
a Roman presence in North Britain before Agricola’s appointment as Governor.
The poet Statius referred to another of Agricola’s predecessors, Vettius Bolanus, as having
campaigned in the “Caledonian plain” and having erected “watch towers and strongholds,” not a
bad description of the Gask Frontier.
Pliny the Elder referred to Roman arms reaching the “Caledonian Forest,” a reference which has
been dated to the time of Cerealis and Frontinus.
Tacitus was one of the top 500 Romans, with unrivalled access to written sources and movers and
shakers. He may well have known what is now becoming ever clearer, that Agricola was not first
on the scene in North Britain and that his campaigns, far from being daring and arduous, were a
walkover. Is The Agricola “a dodgy dossier?” Tacitus’ motives for writing The Agricola are still a
mystery.
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Hanson in his Agricola and the Conquest of the North, first published as long ago as 1987, did
begin to chip away at Agricola’s reputation. For example he demolished Tacitus’ claim that
Agricola was a genius at personally choosing fort sites: “none of the sites quoted by Dorey as
supporting evidence for Agricola’s supposed skill in selecting fort sites can now be claimed
unequivocally as Agricolan foundations.” Hanson also pointed out that Dendrochronological
evidence dated the Roman fort at Carlisle to pre Agricolan times. Even Tacitus states that Agricola
did not meet “fresh peoples” until he reached the Tay, suggesting/conceding pre-Roman contacts.
Hanson concluded in an earlier book, written with Maxwell in 1983, Rome’s North West Frontier:
the Antonine Wall, that, as he put it in 1987, “the end result was rarely in doubt.” Agricola made no
impression on other Roman authors: he was in Hanson’s opinion “a man of honest mediocrity.”
Pretty damning and about as far as you can get from Tacitus’ multi-faceted genius.
The Gask frontier was until recently attributed to Agricola; Hanson thought it must have been built
during Agricola’s fourth year of campaigning, his second in N. Britain.
Wooliscroft and Hoffmann have demonstrated beyond doubt that the Gask Frontier was actually
constructed 10-15 years before that! Dendrochronology and excavation: some ditches were recut
and watchtower timbers were replaced once if not twice. Clearly there was a Roman presence
Forth to Tay and beyond, long before Agricola’s arrival, strongly suggesting, to put it mildly, that his
arrival there and indeed further North was a walkover. Perhaps there was no battle of Mons Graupius:
we have only Tacitus’ word for it.
Pre Agricolan dates have been confirmed for several Roman forts in modern Scotland, Castledykes,
Newstead (perhaps as early as the late 60s AD!) Camelon, Strageath on the Gask Frontier, and
Cardean.
A Roman amphora reached Orkney not long after Claudius’ invasion of Britain, suggesting very
early peaceful contacts with far North Britain.
Agricola’s three immediate predecessors were all distinguished soldiers: it looks as if he was not:
just a competent administrator sent in when things had quietened down. Indeed Tacitus devotes a
chunk of The Agricola to the Governor’s civic responsibilities, which may have been his
outstanding achievement.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Tacitus: The Agricola Hagiography (successful until recently) but excellent reading.
WS Hanson: Agricola and the Conquest of the North.
“He had followed quite a successful career, but one suspects it owed as much to his early
adherence to the Flavian dynasty as to any particularly outstanding qualities in the man himself.”
David Breeze: The Roman Frontiers of Northern Britain slightly dated but still valuable.
Hanson and Maxwell: The Antonine Wall covers all Roman contacts with N Britain.
Wooliscroft and Hoffmann: Internet; Roman Gask Project fascinating!
Wooliscroft: Agricola: He came, he saw, but did he conquer? “Agricola was not the first Roman
Governor to occupy Scotland.” “Agricola was simply not the sort of person who got the job of
Governor of Britain, at least at a time when serious fighting was contemplated.” Agricola’s
previous career, apart from two brief periods on military service, was one “of wall to wall
administration.” The battle of Mons Graupius, if it took place, was “little more than a skirmish.”
Wooliscroft’s opinion of The Agricola, “to what extent can we trust it at all?”
Wooliscroft and Hoffmann: Rome’s First Frontier: the Flavian Occupation of Roman Scotland.
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Question 2
“Separating Romans from Barbarians.” To what extent does this explain why there were two
major Roman frontiers in North Britain?
The candidate is expected to demonstrate detailed knowledge of the reasons for the Romans building
one major linear barrier and then replacing it, temporarily as it turned out, with another further North,
which was itself soon given up completely.
The candidate might be expected to use such evidence as:
Background
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Hadrian eschewed some of his predecessor Trajan’s conquests: his policy was peace, stable
controlled frontiers and a well-trained and disciplined army which he would inspect on his imperial
travels.
Literary sources suggest trouble in North Britain at his accession, but they tended to do so at every
accession.
He apparently/clearly had no desire either to conquer the whole island or to re-advance to the ForthClyde isthmus or the Tay, both of which had been held in Flavian times. “By the end of the [First]
century ...the most northerly Roman forts lay on the Tyne-Solway isthmus. The status quo was
recognized by Hadrian, who ordered the construction of his Wall on that line.” Ritchie and Breeze
‘Invaders of Scotland’.
Trajan’s shadowy Stanegate Frontier was a good enough base for a linear barrier, perhaps reflecting
the Great Wall of China?
Hadrian’s wall was not the first artificial frontier of this type to be constructed in the empire.
“Hadrian came to Britain in 122 from Germany and in both Upper Germany and in Britain he was
responsible, according to his biographer, for the construction of artificial frontiers.” Breeze ‘The
Northern Frontiers of Roman Britain’.
The only motive given in classical times, but after the event, in the Scriptores Historiae Augustae,
was the one quoted in the question, to separate the Romans from the barbarians. “This is manifestly
correct for the barbarians beyond the province were separated from the empire by the most obvious
and clear method: a wall”. Breeze ibid.
However, Hanson and Maxwell in ‘Rome’s North West Frontier: the Antonine Wall’ make the
point. “There is nothing to indicate that the tribes north of Hadrian’s Wall were any more
barbarous than those immediately south of it. This surely implies….an intention to romanize all the
people within the new frontier, for it was the very act of building the wall which caused the
distinction.”
“In origin, Hadrian’s Wall served as a physical demarcation of the Roman province – a political as
well as military dividing line – and the scale of its construction was doubtless intended to impress
the northern barbarians as much as it hoped it would discourage. Hanson and Maxwell ibid.
It was a form of “early political apartheid.” Hanson and Maxwell ibid.
A wall would clearly delineate the Empire’s boundary as well as delimiting it without prejudice to
forts and patrols north of it.
Work probably began C 122 AD on a part stone, part turf wall from the bridge on the R Tyne to
modern Bowness on Solway, 76 Roman miles in length. Later there was a four Roman mile
extension to the East at Segedunum, Wallsend, and a forty mile extension, minus the wall, down the
Cumbrian coast.
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Specific purposes
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It also kept the troops busy and fit.
It was built to a massive scale, ornate in places, a monument to Hadrian: apparently his statue
graced the Eastern end.
It enabled peaceful economic development to the South.
Allowed close supervision of small-scale movements of people.
Customs duties/taxation? “The wall, although probably not the actual boundary of the province for
all or even part of its length, may well have become the customs boundary…Foreign trade…was
charged a duty of 12 ½ percent.” Breeze ibid.
It did not stop movement. “It would be a hindrance to movement, but that was all.” Breeze ibid.
It controlled peaceful movement.
Stopped petty raiding and smuggling. “Hadrian’s Wall was concerned, not with the major attacks
on the province…but with the more small-scale, day to day problems of frontier control.” Breeze
ibid. “the curtain walls were intended to prevent, or at least hinder, minor infiltration or raiding.”
Hanson and Maxwell op cit.
Hindered large-scale attacks.
The great forts were a base for troops and for patrols to the North and to the outpost forts at Birrens,
Netherby and Bewcastle.
Completely novel: huge psychological effect.
Hadrian died “hated by all” or more specifically by his generals who had been starved of battles.
He was succeeded by his adopted son Antoninus Pius, who had no military credentials.
Background
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“There are two schools of thought on the reason for the abandonment of Hadrian’s Wall and the
construction of the Antonine Wall: they might be termed the insular and the empire solutions.”
Breeze ibid.
Insular. There were the usual reports of trouble from the barbarians in North Britain: they had to
be driven back. “for he [Antoninus Pius] conquered the Britons through the governor Lollius
Urbicus and after driving back the barbarians built a new wall of turf.” Life of Antoninus Pius.
Primary source.
Empire. The new Emperor may have been desperate to achieve a quick and easy victory to raise his
prestige and consolidate his position in Rome. Britain ideal.
Hanson and Maxwell op cit give three possible reasons for the new wall: “a douceur to the
marshals of the emperor Trajan, who had experienced twenty years of inactivity under Hadrian:”
“An attempt by Antoninus to win military prestige for himself:” “local strategic or tactical
reasons.”
Lollius Urbicus was sent as Governor to advance the frontier and build a new wall: anything
Hadrian could do, Antoninus Pius could do.
He only once took the title Imperator, victorious general, for his campaign in North Britain.
Hadrian’s Wall was a tactical success but a strategic failure: too far from the real source of trouble,
the Caledonii in the Highlands.
Specific purposes
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“Although the wall was primarily a military frontier built by and for the army … it was intended to
fulfil political and socio-economic roles, to encourage the native peoples within the area now
clearly defined to accept Roman rule and advance towards self-government.” Hanson and
Maxwell op cit.
The spur to the Tay may have been designed to protect the Venicones in agriculturally rich Fife and
to protect the pro Roman Votadini from cross Forth raids.
All the generic purposes for Hadrian’s Wall, above, had still to be fulfilled.
The first wall needed refinement: better design features of the second wall included Lilia, man
traps, a wider, deeper ditch, a greater density of forts and men, a military way running behind it and
outposts on both flanks.
Assuming the second wall was built for purely personal reasons, these did not apply to Antoninus
Pius’ successor, Marcus Aurelius, and his Governor, Sextus Calpurnius Agricola, who immediately
abandoned the wall: back to square one.
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Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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S Ireland: Roman Britain. A Sourcebook. All Classical references.
Maxwell: The Romans in Scotland “the Romans wished to take direct control of the good
agricultural land of the Lothians.” Antonine Wall motive.
Hanson and Maxwell: The Antonine Wall “Antoninus needed to establish his credibility with the
body of the army and gain military prestige.” There probably was, at the very least, “a perceived
threat” from the Brigantes.
Smyth: Warlords and Holy Men good on the move North.
Ritchie and Breeze: Invaders of Scotland.
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Question 3
To what extent was the emergence of tribes and kingdoms in North Britain c 300 AD to c 550 AD
influenced by external factors?
The candidate is expected to show knowledge of the emergence of new tribal patterns and kingdoms in
North Britain c 300 AD − approximate first mention of Picts – and c 550 AD and to discuss the
importance of external factors in the process.
The candidate might be expected to use such evidence as:
Background
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Baseline: Ptolemy’s mid second C AD. Geography, based on the work of Marinus of Tyre who
had used a Flavian military map, showed a fragmented society of fifteen tribes: four in the
Lowlands; Votadini, Selgovae, Novantae, Damnonii and eleven in the North, including the
Caledonii: possibly a confederation Tacitus added another, the Boresti.
By Severan times there are references to the Caledonii and the Maeatae as major groupings, able to
enter treaty relations with Rome.
Later references are to Dicalydones and Venturiones.
Evolution of tribes and kingdoms
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297 AD first reference to Picts: Classical authors seemed to mean by that term all the indigenous
people North of the Forth.
Pictavia or Pictland evolved into a highly organised kingdom.
The Votadini of the Lothians and Berwickshire evolved into the warlike, heroic Gododdin with
strongholds at Din Eidyn and Stirling.
The Novantae of Dumfries and Galloway continued as the kingdom of Rheged around and NW of
Carlisle.
There are shadowy traces of a kingdom of the Selgovae in the upper Tweed.
The Damnonii emerged as the Britons of Strathclyde: stronghold on Dumbarton Rock.
“the genealogies of the British kings … demonstrate the existence of two, possibly four, native
kingdoms in Lowland Scotland during the fourth century.” Breeze The Roman Frontiers of Roman
Britain.
“An identifiable kingdom of Dalriada emerged in Argyll around 500.” Sally M Foster Picts, Gaels
and Scots.
Angles arrived in the SE and established the kingdom of Bernicia around Bamburgh.
The kingdom of the Dal Riata, the indigenous inhabitants, emerged in Argyll.
Reasons connected with external factors
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Sustained Roman pressure over centuries.
“The Picts self-awareness as a people seems to have been first stimulated by the conquest of Roman
Britain to the south of them. The feeling of “otherness” in the people of north-east
Scotland…evolved to a feeling of being a confederacy, as the Roman province began to show its
stress in the fourth century.” Carver Surviving in Symbols.
John Mann: “the Pictish kingdom was a product of the Roman presence in Britain.”
Romanitas: memory of Roman presence: desire to emulate; strongholds: capitals: titles - eg that
of the first king of the Manau Gododdin, Patern or Paternus Pesrut = Patern of the Red Cloak.
“This garment has been considered a symbol of office, Patern being invested with it by Theodosius.
It has accordingly been proposed that Theodosius established two or more kingdoms in Lowland
Scotland to govern the people and act as buffer states between Rome and the Picts.” Breeze ibid.
Appearance of King Lists linked to Romanitas: cottage industry in faking King Lists after the
event.
Aitchison: ‘The Picts and the Scots at War’: claims that new kingdoms emerged partly to protect
their areas from Roman aggression and partly to more effectively plunder the rich Roman province
to the South. This led to raids “supporting socio-economic elites, the development of emergent
kingdoms and a society organised for war.”
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Reasons connected with other factors
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The Church, as it believed in one Kingdom of God, also believed ideally in one secular kingdom.
There was no disunity in Heaven: so should there not be any on Earth.
The Church also believed in good governance and arguably a larger kingdom was better governed
than a number of lesser ones.
Native society was hierarchical and heroic, with a warrior elite at the helm. Tribes were always
rubbing up against each other and raiding/fighting each other to steal and expand. “Migration of
the Dalriadic Scots from Ireland, if it happened at all, was probably little more than the movement
of a few powerful families.” Graham and Anna Ritchie Scotland; Archaeology and Early
History.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Breeze: The Roman Frontiers of Northern Britain
Smyth: Warlords and Holy Men points out that unchanged thoroughly Celtic kingdoms emerged
unscathed from Roman occupation and reverted to raiding type.
Sally M Foster: Picts Gaels and Scots
Ritchie: Invaders of Scotland
Campbell: Saints and Sea King Dal Riata not the result of Irish migration
Graham and Anna Ritchie: Scotland: Archaeology and Early History
Aitchison: The Picts and the Scots at War
Carver: Surviving in Symbols
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Question 4
How far was the conversion of North Britons to Christianity due to the activities of a few
outstanding individuals?
The candidate is expected to show knowledge and understanding of the course of the conversion of
North Britain to Christianity and to weigh up the importance of the role of outstanding individuals in
that process, comparing it to other important factors.
The candidate might be expected to use such evidence as:
Background
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Everybody in N. Britain was religious in the sense that people believed in Gods, spirits, cults,
totems, sacred/numinous places, cosmic forces, sacrifices, votive offerings: there was a fertile seed
bed for new religious ideas.
Evidence for this in votive offerings, Pictish symbol stones, carvings of bulls at Burghead,
analogies with Irish and Gaulish/Celtic religious practices.
The Picts had “a great diversity of deities, including local ones which would have presided over
rivers, lochs, forests, mountains and even trees associated in some cases with particular animals,
and certain animals too would have been regarded as sacred.” Lloyd and Jenny Laing ‘The Picts
and the Scots’.
Describing the Pictish well at Burghead Anna Ritchie made the point, “given the importance of
water gods to their Celtic ancestors, the pagan Picts may also have had water rituals that could have
been modified and absorbed into a Christian Pictland.” Anna Ritchie ‘Picts’.
Christianity was added without great difficulty to the existing belief systems.
Indeed the two existed side by side.
Role of outstanding individuals
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St Ninian (Nynia) is a rather shadowy figure but it is accepted he was sent as a Bishop in perhaps
395 AD to an existing Christian community at a late Roman period trading settlement which we
now call Whithorn in the Mull of Galloway.
The real importance of this lay in the introduction into N Britain of the structures of an organised
Church.
Ninian or his successors may have converted some of the Southern Picts near the Forth and the Tay.
“Nynia’s fame, like Patrick’s, grew mainly after his death. The ripples of it spread out among
...largely illiterate communities, something about Nynia was cherished and transmitted.” Thomas
‘Christianity in Roman Britain. Shows the huge impact he had.
Also in the Borders: there is an inscribed stone to a Bishop in Peebles.
The work of St Columba on Iona was another highly important factor. “Columba is a key figure in
any study of the Church in Celtic areas.” Lloyd and Jenny Laing ‘The Picts and the Scots’.
Rather like Ninian, he apparently arrived in a Christian community of Dal Riata people, perhaps did
rather little in the way of conversion, but established the Abbey on Iona as a powerhouse of
education, training and production of Psalters and Bibles. He was also an adviser to the rulers of
Dal Riata: he had royal blood himself, which helped. He was the first Patron Saint of Scotland.
His burial place, Iona, became that of scores of kings from Scotland, England, Ireland and Norway.
The political role he took was taken up by later churchmen. Christianity introduced to North
Britain literacy, numeracy, a written lingua franca, aspiration towards good government, patronage
of the arts and links with Europe – all arguably traceable in large part to Columba’s life and
example.
Adomnan’s (he was a later Abbot of Iona) Life of Columba was widely circulated and had a huge
influence.
The conversion of the kingdom of Strathclyde is attributed to St Kentigern (St Mungo).
Differences between Ninian’s Roman Church and Columba’s Celtic Church have been exaggerated:
there were no doctrinal differences, just some different practices.
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Columba’s arrival, like Ninian’s, is hugely significant as laying the foundations of an organised
Church.
Since the Church supported good governance it supported kingship.
Kings likewise looked to the Church to give support and authenticity to their rule.
In Viking Orkney Earl Sigurd was at least nominally baptised in 995 when King Olaf Tryggesson
called after raids on England and gave him a choice between baptism and death. “I want you and
all your subjects to be baptised. If you refuse, I’ll have you killed on the spot, and I swear that I’ll
ravage every island with fire and steel. The earl could see what kind of situation he was in” and
was baptised at once.
Influence of the Roman Empire
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The Roman conquest of Britain was a factor in the conversion of North Britain: it opened Britain to
wider influences, made it more accessible to travellers/merchants/traders, coming and going of
officer class.
First Christians in Britain may have been Jews or Greeks in Roman Britain.
312 AD Emperor Constantine decreed official toleration of Christianity (Allegedly born in York: good
story: modern statue there to prove it, but more likely born in Moesia, latterly Yugoslavia).
After that date Bishops from sees in Britain attended Councils of the Church, eg Arles 314 AD.
There must have been an underground Church for some time for that to happen.
Army very conservative but traces of Christianity did appear at Hadrian’s Wall, in N Britain, even
before Constantine’s decree of toleration: more after it.
St Patrick’s Confessio described himself as a third generation Christian growing up perhaps near
Carlisle.
The Christian community there and the one at York must have influenced N Britain.
Romanitas, the memory of the Roman presence, included a memory of Christianity.
Irish connection
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Western Scotland’s, esp Argyll’s cultural links with Christian Antrim aided spread of Christianity.
Ireland was converted before most of North Britain. Columba and many other monks came from
Ireland.
The Church in Ireland had many links with the one in North Britain: cross traffic of churchmen.
Viking connection
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More Viking men than women came over to N Britain: the men took Pictish wives, whose children
took in Christianity with their mothers’ milk.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Campbell: Saints and Sea King good on links Argyll and Dal Riata
Smyth: Warlords and Holy Men Significant title!
S Ireland: Roman Britain A Sourcebook
Thomas: Christianity in Roman Britain to AD 500
Sally M Foster: Picts, Gaels and Scots
Martin Carver: Surviving in Symbols
Lloyd and Jenny Laing: The Picts and the Scots
Anna Ritchie: Viking Scotland
Anna Ritchie: Picts.
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Question 5
Who contributed more to the emergence of the kingdom of Alba, the Picts or the Scots of Dal
Riata?
The candidate is expected to show knowledge of the parts played in the emergence of the kingdom of
Alba by the Picts and the Scots of Dal Riata as well as taking into account other factors.
The candidate might be expected to use such evidence as:
Background
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When Donald II, son of Constantine I, King of Fortriu, died in 900 AD the Annals of Ulster
attributed to him a new title, ri Albann, King of Alba: first mention of this new name for the united
kingdom of Picts and Scots, previous rulers were known as Kings of Fortriu or of Picts/Pictland.
The conventional view of the creation and emergence of this new state tends to give all the credit to
the Scots in general and to Kenneth Mac Alpin in particular, with a walk on part for the Vikings.
Actually there was no political revolution, no unification caused by one man; rather there was an
evolutionary process lasting hundreds of years which involved the Picts as much as it did the Scots.
Contribution of the Picts
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The kingdom of the Picts was larger than Dal Riata in Argyll and both more populous and
agriculturally richer, which was of course part of the attraction for the Scots and the Vikings.
“Undoubtedly the agricultural wealth of Pictland was an enormous temptation to power-hungry
warlords”. Sally M Foster ‘Picts, Gaels and Scots’
It was in fact the Dal Riata kingship which disappeared, not the Pictish one.
The Pictish kingdom was highly organised: an army, a navy, an obligation to military service,
taxation, judges, powerful royal officers, mormears, thanes, all supported by the Church. The
wealth and power of the new Alba was no doubt predominantly Pictish.
The primacy of St Andrews, the head church of Pictland, was not eclipsed, despite the growing
importance of Dunkeld, where Kenneth Mac Alpin installed the relics of St Columba in a new
church.
Dunkeld had long-standing significance as an early historic power centre and had become a
prehistoric tribal centre, “fortress of the Caledones.”
Scone was an important Pictish centre. Kenneth Mac Alpin made it his new royal centre, perhaps
bringing to it the Stone of Destiny.
Several men before Kenneth Mac Alpin were kings of both kingdoms simultaneously and some of
them were from the Pictish royal house, eg Oengus, son of Fergus, King of the Picts 729-61, who
also ruled the Scots 741-750 and Constantine (Romanitas !) who ruled both kingdoms for a while at
the end of the 8th C. There was no real reason why the two kingdoms should not have been
permanently united by one of them.
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Contribution of the Scots
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Kenneth Mac Alpin clearly made a huge personal contribution as war leader and tactician. He may
have been in league with the Vikings. He may have had a claim to the Pictish throne through his
mother. However, all his achievements could well have died with him, leaving him a minor
footnote in history. No man can bind the future.
Kenneth Mac Alpin’s descendents’ trick was to keep the united kingdom in the hands of a narrow
dynasty instead of letting it fall apart again and eventually to change the name of the kingdom to
Scotland, the land of the Scots. Kenneth himself installed the relics of St Columba in a new church
in Dunkeld, in the heart of his new united kingdom, breaking the Scots’ umbilical cord that
connected them to Iona and the West. It was in fact the Dal Riata kingship which disappeared, not
the Pictish one.
Lot of intermarriage between the ruling elites: increasing appearance of Gaelic names among the
Pictish kings.
Common cultural heritage, as shown, by eg a comparison of Pictish sculpture with illuminated Gaelic
manuscripts and of decorated metalwork from Ireland and northern Britain.
The appearance of St Columba and other saints from Gaelic Ireland among the Picts from 590s on
introduced a major cultural influence and brought the Picts within the Gaelic cultural sphere for the
next 200 years, producing a Christian society heavily influenced by Gaelic models. Bruide, son of
Derile, King of the Picts, was present along with 50 Gaelic Kings at Birr when the Law of the
Innocents was promulgated.
Dal Riata colonisers gradually infiltrated Pictish territory from the West.
Dal Riata kings had ruled the Picts from Pictish territory. “Since seven rulers appear to have been
of Dalriadic origin, though ruling Pictland from Forteviot, inside Pictish territory, it might be
guessed that the Scots had in the early ninth century pushed eastwards into Pictland” Lloyd and
Jenny Laing The Picts and the Scots
Dal Raita was a warrior society, with a system of military obligation − see the Senchus fir nAlbann
– highly organised for war and conquest.
The Church favoured political union, especially if led by the Dal Riata, the people of St Columba.
Other factors
•
•
The Viking incursion was important; it weakened gradually the Picts and lost them the Northern Isles
and Caithness: also there was a Viking victory over the Picts in 839 just before Kenneth took over the
Pictish throne. “a battle was fought by the gentiles against the men of Fortriu and a large number fell in
the engagement. Annals of Ulster.
Similarly, Viking pressure on the coast of Dal Riata put pressure on the people there to move East.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Sally M Foster: Picts, Gaels and Scots
Smyth: Warlords and Holy Men: “Dal Riata ascendancy … evolved as a gradual process of
infiltration of the Pictish east, which must have escalated under pressure from Vikings in the
Hebrides and Argyll in the early ninth century.”
“There does indeed seem to have been a takeover process at work perhaps as early as the late eighth
century, but it was the Scots who were taking over Pictish kingship and not the otherway round.”
“Medieval Scottish sources were right in seeing Kenneth as a new type of king who hailed from the
Gaelic west and who crossed the Spine of Britain to take power in Pictland.”
Ritchie: The Vikings
Crawford: Scandinavian Scotland
Ritchie: Invaders of Scotland
Aitchison: The Picts and the Scots at War
Walker: Lords of Alba Kenneth Mac Alpin “was completing a gradual process of the merging of
two cultures which had begun centuries before.” “a slow fusion of two cultural groups over a long
period of time.”
Page 12
Question 6
What factors best explain why the peoples of North Britain were unable to mount effective
resistance to Viking incursions?
The candidate is expected to have knowledge of the Viking incursions into North Britain, and of the
factors which explain why the native peoples were unable, for the most part, to effectively resist them.
The candidate might use such evidence as:
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•
•
•
•
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•
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They did not know they were coming. Raids began out of nothing at very end 8th C AD.
795 “devastation of all the islands of Britain by the gentiles (Vikings)” Annals of Ulster.
First recorded raid, but there may have been others just before that.
Though the Dal Riata and the Picts had armies and navies and the Britons and Gododdin had
warriors it was very difficult to stop people who appeared out of the blue anywhere on very long
coastlines or on a multitude of islands.
The advantage always lay with the attackers.
Peoples of N Britain were disunited. There was no united kingdom, no central authority, no means
of communication to arrange joint action, no common language indeed.
The N Britons raided and fought each other, but that was different to trying to meet an enemy at sea
or on the coast or on islands.
The raiders were so ruthless that they could not easily be bought off, though there is some evidence
of monks doing this.
N Britain had a lot of portable loot: captives as slaves: livestock: precious metals and stones from
abbeys and churches; the Vikings were going to keep coming.
Island communities had no chance: their small populations could not defeat all warrior forces and
they could not get help. Perhaps though there was some determined resistance by them as there are
references to fighting on the islands.
Monastic centres did recover, or were deliberately left alone to allow them to recover, so that they
were worth raiding again.
To be fair, the Vikings did not sweep all before them.
The Western and Northern Isles were “lost” as was Caithness but the Picts and Dal Riata won some
battles and their heartlands were safe, though the Dal Riata were impelled Eastwards.
“The Scottish kingdom was in the long run very successful in defending itself against Viking
attack, to judge at least from the sparsity of settlements apparently established in south Scotland.”
Barbara Crawford.
“Any hopes that the Norseman may have had of establishing a power-base in the southern Scottish
kingdom were consistently thwarted.” Anna Ritchie and David Breeze.
Page 13
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Ritchie: The Vikings
Smyth: Warlords and Holy Men… refers to, ‘the exposed and relatively defenceless Gaelic and
Pictish population caught up in the fury of heathen Viking attacks at the close of the eighth
century.” “massive military expeditions which were coordinated with the characteristic speed and
ruthlessness of the later Viking period.”
Aitchison: The Picts and The Scots at War… The Vikings could raise and easily move by sea large
forces with which the Picts, Britons and Scots could not compete. “In probably one of the largest
military actions involving a fortress in northern Britain, the Dublin Vikings… besieged Dumbarton
Rock for four months…capturing it when its defenders were forced to surrender because their water
supply dried up.”
There was no respite from attacks and no knowing from whence would come the next one.
“Of all seaborne raiders, the Vikings are notable for the frequency of their attacks and for the extent
of the areas they laid waste.”
Crawford: Scandinavian Scotland.
Anna Ritchie and David Breeze: Invaders of Scotland… Until the Viking raids, the sea had been
a peaceful means of communication between, eg Ireland and Dal Riata. Suddenly that all changed.
“Never before has such a terror appeared in Britain as we have now suffered from a pagan race, nor
was it thought possible that such an inroad from the sea could be made.” Primary source quoted by
Ritchie and Breeze.
Page 14
Northern Britain from the Romans to AD 1000
Part 2
Question 1
How useful is Source A for understanding pre-Roman Iron Age society in North Britain?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for the quality of their evaluation of the provenance of
the source.
The candidate may be awarded up to 2 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s value.
The candidate offers a structured consideration of the usefulness of Source A in understanding preRoman Iron Age society in North Britain in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
•
•
•
•
•
Primary source: Archaeologist’s scale drawing of the excavation of the remains of a crannog.
Because crannog remains are usually waterlogged or underwater they can be exceptionally well
preserved, though constructed entirely of organic material – except for hearths.
Absence of air (oxygen) and sunlight preserves the wooden structures.
Some crannog remains are completely underwater, (Oakbank on Loch Tay) others are found in land
drained for agricultural purposes: the latter cases the same conditions for preservation are less good
though still remarkable.
Anything thrown out because it was broken or not wanted landed in water and was preserved.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
•
Immediately obvious that we have the remains of a very large, round, wooden circular hut built
round a hearth.
Closer examination reveals a massive wooden platform built on piles sunk into the loch bed.
Joinery skills of a high order are apparent in the jointing/dovetailing of the timbers.
Massive midden: suggests long occupation and possibly lots of finds.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
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•
•
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•
Finding a dwelling house tells you more about non-literate people than anything else.
The builders of these houses were wealthy farmers, of great skill, able to organise complex building
schemes.
Remains of everyday objects used domestically and for farming, hunting, boatbuilding, and fishing
are found in abundance.
When Oakbank was reconstructed there was considerable difficulty in obtaining hazel of the right
diameter: the original builders must have known all about coppicing.
The midden reveals what people ate, meats, fruits, cereals; eg cloudberries at Oakbank, which grow
at considerable heights on the mountains.
Page 15
Points from recall which offer wider contextualisation of the view in the source
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•
•
•
•
Crannogs are similar to brochs, round-houses, wheel-houses, ring-ditch houses and duns in that
they are massive, built to dominate the landscape, display the family’s wealth (though wheelhouses, being underground impress in a different way; entering them and seeing the complex and
massive stone structure was what was impressive).
Weapons are not found, which strongly suggests peaceable people getting on quietly with life,
though of course the last people out may have taken their weapons with them, but surely that would
have applied to domestic items as well.
Of all house types in early historic N Britain, crannogs are the most enduring: clearly rebuilding
and repairs were easy; one excavated crannog had six hearths superimposed one on another. “In
Scotland, as in Ireland, the use of crannogs is not restricted to the prehistoric period, but continues
until the seventeenth century AD.” Morrison
Why site them on water? Protection from attack? “Although refuge was not the only function of
the islets, it was certainly an important one.” Morrison. “The defensive role of crannogs is
illustrated in the Tale of Cano mac Gartnain in which Aedan mac Gabra killed Gartnan son of Aed
mac Gabrain in the crannog of Inis-Meic-Uchen in Skye and would have killed Cano mac Gartnan,
had Cano not escaped with his followers in currachs.” Morrison. Ensured safety of livestock from
predators at night: more convincing; evidence has been found of animal pens. Good farming land
was scarce, save it by not building on it. Plenty of water available! Perhaps they preferred
throwing all the rubbish into the water rather than having a stinking heap at the door.
The Buston canoe; candidates may comment on the dugout canoe: means of escape: for fishing:
travel.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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•
•
•
•
Morrison: Landscape with Lake Dwellings
Campbell: Saints and Sea Kings
Sally M Foster: Picts, Gaels and Scots
Lloyd and Jenny Laing: The Picts and the Scots
Aitchison: The Picts and The Scots at War
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the degree to
which a consideration of Source A is useful for understanding pre-Roman Iron Age society in North
Britain.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate provenance
comments.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and little if any
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate
provenance comments.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate provenance comments and the interpretation is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the provenance of the source and the views in it. There is a solid grasp
of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Appropriate
reference to historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 16
Question 2
How fully does Source B illustrate the problems of understanding the nature of Pictish life and
culture?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provided in their overall interpretation of the
source’s fullness in explaining/analysing the issue.
The candidate offers a structured explanation of the evidence in Source B on how fully it explains the
problems of understanding the nature of Pictish life and culture in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
Appropriate reference to Martin Carver may earn marks under historiography. Candidates may know that
Prof. Carver is a Professor at York University, specialising in the Picts, and also Director of the Tarbet
Discovery Programme, the major Pictish excavation underway.
Points from source which show candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
•
•
•
Passage is about Pictish Class II Christian stones, as opposed to the earlier Class I stones.
Carvings are a mix of Christian and secular content.
Carvings of Christian subjects were copied from somewhere.
Content of some carvings may have originated outwith Pictland, as far away as Byzantium.
Picts in touch with tides of European culture.
Some scenes, such as hunting ones, must have been taken straight from life.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
On one level hunting scenes were obviously secular and had secular meaning, depicting the noble
status of the patron who had erected the stone.
Hunting scenes might also allude to the Christian soul in pursuit of Christ (the deer) and salvation.
Popular Christian scenes were King David, Samson smiting the Philistines with the jawbone of an ass,
Jonah and the whale and Daniel in the Lions’ den.
Class II stones represent some sort of deal struck between the Church and the nobility.
Points from recall which offer wider contextualisation of the view in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Class II stones appeared about 700AD on.
They are done in relief on upright slabs cut to a rectangle and sometimes tapering to the top.
They were popular around the power-centres in the Moray Firth and Tayside.
Local aristocracy gave Church its full support and vice versa.
Most Class II stones are near or at sites of later medieval parish churches or burial grounds: they
were very likely early centres of Christian worship and/or burial.
They did not mark individual burials.
They were very public statements about the beliefs of the whole community and about the taste and
sophistication of the patrons, who may have been depicted.
Probably often near the caput of a thanage and at estate centres.
Did the Church, out of deference, accept the secular carving or did the patrons insist upon it?
Clever pieces of propaganda, testimonies to the rights of the Church to both land and jurisdiction.
Designs serve three purposes: evoke status and ritual authority of secular patrons, aspects of which
have now passed to the Church: still votive, asking God for favours: refer to sense of Pictish
identity.
Just one kind of source, therefore limited.
There are no surviving Pictish literary sources, apart from king lists, and even if there were we can
not translate the language.
We rely therefore on written comments of non Picts: Romans, Dal Riata, Anglo-Saxons, with all
the problems of bias.
The source tells us nothing about kingship, economy, not much about society, nothing about
housing and forts, the material culture.
Page 17
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Ritchie: Picts “Typically the Picts made the cross-slab an art-from of their own. Instead of
carving free-standing crosses…Pictish sculptors created a cross against the backcloth of an almost
rectangular slab, thereby doubling the surface area of the stone available for decoration.” “They
were … free-standing monuments, and they were probably prayer-crosses, placed beside tracks or
on boundaries as a focus of devotion.”
Smyth: Warlords and Holy Men
Sally M Foster: Picts, Gaels and Scots: “their content encapsulates the changing political scene.
On one side of them can be found a magnificent cross, glorifying God. The reverse is usually
reserved for images of the secular patrons (usually male), whose status is reinforced by their
depiction in the noble pursuits of hunting and riding.”
Lloyd and Jenny Laing: The Picts and the Scot. “The main series of Class II stones belongs to
the eight and ninth [centuries.]
Carver: Surviving in Symbols
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source B is helpful in offering a full explanation of the problems facing
historians in trying to understand the nature of Pictish life and culture.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate provenance
comments.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and little if any
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate
provenance comments.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate provenance comments and the interpretation is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the provenance of the source and the views in it. There is a solid grasp
of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Appropriate
reference to historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 18
Question 3
How much do Sources C and D reveal about differing views on the success of the Severan
invasion of North Britain?
(16 marks)
Interpretation (maximum 6 marks)
Candidates may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of each source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
Contextual and historical interpretations (maximum 10 marks)
These 10 marks will be awarded for:
•
•
•
•
the quality and depth of the contextual recall
the quality and depth of the wider perspectives
the range and quality of Historians’ views
provenance comment (if appropriate).
The candidate considers the views in Sources C and D on the success of the Severan invasion and
offers a structured evaluation of the two perspectives in terms of:
Source C
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
•
•
•
Roman Historian, never in Britain, like all of them.
Well informed about Imperial matters in Rome and the Empire.
Some of what he says can be verified independently.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
•
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Emperor Severus was intent on total conquest.
Initial success: enemy came to terms.
Terms broken.
Caledonians united with the Maeatae.
Severus would lead his army in person.
Points from recall which develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
Classical sources, Dio again and Herodian, make it clear there was a second campaign and there is
archaeological evidence for this.
Development of points about the great physical difficulties the Romans faced.
Further knowledge about the guerrilla tactics by the natives.
Marching camps, of different areas but for each standard size, do indicate two campaigns to the
North East, from the Forth to the North Esk.
Page 19
Source D
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
•
Accurate comment on Hansen and Maxwell will receive credit under historiography.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
Severus may indeed have had conquest in mind.
A new fortress was built and two previous fort sites were built upon.
Sound system of bases.
Points from recall which develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
Severus brought his wife, Julia Domna, an Arab princess, his two sons, Caracalla and Geta and
considerable forces to Britain, after the usual allegations of troubles in the North.
Carpow, a vexillation (part of) legionary fortress, was the second largest Roman fortress in N
Britain. (fortresses were larger than forts)
Cramond, re-built, had a substantial garrison, 1,000 men.
They appear to be part of a short-lived scheme to dominate/control the North from the Tay, the key
to the Flavian and Antonine occupations, and the Forth.
It used to be thought that Caracalla returned to Rome immediately after the death/murder of his
father but he may have remained longer to oversee the programme above.
Even without the bases, whatever Severus and his son Caracalla did, it brought peace for 100 years.
Points which offer a wider and more critical contextualisation of the view in the sources
•
•
•
•
Dio presumably had little interest in British affairs once the Imperial family had returned.
The Caledonians may have been bought off or have re-entered into some treaty relationship.
The Maeatae returned into the mists of History from whence they briefly sprang.
The owl of Minerva spreads his wings at dusk: only now do we see what Severus’ expedition
apparently achieved: Archaeology may cast new light in years to come.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
Hanson and Maxwell: Rome’s North West Frontier: the Antonine Wall. They compare Severus’
strategy with the one he employed in Syria/Mesopotamia, a forward strategy relying on a secure
base – with two bases in the case of North Britain. Even though abandoned, “The effect of the
Severan campaigns was such as to bring peace to north Britain for close on a hundred years.”
Maxwell: The Romans in Scotland whatever the accusation that Caracalla abandoned his father
Severus’ campaign and scuttled back to Rome before total conquest, “there can be no doubt that the
hard-fought Severan campaigns led to almost a century of peace on the northern frontier.”
Breeze: The Northern Frontiers of Roman Britain refers to “the increased Roman control over
southern Scotland from the Severan period.”
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, offering a range of evidence, about the extent
to which a consideration of the two sources is helpful in offering a full perspective on the success of the
Severan invasion of North Britain.
Page 20
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the sources; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the sources. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
5-7
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the sources, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
8-11
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the sources, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp
of topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
12-16 The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the views of the sources and their value as interpretations on the issue.
There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant
analysis. Appropriate reference to historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be
credited highly.
Page 21
Scottish Independence (1286-1329)
Part 1
Each question is worth 25 marks
Question 1
To what extent were Anglo-Scottish relationships marked more by friendship than hostility
before 1291?
The candidate is required to make a balanced judgement about whether or not relationships between the
English and Scots were marked more by friendship than by hostility before 1291. Candidates may
concentrate mainly on an analysis of the events of Alexander III and the subsequent guardianship, but
reference to earlier exemplification, such as The Treaty of Falaise, 1174 should be credited.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
Evidence of ‘friendship’ in the Anglo-Scottish relationship
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•
Personal friendship between Alexander III and King Edward I.
Alexander III married Edward I’s sister.
Edward I did not attempt to enforce overlordship when Alexander III rejected his claim in 1278.
King Henry III had intervened in Scottish affairs during the Minority of Alexander III only really to
secure his daughter’s rights and maintain stability; no hint of overlordship.
Edward I’s messages of condolence and sympathy on the death of Alexander III.
The Treaty of Birgham seemed to enshrine the independence of Scotland in the event of a ‘Union of
the Crowns’.
It is possible to analyze Edward’s actions during the Process of Norham sympathetically.
Earlier exemplification may include:
•
•
•
reference to the Treaty of Northampton 1244
reference to the Quitclaim of Canterbury 1189
close relations between the Anglo-Norman ruling class in England and those, such as King David I
and King William I, who wished to feudalise Scotland.
Evidence of ‘enmity’ in the Anglo-Scottish relationship
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
King Henry III’s intervention in the minority of Alexander III.
King Edward I’s claim of overlordship in 1278.
Edward I ‘reserved his rights’ in the Treaty of Birgham.
King Edward’s apparent desire to enforce his rights after the death of the Maid of Norway.
Edward’s demand that the Scots prove that he was not Overlord of Scotland; his decision to ignore
the refusal of the guardians to do so.
Edward’s extraction of recognition of his overlordship from the Competitors.
Edward’s sasine of Royal Castles in Scotland.
Page 22
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
Geoffrey Barrow
• argues that relations between England and Scotland were basically very good during the reign of
Alexander III. He sees the Treaty of Northampton as central to this stability, though the removal of
the issue of Northumbria would, in the long term strengthen Scotland’s strategic position
• argues that the atmosphere in 1290 before the death of Margaret was ‘hopeful, even joyful’
following the Treaty of Birgham
• argues that Edward I’s involvement in Scotland following the death of Margaret was far from
benign and that he was intent on establishing his authority from the Process of Norham in 1291.
Fiona Watson
• points out that even in the Treaty of Birgham Edward ‘reserved his rights’.
AAM Duncan
• has argued that English Kings really only wanted stability from their northern neighbour, and that
whilst Alexander III provided this then relations would be cordial. He notes however, that the
English claim to Scotland was never allowed to lapse.
Alan Young
• emphasises the crucial role of Henry III in supporting the Comyns and reducing faction in the
period.
Michael Prestwich
• has argued that Edward acted cautiously and with a sensible regard to his own position after 1290.
Norman Reid
• praises Alexander III for his achievements in securing stability but warns that his reputation has
been exaggerated by medieval chroniclers comparing his reign with the turmoil of later years.
Page 23
Question 2
Why did it take so long for the ‘Great Cause’ to be settled in favour of John Balliol?
The candidate is required to analyze the possible explanations for the length of time it took for John
Balliol to be chosen as King of Scots, in order to arrive at a balanced conclusion. Candidates may
restrict their answer to the events of 1292, or begin their discussion with the death of the Maid of
Norway in 1290. Candidates may examine the degree to which the lengthy delays reflect Edward’s
scrupulous approach to the case or whether they amounted to a sustained assault on Scottish
independence.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
Evaluation of the choice of John Balliol as King
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
No clear heir following the death of Margaret, Maid of Norway.
Risk of faction or civil war in Scotland made the political situation very dangerous.
Bishop Fraser’s letter to Edward I.
Lack of clear process as to how a new monarch should be chosen given that the succession was
unclear.
Reluctance of the Guardians to accept Edward’s demands for overlordship in return for his
intervention in the ‘Great Cause’.
Edward’s attempts to manipulate the process in order to extract and exert overlordship was his
priority, rather than the speedy appointment of a King.
Need to decide the composition of the Court of auditors.
Delay in hearing the decision of the Paris lawyers on which legal system to use.
13 competitors needed to have their claims recorded and heard.
Consideration of the claim of Robert Bruce, the Competitor, and others, including John Hastings.
The delay caused by the claim of Florence of Holland; Bruce’s machinations.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
FM Powicke
• argued that Edward acted with proper regard to Scotland’s traditions throughout the proceedings at
Norham and during the Great Cause.
Geoffrey Barrow
• views Edward’s involvement as designed to undermine Scottish independence, and that the lengthy
period of his sasine of royal castles strengthened his position. As a result Edward I was prepared to
tolerate the 10 month adjournment to investigate the ‘frivolous’ claim of Florence of Holland while
he consolidated his grip.
Caroline Bingham
• has been more inclined to accept the legitimacy of Bruce’s claim, in line with a more traditional
interpretation of the period, and thus views Edward’s role at Norham as an attempt to pervert the
system to favour his preferred candidate, John Balliol.
Michael Penman
• argues that Edward required sasine of royal castles in order to be able to enforce his judgment and
that this was only sensible
• sees the distinction between judgment and arbitration as critical in the case, therefore the lengthy
delay in order to acquire the judgment of the Paris lawyers was necessary.
Page 24
Question 3
How successfully did the Scots resist English occupation between 1296 and 1298?
The candidate is required to make a balanced judgement about the success of Scottish resistance
between 1296 and 1298. Candidates may define ‘success’ in a number of ways; whilst the English
occupation was not ended, nor Balliol restored, neither did the English establish the control which they
desired.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
Aspects of the English Occupation and the Scottish resistance
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Significance of the omission of Wallace from the ‘Ragman’s Roll’.
Failure of Cressingham to raise taxes by Spring of 1297.
Spontaneous nature of uprisings around the country.
Wallace’s murder of Heselrig.
Wallace’s raid on Scone.
Moray’s rising in the North.
Difficulties of the English occupation in establishing its authority; esp. north of the Forth.
Role of the nobility: Bruce’s defection to the ‘Scottish side’; the Comyns’ defiance of English rule;
the ‘surrender’ at Irvine.
Nature of Wallace’s support.
Battle of Stirling Bridge.
Achievements of Wallace’s guardianship: The Lubeck letter; appointment of Lamberton; raids on
northern England.
The effect of the Battle of Falkirk – not as decisive for either side as it first appeared.
The establishment of the Bruce/Comyn guardianship.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
Geoffrey Barrow
• sees the revolt of 1297/98 as part of a general continuation of Scottish resistance though ‘under new
leadership’ following the defeat at Dunbar
• sees the main success of the rebellion in strengthening a sense of ‘national’ identity: ‘the peasants
had, temporarily, gained their place in the Community of the Realm’
• questions the longer term significance of Wallace in comparison with the later career of King
Robert.
Andrew Fisher
• has argued that Wallace’s rebellion spurred the nobility into more active resistance, and that this
was the crucial success of the rebellion.
Michael Penman
• argues that Wallace may have been more successful had he been supported by the Balliol-Comyn
faction after Stirling Bridge
• criticises Wallace’s decision to fight at Falkirk.
Fiona Watson
• has argued that William Wallace’s campaigns showed the nobles what could be achieved when
‘unorthodox’ tactics were used
• emphasises the weakness of the English administration in 1296, arguing that Edward I had little real
control north of the Forth.
Ranald Nicholson
• argues that Wallace’s significance in promoting the ‘national’ cause outlasted his defeat.
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Question 4
How far do the actions of Robert the Bruce before 1306 undermine his reputation as a great
patriot?
The candidate is required to make a balanced judgement about whether or not Bruce’s actions before
1306 undermine his reputation as a great patriot.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
Evidence which supports the view that Bruce’s actions before 1306 undermine his reputation as a
great patriot
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Bruce’s family had a long tradition of supporting King Edward I of England.
The Bruce family never supported or fought for King John.
Bruce’s defection to the Scottish side in 1297 may simply have been to pursue his family’s dynastic
ambitions rather than to preserve Scottish independence.
Bruce’s support for the Scottish side was never very vigorous – he was present at the surrender at
Irvine in 1297.
Bruce’s joint guardianship with John Comyn (and later Lamberton) was short-lived and dominated
by factional infighting.
Bruce’s resignation from the Guardianship.
Bruce’s defection to the English in 1302; his concern at the prospect of a Balliol restoration.
Bruce’s willingness to serve under Edward I according to the terms of the Ordinance for Scotland
1305.
Evidence which contradicts the view that Bruce’s actions before 1306 undermine his reputation
as a great patriot
•
•
•
•
•
Bruce’s support for the Scottish cause from 1297.
He may have been present on the Scottish side at the Battle of Falkirk.
Bruce joined the guardianship in 1298, putting aside differences with Comyn.
Bruce’s defection to the English in 1302 may not have been genuine; concerned at the threat to his
own lands in Carrick.
The ‘Secret Band’.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
Geoffrey Barrow
• argues that Bruce’s actions demonstrate an underlying consistency in his support of the national
cause; his defection in 1302 to the English was not genuine.
Alan Young
• stresses the element of personal or dynastic ambition which drove Bruce and that his support of the
‘national’ cause was only when it suited his own interests.
Ranald Nicholson
• argues that “Bruce’s cause was Bruce”.
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Question 5
To what extent were King Robert’s skills in diplomacy and propaganda as important as his
military achievements in winning independence for Scotland?
Candidates are required to analyse and evaluate whether King Robert’s diplomacy and propaganda
contributed more to the achievement of Scottish independence than his military efforts. Candidates
may focus their answers on one aspect (diplomatic, propaganda or military) more than the others, but
are nonetheless required to come to a balanced conclusion.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
Diplomacy
• Bruce’s achievement of recognition from the King of France 1310
• Bruce’s response to his excommunication
• Robert’s refusal to see the Papal legate in 1319 without a recognition of his kingship
• The Declaration of Arbroath
• The truces of the 1320s
• The Treaty of Edinburgh/Northampton 1328
Propaganda
• The nature of Robert’s coronation
• The Declaration of the Clergy 1310
• Bruce’s speech and personal conduct at Bannockburn
Military conflict with the English
• Campaign against castles
• Raids on the North of England
• ‘Secret War’
• Battle of Bannockburn
• The Irish Campaign
• Campaigns in the 1320s
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
Geoffrey Barrow
• has emphasised the importance of Bruce’s diplomatic activity
• suggests that Bruce knew that victory was unlikely to come through military victory alone
• praises Robert I for his willingness to pay a high price for peace in 1328.
Michael Penman
• has argued that the Wars of Independence can be viewed largely as a Scottish civil war, and that
this was an important factor in the peace settlement. Diplomacy was therefore vital in winning
foreign recognition of his kingship.
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Question 6
“A period of prolonged crisis.” How accurate is this description of King Robert I’s government
of Scotland between 1314 and 1329?
Candidates are required to analyse and evaluate King Robert I’s government of Scotland between 1314
and 1329, in order to arrive at a balanced conclusion about whether or not the period can be described
as one of ‘prolonged crisis’.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
Evidence which supports the view that there was a ‘prolonged crisis’
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Statute of Cambuskenneth 1314 reveals continued opposition of some members of the nobility.
Persistent opposition of some churchmen.
Failure of the Irish campaign.
Impact of Bruce’s excommunication.
Debate over the significance of the Declaration of Arbroath.
The De Soules plot.
Instability in the succession arrangements, 1315, 1317, 1326.
Evidence which contradicts the view that there was a ‘period of prolonged crisis’
•
•
•
•
•
•
General acceptance of Bruce’s kingship affirmed by Parliament.
Noblemen continued to ‘come to Bruce’s peace’ throughout his reign.
Re-establishment of the machinery of government and of the Great Offices of State.
Support for King Robert from the Church despite his excommunication.
Legislation passed by Bruce’s parliaments.
The succession eventually secured in 1326 and approved by parliament.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
GWS Barrow
• has described Robert the Bruce’s government in very positive terms
• praises the resurrection of the machinery of government; esp. the work of Bernard de Linton
• argues that Bruce’s legislation was forward looking
• emphasises the continuing role of the ‘Community of the Realm’ in forging stable, national
government
• has tended to regard the De Soules plot as not being a serious challenge to Bruce’s supremacy.
Michael Penman
• argues that the De Soules plot represented a serious threat to Bruce and the survival of the
Comyn/Balliol faction
• argues that Bruce never had effective control of large parts of the country, especially in the west
• emphasises the disastrous nature of the campaign in Ireland.
Fiona Watson
• has argued that Bruce never overcame his origins as a ‘usurper’.
Page 28
Scottish Independence (1286-1329)
Part 2
Question 1
How useful is Source A for understanding the downfall of King John?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for the quality of their evaluation of the provenance of
the source.
The candidate may be awarded up to 2 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s value.
The candidate offers a structured evaluation of the usefulness of Source A as evidence of the downfall
of King John in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
An extract from King John’s letter of surrender to Edward I which would form the basis of later
caricatures of King John as weak and craven.
At this time Balliol was stripped of the symbols of kingship; an event which would later give rise to
the ‘Toom Tabard’ epithet.
Written at the time of the collapse of Scottish resistance following the sack of Berwick and the
defeat at Dunbar earlier in the year.
May reflect coercion on the part of King Edward I rather than the views of King John, or of the
‘Council of 12’.
Surrender may have taken place at Stracathro.
A document of surrender which was used by Edward I to vindicate his invasion of Scotland in
1296.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
•
King John’s admission of having received ‘bad advice’ and acting ‘foolishly’.
Breaking of homage and fealty to Edward I.
King John’s alliance with the French, 1295.
Reference to the Scottish attacks on England, 1296.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
John’s renunciation of homage may have been forced on him by the ‘Council of 12’.
Alliance with France was made in response to King Edward’s demand for military service in 1294.
King John had argued that his homage to Edward I had been extracted under coercion.
The surrender is a direct rebuttal of King John’s earlier renunciation of homage.
Scots had attacked northwest England in early 1296 – a Comyn led force besieged Carlisle Castle.
Edward had defeated a Scottish army at Dunbar/collapse of military resistance.
Points from recall which offer a wider contextualisation of the view in the source
The source does not mention:
• The disquiet of King John’s own nobles at his repeated humiliation by King Edward
• Reference to the Appeals cases heard in England
• Reluctance of Scottish nobles to fight for King Edward in France
• Continued factionalism within Scotland; lack of support from the Bruces
• Other weaknesses of John Balliol; he may have originally been intended for the Church.
Page 29
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
Geoffrey Barrow: argued that Balliol’s failure must be seen in the light of the strength and
determination of Edward I.
Fiona Watson: believes that historians have been overly influenced by later ‘propaganda’
accounts produced by ‘Brucean’ chroniclers.
Michael Penman: supports Watson’s revisionist view of Balliol.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source A is useful for understanding the reasons for the downfall of King
John.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate provenance
comments.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and little if any
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate
provenance comments.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate provenance comments and the interpretation is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the provenance of the source and the views in it. There is a solid grasp
of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Appropriate
reference to historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 30
Question 2
How fully does Source B illustrate the attitude of King Edward I towards Scotland between 1298
and 1306?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s fullness in explaining/analysing the issue.
The candidate offers a structured analysis of how fully Source B illustrates the attitude of King Edward
I towards Scotland in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
•
King Edward summoning the representatives of the Scottish Community.
Sheriffs may be Scottish or English.
Sheriffs to be appointed by King Edward.
Sheriffs to be appointed on basis of suitability and ability.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Ordinance was the first time since 1297 that King Edward had attempted to include the
Scottish Community of the Realm in the government of Scotland.
The Lieutenant of Scotland was to be John of Brittany.
The Ordinance itself made alterations to Scots law, including outlawing the use of Breton in official
documents.
Ordinance goes on to say that the Council to be made up of English and Scots.
King’s lieutenant to take the views of the Council to the King.
Aim to reform the laws of Scotland, subject to approval by the English King.
The Ordinance reduced the status of Scotland to a ‘land’, rather than a kingdom.
Points from recall which offer a wider contextualisation of the view in the source
The source does not mention:
• Edward’s attempts to subdue Scotland by force – the Battle of Falkirk 1298
• Subsequent English campaigns, 1299, 1300
• The nature of English ‘direct rule’
• Edward’s reluctance to accept the surrender of Stirling Castle in 1303; use of the ‘warwolf’
• The surrender of the Comyns at Strathord.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
Geoffrey Barrow: sees the Ordinance of Scotland as “mild and statesmanlike”.
Fiona Watson: regards the Ordinance for Scotland as a serious assault on the kingdom, reducing
its status to a ‘land’. She also sees the English occupation as having little real impact, especially
north of the Forth.
Michael Prestwich: has argued that the extent of Edward I’s military failure in Scotland between
1298 and 1306 has been exaggerated.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source B is helpful in illustrating the attitude of King Edward I towards
Scotland between 1298 and 1306.
Page 31
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate provenance
comments.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and little if any
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate
provenance comments.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate provenance comments and the interpretation is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the provenance of the source and the views in it. There is a solid grasp
of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Appropriate
reference to historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 32
Question 3
How much do Sources C and D reveal about differing views on the nature of support for King
Robert I during the Scottish Civil War 1306 and 1309?
(16 marks)
Interpretation (maximum 6 marks)
Candidates may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of each source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
Contextual and historical interpretations (maximum 10 marks)
These 10 marks will be awarded for:
•
•
•
•
the quality and depth of the contextual recall
the quality and depth of the wider perspectives
the range and quality of historians’ views
provenance comment (if appropriate).
The candidate considers the differing interpretations in Sources C and D, of the nature of support for
King Robert I during the Scottish Civil War 1306 − 1309, offering a structured critique in terms of:
Points from Source C
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
contemporary eye-witness and participant; as a supporter of Edward, he points up the threat of Bruce,
rather than down-playing it.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
•
•
A great deal of support for Bruce in 1307.
People believe Bruce will ‘carry all before him’.
‘False preachers’ spreading support for Bruce.
If Bruce can break away from the south west then he will find more supporters in the North.
Only more English troops will prevent support for Bruce growing.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
Bruce had weakened Edward’s support in the southwest since his return to the mainland at
Turnberry; evidence of ‘popular’ support in his own earldom of Carrick.
Bruce had attracted more support following the raid at Glen Trool, which may have provided more
cash to attract supporters.
Bruce did attract support from Ross as the source suggested he would; after defeating the Earl of
Ross, he became a staunch supporter of Bruce.
Bruce’s victory at Oldmeldrum helped to strengthen Bruce’s growing aura of invincibility.
The herschip of Buchan shows that Bruce was prepared to treat defeated enemies harshly.
Page 33
Points from Source D
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
Accurate comment on Colm MacNamee will be credited under historiography.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Earls of Athol, Menteith and Lennox, and the bishops of Moray and Glasgow were the most
prominent supporters of Bruce.
Support from James the Stewart.
Many lesser nobles supported Bruce, and became his close companions.
Many supported Bruce only through fear or intimidation.
Many aristocrats would not support Bruce.
Comyns and MacDougalls of Argyll wanted revenge for the murder of John Comyn.
The Earls of Dunbar and Strathearn were loyal to Edward I.
Most Scots considered resistance to Edward I as futile.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
Bishop Wishart of Glasgow had pardoned Bruce for the murder of Comyn and provided the robes
for his coronation.
James Stewart was a vassal of Robert the Bruce.
His close companions later included Thomas Randolph and James Douglas, as well as Keith and
Hay.
Bruce had to crush Comyn power in Buchan as well as defeat the MacDougalls of Argyll in order
to secure his position.
Bruce would be defeated by the MacDougalls at Dalry.
Bruce allowed the Earl of Strathearn’s son to inherit the earldom on condition that he support the
Bruce monarchy.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
Barrow: has argued that Bruce had the support of most Scots by 1309.
Penman: has shown that Bruce inspired ‘propaganda’ has exaggerated the level of support for
Bruce throughout his reign.
Watson: has argued that many of Bruce’s actions as King reveal his concern about the weakness
of his position and lack of support.
Young: has shown that the Comyn/Balliol faction remained active even after the defeat at
Oldmeldrum.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of the two sources is helpful in offering a full perspective on the nature of
support for King Robert I during the Scottish Civil War between 1306 and 1309.
Page 34
Marks
1-4
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the sources; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the sources. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
5-7
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the sources, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
8-11
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the sources, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp
of topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
12-16 The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the views of the sources and their value as interpretations on the issue.
There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant
analysis. Greater awareness and development of historical interpretations and/or historians’
views will be credited highly.
Page 35
The Renaissance in Italy in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries
Part 1
Each question is worth 25 marks
Question 1
To what extent did artistic developments in Florence in the first half of the fifteenth century
represent a break with the past?
The aim of the essay is to enable candidates to assess the extent to which the changes in the arts in
Florence in the first part of the fifteenth century were wholly new and to what extent there was
continuity with the past, or a development of earlier methods and subjects.
The candidates may use evidence such as:
What were the artistic developments?
•
•
•
Changes in artistic technique as exemplified by the work of Masaccio, Brunelleschi and Donatello.
The introduction or reintroduction of perspective, bronze casting, classical architecture and
composition.
The shift from the International Gothic to the early Renaissance style.
What was “a break with the past”?
•
•
•
•
•
Influence of humanism. Portraiture inspired by human individuality and worth.
Leonardo Bruni tried to provide a programme for Ghiberti’s Doors of Paradise.
Leon Battista Alberti took humanist ideas and codified them in his treatises on painting,
architecture and sculpture, giving a new humanist slant to artistic creativity.
Competition between guilds for status leading to new and exciting commissions, as seen in the
doors of the Baptistery, Orsanmichele and the Duomo.
Human realism said to arrive in art through innovations combining modelling by light with new
mathematical perspective to create a naturalism hitherto unseen. This is seen in frescoes by
Masaccio in the Brancacci Chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine.
What evidence is there of continuity or development of earlier methods and subjects?
•
•
•
•
•
Revival of style of classical antiquity as seen in the Ospedale delli Innocenti, San Lorenzo (like a
late Roman basilica) or the Pazzi Chapel.
Rediscovery of Vitruvius’ “On Architecture” in 1416.
Influence of Giotto, who died in 1337. His art was naturalistic and lifelike, grandiose and
monumental (Brucker).
Influence also of Cimabue, who predates the accepted dates for the beginning of the Renaissance by
one hundred years.
Brunelleschi and Donatello journeyed to Rome to study classical ruins. A desire to ape the
achievements of the classical world. Brunelleschi discovered the principles of classical buildings
and the “qualities of mind and spirit (Brucker) of classical artists”. Through his measurement of
columns, pediments and arches, he worked out the mathematical ratios used by Roman architects.
This was then applied in his Church of San Lorenzo (the Medici Chapel), Dome of the Cathedral
and the Pazzi Chapel in the Church of Santa Croce. Also in the Hospital of the Innocents, a loggia
constructed in a Roman style. Donatello produced statues of David and various prophets and saints
in a Roman style for the Duomo and Orsanmichele.
Page 36
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Margaret L. King: on impact of classical revival on the visual arts.
Evelyn Welch: on the importance of the guilds and on the artistic innovations of Masaccio and
Donatello.
Evelyn Welch: also argues that we should not be too rigid in seeking to define which works of art
show continuity or transition and which are wholly original. There are works which do not fit into
a neat pattern. Change in style and a continuity of purpose need equal consideration. Indeed, the
two were quite closely connected. There are examples of traditional iconography and styles, yet at
other times artists sought to startle the viewer and ask him to look anew at old stories.
Gene Brucker: on the open and tolerant cultural climate of Florence and the relatively low profile
of the church in the hierarchy of Florentine intellectual concerns.
Brucker: also comments that Giotto’s frescoes made a profound impact upon the revolutionary
generation of Florentine artists of the Quattrocento, who recovered Giotto’s sense of the
monumental, which had disappeared from the Florentine art of the preceding age.
Page 37
Question 2
How important was competition between the city states of Italy to the flowering of the arts during
the fifteenth century?
The aim of this essay is to give candidates the opportunity to demonstrate their knowledge of the city
states in Italy and to discuss the relative importance of competition between the city states in bringing
about the artistic Renaissance in the fifteenth century.
The candidates may use evidence such as:
Competition between city states
•
•
•
•
•
Economic rivalry between city states. The importance of the wealth accumulated in city states such
as Florence, Milan and Venice, which was channelled into artistic projects.
Political rivalry between city states. The many wars which were fought between the states in their
attempt to expand their influence and power.
Military struggles between city states involved the hiring of mercenaries, such as Federigo da
Montefeltro. He used his wealth to make Urbino a Renaissance court where the arts flourished.
Rivalry between city states such as Florence, Siena and Milan as to which was the most free, leading
to artistic projects and humanist treatises which tried to demonstrate that freedom.
Rivalry in claiming a classical inheritance as exemplified by Leonardo Bruni and civic humanism
in Florence.
Other factors which might explain the flowering of the arts
•
•
•
Artistic genius and inspiration. Individual artists who came up with something entirely new.
Consider Masaccio, Brunelleschi and Donatello.
Patronage. For example the personal sponsorship of Donatello by the Medici family. The role of
commission contracts. The extent to which patrons were creative partners in the process of cultural
development. Patronage by governments, guilds, lay confraternities, ecclesiastical and private
individuals such as Cosimo de’ Medici or Giovanni Rucellai. Cosimo served on boards like the
Opera del Duomo supervising the construction of the Cathedral and Orsanmichele as public
religious buildings. He also paid for the renovations to the Monastery of San Marco (building by
Michelozzo and frescoes by Fra Angelico), and the Church of San Lorenzo.
Artistic competition drove on the flowering of the arts. An example might be Brunelleschi and
Ghiberti competing for the commission for the North Doors of the Florentine Baptistry. Vasari
certainly saw the importance of such competition between artists.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Richard MacKenney’s: “Renaissances” in which he sees Florence trying to absorb the Roman
republican tradition but sees Venice as lacking a civic myth linking it with ancient Rome, at least
until 1527 and the sack of Rome.
Margaret L. King: who stresses the importance of a strong economy to the flowering of the
Renaissance in the city states.
Alison Brown: on ‘campanilismo’, the strong sense of belonging felt by citizens of Renaissance
cities and how this led to a desire to furnish the city with the finest art and public buildings.
Evelyn Welch: ‘Art in Renaissance Italy’
J.R Hale’s: “Renaissance Europe 1480-1520”
Page 38
Question 3
To what extent has the perception of women during the Renaissance been distorted by historians
focusing on a few exceptional examples?
The aim of this essay is to give candidates the opportunity to show what they know about the lives of
Italian women during the Renaissance and to debate whether or not historians’ perceptions about such
women are accurate. Candidates will be expected to show to whom the phrase ‘a few exceptional
examples’ might refer.
Candidates may use evidence such as:
What are historians’ perceptions of women during the Renaissance?
Role in the family
•
•
•
•
•
•
The view that Italian society was patriarchal and the role of women was largely domestic and
therefore their contribution to Renaissance society was marginal. This was especially the case
amongst unskilled and unmarried women, who had few occupations available to them beyond the
Church (as nuns), domestic service or prostitution.
Property descending through the male line reduced the influence of women in the family and
society.
Females needing either to marry or enter a convent.
The role of women in educating young children and hence influencing their values and behaviour.
For example Francesco Barbaro’s “On Wifely Duties” and Leon Battista Alberti’s “On the Family”.
Castiglione devoted one book of ‘The Courtier’ to the social role of women.
Growth of interest in women’s history may tell subsequent generations more about our
preoccupations than about women in the cultures of the Renaissance.
Political importance of women
•
•
The importance of political alliance being sealed through marriage, with the need for a dowry
which during a woman’s lifetime remained at the disposition of her husband.
Women were seen to possess the power of reason, which to Cicero was the vital factor
distinguishing man from the beasts. Hence Renaissance humanism raised the status of women.
‘A few exceptional examples’
•
•
•
Women who participated fully in the humanist movement include Isotta Nogarola of Verona, Laura
Cereta of Brescia, Cecilia Gonzaga, Vittoria Colonna and Cassandra Fedele of Venice.
Isabella d’Este, consort of Francesco Gonzaga of Mantua, became one of Italy’s most important
patrons, minutely prescribing the content of her artistic projects. Commissioned Andrea Mantegna
and Giovanni Bellini. Caterina Sforza was also an important patron.
Lucrezia Borgia was influential in politics.
Page 39
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Margaret L. King: who sees males more highly valued in the family than females. The role of
women was constrained by childbirth and rearing, social values and the church. It was very hard
for women to participate in the public sphere.
Leon Battista Alberti’s: views on the limited abilities and influence of women, contrasted with
Leonardo Bruni and Lauro Quirini who saw the importance of educating women.
Samuel Cohn: examines women in a range of contexts: city law courts, village communities,
property, and convent.
Richard MacKenney: and the debate over whether or not there was such a thing as a ‘Renaissance
woman’ to counterpoise ‘Renaissance man’.
Burckhardt: discussed the role of women in Renaissance societies in terms of ‘perfect equality’,
with emancipation ‘a matter of course’.
Catherine King: ‘Renaissance Women Patrons’ suggests that women’s exclusion from public life
meant that they usually had no direct influence on major secular projects but their interventions did
actively shape the religious life.
Joan Kelly: “Did Women have a Renaissance?” rejects Burckhardt’s view that women also had a
renaissance. She argues that women were disempowered by the Renaissance since their lives were
reduced to the home.
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Question 4
To what extent can Venice’s cultural achievements be explained by its geographic position?
The aim of this question is to allow candidates to demonstrate their knowledge of the cultural
achievements of Venice and the factors which best explain these achievements, paying particular
attention to the geographic position of the city.
Candidates may bring in evidence such as:
Venice’s cultural achievements
•
•
Venice became Europe’s leading producer of books, with the advent of a printing press in 1469.
Two presses dominated Italy, the Guinti and the Aldine Press.
The work of the Bellini family, Giorgione, Titian, Carpaccio, Tintoretto, the architect Sansovino,
Veronese.
“Geographic position”
•
•
•
•
•
Culture costs money, so to some extent a strong economy was a ‘sine qua non’ of the Venetian
Renaissance. Venetian wealth was built upon trade routes which stretched down the Adriatic coast,
through the Greek islands to Egypt and the Orient. Also to Constantinople and the Black Sea ports.
Venetian ships brought timber, grain and salt, fruit and cheap wine from the Mediterranean as well
as more exotic goods from the East, including spices and silk, cotton, drugs and jewels. These were
then re-exported from Venetian warehouses throughout Europe.
The geographic position gave a dominant position in Venetian politics to merchant families. Much
of the wealth generated by trade was directed into the account of private citizens rather than public
coffers. These individual fortunes financed much of the scholarly and artistic activity of the
Renaissance. The most important tax was the ‘decima’, a property tax, not a tax on trade.
Geographic position laid Venice open to the strong influence of Byzantine culture, especially in
church architecture.
Geographic position of Venice gave impetus to Hellenistic studies in the city following the fall of
Constantinople in 1453. Bessarion settled in Italy, bringing Greek manuscripts with him.
Translated Plato’s dialogues into Latin. In 1468 he left his collection of Greek manuscripts to the
library of St Mark in Venice, making the Greek world available to Venetian scholars.
Other possible explanations
•
•
•
•
The absence of Roman remains in Venice diminishing the cultural legacy of classical Rome.
The importance of the Jews to the Venetian economy, lending money and providing Christians with
a way around usury laws.
The political climate in Venice. The use of art as propaganda by the Signory.
Frescoes in the Doge’s Palace celebrated the heroic deeds of the republic.
Pageants immortalized on the walls of the Doge’s Palace.
The lack of classical heritage in Venice.
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Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
David Chambers: wrote that “the most vital organs of the empire were … warehouses, ships’
holds, barges and pack-horses”.
Carol Everhart Quillen: argues that Venetian humanism was influenced by its relationship with the
Greek East, the Aristotelian tradition sustained by the nearby university of Padua, and the
republic’s hereditary ruling nobility. The ties to Constantinople entailed regular intellectual contact
long before the fall of Constantinople in 1453 drove many Greek scholars to Italy.
Lauro Martines: argues that Venice invented a classical heritage. “Morally the Venetians needed
imperial Rome … and they used it for the purposes of subtle propaganda.” Much Venetian painting
of the Renaissance is a stage for the imagined architecture of imperial Rome.
J.H.Plumb: on the influence of Byzantium on Venetian culture
‘Art in Renaissance Italy’ by Evelyn Welch
Andrew Graham-Dixon: ‘Renaissance’
George Holmes: ‘Renaissance’.
Page 42
Question 5
How accurate is the image of court life presented in Castiglione’s “The Book of the Courtier”?
The aim of this question is to give the candidate the opportunity to demonstrate an understanding of the
image of court life as presented in Castiglione’s book, and then to argue the extent to which this image
was a true reflection of life in the courts of Renaissance Italy.
Candidates may bring in evidence such as:
The image of court life presented in “The Courtier”
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
‘The Book of the Courtier’ is a series of fictional conversations by courtiers of the Duke of Urbino
that take place in 1507. It presents an image of what it meant to be the ‘Perfect Courtier’ or ‘Court
Lady’.
Need for the courtier to be of noble birth.
Need to be accomplished in arms.
The practice of ‘sprezzatura’.
The need for an education in the humanities, in Latin and the vernacular.
The need to have a wide variety of accomplishments – to be the ‘Renaissance man’.
Courtly women to display a ‘soft and delicate tenderness’.
Emphasis on platonic love as opposed to sensual love.
Is Castiglione’s image of court life accurate for Urbino?
•
•
•
The ducal palace at Urbino as a paragon of courts. Federigo da Montefeltro’s study. Federigo’s
portrait with Guidobaldo, showing Federigo as the ‘Renaissance Man’, a fusion of the active and
contemplative life.
In Urbino the dependence of the court on mercenary activity, with shifting alliances placed the
focus on the arts of war not the arts of peace.
The “studiolo” is placed at the heart of Federigo’s palace, reflecting the important role of education.
Is Castiglione’s image accurate for other courts?
•
•
•
•
•
The preoccupation of the Gonzaga family with schooling their children resulted in the Vittorino da
Feltre Gymnasium which was highly sponsored and highly successful. This is consistent with the
importance which Castiglione attributes to education.
Castiglione places a high value on the role of women in court life. To some extent this is borne out by
the experience of women beyond Urbino, eg Isabella D’Este in Mantua.
The income of the Gonzaga family was largely based on their employment as condottieri.
The arts were highly valued in Mantua. Mategna was a court artist there. The city was rebuilt with
plans by Alberti. Isabella D’Este was an active patron, commissioning paintings.
No opportunity was missed to use the arts to stress the importance of the Gonzago family. See the
Camera Picta for example.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lauro Martines: sees princely courts as centre for the union between power and privileged
culture. “Arms and politics were fused together”. The Sforza, Este and Gonzaga lords were trained
in swordsmanship and mounted combat. “A serious effort was made to fire the children at court
with the learning of humanism; but horses, hunts, arms and luxurious display soon overwhelmed
books.” This is to some extent at odds with Castiglione’s image of gentility.
Margaret L.King: ‘The Renaissance in Europe’
Richard MacKenney: ‘Renaissances’
Eduardo Saccone: ‘The Portrait of the Courtier in Castiglione’
Mary Hollingsworth: ‘Patronage in Renaissance Italy’ considers the patronage of Federigo da
Montefeltro.
Denis Mack Smith: ‘Federigo da Montefeltro’
Alison Cole: ‘Art of the Renaissance Italian Courts’ sees court life as creating the idea of princely
magnificence, in keeping with Castiglione.
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Question 6
How great an impact did the French invasion of 1494 have on Florentine political, religious and
cultural life?
The aim of the question is to enable candidates to demonstrate their knowledge of the invasion of King
Charles VIII of France in 1494 and to assess the impact of this invasion on the political, religious and
cultural life of Florence.
Candidates may use evidence such as:
The political impact of the invasion
•
•
•
•
•
Flight of Piero de’ Medici from Florence, bringing to an end 60 years of Medici domination.
Medici expelled in a resurgence of republicanism.
Ease of conquest. Guicciardini denounced the invasion as the beginning of ‘years of wretchedness’.
Constitutional reform – establishment of a legislative body, the Great Council.
Pisa was given its liberty from Florence after 90 years. Florence’s defences were weakened by loss
of coastal fortresses.
Florentine economy weakened by insecurity of trade.
The religious and cultural impact
•
•
•
•
•
•
Savonarola established control in Florence from 1494 to 1498. Dominated the Signoria. Called for
moral reform (against gambling, drinking, dancing, sodomy), including adopting of more modest
fashions in dress.
The ‘Bonfire of the Vanities’. Artistic and scholarly work was destroyed.
Savonarola’s denunciation of Plato and Aristotle.
The Great Council commissioned frescoes for the Palazzo della Signoria by Leonardo and
Michelangelo, depicting Florentine victories in the battles of Anghiari and Cascina.
Removal of inscription ‘pater patriae’ from tomb of Cosimo de’ Medici.
Loss of Florentine self-confidence. Realisation that a city-state could not withstand the force of a
nation state.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
Gene A Brucker: ‘Renaissance Florence’
Savonarola: ‘Sermons on Zachariah’
Evelyn Welch: ‘Art in Renaissance Italy’ on the reversal in Medici fortune shown by the removal
of Donatello’s David and Judith and Holofernes from the Medici Palace and their being placed in
the main square as symbols of the triumph of republicanism.
Margaret L.King: ‘The Renaissance in Europe’
Page 44
The Renaissance in Italy in the Fifteenth and Early Sixteenth Centuries
Part 2
Question 1
How useful is Source A as evidence of the motives of Cosimo de’ Medici as a patron?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for the quality of their evaluation of the provenance of
the source.
The candidate may be awarded up to 2 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s value.
The candidate offers a structured consideration of the usefulness of Source A as evidence of the
motives of Cosimo de’ Medici in terms of:
Provenance:
•
•
•
Vespasiano do Bisticci (1421-98) was a bookseller and publisher in Florence and the Medici were
among his best customers. He knew Cosimo well and was writing in the days of Cosimo’s
grandson Lorenzo. This makes him a well-informed source, but one with a motive to overplay the
qualities and motives of Cosimo.
Vespasiano also procured important manuscripts for Federigo do Montefeltro, Duke of Urbino.
Cosimo employed Vespasiano to collect manuscripts, employing 45 scribes, copying 200 volumes
in 22 months. As such, Vespasiano was unlikely to condemn his own employer.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
The source implies that Cosimo was a generous patron because of guilt about the means by which
he had obtained his considerable fortune “not quite cleanly”.
Cosimo’s sense of guilt stemmed from his involvement in Florentine temporal affairs, which
troubled him and “all those who govern states and want to play the leading role”.
Cosimo feared the wrath of God, which could deprive him of his worldly goods.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
Cosimo as a banker and money lender may have felt his conscience pricked by the fact that moneylending with interest was contrary to the canon law of usury.
The monastery that Cosimo spent his wealth on was San Marco in Florence. He spent 40,000
florins on rebuilding the monastery, and establishing there one of the great libraries of Renaissance
Italy.
The pope who advised Cosimo was Pope Eugenius IV.
Page 45
Points from recall which offer a wider contextualisation of the view in the source.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Cosimo de’ Medici was the head of powerful and influential international bank. He dominated
Florentine politics and society, without an official title in the nominal republic.
Cosimo may have been motivated as a patron by other considerations also. The creation of his villa
in Florence or in the villas in Careggi and Cafaggiuolo may have been in part to enhance the
prestige and public profile of his family. He wished to create an impressive setting for prominent
guests, to create an image of Florentine wealth and taste. Guests included the German Emperor
Frederick III and the Byzantine Emperor John Paleologue.
Bolstering the image of the Medici family was a consistent aspect of Cosimo’s patronage. Benozzo
Gozzoli decorated the Medici chapel in the Medici Palace with a picture making the Medici the
equals of the Magi. In employing Filippo Brunelleschi and Donatello to design and decorate the
Medici family burial chapel in San Lorenzo Cosimo derived glory from associating with antiquity
as a patron of the arts and architecture.
Other gifts by Cosimo include 60,000 on the church of San Lorenzo and 70,000 on the Badia in
Fiesole. At Fiesole the carpets were bordered with ‘palle’, the Medicean coat of arms.
Leon Battista Alberti, that ‘universal man’ of the Renaissance, in building the Ruccellai palace
made self-glorification a duty, copying Cicero’s ‘De Officiis’.
Fra Angelico was financed by Cosimo to produce in the 1440s around fifty compositions in tempera and
fresco for San Marco, of which he himself was a member of the community.
Cosimo was an avid collector of manuscripts, employing 45 scribes, copying 200 volumes in 22 months.
He was a sponsor of humanists. In 1462 he gave Marsiglio Ficino a manuscript with all the 36 of
Plato’s Dialogues in Greek and provided him with a house.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Robert Hole: refers to Vespasiano as ‘the sycophantic bookseller’, ‘a born flatterer’.
Gene Brucker: believes that Christian society equated the practice of usury with damnation, and
the souls of manifest usurers were believed to be irretrievably lost. Hence Cosimo’s concerns and
charitable actions. He writes that ‘the artistic creations of medieval and Renaissance Florence are
the result, in large part, of the guilt feelings of the patriciate.
Brucker: refers to Vespasiano’s biography as ‘laudatory and uncritical, but it is an honest
evaluation of the man’.
Richard MacKenney: stresses that this gift was to the Dominican mendicant order. As such it
was not merely easing a bad conscience. Such an act involved countering the capital sins of pride
with humility, and avarice with liberality. This involved a ‘Christianisation of magnificence’.
Lauro Martines: suggests that Cosimo’s massive support for charitable causes roused fear and
envy. His actions seemed the stealthy movements of a tyrant, a threat to the controls of other old
families in the private chapels that had long belonged to their patronage.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source A is useful as evidence of the motives of Cosimo de’ Medici as a
patron.
Page 46
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate provenance
comments.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and little if any
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate
provenance comments.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate provenance comments and the interpretation is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the provenance of the source and the views in it. There is a solid grasp
of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Greater
awareness and development of historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be
credited highly.
Page 47
Question 2
How fully does Source B explain the values held by humanists in the fifteenth century? (12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s fullness in explaining/analysing the issue.
The candidate offers a structured evaluation of Source B as an adequate explanation of the values held
by humanists in the fifteenth century in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
accurate comment on Margaret L King will be credited under historiography.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
•
Humanists valued life in the city, as merchant, artisan and craftsman. It allowed man to exercise
his intellect.
Humanism was ‘lay’, that is, best expressed in this life and not in terms of an afterlife.
Humanists rejected the contemplative life, as espoused by the church.
Humanists favoured rhetoric over dialectic.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
Renaissance humanists sought to inspire Renaissance citizens with the civic virtues of the Roman
Republic. Coluccio Salutati and then Leonardo Bruni held the office of Chancellor of Florence.
These men made an important contribution to the development of Civic Humanism. Bruni wrote
his ‘Panegyric of the City of Florence’ in 1401.
Points from recall which offer a wider contextualisation of the view in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Humanists pursued the ‘studia humanitatis’: grammar, rhetoric, poetry, history and moral
philosophy. This contrasted with the liberal arts of the ancient and medieval world, with grammar,
arithmetic, geometry, astronomy and music.
‘Studia humanitatis’ sparked a new evaluation of the human being, an appreciation of the ‘dignitas
hominis’, the ‘dignity of man’.
Despite the lay aspect, human beings existed in a providential universe – one guided by God. The
humanist vision was still essentially Christian, but it was also classical. Salutati wrote that ‘If you
provide for and serve and strive for your family and your sons, your relatives and your friends, and
your state… you cannot fail to raise your heart to heavenly things and praise God.’ That is, it was
not necessary to become a monk to serve God.
Poggio Bracciolini, Chancellor of Florence, defends avarice as the force that makes man better the
world.
Lorenzo Valla rejected stoicism and advocated pleasure as the true good. He rejects self-denial,
characteristic of medieval monasticism.
Dialectic was seen as the necessary skill for philosophers in a university setting. Rhetoric was the
necessary skill for bureaucrats and amateurs in an urban setting where ideas circulated not just
among trained intellectuals, but between them and the active, important men who led the city.
Some humanists were clerics.
Some humanists (Petrarch) preferred the countryside and the solitary life.
The medieval ideal was a hermit or sage, whose contemplative life brought salvation to others. The
humanist ideal was a man of affairs, combining intellectual with practical insights, who could
therefore bring his knowledge of deep matters to bear upon the life of the community.
The source makes no mention of neoplatonism. Medieval humanists rediscovered the works of
Plato. Marsiglio Ficino translated the works of Plato into Latin. Also Pico della Mirandolla drew
from Plato the belief that human beings had a dual nature which combined body and soul, material
and spiritual. The concept of three kinds of love was also derived by neoplatonists from Plato.
Humanism brought about a revival of classical values, of scholarship and book-based learning.
This is shown by the new collections of libraries begun in the early fifteenth century.
Page 48
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
Hans Baron’s: thesis on Civic Humanism in ‘The Crisis of the Early Italian Renaissance’. He
identifies Bruni’s work as a defence of the republican liberty of Florence, written in response to the
imperialist aggression of the duke of Milan, Giangaleazzo Visconti. Florentines identified
themselves with the great republics of the ancient world, Athens and Rome.
Paul Oskar Kristeller: ‘Renaissance Thought and its Sources’.
John M. Najemy: argues that in the fifteenth century a grounding in classical languages and
literature offered the best preparation for the life of a citizen. He describes a symbiotic relationship
between humanism and civic life. This was an attractive alternative to traditional Christian
condemnations of worldliness.
Lauro Martines: writes that right through the fifteenth century humanists had to defend their
programme of study against the charge of its spreading pagan ideals and undermining Christianity.
Humanists praised the earthly city, praising politics, riches, worldly accomplishments and the
pursuit of glory. This elaborated a view of the world which flattered and validated the life of the
groups at the forefront of society and politics.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source B is helpful in offering a full explanation of the values held by
humanists in the fifteenth century.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument, showing
a clear understanding of the views of the source. There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider
context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Greater awareness and development of
historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 49
Question 3
How much do Sources C and D reveal about differing views on the exercise of political power in
Renaissance Italy?
(16 marks)
Interpretation (maximum 6 marks)
Candidates may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of each source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
Contextual and historical interpretations (maximum 10 marks)
These 10 marks will be awarded for:
•
•
•
•
the quality and depth of the contextual recall
the quality and depth of the wider perspectives
the range and quality of historians’ views
provenance comment (if appropriate).
The candidate considers the views in Sources C and D on the exercise of political power in
Renaissance Italy, and offers a structured evaluation of the two perspectives in terms of:
Source C
Provenance:
•
•
Niccolo Machiavelli (1469-1527). Secretary and Second Chancellor of the Florentine Republic.
Excluded from office on the return of the Medici in 1512. Flattering of Cesare Borgia’s actions in
the Papal States.
The Prince is a succinct manual for seizing and retaining power.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
To be successful, the Prince should appear kind and faithful, yet be capable of deceit and cruelty.
The Prince’s disposition should vary as his fortune varies.
By implication the ends justify the means.
Points from recall which develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
Debate as to whether or not the republican Machiavelli is to be taken at face value in The Prince. Is
the whole book to be interpreted as sarcastic?
Machiavelli is concerned with the success and stability of the state. To achieve this unpleasant
action may be necessary for reasons of state.
Machiavelli’s account takes an amoral stance.
The prince should possess ‘virtu’ (strength, boldness, speed, reason and ruthlessness). He must use
this force against the ‘unremitting malice of fortune’. Committing vicious acts is acceptable if they
yield security and prosperity. The good of the state is more important than moral considerations.
Page 50
Source D
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
accurate comment on Richard Mackenney will be credited under historiography.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
The Medici controlled Florence from behind the scenes, never exercising public office themselves.
They appeared to promote republicanism and neoplatonist concepts but actually undermined them.
The Medici shunned public displays of wealth but spent lavishly on private commissions.
Points from recall which develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Piero II fled Florence in 1494, after misjudging the French invasion of Charles VIII. He had been
concerned about Florentine trade with France and offered 200,000 ducats as a loan to fund the
French war effort. But the French war effort turned on Florence, conquering Pisa. He was guilty of
“political blunders”.
Cosimo, Piero I and Lorenzo had shown tact in the exercise of power, never allowing themselves to
appear too powerful. They effectively exercised princely rule in a republic. Piero II lacked their
judgment.
Cosimo was Florence’s leading citizen but only took office as head of state on three occasions for a
total of six months. He preferred to get his way through manipulation of the Signoria. His
supporters filled high public office. In 1458 Cosimo formed the Council of 100 to further his
control.
Vasari asserts that Cosimo rejected Brunelleschi’s design for a Medici palace as being too
ostentatious for a mere private citizen. This is consistent with Mackenney’s view.
Lorenzo was more visible as an influence. He played the key role in Florentine foreign policy.
Many Medici artistic commissions were for their private court, not for the general public. The
Medici Palace is outwardly relatively unostentatious.
Cosimo and Lorenzo de’ Medici promoted Neoplatonism, adapting the ideas of the philosopher to
their own times. Ficino’s academy at Careggi trained young boys in Plato’s ideas. Poliziano, a
neoplatonist, was tutor to Lorenzo’s children. Botticelli received commissions from the Medici and
depicted neoplatonist ideas in his art.
Points which offer wider contextualisation of the views in the sources
•
•
•
Both sources show the difference between appearances and reality. To maintain prosperity and
stability the Medici exerted great influence over Florentine politics but without directly seizing the
reins of power. To have done so might have provoked an uprising, which would have been in the
interests of neither the family nor the city-state. As such, the exercise of power by the Medici fits
into the model put forward by Machiavelli in Source C. However, Machiavelli is specifically
concerned with princes, whereas Mackenney describes the exercise of power in the Florentine
republic. The methods are the same but the authority to govern is different.
Neither source describes the exercise of power by the papacy. Theirs are specifically secular
interpretations.
Neither source focuses on the martial skills required of a successful ruler.
Page 51
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
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Robert Holt: sees Machiavelli as developing a secular code of political morality which challenged
the traditions of Christian political thought. Yet his ideas were as divorced from political reality as
those of other humanist scholars. Machiavelli had no argument with Christian morality in private
life. However, when applied to public life Christian morality was disastrous.
Gene Brucker: says Machiavelli saw human nature as selfish and egotistical, concerned
principally with its own interest. This rejected the Christian belief in man’s goodness and
perfectability. Fortune, rather than divine wrath, was a force which the successful ruler must learn
to ride. Machiavelli’s ideal form of political organization was the republic in which men were so
imbued with “virtu” that they would willingly sacrifice themselves for the state.
Felix Gilbert: (Machiavelli and Guicciardini) defines Machiavelli’s concept of “virtu”: “the
fundamental quality of man which enables him to achieve great works and deeds; an innate quality
opposed to external circumstances and chance.”
Mackenney: argues that Cosimo deliberately avoided ostentation in the design of the exterior of
the Medici Palace. It is possible to walk past without noticing it. Yet the inner courtyard compares
with the magnificence of the princely palace at Urbino. Benozzo Gozzoli’s Journey of the Magi
was placed in the tiny chapel in the palace, away from public view.
Lauro Martines: (Scourge and Fire) describes the rule of the early Medici as “veiled dominance”,
enabling them to enjoy a stolen carte blanche for their illegal activity, although in law, as Pope
Sixtus IV reminded Lorenzo, the Medici were no more than mere citizens of the Florentine
commune.
Margaret L. King: describes how Cosimo was the unofficial master of Florence. The machinery
of government was left in place; he exercised power covertly. Medici loyalists scrutinized the lists
of names of eligible voters and removed those of opponents. The men who ran Florence were
linked to the Medici by innumerable ties of friendship, kinship, and patronage. Cosimo is described
as “self-effacing”. Lorenzo’s enjoyed “dictatorial rule”.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of the two sources is helpful in offering a full perspective on the exercise of
political power in Renaissance Italy.
Marks
1-4
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the sources; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the sources. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
5-7
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the sources, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
8-11
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the sources, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp
of topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
12-16 The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the views of the sources and their value as interpretations on the issue.
There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant
analysis. Greater awareness and development of historical interpretations and/or historians’
views will be credited highly.
Page 52
France in the Age of Louis XIV
Part 1
Each question is worth 25 marks
Question 1
“When Colbert died, there was little to show for all his efforts.” To what extent is this an
accurate assessment of Colbert’s achievements?
The aim of the essay is to examine critically the achievements of Louis XIV’s most celebrated minister,
considering whether the initiatives he pursued in the key areas of royal finance and the economy made a
real and lasting difference to France; whether in fact his achievements in other areas such as the
promotion of learning and the arts had more lasting significance.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
“All his efforts”
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Historians traditionally very impressed by Colbert’s ideas and efforts.
He worked phenomenally hard, as evidenced by his copious surviving correspondence as well as
contemporary accounts. Addicted to micro-management of all areas of his remit.
Handed a wide range of responsibilities by the king: finance, the economy, buildings, the navy,
arts and learning, promotion of the royal image.
Failure to achieve
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Found no long-term solution to problem of royal debt, only a temporary reduction for a while.
Failed to reform the wasteful and unfair tax system: merely attempted to make it work more
efficiently.
France’s economy continued to lag behind England and United Provinces, in spite of Colbert’s
vigorous efforts to stimulate industry and trade.
Trade expansion hampered by the tariff barriers he adopted, and by war he supported.
Trading companies he founded struggled after his death.
Lasting successes
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Surplus in national budget achieved by 1672 made possible Louis’ expenditure on war and
magnificence.
Royal patronage of French manufacturers helped them become a by-word for luxury goods.
His efforts to develop France’s colonial interests very important for development of French
Canada.
Expansion of French merchant fleet a significant success.
Transport schemes improved communications in France, especially canal-building.
Gave France a serious fighting navy, provided the money for much expanded army.
Supervised and financed Louis’ ambitious royal building programme.
Set up a series of academies to promote art and learning.
Used the above successfully to promote the image of the king.
Conclusion
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His main objective not to reform France but to serve the king by promoting his wealth and
magnificence, and providing him with the means to achieve gloire both at home and abroad.
Colbert wasn’t a free agent: had to follow Louis’ own priorities − Louis uninterested in economic
details.
Aware of impossibility of overcoming entrenched interests that would oppose attempts at radical
reform.
Dutch War at the root of abandonment of many of his schemes; yet a war Colbert welcomed.
Ruined his attempt to balance the books, yet it was the very thing he had been raising money for.
Page 53
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
Historians disagree whether Colbert was a radical reformer let down by the failure of others, or a
conventional thinker who was in part the author of his own failure.
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Judge: his achievements monumental, his efforts heroic.
Treasure: boldness of his initiatives admirable, his economic imperialism commands respect for
its range and vision.
Wilkinson: his achievements are to be respected; at his most impressive in context of state
finance.
Briggs: no other minister to end of ancien regime achieved so much in the way of practical
reform; but changes all limited to making existing system work more efficiently. In trade,
however, prisoner of a whole set of crippling misapprehensions.
Sturdy: Colbert’s initiatives governed chiefly by demands of state power. Academies he
encouraged were innovative, imaginative and creative, and helped French cultural life to flourish.
The traditional view of Colbert the great reformer has been replaced by a much more critical
assessment of his performance (Briggs, Pennington, Goubert) particularly in his management of
trade and the economy.
Meuvret: “solutions could never be more than expedients”.
Sturdy: “short term responses to the fiscal exigencies of the state”.
Shennan: Colbert a gifted official whose fundamental concern was to buttress the power and
reputation of Louis and his state, committed to preparing the state for war; must be judged
according to the priorities which he and the king accepted as natural, not those of later generations.
Annales: historians, like Goubert, stress the very unfavourable context for economic
development facing Colbert.
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Question 2
To what extent did Louis XIV pursue a consistent policy towards the Catholic church?
The candidate is invited to examine Louis XIV’s dealings with France’s established Catholic church,
and the wider Catholic world led by the Pope. Historians have identified major inconsistency in the
king’s policies as he attempted to fulfil his role as the key player in France’s religious life.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
Principles underlying Louis’ approach to religious affairs
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As king by Divine Right, responsible to God for religious affairs within his kingdom.
So it was essential to have Gallican Church under royal control.
Upheld tradition of Gallican independence: Pope, while respected as head of whole church, should
not interfere in Gallican Church.
The king’s responsibility to deal with disorder and disunity within the Gallican Church.
Aspired to be Europe’s leading Catholic monarch.
Louis’ quarrel with the Papacy
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Showed early determination not to kow-tow to Pope in 1662 over spat between French embassy and
Vatican’s Corsican Guards.
Louis’ unilateral decision to extend regale to whole kingdom launched a serious and lengthy
dispute with the Papacy, in which he was supported by almost all France’s bishops.
In this dispute, Louis wholeheartedly promoted principle of the independence of the Gallican
Church from Papal interference, and attacked pre-eminence of the Pope within the Catholic church
as a whole.
The crisis escalated when Louis seized papal Avignon and Innocent XI excommunicated Louis.
In the end, Louis forced to compromise, but essentially secured his objectives over the regale.
Louis’ attack on Jansenism
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Louis pursued a sustained campaign against the Jansenist group within the French church.
Reasons for Louis’ suspicion and dislike of Jansenists: influence of Jesuits, alleged Fronde
associations, high moral tone, puritanism of group, on-going controversy about their beliefs.
Louis’ initiatives to get Pope to condemn Jansenists, inconsistent with support for Gallican
independence from Rome; treatment of Port-Royal.
King’s Jansenist policy stimulated controversy within French church. Jansenist sympathisers
survived into 18th century as critics of French monarchy.
Further turmoil within church due to Louis’ attack on ultra-spiritual Quietists; Bossuet v. Fenelon.
Conclusion
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Louis’ policy towards the Catholic church contained major inconsistencies. He sought the help of
authority outwith the Gallican church to deal with the Jansenists and Quietists, while denying the
Pope’s authority within the Gallican church over the regale issue. Even France’s leading
churchmen, royal appointees to a man, had difficulty going along with this inconsistency. Louis’
appeals to Rome led to a major church revolt in 1714 over the Unigenitus bull that continued to
simmer after his death.
Louis’ policies in fact tended to promote the very disunity within French church that he desired to
prevent.
His quarrels with the Pope also sabotaged his hopes of recognition as Europe’s Most Christian
King.
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Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
• Beik: Louis antagonised the ecclesiastical establishment by allowing Pope to dictate to French
church in anti-Jansenist Bulls; Louis came full circle from allying with the French church against the
Pope and the Jansenists to allying with the Pope against the Jansenists and the French church, so
antagonising many influential people who began to question king’s religious role.
• Briggs: Louis’ inept and heavy-handed policy towards the Papacy caused him serious diplomatic
problems in European affairs.
• Campbell: issues faced by Louis XIV predated his reign and reflected longer-term problems. A
mistake for Louis to encourage Jansenist persecution and side with Jesuits.
• Sturdy: comments on Louis’ ‘obsessive orthodoxy’, his tendency, encouraged by factions around
him, to attempt crude simplistic solutions to very complex religious controversies. Louis turned
Jansenism into a cause which attracted much sympathy.
• Ogg: triumph of orthodoxy not won cheaply; suppression of Jansenism had repercussions on
French thought; loss of popular esteem for monarchy because of association with Jesuits.
• Shennan: Louis anxious to leave a kingdom united in doctrinal purity to facilitate his own
salvation. As anxious to prevent theological divisions as civil disturbance. But approach
insensitive.
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Question 3
How far is it true to say that Louis XIV reduced the French nobility to “mere adulators, absorbed
in the ceremonial trappings of court life”?
The candidate is invited to examine critically the traditional view of Louis XIV’s effect upon the French
nobility: that he deliberately ‘domesticated’ them, turning them from powerful political players into
fawning courtiers enmeshed in the web of court ceremonial at Versailles.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
The traditional view
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Until 17th century, France’s noble families had dominated political life both at centre and in
provinces.
This had created problems for the monarchy, with serious noble-led revolts during the Wars of
Religion, the minority of Louis XIII, more recently in the Fronde.
Louis therefore determined to strip them of political power, banning them from his councils and
administration, and eroding their provincial power bases, the estates and parlements.
Enticed nobles to Versailles by creating glamorous environment with exclusive access to royal
patronage.
There he manipulated them into submission by creating an elaborate ceremonial life to participate
in which became the summit of noble ambitions.
Evidence to support the traditional view
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Saint Simon lamented the ruination of nobility, the loss of their status and power. Rails against the
bourgeois ministers and officials who replaced them, the king’s ‘natural’ advisers.
His and other contemporary accounts of court ceremonial suggest the court nobles became obsessed
with trivial matters of honours and precedence, dependent on the king’s whims and favours.
Court life certainly ruinously expensive: many court nobles dependent on king’s generosity for
survival.
Only court nobles could expect royal patronage; failure to attend court meant social suicide.
Colbert’s investigation of tax exemption questioned noble status of many ancient poor families,
resulting in exclusion from Second Estate: such treatment seemed to undermine existence of the
whole class.
Traditional dominance of provincial government by nobility undermined by loss of governorships,
interference from intendants, weakening of provincial estates.
Evidence that contradicts the traditional view
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Second Estate not a homogeneous class: many ranks and conditions within nobility. The court
nobles a group apart, just 5% of noble class. The sword nobles included poor provincials of ancient
line. The robe nobles were recent arrivals in the aristocracy, but growing in importance.
The ‘bourgeois’ ministers favoured by Louis over the ‘nobles’ were in fact from the robe nobility,
and enjoyed same privileges as sword nobles, if not quite the same rank.
Robe nobility arguably flourished under Louis XIV. For them, the road to advancement and riches
wide open through active service to the crown, rather than participation in court ceremonial.
France’s traditional nobles in fact retained their dominance in many areas of national life − Church,
army, diplomatic service, as well as provincial affairs.
France’s judicial and bureaucratic establishment dominated by the robe nobility.
Difficulties faced by noble class under Louis tended to be because of financial pressures rather than
Louis’ policies. Inflation had eaten into incomes from estates; expected career in army involved
heavy expenses; spending trends made fashionable at Versailles spread to put pressure on the wider
nobility.
Page 57
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Levron: Louis successfully domesticated his nobles.
Ogg: through his court, Louis completed the atrophy of the French nobility.
Kettering: Versailles undermined great nobles’ regional power by reducing their client networks.
Beik disagrees: stresses importance for nobility of maintaining regional influence through
network of personal connections, and range of positions available to them in provinces.
Bohanan: criticises historians’ excessive emphasis on Versailles in this debate.
Judge: Versailles misrepresented as a contrivance to demoralise the nobility.
Campbell: court system one of mutual benefits, rather than triumph of king over nobility.
Sturdy: Louis’ values strictly traditional, for him inconceivable that social status of nobility be
diminished. Wished to revitalise the nobility.
Mousnier: Louis initiated a profound change in French social hierarchy: to nobility of birth or
office he added a nobility of talent. Began to undermine foundations of the social order when he
made payment of 20 livres capitation a qualification for noble status. France began to change from
a society of orders to a society of classes.
Treasure: adaptability of the noble class contributed significantly to stability of Louis’ regime.
Suggests the distinction between sword and robe nobles weakening.
Wilkinson: Louis a great snob − last thing he wanted was to undermine prestige of the nobility.
Welcomed their co-operation in highest echelons of church and state.
Briggs: Louis’s attitude to nobility ambivalent − saw them as both a prop and a potential threat.
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Question 4
How successfully did Louis XIV’s government use the arts to promote the image of monarchy?
Candidate is invited to examine the deliberate promotion of the king’s image through architecture,
painting, sculpture and literature, and to assess how far this propaganda campaign was successful.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
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Louis XIV’s government from the outset realised the value of the arts for projecting the desired
image of Louis XIV to France and the wider world.
This was not just vanity: vital if young king hoped to assert and maintain his authority.
Key figures in this promotion campaign were Colbert and later Louvois.
Colbert and cultural advisors like Perrault, Chapelain, Le Brun, devised a deliberate plan to
celebrate Louis’s image and achievements through statues, medals, triumphal arches, paintings,
tapestries. Classical style of ancient Rome adopted as most appropriate for the purpose.
Equestrian statues of Louis were erected in cities all over France.
Medals were issued to commemorate his victorious campaigns.
Triumphal arches straddled major thoroughfares in Paris, sending a powerful message about the
grandeur of the king.
Academies of Architecture, Painting and Sculpture were established to provide artists of high
quality to embellish court life.
Versailles the ultimate example of promotion of the royal image through the arts:
its massive scale and lavish decoration with sumptuous materials, marble and gilt
emblem of the Sun King throughout house and grounds, theme of Apollo
heroic images of Louis in bas reliefs
use of frescoes, tapestries to celebrate Louis’ victories
whole iconography of palace, angled towards the rising and setting sun, with king’s apartments at
the very centre, celebrated the Sun King.
Use of literary patronage to get Louis a good press: Colbert got Chapelain to give him list of
writers and scholars, both French and foreign, to receive grants in return for recording Louis’
virtues in print.
The playwright Racine a favourite court propagandist, and taken on campaign as official historian.
Louis’ own memoirs promote an idealised and very influential image of his kingship.
Use of censorship and state control of printing press to block publication (not always successfully)
of writings that harmed the royal image.
Use of court ballets to glorify king’s heroic image led to creation of Academy of Dance.
Conclusion
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Hard to assess impact of campaign on a nation that already respected monarchy. That attitude
undoubtedly reinforced by public reminders of the king’s glory and achievements.
Much of the cultural propaganda only accessible to the elite. But they were the ones that really
mattered. Control of literature affected ideas of monarchy and power, but not for the illiterate
masses.
Versailles had a great impact on those who visited: courtiers lived and breathed Louis XIV,
foreigners massively impressed. Versailles has effectively preserved Louis’ image down to today.
Page 59
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Burke: artists, architects, musicians, writers methodically recruited to glorify France and Louis.
Louis’ cultural propaganda campaign directed at 3 audiences − Frenchmen, foreigners, posterity.
Colbert’s death a watershed in campaign to ‘fabricate’ Louis’ image, with Louvois adopting a
more aggressive style of glorification of monarch.
Beik: one of Louis XIV’s great successes to leave the image of grandeur and order we still
remember today. Modern histories still reflect what Louis wanted us to think about. Louis’
reputation planned from the start. Talks of Chapelain’s ‘advertising campaign’ for the king
starting as early as 1662.
Smith: public display of the monarch against an appropriate backdrop had a crucial role to play in
political processes.
Briggs: architecture produced palaces that were ‘soulless temples to the cult of monarchy’.
Treasure: Colbert tried to create a civil service of the arts to provide a running commentary on
the glories of the reign.
Wilkinson: flowering of French creative spirit a forced growth, whose purpose was glorifying
France and putting across a flattering image of Louis XIV’s style of kingship. Refers to the
sophistication and effectiveness of the government-inspired Versailles media industry. Its chief
target the aristocracy. The chief contribution of Versailles to the social stability of the reign was
propaganda. But Louis’ media offensive did little to offset his growing unpopularity with the poor.
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Question 5
How far can it be argued that Louis XIV’s foreign policy was “provocative and insensitive”?
This essay should attempt a balanced evaluation of Louis XIV’s foreign policy, considering whether it
was his arrogance and aggression that caused repeated conflicts in Europe during his reign.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
Louis’ attitude to foreign policy
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Foreign affairs Louis’ main interest and concern.
Saw warfare as an intrinsic part of the king’s role, the prime means by which ‘gloire’ could be
achieved.
Concerned to promote the interests and security of France, through peaceful or warlike means.
Enjoyed campaigning in person with his troops, especially sieges.
Surrounded by nobles and ministers who shared his views about the glory of war.
Tempted to aggression by possession of a powerful army, by weakened state of rivals.
Arguments to support view that Louis’ foreign policy provocative and insensitive
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Early example of insensitive aggression over perceived slights to embassies in London and Vatican.
Claiming Spanish Netherlands for wife on basis of dubious devolution law (1665) was provocative
rather than legal, yet used as excuse for invasion.
Landed France in a long and increasingly complex war against Dutch and a growing number of
allies, largely because of his dislike of the Dutch, France’s traditional ally.
Reunions of 1679-85 insensitive to German opinion, provoking eventual backlash in League of
Augsburg. Louis again the aggressor in war that followed.
Louis’ insensitive actions after grandson inherited Spanish throne provoked the very war he had
bent over backwards to prevent.
His insensitivity to others’ viewpoints and reactions progressively alienated old allies and built up
coalitions against him. Came to be regarded as a threat to security of rest of Western Europe.
Arguments that contradict this view of Louis’ policy
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Louis had sound reasons for a proactive foreign policy.
Duty to seize every opportunity to lessen threat from Spanish Habsburgs whose lands encircled
France.
Hence Devolution War, where he quickly reached a compromise, and restored some conquests.
Also behind attack on Dutch, who would inevitably oppose French acquisition of Spanish
Netherlands.
Acquisition of provinces to east of France through reunions significantly strengthened French
frontier with Empire, so increasing security.
Louis’ 1688 invasion of Empire merely pre-empted an inevitable attack on France.
Louis tried hard during Spanish Succession crisis to achieve peaceful settlement with former
enemies, willing to sacrifice much that his family stood to gain by signing Partition Treaties.
Great War would have ended sooner had enemies been prepared to accept Louis’ generous peace
terms.
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Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Revisionist historians like Bluche and Hatton reject traditional knee-jerk condemnation of Louis’
foreign policy. They highlight the defensive nature of Louis’ foreign policy.
Bluche: Louis’ contemporaries more ready to go to war than he was. Dutch War not gratuitous
aggression but ‘the inevitable conflict’. Praises Louis for his moderation in 1697 peace.
Mousnier: Louis obliged by society he lived in to seek glory to assure his power: true glory only
to be gained by victory in war. War a necessity to his nobles. External situation impelled Louis to
policy of preventive war.
Treasure: Death of Lionne in 1671 removed only minister capable of resisting Louis. Thereafter
Louvois, also out for glory, encouraged Louis’ aggressive tendencies. Mood in early days of
Versailles militaristic and triumphalist: encouraged king to see foreign policy in exclusively
French terms, ignoring possibility of hostile reaction. In provoking war in 1702, Louis had not
behaved with reckless arrogance, but with that mixture of sagacity and naivety, moderation and
rashness, principle and opportunism which makes Louis’ statecraft so hard to judge.
Shennan: Louis’ chief concern to maintain the security of his state. Shared contemporary concept
of family honour and reputation which bound king to aim for a glorious inheritance for his
successors. But thin dividing line between defensive needs of a regime threatened by powerful
neighbours and the offensive posturing of a state determined to establish its security on the
soundest footing.
Sturdy: Louis’ approach abounds in inconsistencies, expressing a yearning for peace with an
assiduous pursuit of warfare for its own sake. Louis just one contestant in the rough house of
European international relations.
Briggs: Louis showed an obsessive concern for the prestige of his dynasty. Frenetic
aggressiveness towards France’s neighbours made a calamitous impression on Europe. Most of his
wars seem almost gratuitous. Louis devoid of essential ability for statesman, capacity to put
himself in his opponent’s shoes.
Wilkinson: legitimate ambition to make his mark in Europe degenerated into wish to show off
and achieve cheap triumphs at others’ expense. Ruthlessly exploited weakness of his opponents.
Never grasped the impact his actions had on others, consistently failed to anticipate reactions of
fellow monarchs or international public opinion.
Page 62
Question 6
To what extent does the evidence support the view that “for most of his subjects the reign of the
Sun King was an epoch of hardship, often of despair and untimely death”?
The candidate is being invited to consider critically the view that, under a monarchy famous for
splendour and lavishness, the ordinary Frenchman − mostly peasants − struggled to survive.
Relevant areas for discussion might include:
“Most of his subjects...”
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Majority of French (75-80%) belonged to peasant class, living and working in countryside. Just
10% of working class in industry, town-based.
Within peasant class, a range of ranks and conditions, from laboureur elite to share-croppers and
wage workers. But number of independent peasant proprietors falling.
France a massively unequal class-ridden society.
“Hardship” − long-term factors
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French agriculture backward: lack of improvement, investment, limited markets, restricted money
supply.
Most peasants had too little land to feed family, plus pay dues to landlord, church and state.
Peasantry bore unequal share of national tax burden.
Poor harvest would push many into debt, then loss of land.
France arguably over-populated: its agricultural surplus shrank in 17th century.
Rural sector experienced serious problems of cyclical inflation and depression.
Depression in the countryside had adverse effect on workers in town in various ways.
Typical peasant diet, largely bread, little meat or milk, lacked protein.
Peasant homes, furnishings, possessions primitive.
Ample evidence of peasant hardship from Le Nain paintings, writings of Boisguillebert, La
Bruyere, observations of travellers John Locke, Gilbert Burnet.
“Hardship” − short-term factors
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Adverse weather conditions: “little ice age” of 17th century caused periodic severe harvest failures,
notably in 1660s and 1690s. Frost of 1708-9 winter a catastrophe.
Increased tax demands (up perhaps 50%) to meet needs of war: pushed peasants to limit.
Cost of billeting Louis’ troops.
Great bovine epidemic of 1714.
Vauban estimated 10% of French reduced to begging by 1700.
“Sudden death”
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Average life expectancy about 25; even lower in large towns (23 in Paris).
Half of babies died in first year.
Famines after harvest failure killed large numbers: 10% of population after 1693-4 famine.
High incidence of disease, due to malnutrition, poor hygiene, contaminated water.
Plague still endemic (Paris 1668), smallpox, fevers all sudden killers.
Dangers of childbirth for mother and child; abortion, infanticide, abandonment of babies
commonplace.
Evidence qualifying bleak view of hardship of ordinary life
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More prosperous laboureurs lived in some comfort in substantial homes.
Great regional variations in condition of peasantry: those in pays d’etat who paid taille reelle much
better off; climate, soil, resources more advantageous in some parts.
Many years saw abundant harvests (though fall in cereal prices could hit farmers’ incomes).
More fortunate peasants able to rise by lending money, renting equipment to poorer neighbours,
then acquiring their land when they defaulted (Goubert’s study of Beauvaisis).
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Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Suffering of ordinary Frenchmen under Louis XIV tended to be blamed on Louis’ policies,
particularly taxation to meet needs of war. Economic historians now however lay stress rather on
long-term structural factors, as well as natural disasters.
Historians now aware France’s economy very regionalised. Some areas bucked the trend, picking
up from 1690s. Famine crises also very localised.
Treasure: rural France in 1700 poorer than in 1600.
Mousnier: natural calamities of Louis’ reign cumulative in effect of causing increased distress to
the rural population.
Goubert: Louis’ wars and economic mismanagement had ruinous social consequences. His reign
can only be deemed ‘glorious’ by disregarding the distress of the mass of his subjects.
Wilkinson: warns against exaggerating wretchedness of peasant life under Louis XIV, but sees
evidence for describing France as a ‘great poorhouse’, the main reason being taxation for war.
Meuvret: points out that much industrial work had rural roots and that most artisans did not form
a separate class from peasants; generally combined both activities.
Briggs: blames natural factors for the sufferings of the French people, rather than the policies of
Louis XIV. But also talks of the pauperisation of the peasantry, and the parasitic exploitation of
the peasantry by state, church, landlords and bureaucrats alike. Sees royal taxation as having a
brutal impact, and suggests there is massive evidence of transfer of wealth at this time from rural
world to privileged minorities [perhaps 20%]. Deepening recession in almost all France 1660s1690s
Page 64
France in the Age of Louis XIV
Part 2
Question 1
How useful is Source A as evidence of the ‘revolution’ in French government that took place in
1661?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for the quality of their evaluation of the provenance of
the source.
The candidate may be awarded up to 2 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s value.
Source A
The candidate offers a structured consideration of the usefulness of Source A as evidence of the
‘revolution’ in French government that took place in 1661 in terms of:
Provenance: Louis XIV compiled personal memoirs in the 1660s, for the instruction of the young
Dauphin. These had a didactic purpose: identified the principles by which Louis governed as a lesson
in kingship for his son. Though Louis’ notes were edited by others, he vetted their work, so the
Memoirs can be regarded as a reliable expression of Louis’ thoughts.
Points from the source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
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Louis explains his decision to rule in person without a prime minister; sees personal monarchy as
an essential prerequisite for worthy kingship.
Royal control will be achieved by division of functions among his ministers, none of whom will
have overall responsibility.
His ministers have been chosen for their abilities, not their rank.
Men of lesser rank in no position to undermine king’s authority; all will know king is in charge.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
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Louis took this momentous decision in 1661 on death of first minister Mazarin, acting on latter’s
advice.
A radical departure from recent norm: first ministers had run French government for almost 40
years. Louis XIII content to leave Cardinal Richelieu in charge, Mazarin had managed the
government during Louis XIV’s long minority.
Louis’ decision took ministerial team by surprise. Hot money had been on Fouquet to succeed
Mazarin: Louis underlined his new authority by destroying Fouquet.
Officials expected Louis to soon tire of burdensome task of government; but Louis kept effective
control till his death, ever sensitive to challenges to his authority.
But aware he needed talented men to assist him. Inherited a good team from Mazarin. Lionne a
skilled diplomat, Le Tellier rebuilt the army; Colbert chosen by Louis and given many areas of
responsibility − but never overall control.
Louis deliberately excluded traditional sword nobility from inner government circles. Relied on
men from less eminent families, the robe nobility.
Ruled through a small network of councils which he alone controlled.
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Points from recall which offer a wider contextualisation of the views in the source
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Significant change after 1661 identified in several aspects of central government − not just in
radical switch in balance between king and ministers: also use of small councils, exclusion of
Chancellor from government, restrictions on Parlements.
Louis’ determination not to share power affected power bases away from the centre too − provincial
estates, town councils subjected to his will.
His formidable work ethic enabled him to achieve his Memoirs’ stated aims to a remarkable degree
throughout his reign.
But inevitably dependent on others for information and implementation: Saint-Simon suggests that
while Louis fiercely jealous of his authority, his ministers manipulated him skilfully.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Historians debate the nature of ‘the 1661 revolution’. French scholars like Lavisse and Mousnier:
identified a range of ‘revolutionary’ developments; non-French writers less convinced, stressing
what was conservative in Louis’ approach to government.
Sturdy: questions the use of the anachronistic term ‘revolution’. Argues that Louis inherited the
central councils, retained existing personnel, gave nobility responsibilities he thought appropriate,
in fact raised his ministers to the highest noble rank. Suggests Louis looking to the past in restoring
personal monarchy.
Mettam: and others talk of government ‘reorganisation’ rather than ‘revolution’.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source A is useful for understanding the 1661 revolution in French
government.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate provenance
comments.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and little if any
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate
provenance comments.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate provenance comments and the interpretation is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the provenance of the source and the views in it. There is a solid grasp
of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Greater
awareness and development of historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be
credited highly.
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Question 2
How much do Sources B and C reveal about differing interpretations of Louis XIV’s policies
towards France’s Protestant minority?
(16 marks)
Interpretation (maximum 6 marks)
Candidates may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of each source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
Contextual and historical interpretations (maximum 10 marks)
These 10 marks will be awarded for:
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the quality and depth of the contextual recall
the quality and depth of the wider perspectives
the range and quality of historians’ views
provenance comment (if appropriate).
The candidate considers the views in Sources B and C on Louis’ policies towards the Huguenots, and
offers a structured evaluation of the two perspectives in terms of:
Source B
Provenance: from memoirs written by a nobleman at Louis’ court, so a contemporary reaction. SaintSimon inclined at times to be savagely critical of Louis XIV.
Points from the source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
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Revocation of Edict of Nantes a dreadful disaster for France.
Persecuting French Protestants in this way totally unnecessary.
Large-scale Huguenot emigration has greatly harmed the kingdom’s economy.
Innocent people have suffered most cruelly.
Huguenots have done nothing to deserve such unfair treatment.
Worst, Huguenots forced to convert, blaspheme by attending Catholic mass.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
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France’s Protestants had indeed experienced severe persecution, for years before their right to
worship finally removed in 1685.
Series of royal edicts progressively stripped them of their civil rights under the Edict of Nantes.
Large numbers risked capture and punishment for illegal emigration to Protestant countries.
Just how harmful to France was this loss of skill and capital = a matter of debate.
Foreign Protestants shocked by Louis’ treatment of his own subjects, which fed much hostile
propaganda.
Saint-Simon exaggerates to emphasise his point (a quarter of kingdom did not emigrate!).
But history has tended to judge Louis’ policy much as Saint-Simon does.
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Source C
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
accurate comment on Treasure will be credited as historiography.
Points from the source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
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Unfair to judge Louis’ policy by modern standards: he was the product of the pre-Enlightenment
age.
Louis did what he believed to be right.
Acting under pressure from his advisers.
His policy was welcomed by his Catholic subjects, the French majority.
He believed religious conformity a desirable and achievable goal.
Acted not rashly but cautiously, aware of potential for adverse international reaction.
Huguenots potentially a security risk for France.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
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As king chosen by God, Louis brought up to believe his duty = to ensure his subjects’ salvation;
that Protestants were heretics, Catholic faith only means of salvation.
He was under long-standing pressure from the French Catholic episcopate to remove Huguenot
rights of worship and enforce conformity. Anti-Huguenot edicts enthusiastically implemented by
Catholic leaders in provinces.
Also influenced by leading Church figures like Bossuet and Fenelon, his confessor Pere La Chaise,
Mme de Maintenon, Louvois.
Protestant numbers significantly reduced by dragonnades and other measures: Louis believed by
1685 their elimination “attainable”.
Revocation received with rapturous acclaim by most French Catholics, eg Mme de Sevigne.
Source C therefore offers a very different interpretation of Louis’ Huguenot policy, presenting
arguments in his defence and suggesting a positive outcome.
Points from recall which offer a wider contextualisation of the views in the sources
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Religious toleration almost unknown in 17th century Europe, and not seen as desirable.
Huguenots hardly a security threat: had been conspicuously loyal to the Crown since 1629.
Critics at the time (eg Princess Palatine) and later blamed Louis’ blinkered view of religion on
ignorance.
Louis not always aware of atrocities committed by others in pursuit of his policies.
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Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Louis’ biographer Bluche also emphasises the positives in Louis’ Huguenot policy, in terms of
public opinion and France’s Catholic neighbours.
Briggs: revocation both a crime and a blunder; lack of respect for human decency discredited
regime abroad; Protestant church previously eroding, now survived underground.
Mousnier: Louis a tyrant in his treatment of Huguenots; his methods inhuman, an affront to the
dignity of man, and contrary to the spirit of Christianity.
Campbell: issues faced by Louis XIV predated his reign and reflected longer-term problems.
Edict of Fontainebleau a bad miscalculation: Protestants remained remarkably stalwart in their
faith.
Treasure: while defending Louis, also points out that royal policies destroyed Protestants’ respect
for authority and the king, previously very marked. Destroyed an existing desire for rapprochement
with Rome.
Sturdy: comments on Louis’ ‘obsessive orthodoxy’, his tendency, encouraged by factions around
him, to attempt crude simplistic solutions to very complex religious controversies. Revocation of
Edict of Nantes earned Louis fewer plaudits than perhaps he had hoped. Outside France, Louis
pilloried as a tyrant.
Shennan: Louis anxious to leave a kingdom united in doctrinal purity to facilitate his own
salvation. As anxious to prevent theological divisions as civil disturbance. But approach
insensitive.
Marks
1-4
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the sources; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the sources. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
5-7
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the sources, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
8-11
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the sources, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp
of topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
12-16 The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the views of the sources and their value as interpretations on the issue.
There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant
analysis. Greater awareness and development of historical interpretations and/or historians’
views will be credited highly.
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Question 3
How fully does Source D explain the limitations of absolute monarchy under Louis XIV?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s fullness in explaining/analysing the issue.
The candidate offers a structured evaluation of Source D as an adequate explanation of the limitations
of absolute monarchy under Louis XIV in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance will earn credit, such as: accurate
comment on Beik will be credited as historiography.
Points from the source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
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Louis XIV’s rule might be absolute in theory, but in practice it faced significant limitations.
French kingdom not a homogeneous political and legal entity.
Kingdom had developed piecemeal, and provinces retained their distinct institutions.
Kings had allowed powers and privileges to be retained by individuals and elite groups within
provinces.
Louis’ government had to try to work within this complicated framework.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
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Absolute monarchy for Louis did not mean he wished to destroy or override rights and privileges of
other institutions. The rights of others were as deserving of respect as his own.
French provinces had their own dominant families who traditionally controlled governorships,
Parlements and provincial estates. Louis strove to assert greater control from the centre without
alienating local elites whose cooperation still vital for functioning of provincial affairs.
Under Louis, governors found their roles shrinking, provincial estates lost their autonomy. Royal
intendants increasingly appointed as the agents of greater royal control of provincial life: but
warned not to offend local elites.
Points from recall which offer a wider contextualisation of the views in the source
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Royal control handicapped by the limited number of bureaucrats available to implement
government policies.
Royal control of kingdom inevitably hampered by problems of distance and poor communications.
Royal absolutism also restricted by semi-independence enjoyed by the French Church, owner of
much of French land.
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Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Modern historians stress the limitations of absolutism in Louis XIV’s France.
Shennan: Louis simply wished to maximise his authority within the framework of the existing
order.
Beik: king could only rule by making compromises with pre-existing power centres, with their
own independently derived sources of influence.
Treasure: provincial governor kept at Versailles while intendant did his work in the province. But
claims for absolutism more advanced than means for putting it into practice.
Miller: Louis and team sought to manage existing system, not change it. He stresses the tangle of
institutions and jurisdictions Louis never able to unravel.
Briggs: sees absolutism as little more than a facade, beyond which many old limitations continued
to operate.
Mettam: Louis took careful account of powerful vested interests.
Sturdy: crown had to come to terms with provincial institutions for without their co-operation
effective government would have been impossible. Louis’s government lacked mechanisms
capable of imposing policies effectively throughout the kingdom. By present standards, Louis’
France under-governed.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source D is useful in offering a full explanation of the limitations of
absolutism under Louis XIV.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate provenance
comments.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and little if any
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate
provenance comments.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate provenance comments and the interpretation is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the provenance of the source and the views in it. There is a solid grasp
of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Greater
awareness and development of historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be
credited highly.
Page 71
Georgians and Jacobites: Scotland (1715 – 1800)
Part 1
Each question is worth 25 marks
Question 1
What factors best explain why there was such uneven support for the Jacobite cause in Scotland?
The aim of this essay is to allow the candidate to analyse the motives of the various clans at the time of
the 1715, 1719 and 1745 rebellions, and come to a balanced conclusion about why some supported the
Jacobites and others did not.
The candidate might use such evidence as:
Points connected with religion and ideology
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The South West had a strong Covenanting and Cameronian tradition. Very few Jacobites there.
The North East remained an Episcopalian stronghold and produced many Jacobites out of
conviction: eg Lord Pitsligo.
Non-juring Episcopalians believed strongly in the divine right of kings.
The strongly Presbyterian Duke of Argyll supported the Whigs throughout.
So did the clans of the far north − Ross, Mackay.
Those Catholic chiefs such as Macdonald of Keppoch supported the Jacobites throughout.
Derwentwater, who led the southern Jacobites in 1715, was a Catholic.
Episcopalian chiefs such as Locheil were inclined to support the Jacobites.
There is evidence that the charismatic personality of Charles Edward had some effect in persuading
Clanranald of the rightness of his cause.
Points connected with clan and local rivalries
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The power of the Campbells in the south western Highlands had made them feared and disliked by
neighbouring clans of Lochaber at whose expense they had expanded. For example the Stewarts of
Appin.
In fact it has been suggested that the widespread support for the Jacobites by those clans whose
territories were close to those of the Campbells − Macleans, Camerons, Macdonalds of Keppoch,
MacIains of Glencoe − was largely the result of this.
Points connected with the nature of society
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Chiefs who kept up the traditions of feasting, bards and non-economic rents in return for loyalty
were perhaps more inclined to come out than those who were modernising (though it is not easy to
make a precise correlation).
The Fife burghs tended to be Whig, whereas the rural hinterland contained many Jacobites.
Points connected with personal advantage and expediency
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Those areas which benefited from the Union – notably Glasgow - were inclined to be anti-Jacobite.
Clans whose lands were easily threatened by government forces were less likely to support the
risings. This applied, for example, to the island clans such as the Macleans and the Macdonalds of
Sleat in 1745. The Royal Navy could get at them too easily.
In 1745 Cameron of Locheil prudently refused to join Charles Edward till he had been promised a
regiment in the French Army, should the rebellion fail.
Cluny Macpherson joined after Prestonpans, when the cause seemed less hopeless.
The Earl of Mar notoriously began the 1715 because of political disappointment under the new
Hanoverian regime.
Fraser of Lovat appears to have had selfish motives throughout, joining both sides (founding the
anti-Jacobite Black Watch but also being “out” in 1715 and 1745).
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Points connected with traditional loyalties
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The involvement of clans in British civil wars began with Montrose in the 1640s. Some of those
who came out with Claverhouse in the first Jacobite rebellion had been out with Montrose. Some
of those who had been out with Claverhouse felt bound in honour to come out in the later rebellions
(for example Robertson of Struan).
On the other side the Dukes of Argyll were recent descendants of that Argyll who had been
Montrose’s chief enemy, and from the Argyll who had been executed for a rebellion against James
VII and II.
Candidates may draw upon any number of individual examples, and knowledge of particular clan
histories should be rewarded.
Points showing awareness of the complexity of the issue
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Lord George Murray seems to have been persuaded by questions of honour, and brought many
Atholl men with him. But his elder brother, the duke, remained a Whig.
Many families sent members to both sides as a way of hedging their bets.
Rob Roy reputedly watched the battle of Sheriffmuir with the comment “If they cannot win without
us they will not win with us” − and prudently stayed neutral despite strong Jacobite sympathies.
The Grants on either side of the Great Glen divided for and against.
Campbell of Breadalbane was for James Edward in 1715, whereas Campbell of Argyll was for the
government.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Devine: “An estimated 15 of the 26 Highland clans active on the Jacobite side in the great
rebellion of 1715 had Episcopalian sympathies”.
Lenman: numerous works, notably “The Jacobite Clans of the Great Glen” and “The Jacobite
risings in Britain.” He has emphasised the Episcopalian point, stressed how few clans supported
the 1745 rebellion and is memorably pithy in his treatment of Lovat (“a truly awful human being”)
and of Charles Edward: he “lied” to get the chiefs’ support.
Fry: “Wild Scots” is a recent and readable survey. Relevant comments include: “Some clans
preferred neutrality, notably the Macleods” and “Clan Chattan possessed no authority to enforce a
single political line on every one of its septs”
Stevenson: “If Highland Jacobitism was born in the 1680s it was conceived in the 1640s” showing
that much support for Jacobitism was born of the traditional loyalties that many clans felt from as far
back as the time of Claverhouse.
Duffy points out the relevance of geographical factors.
Pittock points out the strong nationalist strain in Jacobitism.
Page 73
Question 2
How successful were the Improvers in changing Scottish agriculture?
The purpose of this essay is to allow the candidate to assess the work of the so-called “Improvers”, such
as Lord Kames, Sir Archibald Grant and Cockburn of Ormiston, and arrive at a conclusion as to how
successful they were in achieving their objectives. Better candidates might usefully discuss how
“success” might be measured, whether simply by statistics about yields, or by the increased use of their
methods, the spread of their ideas, or the impact of the “agricultural revolution” on rural life. Note that
the title says “changing” not necessarily “changing for the better”.
The candidates might use such evidence as:
The main ideas of the Improvers, including
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The enclosure of fields and the abolition of fermtouns and runrig
The use of crop rotation, including root crops and clovers
The planting of trees
Improvement of drainage
The use of new farm implements, notably Small’s plough
Selective breeding
Extensive propagation of their ideas through books, journals, societies
The use of new leases to force tenants to comply with new farming methods
Reasons for thinking the Improvers were successful
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Yields increased two or three fold between the early eighteenth century and 1800.
The farming landscape of Scotland was, by 1800, well on the way to changing from open field and
rigs to compact, enclosed fields.
By the early nineteenth century most landowners seem to have taken clearance and improvement
for granted as the rule of estate management.
Millions of trees were indeed planted − for example on the Atholl estates.
Their work of spreading the rational ideas in the 1760s enabled the farmers of the 1790s to take
advantage of rising prices and massively increase yields.
Reasons for thinking that the success of the Improvers was limited
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Many of them individually lost money through their agricultural experiments (Cockburn, for
example, went bankrupt).
Some of the changes for which they receive credit seem to have begun long before – for example
rotations and liming.
Possibly market forces − rising prices at the end of the century, especially as the French Wars
increased demand – played a greater part, by providing incentives for farmers to modernise.
The word “success” assumes the objective is always to increase yields. Traditional life-styles were
utterly dislocated.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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The traditional view − found in many older text-books – that there was a direct causal link between
individual improvers and the agricultural revolution in Scotland. The improvers’ own assessments
were taken at face value.
The late twentieth century view, found in Smout, Lenman and others that market forces and the
common sense of those who worked the land were as important as the theories of improvers who
had been to England or Holland.
Devine: (for example) supports this view in his The Scottish Nation. “The cultivation methods and
practices denounced by later commentators had a basic rationale when seen against the technical
limitations of the old agriculture”.
Sher: interestingly, seems to revert to giving importance to the improvers in his very recent
contribution to Scotland: a history, edited by Jenny Wormald.
Whatley: gives market forces precedence over individual efforts.
Page 74
Question 3
How far was Glasgow’s pre-eminence in the tobacco trade due to the commercial abilities of a few
individuals?
The aim of this essay is to allow the candidate to analyse the causes of the remarkable development of
the tobacco trade in Glasgow and assess the role played in it by the so called “tobacco lords”, in
comparison with the other causes. The candidate should reach a balanced conclusion based upon the
evidence and arguments put forward.
The candidate might use such evidence as:
Points suggesting that a few individuals did play an important part
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The use of the store system was the result of inventive innovation, not impersonal factors.
The willingness to break or bend the rules, with smuggling and aggressive marketing, required
leadership and enterprise.
The histories of such individuals as John Glassford, William Cunninghame, and Alexander Speirs.
The energy with which the trade was developed. For example shipping: ship design, careening
methods, and schedules were all adapted efficiently to get the best out of an already favourable
situation.
Glasgow firms cut waiting time in Chesapeake Bay.
Many Glasgow ships managed two round trips a year − exceptional for the age.
Apart from the different individuals involved, it is hard to see how Glasgow was much better placed
than Dublin or Whitehaven.
Points suggesting that the pre-eminence of Glasgow was not down to individuals
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The geographical position of Glasgow allowed a clearer run across the Atlantic than rival ports
possessed. Ships from Whitehaven, Liverpool and Dublin had to negotiate the Irish Sea first.
The Treaty of Union gave an unmissable opportunity to Glasgow. Before it all trade with Virginia
was contraband. Ireland did not achieve full commercial rights till the 1780s.
Whitehaven’s tobacco boom ended in the 1760s, leaving the vacuum for Glasgow to fill.
There was a sufficient domestic market to stimulate the trade, and the market grew as the
purchasing power of Scotland increased during the mid-century. The tobacco habit also spread –
not just for smoking, but also as snuff.
The French Farmers’ General monopoly, and the Glasgow direct purchase system were mutually
convenient. They enabled Glasgow to take the lion’s share of the French market in the middle
years of the century.
Glasgow’s banking system grew in parallel with the tobacco, but clearly helped the expansion of
the trade possible – though the proportion of capital raised through banks was not all that high.
The middle classes of the West of Scotland seem to have been readier to invest in tobacco
companies than in government stock – a different pattern from that seen in the south of England.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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T M Devine: dominates the field and candidates may find it hard to escape his researches and
writings. He certainly argues that the personal contribution of the business classes was of great
importance. His recent Scotland’s Empire stresses the importance of the investment capital
available in the savings of the local middle classes.
Lenman: emphasises the growing market, with the tobacco habit spreading even to working class
women by 1800.
Herman: “The secret of the Tobacco Lords’ success lay in their balance sheets: their ability to
summon up capital from a wide variety of sources while ruthlessly cutting costs.”
Whatley: emphasises the ability of the Tobacco Lords to “bend the regulations”.
Page 75
Question 4
To what extent were the radical movements of the late eighteenth century caused by French
Revolutionary influences?
The aim of this essay is to allow the candidate to analyse the causes of the various radical movements
of the late eighteenth century and come to a conclusion as to the extent to which they were caused by
influences from France. There is considerable room for debate about some of the causes, as they may
be seen as “not French” − coming from government over-reaction for example, or the writings of Paine
− when they could be considered as a “knock-on” effect of the French Revolution.
The candidate might use such evidence as:
The range of different radical movements
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The burgh reform movement.
The anti-Dundas riots of June 1792.
The Societies of Friends of General Reform.
The Scottish Association of the Friends of the People.
Local demonstrations, involving the burning of Dundas in effigy and the planting of “Trees of
Liberty”.
The United Scotsmen.
The militia riots of 1797.
Points suggesting the causes were not to do with the French Revolution
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The fact that the burgh reform movement began before 1789.
The blatant irrationality and corruption of the existing burgh franchise, including “faggot votes” by
non-existent burgesses.
The feeling by some members of the elites that the humiliation of the loss of the American Colonies
necessitated reform.
The publication of “The Rights of Man” by Tom Paine, which became a best-seller when the
government tried to ban it.
The bad harvest of 1792.
The insistence of many radicals, even in the later 1790s, that their purposes were reforming, not
treasonable.
The way in which riots were frequently directed against excise men.
Points suggesting that the French Revolution was a major cause of radical movements
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The widespread welcoming of the Revolution of 1789 by burgh reformers, Whig clubs, and many
other groups all across society.
The increasingly militant approach to reform after 1789, as opposed to the moderation before it.
The use of French Revolutionary terminology, when the Friends of the People set up their
“Convention”.
The Revolution was the reason the government decided to ban “The Rights of Man” − thus
stimulating readership.
The need to prosecute a war against revolutionary France was a direct cause of the militia riots.
After the September massacres of 1792, and even more the outbreak of war in 1793, all radical
movements were inevitably “French revolutionary”. It was impossible to be a “moderate” in that
atmosphere.
Cockburn, in his “Memorials”, writes: “Everything had to do with the Revolution in France. Not
this thing, or that thing, but literally everything”.
Page 76
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
Devine: “The outbreak of the French Revolution changed everything and set the scene for an
unprecedented challenge to the exiting regime”.
James Buchan: “With their armoury of reason, politeness, patronage and sentiment the literati
were as ill-equipped to grapple with the French Revolution as they had been with the American”
Smout: in his A History of the Scottish people writes: “Yet on closer investigation many of these
riots (of 1792) turned out not to be about politics at all”
Fry: attributes the King’s Birthday riots of 1792 more to drink than to politics, and goes on: “the
immediate causes were non-political: one in Ross was about the threat of clearances, one in Lanark
about enclosure, one in Berwickshire against turnpikes and one in Dundee against the Corn Law.”
These are the same riots mentioned in Smout’s account.
Page 77
Question 5
“The change in Scotland’s religious climate in the eighteenth century was vital to the nation’s
transformation.” How valid is this claim?
This quotation, from a very recent and authoritative survey of eighteenth century Scotland, allows the
candidate to assess the “transformation” of Scotland during the eighteenth century and the place within
that of the change in Scotland’s religious climate. The candidate should come to a balanced conclusion,
based on a range of evidence, of the extent to which the quotation in the title is valid.
The candidate might use such evidence as:
Points about the changing religious climate
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Just before the century began a young student was executed for blasphemy.
The rise of the “Moderate” party to a point where they usually controlled the General Assembly and
were prepared to advocate “relief” for Catholics and Episcopalians.
The evolution of the Evangelicals − such as Witherspoon − to a more broad-minded view.
The decline of traditional Calvinism: that is to say the idea that the "elect" had a duty to enforce a
rigorously puritanical interpretation of God’s law across the whole of society.
The impact of the Patronage Act in giving the landed classes increased control over ministerial
appointments.
The way in which the SSPCK extended Presbyterianism into parts of the Highlands that had
previously been predominantly Episcopalian.
The many schisms in the Kirk, over patronage, burgh oaths, moderate theology and so on.
Areas where changes in the Kirk can be seen to have been “vital” to the transformation of
Scotland
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
University Reform. Hutcheson, Smith, Stewart and other eminent lecturers of the age could not
have operated in the old restrictive climate.
Secondary education: The adventure schools and the academy movement were not concerned with
creating a “Godly commonwealth”.
Publishing and free debate. The flourishing of small printers and bookshops and the proliferation
of intellectual clubs of one sort or another.
New ideas that would have been “dangerous” under the old Kirk. Hume’s atheism is the obvious
example.
At the level of small communities there was a weakening of Kirk discipline. The Sabbath was still
relatively strict but not enforceable. The “stool of penitence” was less used. The theatre revived.
The ending of the link between religious disagreement and civil unrest. The Jacobite rebellions
clearly contained some religious elements. There is no sign of this in the riots and reform
movements of the second half of the century.
The level of entrepreneurial skill and business sense that seem to have been available in Scotland
may have owed something to the high literacy rates and intellectual discipline that the Kirk
promoted, even before it underwent change.
Areas where the changes in the Kirk cannot be seen to be "vital"
•
•
•
•
Economic change. Market forces, the Treaty of Union, government action and geographical
advantages were “vital” here. The stimulation of the linen industry, the Lowland Clearances, the
story of tobacco, the expansion of the cotton industry, the beginnings of the Industrial Revolution
and so on were not much, if at all, affected by what was happening in the Kirk.
Demographic change. The growth of population, and the urbanisation of the population was a
transformation unaffected by the Kirk. Indeed the Kirk was probably changed by demographic
forces, as the urban parish structure collapsed under the strain.
Political change: The impact of the Union and of the defeat of Jacobitism on the political life of the
nation − which was mainly to create a nation with very little political activity − was another
“transformation” to be included under this heading.
Changes in the Highlands: These were economic, cultural and demographic. Though note that the
work of the SSPCK played some part. Note also that there ceased to be any correlation at all
between clan rivalries and religious affiliation.
Page 78
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
The differences between historians are mainly differences of emphasis. Social and economic
historians have a different view of what the “transformation of Scotland” primarily consisted of to
the view of cultural and intellectual historians.
Lenman: is inclined to argue that the importance of the Moderates is over-rated. The bulk of the
population preferred the old simple ways.
Sher: “Religious pluralism, toleration, and control of the Kirk by the Moderate party created an
environment conducive to free enquiry and secular culture”
Devine’s: The Scottish Nation has a chapter called ‘Scotland Transformed’. He suggests that one
thing that separated Scotland from Ireland when it came to readiness for economic growth may
have been the Presbyterian heritage: “the hard work, thrift and the confident assurance which came
from the awareness of membership of God’s elect.”
Whatley: suggests that the decreasing exclusivity of the Kirk may have aided a sense of national
solidarity with England – fellow Protestants, not heretical Episcopalians.
Callum Brown: talks more of social, economic and cultural changes affecting the Kirk, rather than
the other way round.
Page 79
Question 6
Who best deserves to be considered the most significant thinker of the Scottish Enlightenment?
The aim of this essay is to allow the candidate to compare some of the most important thinkers of the
Scottish Enlightenment in order to conclude who deserves to be considered the most significant.
Candidates are expected to think about possible meanings of significant: (influential on other scholars;
leading to social or political change; original). Candidates may focus largely on one or two writers, but
there should be some element of comparison with a reasonable range of individuals. Note that the word
“thinkers” does come in the conditions and arrangements; however, candidates should not be penalised
for interpreting the work generously to include innovators who were not necessarily philosophers.
There is no penalty for omitting any particular thinker. Also the extreme difficulty of summarising
complex ideas in a brief mark-scheme means that markers should judge the merits of the candidates’
arguments without over-reliance on the paragraphs below.
Possible subjects for comparison might include:
•
Francis Hutcheson: Particularly influential as a lecturer at Glasgow University in the early
eighteenth century. He emphasised the innate goodness and moral sense of individuals, rather than
the traditional Kirk emphasis on sinfulness. He taught liberty and equality as important virtues. He
was one of the founders of the “Moderate” party in the Kirk, and his student included Adam Smith.
Also, he was one of the first to lecture in English, not in Latin, so was very influential in university
reform.
•
Lord Kames: Important as a precursor and patron of Hume, who wrote of him to Adam Smith
“We must every one of us acknowledge Kames to be our master.” One idea that was particularly
stimulating to contemporaries was the importance to human society, morality and law of the desire
to acquire property.
•
David Hume: Recognised as particularly innovative and original in his ideas. Notably his
argument that self-interest, rather than reason; governs our actions, and the atheism of his
philosophical system. Morality is the product of convention and mutual self-interest, not of divine
law. Very influential on future philosophers (for example Kant) and, through the Select Society, on
his contemporaries.
•
Thomas Reid: His philosophy of Common Sense was developed largely as a reaction against
Hume. He rejected Hume’s relativism and argued that moral certainties can be built on those innate
notions (“common sense”) that all humans possess. Highly significant because his approach
became more widely acceptable than Hume’s, was more in the traditions of Scots thinking and was
admired by, among others, Thomas Jefferson. (“We hold these truths to be self-evident”…. begins
the American Declaration of Independence.)
•
Adam Smith: Famously revolutionised economics. His “Wealth of Nations”, albeit in a simplified
version, was taken as the justification of nineteenth century “laissez-faire” economics and of the
need for a free market. This influence continued for over two centuries. Sir Keith Joseph, after the
Conservative election victory of 1979, gave copies to his senior civil servants. In fact Smith argued
strongly that society must not become entirely commercial in its outlook. Also, in moral
philosophy, he developed and spread the ideas of Hutcheson, both through lectures and writings.
Another who was admired by the Moderates.
•
Joseph Black: Scientist. His two great contributions were: the isolation of Carbon Dioxide,
which revolutionised the understanding of gases, and the concept of latent heat. His career was a
significant step in the development of chemistry. Also he was a close friend of James Watt, and his
work provided some of the theoretical basis for Watt’s work on steam power.
•
James Hutton: Some would argue that he more or less invented modern geology, by his
observations of the rocks on Salisbury Crags, and then further afield. His scientific approach to
tackling geological problems began to free the study of the earth from its Biblical straight-jacket.
Most notable was his contention that the earth has neither beginning nor end, but that over
geological time the erosion of old rocks and the creation of new ones is a continuous process.
Page 80
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Reference to the division between the admirers of Hume and the admirers of Reid. This dispute
began in the eighteenth century and is still continuing. Hume is more famous, and has a big statue
in the Royal Mile, but Reid is seen by some as more in the Scottish tradition (going back to Duns
Scotus), and more influential.
James Buchan: in The Capital of the Mind, argues that Hume was not particularly influential in
his life-time, nor in the nineteenth century, but that it is in the “dark twentieth that Hume was
crowned king of the British philosophers”.
Alexander Broadie: one of the most eminent scholars in the field at present, particularly admires
Thomas Reid and has written of him as “perhaps the deepest of the philosophers of the Scottish
Enlightenment”
Arthur Herman: calls the ‘Wealth of Nations’ “The Summa of the Scottish Enlightenment, a
summation of its exploration of the nature of human progress – and its salute to the triumph of the
modern”
Paul Wood: in his contribution to The Cambridge Companion to the Scottish Enlightenment
argues that Colin Maclaurin was “the greatest Scottish mathematician and natural philosopher of
the eighteenth century” and emphasises his spreading of Newtonian ideas through his university
lectureships, and his contribution to the idea that natural science was a useful branch of knowledge.
Nicholas Phillipson: in The Companion to Scottish Culture says Hume provided “the true
foundations for the Scottish science of man”.
David Daiches: describes Hume as “perhaps the key figure in the whole movement.”
Page 81
Georgians and Jacobites: Scotland (1715 – 1800)
Part 2
Question 1
How fully does Source A explain the reasons for the victories of the Jacobite army during the
1745 Rebellion?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context;
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s fullness in explaining/analysing the issue.
The candidate offers a structured evaluation of Source A as an adequate explanation of the reasons for
the victories of the Jacobite army in 1745 in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
accurate comment on Jeremy Black will be credited as historiography.
Points from the Source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view
•
•
The inadequacy of the government forces.
- The way a Highland charge could lead regulars to “flee in panic”.
- Untrained gunners were of little value.
- Dragoons refused to charge.
- The fire of Cope’s infantry was unable to break the Jacobite formation.
The ferocity of Highlanders in hand-to-hand fighting (“slashing at their mounts”).
Points from recall which support and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
The dragoons who met the Jacobites as they approached Edinburgh also ran away (“the Coatbridge
canter”).
Four regiments of the regular forces also broke and fled at Falkirk when charged by the Camerons
and Stewarts.
Numerous contemporary accounts of the ferocity of Highlanders in hand-to-hand fighting.
The best regular troops at the time of Prestonpans were on the Continent, which helps explain the
“nautical gunners”.
The flight of the Bland’s Dragoons at Clifton Fight confirms the effectiveness of the Highland
Charge in demoralising regulars.
Page 82
Points which offer a wider contextualisation of the views in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Jacobites had more or less equality in numbers with the government armies at Prestonpans
(c 2,500) and at Falkirk (c. 8,000).
The victory at Prestonpans was partly thanks to a successful night-time manoeuvre that turned the
flank of Cope’s army.
The victory at Clifton was partly due to the good defensive position provided for the Jacobite forces
by the walls and hedges of the area.
The skill of Lord George Murray at getting the best out of the Highland army, making good use of
their speed (as when bringing men into position at Clifton) and keeping discipline in battle (as at
Falkirk).
The capture of Carlisle by the Jacobites was made easy by the way Wade’s army was overwhelmed
by cold weather as it attempted to cross from Newcastle.
The terrain suited the Jacobites at Falkirk, being very rough and so easier for light troops than for
regulars.
The inspirational quality of Charles’ leadership seems to have contributed to high morale from
Glenfinnan to Prestonpans.
The important contribution of the two French units in the Jacobite army at Falkirk.
The fact that at Falkirk Hawley’s army had few cannon, with improvised gun-crews, and they failed
to arrive on the field in time to take part.
The fact that at Clifton, Cumberland was stretched to the limit logistically by the speed of his
pursuit and by the onset of winter.
The way the Jacobites lost at Culloden could be used relevantly to point up contrasts with their
earlier victories.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Christopher Duffy: Probably the fullest account readily available to candidates. He deals with
each battle in considerable detail. His points on the comparative qualities of the two armies are too
numerous to list here. One example is his explanation of the failure of the government cavalry at
Falkirk and at Prestonpans, which he argues was caused partly by the besetting error of the British
army of using their cavalry unsupported by other arms. (Compare with Waterloo and Goodwood)
Stuart Reid: emphasises the intention of the Highland charge to instil panic.
Stephen Bull: reminds us that the Jacobite generals sought to train their regiments in modern drill
and tactics, but also agrees that there were “numerous examples of dash and innovation”.
Lenman: talks of “the sheer quality and drive of Murray’s generalship”. It is interesting to note that
Duffy and Reid, specialist military historians, challenge the traditional view of Murray as a military
genius. Lenman also describes Prestonpans as “a fluke victory”, and is generally highly critical of
the government’s lack of preparedness.
Devine: is another admirer of “the superb military skills of Lord George Murray”. He also
emphasises the inadequacy of government preparations in Scotland.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source A is helpful in offering a full explanation of the reasons for the
victories of the Jacobite army in1745.
Page 83
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little grasp
of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written with
some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate historical
interpretations.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument, showing
a clear understanding of the views of the source. There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider
context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Greater awareness and development of
historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 84
Question 2
How much do Sources B and C reveal about differing views of the causes of social change in the
Highlands in the last three decades of the eighteenth century?
(16 marks)
Interpretation (maximum 6 marks)
Candidates may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of each source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
Contextual and historical interpretations (maximum 10 marks)
These 10 marks will be awarded for:
•
•
•
•
the quality and depth of the contextual recall
the quality and depth of the wider perspectives
the range and quality of historians’ views
provenance comment (if appropriate).
The candidate considers the views in Sources B and C on the causes of social change in the Highlands in
the last three decades of the 18th century, and offers a structured evaluation of the two perspectives in
terms of:
Source B
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance will earn credit. These may include:
accurate comment on Michael Fry will be credited as historiography. Candidates may refer to the fact
that:
•
Michael Fry is a well known and reputable historian of this period. Candidates may know that he is
an active Conservative in politics and that he has been involved in public controversy with T.M.
Devine, and that his attack on “most Scottish historians” reveals that he is deliberately writing in a
controversial manner.
Points from the source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
•
•
The changes were “spontaneous” and had multiple causes.
Changing conditions of supply and demand made change inevitable.
There was a growing population, but the amount of land available for cultivation was fixed.
Historians who blame the landowners are wrong; the changes were inevitable.
Rents had to be increased; even benevolent landlords had no choice.
Points from recall which support and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
The importance of the French wars in affecting levels of demand; for example it helped make the
kelp industry viable by cutting off imports of other fertilisers.
The population of the Highlands is reckoned to have increased from about 350,000 to 380,000
during the period under discussion. Tiree’s population was 1,509 in 1755 and 2,443 in 1792.
There are various figures for rent rises on different estates, spectacular where border sheep farmers
outbid the locals. Glengarry’s rental income rose from £732 to £4,184 between 1768 and 1802.
John Prebble’s The Highland Clearances certainly ascribes much – though not everything – to the
malice of the landlords (as does local tradition and the tourist industry in many parts of the
Highlands).
Page 85
Source C
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance will earn credit. These may include: accurate
comment on Devine will be credited as historiography.
Points from the source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
•
The role of the landowners was “fundamental”.
They were in a position to do whatever they liked with their tenants.
Some of them did try to resist change because of their traditional obligations as chiefs.
In the end they were forced to become capitalist landlords, not chiefs.
Points from recall which support and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
The “omnipotence” of landowners can be seen all across Scotland – forcing tenants to support
Jacobitism in a previous generation, re-issuing leases with “improving” demands, moving tenants to
less productive land.
The concept of duchtas was that chiefs were trustees and guardians of land rather than owners, and involved
“hereditary duties”, including charging uneconomic rents if circumstances required it.
Sir John Sinclair is a good example of a chief who saw his landownership as a responsibility.
Campbell of Breadalbane and Macdonald of Sleat both resisted the advice of their estate managers
out of kindly feelings to their tenants.
Points which offer wider contextualisation of the views in the sources
•
•
•
•
The Treaty of Union greatly increased the annual expenditure of any chief who wished to play any
part in national affairs.
The legal destruction of the clan system inevitably undermined its moral obligations.
The opening up of Canada made emigration a not unattractive option for some tacksmen.
Sheep runs proved to be far more profitable than traditional arable.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Further references to the works of Fry and Devine.
Dodgshon: From Chiefs to Landlords comments: “without question one of the most powerful
solvents of chiefly systems of behaviour was the effect which legislation and the actions of central
government had on the economic management of estates”.
Caroline Bingham: similarly puts the end of clan spirit down to the end of their military role.
Whatley: keeps reminding his readers of regional variations: “Highland Scotland was not
homogenous”.
Smout: uses the phrase “most important” to describe the change in the education of the chiefs: no
longer fostered in tacksmen’s cottages, they went to college in the Lowlands.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of the two sources is helpful in offering a full perspective on the causes of social
change in the Highlands in the last three decades of the eighteenth century.
Page 86
Marks
1-4
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the sources; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the sources. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
5-7
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the sources, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
8-11
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the sources, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp
of topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
12-16 The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument;
showing a clear understanding of the views of the sources and their value as interpretations on
the issue. There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of
relevant analysis. Greater awareness and development of historical interpretations and/or
historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 87
Question 3
How useful is Source D for a historian studying the state of schooling in Scotland in the late
eighteenth century?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for the quality of their evaluation of the provenance of
the source.
The candidate may be awarded up to 2 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s value.
The candidate offers a structured consideration of the usefulness of Source D in understanding its value
in studying the state of schooling, in terms of:
Provenance:
• “The Statistical Account” was published by Sir John Sinclair in 1792, and printed by William
Creech.
• The information was gained by asking parish ministers to record facts about their parishes.
• Source D will have been written by the minister of Lochgoilhead, the Reverend Mr Dugal
McDougal.
• The purpose was to be as accurate as possible in compiling information.
• The ministers were educated and, especially in the smaller parishes, well-informed. They were not
trained or paid for their contributions to the “Account”, so there may be some inaccuracies, but
“The Statistical Account” is widely recognised as an invaluable source for Scottish social history at
the time.
Points from the source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
•
•
There are two schools, one parish, and one SSPCK.
The curriculum is Latin, English, Gaelic, writing, arithmetic, book-keeping, navigation and church
music; but without Latin in the SSPCK school.
The tacksmen, more prosperous tenant-farmers, have their children educated at home.
Those who live far from the school arrange for their children’s education.
Both schoolmasters earn £20 a year, £10 salary and £10 from perquisites. This is too little.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
The SSPCK played a large part in increasing the amount of education available in the Highlands,
improving literacy and with a strongly Presbyterian agenda.
It is interesting that Latin was still taught in the parish school, since by the 1790s Latin was ceasing
to be the essential language of university teaching and was not compulsory in some of the new
academies.
It is also interesting the Gaelic was taught in the SSPCK school. The SSPCK’s notorious hostility to
Gaelic ended in 1767, and they produced a Gaelic New Testament.
A tacksman was a favoured tenant under the old clan system: usually related to the chief he would
receive his land at a rent less than market value in return for social and military support. By 1792
the clan system is generally agreed to have ended, which makes it interesting that the word is used
here.
The low salaries of parish schoolmasters was widely agreed to be a problem. The official minimum
was £5, which made it hard to recruit teachers of quality.
Page 88
Points from recall which offer a wider contextualisation of the view in the source
•
•
•
•
•
Lochgoilhead is not necessarily typical. Big city parishes were certainly very different. The
growth of towns in the late eighteenth century meant that the educational provision for the poor fell
far short of the ideals of those who set up the parish schools.
There were many other sorts of school apart from parish schools.
Those who could afford it increasingly made private provision. Glasgow, Edinburgh and most
other substantial burghs had private schools for those who could pay.
Adventure schools proliferated.
The Academy movement was a deliberate attempt to develop and modernise secondary education,
with more technical subjects in the curriculum and less emphasis on the Classics.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
Smout: emphasises how urban growth destroyed the school system for the poor, but also asserts
the great desire for education amongst those who could afford it.
Herman: puts a thirst for education, and high literacy, as one of the special circumstances that
caused the Scottish Enlightenment.
Withrington: makes it clear that the survival of Latin in the curriculum of a parish school was not
untypical.
Lenman: reminds us to be cautious about “exaggerated hype for Scottish education”, but there was
“a very considerable range of educational opportunity”.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source D is useful for understanding studying the state of schooling in
Scotland in the late eighteenth century.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate provenance
comments.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and little if any
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate
provenance comments.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate provenance comments and the interpretation is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp
of topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument;
showing a clear understanding of the provenance of the source and the views in it. There is a
solid grasp of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis.
Greater awareness and development of historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will
be credited highly.
Page 89
“The House Divided”: USA (1850-1865)
Part 1
Each question is worth 25 marks
Question 1
How influential were the Abolitionists up until the outbreak of war in 1861?
The aim of this essay is to enable candidates to assess how influential the Abolitionist movement was in
the period to 1861 by defining the aims of the group and using that to compare these with what was
actually accomplished and to come to an appropriate conclusion as to how far the group had been
responsible/involved in the decision making process until 1861.
The candidate might use evidence such as:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
limited appeal of the group in the free states
one of several reform movements at the time
influence of William Lloyd Garrison and ‘The Liberator’
background of Northern hostility towards blacks
lack of political forum to achieve their aims
aims of the movement were divided – immediate versus gradual approach
role and influence of Frederick Douglass
attitude of anti-slavery societies towards blacks
opposition to the 1850 Fugitive Slave Law
support for Liberty Laws of some Northern states
impact of the novel Uncle Tom’s Cabin
emergence of the Republican Party
support for the case of Dred Scott
reaction to the attack led by John Brown
complete failure of the movement in the South.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Temperley: has argued that the abolitionist movement found it more difficult to agree upon how to
achieve its aims, rather than the aims themselves, and this handicapped its effectiveness.
Beard: saw the role of the Abolitionists as insignificant since, in his view, slavery was not the
cause of the conflict between the North and the South.
Barnes and Dumond: suggest that most abolitionists had a simple and straightforward approach.
The moral attack, not the violence of Garrison or Brown, convinced a majority of Northerners to
join the side of the abolitionists and emancipation came in a violent struggle with the South.
Craven: from the revisionist school of history, attacked the abolitionists as he believed their
militant strategies were inadmissible and unacceptable.
Elkins: has questioned the effectiveness of the group since abolitionist individualism was a
limitation when it came to the consequences of emancipation.
Freehling: has highlighted the practical implications of abolitionist strategy. The Federal
Government had limited powers, states’ rights were seen as sacrosanct, and autonomy was fiercely
guarded. As long as slavery was maintained in 15 states, it could not be abolished by amendment.
Huggins: has seen in the role of Frederick Douglass the pragmatist at work. He argued for the
need to gain the franchise and the need for economic assistance for the freedman in order for him to
secure his future.
Litwack: has pointed out the indifference of Northerners on the question of race.
Tulloch: has concluded that though the abolitionists may have been heroes with feet of clay,
nonetheless they were heroes.
Page 90
Question 2
To what extent did a distinct Southern identity exist in the ante-bellum period?
The aim of this essay is to allow candidates to explore the idea of a distinct Southern identity and to
assess to what extent this existed in the ante-bellum period.
The candidate might use evidence such as:
Pro
• idea of concerted Southern action
• opposition to 1850 omnibus bill of Henry Clay
• opposition to abolitionism and abolitionist actions/propaganda
• support for new Fugitive Slave Law
• opposition to initial Kansas/Nebraska Bill
• demands for the removal of the Mason/Dixon Line
• support for Buchanan as president
• support for the Dred Scott Decision
• opposition to ‘liberty laws’ of some Northern states
• demands for the annexation of Cuba in the 1860 election platform of the Democratic Party
• opposition to Lincoln’s election
• belief in the power of ‘King Cotton’
• emergence of idea that slavery could only be protected outwith the Federal Union.
Contra
Reference to features of a common identity:
• common heritage
• language
• history
• religion
• faith in the Constitution
• failure of the Nashville Convention
• some support for the various bills that comprised the 1850 Compromise
• strong belief in the values of the 1776 Revolution and the 1787 Constitution
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Davis and Stephens: believed in the doctrine of states’ rights and this was the reason for secession
in 1861.
Farmer: argued that the fact that 6 Southern states did not send delegates to the Nashville
Convention displayed little Southern enthusiasm for secession or secessionists. There had never
been a Southern nation. Most of the fire-eaters knew that the notion of a united South was a myth.
Reid: believed that there was by no means unanimity on the wisdom of separatism. The
secessionist ‘movement’ was very disparate; the impulse towards secession had three different
motives.
McPherson: noted that as the Nashville Convention had demonstrated, co-operation was another
word for inaction. Southern unionism was a perishable commodity. It would remain only so long
as the North remained on good behaviour.
Freehling: noted that Lower South politicians cared more about perpetuating slavery than the
Union, while Border South leaders would compromise on slavery in order to save the Union.
Slaveholders overwhelmingly controlled the Lower South but less solidly controlled the Middle and
Border South.
Page 91
Question 3
How valid is the view that the breakdown of the two party system was a major cause of the Civil
War?
The aim of this essay is to allow candidates to explore the issue of the breakdown of the two party
system and assess its importance as one of several causes of the war.
The candidate might use evidence such as:
Two party system breakdown
• Repercussions of the 1850 Compromise.
• Sectional voting.
• Role of Stephen Douglas.
• Kansas Nebraska Act.
• Collapse of the Whig party.
• Emergence of nativist parties.
• Increasing domination of the Democratic party by its Southern wing.
• Revisionist school of thought of the ‘blundering generation’ of politicians.
• Emergence of the Republican party.
• Republican critique of the South.
• Election of Lincoln in 1860.
Slavery
• Expansion of slavery into the western territories.
• Personal confrontations in Congress.
• Abolitionist activity and anti-slavery opinion.
• Idea of a ‘Slave Power’ conspiracy.
• Seward’s doctrine of an ‘irrepressible conflict’.
• Dred Scott decision.
Economics
• Contrasting free and slave labour systems.
• Tariff policy.
• Impact of Panic of 1857.
• Role of ‘King Cotton’ in international commerce.
Constitutional
• Doctrine of states’ rights.
• Issue of nullification.
• Calhoun doctrine.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Buchanan: war resulted from the actions of irresponsible politicians.
Davis: South seceded in defence of states’ rights. The Republican party had engineered war to
further their political and economic domination over the South.
Rhodes: slavery was the sole cause of the war.
Schlesinger: states’ rights was a vehicle which allowed the South to retain slavery.
Beard: North was driven by economic motives to serve the needs of banking, business and
finance. War was irrepressible due to the inevitable clash of an agrarian society and an emerging
industrial, urban society.
Craven: war was the result of the irresponsible actions of the Abolitionists.
Nevins: the moral issue of slavery was the catalyst to war.
Randall: war was due to the actions of the ‘blundering’ generation of politicians.
Stampp: slavery was the prime cause of the Civil War.
Gienapp: agreed with Stampp’s interpretation of the causes of the war.
Page 92
Question 4
Assess the importance of the issue of reconstruction as an issue in the presidential election of
1864.
The aim of this essay is to allow candidates to explore all the issues that were part of the election
campaign of 1864 and to decide how much weight should be placed on the issue of reconstruction,
given that, if the war were brought to a successful conclusion, reconstruction would be the principal
matter of the new president.
The candidate might use evidence such as:
Reconstruction
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Main task of the elected president would be the issue of how to restore the disrupted relations
between the seceded states and the Union.
Lincoln’s 10% plan of 8th December 1863.
Presidential reconstruction in Tennessee.
Pocket veto of the Wade-Davis bill.
Presidential justification for the veto of 8th July 1864.
Wade-Davis manifesto of 5th August 1864.
Attempt to ditch Lincoln in favour of a more radical candidate.
Other issues
Ambitions of Chase and Butler
• Constitutional issues such as the suspension of habeas corpus, declaration of martial law, civilians
tried by military courts, the war powers of the president.
• Impact of federal legislation such as the draft and the introduction of the new ‘greenback’ currency.
• Election as a referendum on Lincoln’s conduct of the war to date.
• Referendum of presidential policy on slavery eg the Emancipation Proclamation and the
recruitment of blacks into the Union armies.
• Effect of military operations on the election campaign.
• Role of the Radical democracy that nominated John C Fremont as its presidential campaign.
• Issue of conservatives (Blair) versus radicals (Chase) in Lincoln’s cabinet.
• Importance/significance of nomination of Andrew Johnson as vice-presidential candidate.
• Party platforms.
• ‘Blind’ letter of 23rd August 1864.
• Role of the Democrats and the ‘war failure’ charge.
• Issue of black rights.
• Issue of the Copperheads.
• Attempts by Republicans to tar all democrats as traitors eg JAG investigation of Knights of the
Golden Circle etc.
• The importance of the soldier vote.
Page 93
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Current: believed that Lincoln and the Republicans differed over where political power should
reside in the post-war South.
Parish: argued that issues, not just administrative but constitutional, turned upon the legal
character of the war.
Foner: thought the Radicals saw reconstruction as a chance to effect a far-reaching transformation
of Southern society.
Rawley: noted that the constitution demanded an election and at a time when the constitution was
being strained and tested in many particulars, it was of importance to ascertain that a people’s war
had the people’s approval.
McPherson: saw the 1864 election as a referendum on whether the Union should continue fighting
the civil war to unconditional victory. The result of this political campaign did as much to
determine the outcome of the war as events on the battlefield.
Belz: argued that both the Executive and Legislative departments were able to claim control over
reconstruction – a fact which invited controversy over jurisdiction, apart from any disagreements
that might arise over policy.
TH Williams: believed that in 1864 the Radicals wanted to deny Lincoln the nomination partly
because they thought he did not appreciate party principle; partly because they did not want to push
him for four more years; and partly because they felt that they could not trust him to deal with the
emerging problem of reconstruction.
Farmer: argued that Lincoln’s re-nomination was far from certain. Chase had presidential
ambitions but politically he was no match for Lincoln. The main threat came from John C Fremont.
McPherson: saw the unanimity at Baltimore as a temporary papering over of the cracks in the
party. These widened as despair increased that the war would never be won. The rate of attrition
might stun Northern voters into denying Lincoln’s re-election and ending the war. Sensational
revelations of ‘copperhead’ activities helped the Republican effort to discredit the opposition as
disloyal.
Page 94
Question 5
Compare the impact of the war on women in the North and South.
The aim of this essay is to allow the candidates to examine the extent of change and the impact that war
had on the role of women on both sides during the conflict.
The candidate might use evidence such as:
Common
• Volunteered to be nurses despite social opprobrium.
• Helped raise funds by sale of bonds etc.
• Some acted as spies eg Union spy Elizabeth van Lew or Confederate spy Rose Greenhow.
• Kept the home fires burning.
• Set up relief organisations.
• Kept up morale: by letter writing, tending to the sick or sending additional supplies to men in
camp.
• Replaced men, who had volunteered, in many professions.
• Increased role in food/factory output.
North
• Role in US sanitary Commission.
• Role of Clara Barton.
• Increased role in industry and farming.
South
• Women kept plantations going.
• Had to deal with shortages.
• Led civil unrest eg Richmond bread riots in mid-summer 1862.
• Played role in undermining morale of Confederate army from autumn 1864 onwards with letters to
soldiers pleading for the latter’s return.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Farmer: has argued for the importance of women in helping sustain the war effort. Women had to
provide food for themselves and their families. Planters’ wives had to run the plantations and
control the slaves whilst women in towns took over many male jobs.
Faust: commented that women faced severe hardship on the home front and this led to the growth
of defeatism as seen in the content of letters sent to the fighting men of the South.
McPherson: argued that the war led to a great increase in the employment of women. Volunteer
nurses gave valuable service that overcame military and medical prejudice.
Massey: believed the Civil War compelled women to become more active, self-resilient and
resourceful.
Eaton: noted that at the beginning of the war, Southern women were great supporters of the
rebellion and that it gave them opportunities to enter new occupations.
Roland: on the other hand, has argued that in spite of fierce patriotism of most Southern women,
their morale collapsed under the burden of war and their demoralisation did much to wreck the
Confederacy.
Reid Mitchell: has noted that historical judgements on Confederate women have ranged from
them as more devoted to the Cause than their men folk, to arguing that their withdrawal of support
doomed the Confederacy.
Dawson: argued that the war required or offered opportunities for women to work in ways that
were out of the ordinary for many of them.
Perman: believed that the war had a significant impact on the lives of countless women and that
women influenced the war in a variety of ways.
Page 95
Question 6
To what extent did the nature of warfare change during the Civil War?
The aim of this essay is to enable candidates to examine the changing nature of warfare looking at the
impact of technology, strategy and tactics and the scale of human involvement in the conflict.
The candidate might use evidence such as:
Continuity
• methods of recruiting armies by volunteering
• use of full-frontal infantry assaults eg Pickett’s charge
• use of cavalry
• failure of medical service
• continuity of tactics and strategy from Napoleonic times.
Changes
• impact of new weapons like the Spencer carbine and the minie ball and the use of percussion caps
• improvement in artillery due to rifling
• development of iron-clad warships with revolving gun-turrets and steam-driven propulsion
• use of torpedoes and submarines eg the CSS Hunley
• use of newspapers as a form of propaganda
• development of tactics and strategy; move to total war
• use of trench warfare eg at Petersburg
• scale of manpower involved: eg in 1862, Army of the Potomac comprised 125,000 men
• use of compulsion to raise armies: Confederate draft law of April 1862 or Union drafts of July
1863 and March, July and December 1864
• lack of decisiveness of new technology to explain why technology did not end war more quickly
• use and role of railways and the telegraph.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Neely: believed that the war was never a total war as the Union government did not attempt to
control the North’s economy or to mobilise all its resources.
Farmer: stated that the war did not exhibit the ruthlessness and cruelty that has characterised wars
in the twentieth century. The war reflected the impact of industrial growth. Factories and machines
transformed warfare. However, elements of continuity also remained eg strategy and tactics were
based on Napoleonic principles.
McPherson: noted the war mobilised human resources on a scale unmatched by any other event in
American history except perhaps World War Two.
Fuller: has pointed to Grant’s concept of total war as evidence to support the view of the war as a
modern war.
Hart: has argued that technology was applied to break the immobile warfare.
Hattaway: has countered by suggesting the new weaponry was too primitive, too unreliable and
too few in numbers to influence the outcome.
Vandiver: stated the war made its own innovations and the men responsible for directing it on
both sides had to evolve new methods of leadership and new ideas of command. However, the idea
of a civilian war effort was unfamiliar to all.
Thomas: noted the tactics of total war produced despair and weakened the Southern will to
continue the struggle to be a nation.
Page 96
“The House Divided”: USA (1850-1865)
Part 2
Question 1
How useful is Source A in explaining Southern actions over the issue of Fort Sumter? (12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for the quality of their evaluation of the provenance of
the source.
The candidate may be awarded up to 2 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s value.
The candidate offers a structured consideration of the usefulness of Source A in explaining the reasons
for Southern secession in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance will earn credit. These may include:
•
•
•
•
Written by ex-President of the Confederacy.
Events discussed were written many years later.
Autobiography was to justify Davis’s role in the Confederate war effort and to shift blame for its
failure from him.
Written in a very legalistic tone.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
Claims ground was ceded to US for defence of South Carolina in trust.
Not possible to reach a peaceful solution whilst US possessed fort.
South Carolina had not acted aggressively whilst Union had.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
South claimed merely to be reclaiming her own property.
Lincoln’s pledge to ‘hold, occupy and possess’ forts still in federal hands.
Fort at entrance to Charleston harbour in South Carolina, first state to secede from the Union
following Lincoln’s election.
Reluctance of President Buchanan to precipitate civil war.
Seward and the affair of the Southern commissioners.
Points from recall which offer a wider contextualisation of the view in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Election of Republicans and Lincoln.
Role of Southern ‘fire-eaters’.
Informal agreement by South Carolina to supply fort as long as there was no change to the status at
fort.
Actions of Major Anderson in moving men from Fort Moultrie to Fort Sumter.
Star of the West incident.
Issue of Fort Pickens in Pensacola harbour.
Congressional attempts at compromise.
Page 97
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Reid: argues that most of the major decisions had been taken before Lincoln came into office by
the ‘lame-duck’ president, Buchanan. Mishaps, miscalculations and misfortunes characterised the
manoeuvres that prefaced the Civil War. Conciliation could not work when it was treated by one
party with contempt.
Stampp: believed that Lincoln’s chief concern was the maintenance of the Union. He was acting
to re-assert and vindicate federal authority in the South. By March 1861, it was clear his policy was
one of the preservation of the Union through a defensive strategy.
Farmer: is critical of the passive position adopted by Buchanan, the lame-duck president, whom
he accuses of doing little to stem the tide of division. The House Committee of 33 was too big to
be effective. The Senate Committee of 13 was more effective but its proposals were unacceptable
to most in both the North and the South.
Potter: believed that compromise was unlikely from the outset, given the momentum of secession
and the fundamental philosophy of the Republican Party.
McPherson: saw Sumter as an affront to the Confederate government which it could not tolerate if
it wished to have its independence recognised. Buchanan’s relief expedition was a bungled effort
that only alienated the South further. Scott’s politically motivated recommendation to evacuate
Forts Sumter and Pickens rendered suspect his initial opinion that re-enforcement was impossible.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument, showing
a clear understanding of the views of the source. There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider
context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Greater awareness and development of
historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 98
Question 2
How fully does Source B explain the pressures on Lincoln in the summer of 1862 concerning the
issue of emancipation?
(12 marks)
The candidates may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidates provide in their overall interpretation of the
source’s fullness in explaining/analysing the issue.
The candidates offer a structured evaluation of Source B showing the pressures on Lincoln in the
summer of 1862 concerning emancipation in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
•
•
Lincoln’s recollection of events.
No specific date – unsure as to timing of this account.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view (s)
•
•
•
Pressure from Cabinet to arm the blacks.
Opposition from Blair on grounds of the political cost.
Suggestion from Seward to delay announcement until some military success is achieved.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Actions of Generals Butler, Fremont and Hunter.
Pressure from abolitionists.
Pressure from free blacks.
Pressure from Christian groups.
Apathy of the Border Slave States.
Fears of white Northern population as to consequences of emancipation.
Action of the slaves crossing into Union lines.
Points from recall which offer a wider contextualisation of the view in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
Lincoln personally against slavery but not an abolitionist.
Use of blacks as contraband of war – using Southern claim that slaves were property against the
South.
Sumner’s ‘state suicide’ theory.
Congressional action against slavery eg Johnson/Crittenden Resolution, First and Second
Confiscation Acts, Militia Act.
Evolution of Lincoln’s policy: message to Congress of December 1861, first draft plan on
emancipation of March 1862 and attempts to persuade the Border States to take the lead, use of
presidential war powers since emancipation was a vital military necessity to win the war.
Opposition from the Democratic Party to any attempt to change the constitutional status of property
rights.
Page 99
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Fields: has argued that the actions of the blacks themselves in both North and South left Lincoln
with no option but to issue a proclamation in effect recognising the legality of the existing
circumstances.
Tulloch: has viewed Lincoln’s actions as those of a politician having to change tack due to the
evolving nature of the conflict. In this case, Lincoln’s actions are viewed not only as necessary but
also as just.
Stampp: believed that Lincoln was reluctant to emancipate the slaves but the war demanded such
drastic action.
McPherson: stated that although the acts of Congress were impressive, they lacked the impact that
a presidential order, covering the whole country and population, had.
Reid: saw Lincoln’s use of the war powers as one way to destroy a prop to the Southern war effort.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a wide range of evidence, about the
extent to which a consideration of Source B is helpful in offering a full explanation as to the pressures
on Lincoln in the summer of 1862 over the issue of emancipation.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument, showing
a clear understanding of the views of the source. There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider
context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Greater awareness and development of
historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 100
Question 3
How much do Sources C and D reveal about differing viewpoints on the reasons for the defeat of
the South in 1865?
(16 marks)
Interpretation (maximum of 6 marks)
Candidates may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of each source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
Contextual and historical interpretations (maximum 10 marks)
These 10 marks will be awarded for:
•
•
•
•
the quality and depth of the contextual recall
the quality and depth of the wider perspectives
the range and quality of historians’ views
provenance comment (if appropriate).
Answers which refer only to content and provenance merit a maximum of 7 marks.
The candidate considers the views in Sources C and D on reasons for Southern defeat, and offers a
structured evaluation of the two perspectives in terms of:
Source C
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
•
•
•
Written by the Commander of the Army of Northern Virginia.
Designed to re-assure the men that failure was not due to them.
Designed to show the South was out-gunned.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views(s)
•
•
•
•
Out-manoeuvred by the enemy.
Men were exhausted.
Animals in poor condition due to hunger and exhaustion.
Faced starvation and misery.
Points from recall which develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
Collapse of Confederate supply system.
Army caught between the Union forces of Generals Grant, Sherman, Sheridan and Thomas.
Collapse of Southern will to carry on the war eg the depredations of Sherman – ‘make Georgia
howl’ and his ‘march to the sea’.
Page 101
Source D
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. Any relevant
comments on Parish will be credited under historiography.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views(s)
•
•
•
•
The South was unable to reconcile means and ends.
South fighting to defend the indefensible.
South had to become more like the North to win.
Unable to win foreign recognition.
Points from recall which develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
Alexander Stephens vetoed the suspension of the writ of Habeas Corpus in late 1864.
Draft and impressments laws.
Collapse of financial and economic system of the South.
Unpopularity of President Davis.
Presidential interference in the running of government departments, especially the War
Department.
Rapid turn-over in members of Congress and Cabinet eg 6 secretaries of war.
Points which offer wider contextualisation of the views in the sources
•
•
•
•
•
•
South embarked upon revolutionary action for conservative ends.
Centripetal nature of Confederate government.
Increasing opposition in Congress to acts of Davis.
Issue of states’ rights.
Collapse of Southern morale.
Economic dislocation in the South.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Current: has argued that the material superiority of the Union meant South was doomed to defeat.
McPherson: would counter this noting the role of chance and circumstance in determining the
outcome of the conflict.
Owsley: has highlighted the failure of King Cotton diplomacy and the issue of states’ rights.
Donald: has noted that the South was too democratic to prosecute a war successfully.
Crook: believed that the British foreign policy of neutrality was dictated by her calculations of
self-interest.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of the two sources is helpful in offering a full perspective on the reasons for
Southern defeat in 1865.
Page 102
Marks
1-4
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the sources; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the sources. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
5-7
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the sources, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
8-11
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the sources, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp
of topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
12-16 The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the views of the sources and their value as interpretations on the issue.
There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant
analysis. Greater awareness and development of historical interpretations and/or historians’
views will be credited highly.
Page 103
Japan: From Medieval to Modern State (1850s – 1920)
Part 1
Each question is worth 25 marks
Question 1
How rigid was the social structure of Japan in the mid-nineteenth century?
The aim of this essay is to investigate the rigidities of the social structure used by the Tokugawa Bakufu
to enforce their control. Candidates will give an overview of the social structure. They will investigate
aspects of this system that hindered social change and mobility. They will then go on to discuss factors
that were weakening this system towards the end of Tokugawa control and explore the perspective that
changes were already underway.
The candidates may use evidence such as:
Features of the social structure
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Tokugawa Ieyasu had established control in 1603.
Established a decentralized form of government and used the caste structure and Neo-Confucianism
to enforce their control and establish a rigid social structure in which individuals accepted Tokugawa
control and their own place within society without question.
Tokugawa only had direct control over 25% of the land – established Bakuhan system to control
rest of country.
Japan divided up into domains, and a Daimyo put in control of each domain, system; system
dependent upon loyalty.
Brief overview of caste structure relevant – highlighting the rigidity of the system and the lack of
mobility.
Neo-Confucianism exploited to enforce loyalty and encourage unquestioning acceptance of an
individual’s place within society.
Feudalism and rice based economy hindered industrial development and the development of a
coherent working class movement that might challenge the existing social structure.
Aspects of this social structure that made it rigid
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Caste structure – individuals born into a caste – there was no social mobility.
Peasants not allowed to leave the land – nor marry – without the permission of their Daimyo.
Caste structure underpinned by Neo-Confucianism which was exploited by Tokugawa Bakufu.
Neo-Confucianism demanded filial loyalty and piety, and an unquestioning acceptance of an
individual’s position in society.
Tokugawa policy of isolationism limited any exposure to other social structures which might have
led to questioning/rebellion.
Rice based economy hindering industrial development.
Factors threatening the rigid social structure by mid-nineteenth century
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Caste divisions were becoming blurred.
Discontent of samurai – divisions within military caste.
Rise of the merchant class.
Advances in commerce and the use of money were putting a strain on the rice based economy.
New intellectual currents began to question certain aspects of the status quo – Sonno Joi movement,
men of Shishi.
Impact of Shinto revivalism.
Financial difficulties experienced by the Bakufu and many Samurai led to a weakening of their
political control.
Influence of Dutch within Japan – ban on foreign books (except Bible) relaxed after 1720.
Reopening of foreign contacts with the US and Europe – arrival of Perry and signing of Unequal
Treaties.
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Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Harold Bolitho: “One by one the control mechanisms of the system failed.” “In the country the
authority of the Shogun and Daimyo alike were successfully flouted by farmers pursuing land
reclamation schemes.”
Hane: “…Economic difficulties that the Bakufu and Daimyo domains were experiencing
weakened the feudal order and caused discontent among the lower level Samurai and commoners.”
Storry: “as…scholars examined the concept of loyalty, a corner-stone of the Neo-Confucianism so
firmly endorsed by the Bakufu, they began to think that after all perhaps the Japanese owed loyalty
not so much to the Tokugawa Shogun as to the rather neglected line of emperors.”
Storry: “the whole regime had been under indirect attack from many quarters inside Japan long
before Perry arrived.”
Thomas Huber: emphasises the discontent of the samurai as weakening the caste structure.
Hunter: “the dynamic forces within society and in the economy eventually came into conflict with
a national policy which sought to avoid change”.
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Question 2
To what extent were accusations of excessive westernisation in relation to the Meiji social,
political and economic reforms justified by the late 1890s?
The aim of this essay is to examine the extent to which Meiji social, political and economic reforms
were simply copied from the west. By the 1890s in Japan there was a severe backlash from some
elements of Japanese society who argued that the policy of imitating the west had gone too far, and was
threatening what was unique about Japanese society. Assassinations of Meiji reformers became
common place. Candidates are being asked to consider to what extent this criticism was justified.
The candidates may use evidence such as:
General observations of western influence
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Foreign influences vital in shaping the early stages of Japanese modernisation.
Eastern Ethics: Western Science.
Importance of Iwakura Mission to West in 1873.
Cultural borrowing saw Japanese nationals visiting the west and the importation of experts as and
when required.
Creative adaptability as Japan only adopted those aspects best suited.
Political Reforms
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Impact on politics with constitution broadly in line with Germany – but maintained the unique
position of divine status of Emperor.
Western forms applied to many of the government departments and the military establishment
where western style uniforms were worn.
Judicial system along French lines and a western style cabinet.
Economic Reforms
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Economic – government utilised experience of foreign experts.
But, in contrast to British policy of laissez faire, government highly involved in stimulating and
encouraging industry − development of Zaibatsu.
Japanese industry made only a small range of everyday western consumer goods, mainly for export.
Commerce and banking similar to western operations.
Agriculture was still the main employer in 1890s.
Social Reforms
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Lead taken by the wealthy and privileged, as the everyday lives of ordinary people in the Japanese
countryside were hardly touched.
Japanese homes were still constructed of traditional materials and furniture was sparse.
Western dress worn at the office yet traditional outfits at home.
1890s − considerable backlash against perceived excessive westernisation by some sections of
society.
Assassinations of key individuals who they blamed of excessive westernisation – eg Mori Arinori
and Okubo Toshimichi.
Factors that suggest westernisation not excessive
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Education – Imperial Rescript on Education Japanese attempt to develop a new sense of Japanese
nationalism and loyalty to the Japanese Emperor.
Japanese adoption and assimilation of foreign ventures were a means to an end whilst retaining
much of her cultural identity as possible – welcoming occidental civilization alongside the oriental
civilization.
Unique position of emperor within constitution and his divine status.
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The candidate may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Buruma: “They recognised the power of western ideas and wished to learn more, so Japan could
one day compete with the best of them.”
Hane: “A popular children’s song enumerating ten most desirable things included gas lamps,
steam engines, horse drawn carriages, telegrams, lightening conductors, newspapers, schools, postal
mail and steam power. All these soon became the norm.”
Fahs: “Japan’s strong feeling of national identity was helpful in preventing blind acceptance of
everything western. To it is due Japan’s success in retaining many of her own rich traditions.”
Havens: “The revolution in the ‘higher culture’ was among privileged urban familiar with both the
Japanese artistic heritage and western ideas.”
Hunter: commenting on patriotism – “the establishment worked hard to ensure allegiance to the
nation transcended allegiance to any other group or individual.”
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Question 3
How significant was militarism within Meiji Japan up to 1890?
The aim of this essay is to evaluate the importance of militarism within Meiji Japan, especially with
regards those individuals who came to dominate the Meiji oligarchy, the constitution, military reform,
industrial development and public spending. Note the historical context of the question – before the
wars with China and Russia.
The candidates may use evidence such as:
Military influence in new Meiji Government
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All leading figures of the Meiji Government came from a warrior background – follows that
perpetuating the legacy of the samurai would be priority, although not within the confines of the
caste structure.
Examples of Saigo Takamori and Yamagata Aritomo – latter being instrumental in engineering
army reforms.
Military Reform
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Fukoku-Kyohei – ‘rich country – strong army’.
One reason Tokugawa had been unable to repel foreign interest was military weakness.
Military rebuilding a long-term objective – abortion of Takamori’s attempted attack on Korea by
new Meiji leaders because Japan not yet ready.
Description of military changes taken up to 1890 – including foreign experts giving advice and
initially building warships.
French advisors replaced by Germany whilst Great Britain guided naval reforms.
National Conscription law of 1873 ended Samurai monopoly on warfare and led to peasant
conscripts.
Schools of artillery and engineering trained officers in the technology of modern warfare were
established.
Political significance
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Military enjoyed greater success than political parties in acquiring both power and legitimacy.
Culmination of domination when in 1890 the military in Japan enjoyed its own set of constitutional
advantages when the emperor was put in supreme command of the army and navy.
Constitution also states that those ministers responsible for the military had direct access to the
throne under Emperor’s supreme command.
Each military service had complete control over its own internal affairs and over the conduct of
wartime operations with no constitutional accountability to cabinet.
By 1890 Japanese society and government had been re-ordered and with one third of government
revenue devoted to developing a modern army and navy, Japan could enter into the international
arena.
Armed forces deemed to occupy a special place in Japanese society – for much of the Meiji period
the army and navy as institutions had little political role – as institutionalised by Imperial Rescript
to Soldiers and Sailors (1892).
However, their leaders did wield significant political influence as members of the ruling oligarchy.
Industrial significance
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Reform of public finances made it feasible to increase public spending on the armed forces – helped
stimulate industrial development.
Japan moved steadily to manufacturing her own rifles and artillery.
One third of government revenue devoted to developing a modern army.
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The candidate may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Waswo: “The military enjoyed greater success than political parties in acquiring power and
legitimacy.”
Norman: “The first stage of industrialisation in Japan was inextricably interwoven with the
military problem.”
Benson: “Government efforts to ‘enrich the country’ were matched by attempts to strengthen the
military.”
Hunter: “In the interests of both domestic unity and efficiency the new leadership decided to start
afresh with the building of a conscript army.”
Takao: “It should never be forgotten that domestic politics, military police and foreign affairs
were intertwined in the most intimate fashion.”
Buruma: “National unity was armed unity. National education was military education. The
samurai virtues were now applied nationally. Loyalty and obedience to the emperor, who was
paraded around the country in military uniform, was the highest form of patriotism.”
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Question 4
How far has Japan’s progress from a backward agricultural economy to a modern industrial one
by 1920, been exaggerated?
The aim of this essay is to examine both industrial development and the continuing importance of
agriculture, evaluating and drawing conclusions about the relative importance of each with regards
Japan’s development.
The candidates may use evidence such as:
Industrial progress
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State leadership significant through taking over and developing new industries like shipbuilding,
mining, iron and steel production.
New textile mills set up.
By 1914 silk provided one third of Japan’s exports by value.
By 1890 Japan had achieved self-sufficiency in many items of military equipment.
Accompanying improvements in infrastructure − by 1930 24,000 km of track had been built.
Development of shipping – dominated by Mitsubishi − formed the nucleus of powerful merchant
fleet, became one of the world’s major shipping lines.
Government favouritism resulted in the development of huge monopolistic concerns, Zaibatsu, such
as the Mitsubishi Company.
Japan’s development from the Meiji period depended on a unique public and private partnership.
Samurai comprised the largest single status group among entrepreneurs.
Until the 1930s the silk industry employed more workers than any other industry and competed
with foreign markets in both domestic and export markets.
Wool, cement, bricks and glass became central to the government’s programme for the introduction
of new industries.
The period up to 1914 was a period of light industrial expansion.
WWI important − Japan gained a foothold in the export market.
They made in-roads into the Asian cotton markets, formally dominated by Britain.
The damage experienced by European shipping during the war meant Japan’s merchant shipping
doubled in the war years.
The ending of imports from the west also forced development within Japan, especially in the
chemical industry.
Japan reversed its balance of payments deficit during the war years.
Factors which suggest industrial progress had been exaggerated – continued importance of
agriculture
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Until the late 1920s agriculture accounted for over 25% of net domestic production.
As late as 1930 50% of population still dependent on agriculture.
Industrial foundations laid during Tokugawa period − opportunities for farmers to diversify as
intensity of work was not even throughout the year – such as pottery making and sugar cultivation.
The agricultural sector managed to support Japan’s expanding population.
The rate of agricultural growth throughout the Meiji period estimated at 1.8% annual growth in
output.
New techniques were introduced, including fertilisers. The granting of individual landownership
rights also increased incentives.
Rice remained the main crop but many farmers did diversify.
Agriculture contributed through the land tax a substantial part of the government’s income that built
the infrastructure for industrialisation and also a portion of the capital that developed industries.
Tea and silk production rose and contributed greatly to Japan’s exports.
Development of a hybrid system – uneven labour demands of rice production freed some peasants,
mainly female, to work in textile factories for part of the year.
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The candidate may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Totman: “The most important aspect of early Meiji growth was expansion of agricultural
production, which permitted both population growth and the deployment of more social resources
to other tasks.”
Moore: “Between Meiji Restoration and the first World War Japanese agriculture made what can
be legitimately regarded as a successful adaptation to meet the economic requirements of a modern
industrial society.”
Benson and Matsumura: “Farming was too slow to change”.
Beasley: “Important to recognise changes did not amount to an agrarian revolution in the European
sense.”
Hane: “The industry that developed rapidly from the early Meiji years and remained a key
component of the economy was textile manufacture…in 1897 Japan produced 24% of the world’s
raw silk and by 1904 it had become the world’s largest producer with a 31% share.”
Macpherson: “While it is true that development depended on the actions of individual
industrialists, peasants and factory workers responding to material incentives, they operated in an
environment conditioned by a nation-state pursuing the goals of economic greatness, and, therefore,
of a strong army and industrial growth.”
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Question 5
What factors best explain why popular rights movements has so little success in Japan by 1920?
The aim of this essay is to consider the lack of popular rights movements in Japan, representing the
interests of workers and women.
The candidates might use evidence such as
Early examples of popular rights movements and achievements
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Popular rights activity was dominated by an elite of activists at a national level.
Involvement of thousands of protestors at incidents such as Fukushima (1882).
In the later 1890s the influence of Christian socialism – drew attention of small group of
intellectuals.
Formation of various groups including Society for the Study of Socialism (1898).
Leading figures of the early left-wing movement were Kotoku Shusui and Katayama Sen, behind
the first attempt to organise urban workers. Rural workers were potentially far more difficult to
organise.
Although women workers made up the majority of the factory labour force, male workers were the
first that were targeted.
League for Founding Labour Unions (1897-1901) – attempt to organise iron workers, printers and
railway workers, published journal, ‘Labour World’.
Greater Japan Labour Association – established by Oi Kentaro (but instigators were few and the
worker response limited).
There was one mass protest in 1918 – The Rice Riots − martial law was imposed.
Minority of women fighting for greater social and political equality – such as Blue Stocking
Society.
After 1918 there was a more conciliatory attitude acknowledging the existence of working class
problems. (Russian revolution also influential).
There was also an increasing proportion of male workers in factories.
There was a brief flourishing of left-wing and political activity.
Reasons for lack of progress − suppression by government
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Peace Regulation 1887 – gave police the power to ban mass meetings and exclude specified
individuals from within a certain radius of Tokyo city centre.
Peace Police Law 1900 – gave Home Ministry the right to prohibit any association which
suspended attempts to organise labour and put a damper on left-wing political activity.
May 1901 Japan’s first left-wing political activity, the Social Democratic Party, was immediately
banned.
Would-be socialists often expressed themselves in journalistic activities − ‘Commoner Society’ –
weekly journal called for socialism, pacifism and ‘commonerism’ – closed within a year.
Jan 1906 – legal socialist party established but banned within a year.
The government campaign against the left-wing movement culminated in the so-called High
Treason Incident in Jan 1911. A group of socialists and anarchists were found guilty of plotting to
assassinate the emperor. 12 were executed.
End of WWI left wing activity was virtually non-existent.
Very limited male franchise and no female franchise.
Other factors for lack of progress
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Throughout the pre-war period the left-wing movement consistently failed to achieve a united front
to champion the interests of the working class.
Ideas of socialism were also alien to the Japanese tradition.
Notion of collective being more important than individual – emphasised through nationalism.
In 1915 of the 16 million employed population 60% were women – poses the question of whether
the leadership of socialist movements were adequate to mobilise such a potential force.
Page 112
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Hunter: “The divisions that exist in Japanese society are not widely perceived of as class
divisions.”
Buruma: “Many people did participate in politics. The enthusiasm with which politics was
discussed in villages and towns is particularly interesting” not only did rural people form their own
political parties, but Meiji Japan was marked by a huge number of rebellions.
Totman: “Industrialists continued to talk about Japan’s beautiful custom of master-servant
relations firmly based upon a spirit of sacrifice and compassion”. However, less workers being
persuaded, they also sounded unpatriotic class to diligence.
McClain: “the Peace Preservation Law of 1887…imposed stringent regulations on public
meetings, speeches and the press. The heart of the new measure…authorised the chief of The
Tokyo police to expel from the city any person living within an eight mile radius of the Imperial
Palace who was ‘judged to be scheming something detrimental to public tranquillity”.
Hane: “the oligarchs encircled the Emperor and exercised power in his name. Anyone who
challenged the existing order was condemned as a disloyal traitor”.
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Question 6
“By 1920 Japan was still not regarded as a full equal by Western nations, but she was now
accorded greater respect.” How valid is this view?
The aim of this essay is for the candidate to reflect and evaluate upon the progress Japan had made from
1868 in overturning the Unequal Treaties and being viewed as an equal with the west. Candidates
should evaluate the whole period, including the impact of World War 1.
The candidates may use evidence such as:
Areas in which equality achieved
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Overview of main initiatives taken to achieve equality with the west and how Japan had selected
from a broad base her social, economic and political role models.
Navy, telegraph, postal and saving system from Britain.
Police, judiciary and military police adopted from France.
Belgium providing banking ideas.
Germany – army and constitution.
Japan had been one of the most isolated countries in the world and by 1920 she was recognized as a
world power making the transformation a remarkable achievement.
Meiji leaders had united the country, introduced a modern system of government complete with
constitution, executive and legislature.
Established well respected civil service.
Introduced nation wide state education programme.
Japan had avoided any subservience by having no outstanding foreign loans since she had
sophisticated banking and developed a rigorous printing industry.
Japan’s overseas advancement – had defeated China and Russia and acquired Taiwan and Korea
– paralleled with western imperial policies.
Japan contributing troops to international forces sent to China to deal with the Boxer Rising in
1900.
Anglo-Japanese Treaty of Trade and Navigation of 1899.
Alliance with Britain in 1902.
Extra-territoriality had ended with the revision of the Unequal treaties in 1894 and she was allowed
to set her own tariffs in 1911.
Japan had played a role in the affairs of World War One.
Japanese presence at the Treaty of Versailles and had a vote equal to GB, France and USA − in
essence a victor’s place.
Japan a participant in the foundation of the League of Nations.
Japanese adoption and assimilation of foreign ventures were a means to an end whilst retaining
much of her cultural identity as possible – welcoming occidental civilization alongside the oriental
civilization.
Evidence which suggest equality still not fully achieved
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At Paris Peace Conference their attempt to get racial equality clause passed failed – evidence of a
lack of equality to non-western peoples.
Treatment of Japanese emigrants to America – development of US anti-immigration policy.
Page 114
The candidate may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Huber: “In theory at least Japan was now the equal of the western powers.”
Hunter: “By 1919 Japan had secured for herself a formal position as one of the world’s most
powerful nations.”
Benson: “As Japan’s economic transformation became more widely known, it had won her
considerable international respect.”
Peattie: “Victory in her first world war with one of the European powers had the paradoxical
effect of not reassuring Japan that she was now a world player able to compete effectively with
others as at least an equal but, instead it convinced her of her continuing vulnerability and the need
to further her military capability.”
Jansen: “It should be sufficient to note that between 1868-1912 – the 45 years of the Meiji
emperor’s rule – Japan came to acquire almost all of the ingredients of a modern state that other
countries were also in the process of obtaining.”
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Japan: From Medieval to Modern State (1850s – 1920)
Part 2
Question 1
How useful is Source A as evidence of the severity of the problems faced by the Tokugawa Bakufu
by the middle of the nineteenth century?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for the quality of their evaluation of the provenance of
the source.
The candidate may be awarded up to 2 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s value.
The candidate offers a structured consideration of the usefulness of Source A in understanding the
severity of the problems faced by the Tokugawa Bakufu in the mid nineteenth century, in terms of:
Provenance:
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Written in response to Perry’s arrival with his Black Ships in 1853 and letter presented from
President Fillmore – calling for Japan to abandon policy of isolation with the US and permit
trading.
Written by translator for Tokugawa – therefore representing their interests and not those of the
Imperial court.
Written at a time when Tokugawa Bakufu faced many internal difficulties and faced uncertainty
about how to handle the threat of incursion from the West.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
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Illustrates dilemma Tokugawa Bakufu found themselves in – caught between inertia and reluctance
to change ancient laws and traditions and yet accepting that times are changing, feeling threatened
and prepared to comply with their proposals.
Highlights problems of leadership – emperor argues he ‘cannot now bring about any alterations to
the ancient laws’ yet representatives of the Bakufu are agreeing to open up trade and ports to the
US – therefore abandoning policy of isolation.
Show international nature of threat – not simply US who are demanding trading rights, but also
Russia.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
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Perry arrived in 1853 with a third of US navy – left the Tokugawa feeling threatened.
Tokugawa Bakufu in a genuine state of uncertainty – approached Imperial Court for their opinion
– marked a huge turning point as they had never before consulted the Emperor on issues to do with
the State.
They later disregarded this opinion when they agreed to the terms presented by the Americans.
Agreed to the signing of first Unequal Treaty with USA.
Outrage amongst men of Shishi and those associated with the new nationalist school of thought.
Bakufu had disregarded Imperial opinion – further fuelled their demands for some form of
restoration of the Emperor.
The Tokugawa Regime was accused of usurping imperial power by ratifying treaties with the west.
Enemies of the regime took up the rallying cry of ‘revere the emperor and expel the barbarian’
(Sonnō Joi).
Bakufu’s members became divided over how far to adhere to traditional policies and how far to
adapt to changing foreign and domestic environment – they seemed incapable of decisive action.
Other western countries were pressing Japan – including Japan, Britain and France.
The threat of incursion by western powers was a very real threat faced by the Tokugawa and led to
a real questioning of their ability to rule Japan.
Page 116
Points from recall which offer a wider contextualisation of the view in the source
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Increasing pressure from Western countries was one of many problems being faced by Tokugawa
Bakufu.
Decentralised nature of government causing major problems and loyalty to Tokugawa beginning to
wane.
Traditional forms of social control beginning to breakdown – especially the blurring of the caste
divisions.
Daimyo and Samurai falling into debt to merchants because of their increasing lavish and decadent
lifestyles.
Increasing burden of taxation upon peasants increasing peasant discontent.
Economic problems caused by the emerging money based economy replacing rice as the staple
form of currency.
The Tempo Reforms were an attempt to restore the old order. Their failure not only revealed the
growing weakness of the Tokugawa Bakufu, but also left unanswered questions of how Japan could
find more effective policies.
1866 – Important alliance between the 2 leading opponents – Satsuma and Choshu – 2 largest clans
united in opposition.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Kornicki: “It is more appropriate to see the pressures upon Japan as international in nature and
stemming from the expansionist drive which was working itself out among the Great Powers”.
Hane: “Most important event that provoked this was the arrival of western powers…Economic
difficulties that the Bakufu and Daimyo domains were experiencing weakened the feudal order and
caused discontent among the lower level samurai and commoners. But this was not sufficient to
undermine Bakufu.”
Huber: emphasises the discontent of the samurai.
Bolitho: “The foreign crisis after 1853 make it clear the Tokugawa government, entrusted with the
duty of protecting the emperor and empire from foreign aggression, was unable to do anything of
the kind.”
Storry: “As…scholars examined the concept of loyalty, a corner-stone of the Neo-Confucianism
so firmly endorsed by the Bakufu, they began to think that after all perhaps the Japanese owed
loyalty not so much to the Tokugawa Shogun as to the rather neglected line of emperors.”
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source A is useful for understanding the severity of the problems facing the
Tokogawa Bakufu.
Page 117
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate provenance
comments.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and little if any
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate
provenance comments.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate provenance comments and the interpretation is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the provenance of the source and the views in it. There is a solid grasp
of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Greater
awareness and development of historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be
credited highly.
Page 118
Question 2
How much do Sources B and C reveal about different interpretations on the development of
Japanese democracy after 1889?
(16 marks)
Interpretation (maximum 6 marks)
Candidates may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of each source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
Contextual and historical interpretations (maximum 10 marks)
These 10 marks will be awarded for:
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the quality and depth of the contextual recall
the quality and depth of the wider perspectives
the range and quality of historians’ views
provenance comment (if appropriate).
The candidate considers the views in Sources B and C on the development of the new Japanese
constitution and democracy after 1889, and offers a structured evaluation of the two perspectives in
terms of:
Source B
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
accurate comment on Edwin Reischaur will be credited under historiography. Candidates may know
that the author was born and raised in Japan and is reflecting upon the constitution his country
introduced.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
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Defends Japanese constitution of 1889.
Western observers in 1889 felt that late nineteenth century Japan was still not sufficiently advanced
to adopt a modern form of government.
Nonetheless the Constitution of 1889 represented a tremendous change from previous forms of
earlier government.
Highlights three key motives for introducing a new constitution: political and public pressure, a desire
to gain greater public support for the Meiji regime and the desire to impress the west.
Points from recall which develop and contextualise those in the source
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The Constitution was represented as being a gift from the Emperor to his subjects and not a
concession won by popular demand.
The 1889 Constitution (implemented Nov. 1890) was the result of several years of meticulous study led
by Ito Hirobumi who had observed the operation of European constitutions.
Important to view Japanese constitution within the context of European constitutions of the time
– which were not democratic.
The Constitution was very close to the German model of monarchy.
It was based on the Prussian constitution and was meant to impress on the Western world that Japan
was now a modern nation-state, which should be free at last of the Unequal Treaties that still
afforded Americans and Europeans special privileges on Japanese soil, such as their own law
courts.
For many years after 1890 successive governments were composed nearly always of the SatsumaChoshu ruling oligarchy.
The constitution was not based on universal suffrage; when Diet met in 1890 only half a million out
of population of 40 million could vote.
There was fierce rivalry and debate as the political parties in the Diet were determined to get power,
while the oligarchy were determined to keep it.
Successful implementation of constitutional government (along with other reforms) did induce the
British to agree in 1894 to give up their extraterritorial privileges by 1899, and other powers
followed suit.
Full control over Japanese tariffs was accomplished in 1911.
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Source C
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
accurate comment on I Buruma will receive credit under historiography.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
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Constitution was not democratic, uses term ‘authoritarianism’.
Argues it was doomed from the outset – ‘a sickly child from the beginning’.
Constitution was an ambiguous document.
Highlights the Emperor’s lack of real political power, but his status was exploited by the
‘bureaucratic elite’, which meant their power was more or less unchecked.
Points from recall which develop and contextualise those in the source
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The basic aim was the retention of power in the hands of the existing ruling elite with minimal
interference from or responsibility to the majority of the population.
The Constitution was a cautious, conservative document served to reinforce the influence of the
more traditional elements in Japan’s ruling class.
Theoretical Imperial role was formalised within the Meiji constitution.
Starting point was the Emperor – who had bestowed the constitution on the Japanese people.
1st clause – spoke of Japan being reigned over in perpetuity by line of Emperors.
3rd clause – talked of the Emperor as ‘sacred and inviolable’. The Emperor was the source of
absolute sovereignty.
He was the head of the government, possessing on paper sweeping range of executive, legislative,
administrative and military powers.
But the political position of the Emperor was ambiguous and he had little real political power.
Many of the committees, the Privy Council, cabinet, armed forces and imperial bureaucracy
operated independent of each other.
The two houses of the legislature appeared to be little more than a ‘talking shop’. They were not
intended to be a vehicle for participation in governmental decision making.
The cabinet and armed forces were largely autonomous, responsible to the Emperor alone – huge
implications for growing strength of military during this period.
Leaders of the armed forces had direct access to Emperor.
Cabinets were appointed by the Emperor – not necessarily from the majority party in the Diet.
All edicts and laws were issued in the name of the Emperor, although not composed by him, which
made any opposition treason.
Points which offer wider contextualisation of the views in the sources:
Two sources offer contrasting perspectives about the Constitution.
• Source B defends that Japanese Constitution within the context of the time.
• Argues that western powers, who the Constitution was supposed to impress, actually believed
political changes were too radical at the time in Japan.
• Western constitutions were not democratic in the late nineteenth century.
• Highlights new Constitution a response to public demand as well as a desire to overturn the
Unequal Treaties.
• Source C reflects upon how the constitution actually functioned in practice.
• The Emperor was not supposed to be directly involved in politics; he was supposed to stand above
worldly affairs, while a bureaucratic elite made political decisions in his name.
• The strength of the new constitution came from the reliance on the basic ideological consensus
relating to the person of the Emperor and the formalisation of imperial legitimacy.
Page 120
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Hunter: “The Meiji Constitution did not create ‘a unified nation under an absolute emperor, nor a
parliamentary democracy, but a series of major groupings, each of which could utilise the imperial
position to impose its polices on the rest of the population.”
Jansen: “Restoration leaders kept the court at the centre of national identity and that emphasis
diffused amidst the population as a means of control.”
Storry: “The nominal head of the new government in Tokyo was a court noble but the real
controllers of power were men from much junior rank from the western clans.”
Wall: “At first the new government made a show of being open, soon however, power was
concentrated in the powers of the samurai from the western han.”
Beasley: “The Emperor’s importance as a source of legitimacy for the Meiji leadership has never
been in doubt.” To the Meiji leaders he was “useful as a symbol and occasionally as a weapon of
last resort”.
Thomas: on the Charter Oath – “Ambiguity is inbuilt.”
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of the two sources is helpful in offering a full perspective on the development of
Japanese democracy.
Marks
1-4
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the sources; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the sources. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
5-7
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the sources, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
8-11
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the sources, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp
of topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
12-16 The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the views of the sources and their value as interpretations on the issue.
There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant
analysis. Greater awareness and development of historical interpretations and/or historians’
views will be credited highly.
Page 121
Question 3
How fully does Source D explain the significance of the Russo-Japanese war for Japan?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s fullness in explaining/analysing the issue.
The candidate offers a structured evaluation of Source D as to how fully it explains how significant it
was to Japan, in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
Accurate comment on John Benson and Takao Matsumara will be credited under historiography.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
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War against Russia a ‘resounding victory’ highlighting the progress that had been made by the
Meiji leaders.
Japan had defeated one of the world’s greatest powers which was very significant.
General feeling of dissatisfaction with the Treaty of Portsmouth.
However, victory did not boost Japan’s confidence – they still felt vulnerable which fuelled the
desire for further military reform.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
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Features of the war – Navy did very well – successful assault on Russian Pacific fleet while it lay
anchored in Port Arthur, and destroyed Russian Baltic fleet after it had sailed all the way from
northern Europe.
Army did less well – war dragged on and Japan suffered dreadful losses and increasingly serious
economic difficulties.
Features of the Treaty of Portsmouth – Russia accepted Japanese primacy in Korea and
relinquished its economic interests in the south of Sakhalin and southern Manchuria – including the
Liaodong Peninsula.
Mediation of US President Theodore Roosevelt significant – reveals growing global importance of
Japan.
Sept 1905 angry crowds rioted for 3 days in Tokyo against the Treaty of Portsmouth, martial law
was imposed upon the capital for a few days. Revealed growing nationalism within Japan.
Overwhelming feeling of betrayal by their leaders due to the extravagant expectations of the
Japanese public.
Continued military reform and expansion after 1905.
Page 122
Points from recall which offer a wider contextualisation of the view in the source
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Further step towards fully overturning the Unequal Treaties (not fully achieved until 1911) and
gaining equal status with western powers.
Gained access to natural resources in Manchuria.
Significant growth in nationalism and militarism within Japan demanding further territorial
advancement.
Russia was the only western power with which Japan shared a border.
Japan had been dealt a blow to her pride by Russia when they intervened to deny Japan the
Liaotung Peninsula after Sino-Japanese war. Victory was significant in overturning this
humiliation.
Resentment further increased in 1903 when Russia completed the Siberian Railway, facilitating
troop movement.
Further bolstered Japan’s status as leading Asian power – already obvious following defeat of
China in 1894-5 war.
War significant as revealed growing militarism within Japan and desire for strong overseas action.
No doubt it was a most popular war. There had developed patriotic pressure groups.
War revealed significance of the Treaty with Britain in 1902 for bolstering Japanese confidence.
There were some critical voices about the war – but they were a minority opinion – some novelists
and poets.
Infant Socialist party (although its existence was illegal) and its members and sympathisers opposed
the war.
Idea that war a resounding victory for Japan could be challenged.
Japanese public had been fed stories of success for eighteen months and unaware of situation of
near exhaustion financially and in terms of trained manpower by 1905.
High casualty rates, wartime tax and price hikes caused hardships.
War significant was first modern war of the 20th century. Significant as some historians argue
marked a change in the nature of Japanese Imperialism, with imperial policy becoming much more
planned after the war.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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Buruma: described war with Russia as a dress rehearsal for World War One.
Conroy: “Meiji Imperialism was ad hoc rather than planned until 1905”.
Totman: Tokyo’s accomplishments were impressive: more territorial gains, an internationally
accepted, hegemonial role in Korea, opportunity to develop southern Manchuria, and victory over
an imperialist rival that placed beyond doubt Japan’s status as a ‘Great Power.’
Beasley: “Fortified by an alliance with Britain…she (Japan) began a vigorous diplomatic
campaign to reduce or limit Russian advances”.
McClain: “Most Japanese felt ‘shock and humiliation over the Triple Intervention and believed
that treaty revision and the 1902 alliance with Great Britain affirmed Japan’s status as a major
power worthy of more respect than the Russians were willing to give.”
Hane: “The Russo-Japanese War coincided with an important stage in Japan’s economic
development. Since 1895 the country’s higher profile in the world, coupled with the armament
programme, had led to greater government expenditure on war-related industry.”
Buruma: “The high point of Japanese militarism was the brutal war against Russia… The
Japanese were still feeling bruised because Western powers forced them to hand over some of their
victory spoils in 1895.”
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source D is helpful in offering a full explanation of the significance, for
Japan, of its participation in the Russo-Japanese War.
Page 123
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and indicating
little grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly wellwritten with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and
appropriate historical interpretations.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument, showing
a clear understanding of the views of the source. There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider
context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Greater awareness and development of
historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 124
Germany: Versailles to the Outbreak of the Second World War
Part 1
Each question is worth 25 marks
Question 1
“Ebert’s hasty and timid deals with the old order severely weakened the German Revolution.”
How valid is this view?
The aim of this essay is to enable candidates to review and evaluate the historical significance of
Ebert’s leadership of democratic forces in the crucial period following the military defeat, through the
Kaiser’s abdication, the proclamation of the Republic and the suppression of threats to the new state
power from political extremists. In doing so, essays will examine crucial policy decisions made by
Ebert and Majority SPD leaders, and a comparison might be made of the immediate and the long term
effect of Ebert’s decisions.
Candidate might use such evidence as:
Points suggesting that Ebert’s haste and timidity were significant, weakening the Revolution
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Ebert’s determination to stem the spread of ‘Asiatic bolshevism’ into Germany led him to speedily
compromise with the military, bureaucratic and security forces of the ancien regime.
Ebert-Groener pact of 10th November 1918 ensured the continuing authority of the Kaiser’s High
Command and the Army’s suppression of revolutionaries of the extreme left. Ebert’s interim
government encouraged the formation of Freikorps (anti-communist volunteer units) which after
military defeat of autumn 1918 were willing to take up arms against those they perceived as
enemies.
Councils: Ebert sought speedy dissolution of the workers’ and soldiers’ councils which had
emerged in many of the industrial centres and barracks.
Industry: 15th November 1918 the central working association (ZAG) ‘round table’ agreement
between leading industrialists and trade unionists ensured the continuance of private ownership of
the means of production; the capacity of industrialists such as Stinnes to accumulate colossal wealth
remained unchecked.
Ebert asked the existing civil servants, judges, professors to stay in post. Many were profoundly
reactionary, disloyal to the new republic.
Points suggesting that Ebert’s tactics and policies enabled the revolution to survive and attain
stability
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Ebert correctly read the pulse of the German public. Most Germans were weary of war and
privation and sought peace and stability.
The Armistice of 11th November imposed severe conditions on Germany. Ebert wanted a period of
consolidation to enable Germany to face up to what would be a harsh peace settlement.
The majority of the councils were opposed to a deepening of the revolution and were supportive of
Ebert’s strategies.
The ZAG agreement delivered unprecedented triumphs for German workers such as binding
arbitration and the eight-hour day.
The elections of 19th January 1919 for Germany’s first fully-democratic National Assembly
confirmed Ebert’s political wisdom, with the SPD emerging as the largest party, dominating the
first coalition government.
Ebert helped create an open pluralistic framework for Germany, replacing the closed, reactionary
Kaiserreich (women able to vote, become parliamentary deputies).
Page 125
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
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KD Bracher (1969): while noting Ebert’s talent for expediency argues that “it undeniably hampered
the development of a democratic governmental apparatus and made possible the questionable role
of the Reichswehr as a ‘state within a state’”.
Simon Taylor (1983): reminds his readers of Rosa Luxemburg’s verdict on November as a pyrrhic
victory for the workers. Thanks to Ebert’s compromises the old regime “was still entrenched in the
twin strongholds of the military and heavy industry.”
Ian Kershaw (1998): “the Majority Social Democrats under Friedrich Ebert showed themselves
too fearful of what was coming out of the Pandora’s box of potential social change that had been
opened: too timid to trust even their own mass support; and too willing to ride with the forces of
the old order rather than risk more democracy.”
Detlev Peukert (1987): reminds his readers that Ebert and his closest comrades were reluctant “to
subject a highly complex industrial society, with an infrastructure essential for the smooth running of
daily life, to disturbing experiments in radical reorganisation.” Every revolution is unfinished; the
revolution headed by Ebert was especially so, but a less ‘unfinished’ revolution would have failed the
same crises as did Weimar in its later years.
AJ Ryder (1959): Ebert’s moderation reflected the fact that “the policy of most of the councils was
moderate.” They were not revolutionary soviets. To pillory Ebert as revolution’s grave digger, as did
many Marxists, was to miss the point that the November Revolution was not capitalism in its death
throes, but “a weakening of state power owing to military defeat.” Nonetheless, Ebert did err by
failing to “infuse a new spirit into the civil service and judicial system.”
Michael Burleigh (2000): is scornful of Marxists and radicals who accuse Ebert of “betraying the
revolution and enabling capitalism to survive.” Ebert had little alternative than to turn to the regular
army and to the Freikorps for support against the Spartakists and other extremists.
Richard J Evans (2003): recognises Ebert’s strengths as “a typical pragmatist of the second
generation of Social Democratic leaders.” His main aims – maintain essential services, avert
economic collapse, preserve law and order, secure parliamentary democracy – were entirely
laudable. But his willingness to compromise with the old order was to cost the Republic dear in
years to come.
Page 126
Question 2
Can the years 1924-1929 justifiably be seen as a period of economic and political recovery for the
Weimar Republic?
The aim of this essay is to enable candidates to consider the years of Weimar’s so-called ‘Golden Age’,
and critically evaluate evidence suggesting that, from 1924 onwards, it went through a settled period of
apparent recovery following the traumatic first years of its political and economic existence. The
candidate would assess the justifications lying behind the claims of political and economic ‘recovery’,
and, in so doing, consider the counter-claim that appearance did not coincide with essence, that any
recovery was partial, short-term or shallow.
The candidate might make use of evidence such as:
A review of the nature of the Republic’s economic and political situation in 1920-23 as a
comparator for the subsequent political and economic developments of the ‘Golden Age’
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1920-23: political crises on left and right: Kapp Putsch 1920; KPD-led political strikes and
insurrections, 1921 and 1923 eg Saxony-Thuringia; 1923 Munich Beer Hall Putsch.
Freikorps and extreme-nationalist groups; assassination and murders of democrats (eg Erzberger
and Rathenau).
Problems within government: ‘trahison des clercs’? Unwillingness of the civil service, professions and
judiciary to embrace the values and aspirations of the new democracy.
Continuing fragility of government – successive coalitions.
Growth of extreme ultra-nationalism (eg DNVP’s campaigns); breeding ground for Nazism.
Economic breakdown: Problems of reparations payments; Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr;
the hyper-inflation crisis.
Reasons for claiming there was a political recovery
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1923: Gustav Stresemann: Democracy’s saviour? Conversion from war-time annexationist to
vernunftrepublikaner (republican of reason); becomes Weimar’s leading political figure. Architect
of Dawes Plan; his vision for a revived Germany; the policy of ‘fulfilment’.
The Republic was able to weather successive storms with states’ police forces and the army
providing essential support.
Prussia was an undoubted success story, led by a succession of moderate, pro-Republican
governments.
May 1928: NSDAP’s 2.5% of the vote gives it 12 Reichstag seats, DNVP slump from 103 to 73 cf
DVP -45; SPD win 22 more seats to give it 153; the parties committed to Weimar form a Grand
Coalition under Chancellor Müller; Stresemann continues as Foreign Minister, the anchor man of
Weimar democracy.
The election of President Hindenburg in May 1925: proof of the integration of the ancien regime
within the new democracy?
Reasons for claiming there was an economic recovery
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Stabilisation of the mark; key role of Schacht as special currency commissioner in the Finance
Ministry; introduction of the Rentenmark; curbing of inflation; Reichsmark (1924) pegged to gold.
The ‘Atlanticist strategy’ of Schacht and Stresemann. Given that American influence would
continue to grow it was crucial for Germany to build special economic relationships with the USA
enabling reparations repayments to be put on a businesslike basis (Dawes Plan). Germany (where
savings had evaporated during the Great Inflation, 1923) proved an investment haven for American
and European lenders.
The resultant economic upswing financed by short-term investments of foreign capital; housing and
public buildings construction boom; modernization of many areas of German industry.
In collective bargaining, the system of arbitration tended to favour the trade unions (eg 1928 Ruhr
iron and steel industry dispute).
The unemployment insurance scheme (1926-27) designed to cushion 17 million workers against job
losses.
The growth of consumerism.
Page 127
The counter view
Reasons for claiming the political recovery was more illusion than solid substance
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The polarity of German politics – fevered militancy of DNVP and a host of extremist groups to its
right (eg NSDAP) on the one hand, and the parties committed to Weimar and peaceful roads to
German recovery (SPD, DDP; Stresemann’s DVP; the Centre party). On the left, mass membership
KPD (Communists) wedded to the idea of the role of force in history and of revolutionary politics.
The election of President Hindenburg in 1925. Was this evidence of the continuing strength and
influence of conservative-reactionary forces within the Republic?
The continuance of the Bismarckian federal structure compromised the ability of the Reich
government to act firmly and decisively (eg ‘the Bavarian ulcer’).
Reasons for claiming the economic recovery was weakly based
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Recovery post-1923 hinged on credit from abroad, especially USA; made Germany vulnerable to
fluctuations on Wall Street stock market.
Danger of short-term loans being used to finance long-term capital projects (eg modernisation of
plant) – potential hazard of non-renewal of loans.
13 November 1928: Stresemann warned that foreigners over-estimated the strength of the German
economy, which was in fact ‘dancing on a volcano’; if short-term loans were withdrawn a large part
of the economy would collapse. He had used this figure of speech earlier, on 7th July 1923 (see
below part 2 q1 marks scheme) – an indication of his on-going insecurity as to the strength of
German recovery?
Fault-lines within the economy; such as weakish export performance not balanced by compensating
rise in internal consumption.
Trend to cartelisation – insufficient ‘free market’ competition resulting in over-priced goods.
Poor industrial relations – high expectations of workers in aftermath of inflation.
Unemployment – 1926 – 2.0 million, 1928 still 1.4 million, 1929 – rises to 1.9 million.
Welfare legislation – finance of unemployment insurance pegged to unemployment figure of 0.8
million, leading to huge pressure on the unemployment fund.
Depressed agricultural sector – eg inelastic demand, failure of producers to enlarge their market,
increased debt in farming communities (resulting in political radicalisation of voters before 1930),
presaging what was to happen elsewhere.
Page 128
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
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Paul Bookbinder (1996): “By 1929 Germany had become the world’s second industrial power
behind the United States. Real wages rose, and the standard of living for many increased
dramatically.”
Richard Bessel (1990): while recognising Germany’s “substantial economic recovery from the
dark days of 1923 … as well as impressive advances in the development of the social welfare
system” pondered that such advances may have carried the seeds of their own destruction. “Rather
than a boom for Weimar democracy, the social welfare system proved a time bomb with a rather short
fuse.”
Such pessimism was earlier expressed by Knut Borchardt (1979) whose interpretation of the
failure of Weimar centred upon its lack of room for manoeuvre apparent in the middle ‘stable’
phase of 1924-29. Summarising Borchardt’s arguments, Ian Kershaw writes: “A major internal
weakness arose from excessive wage levels of German workers resulting in the main from
government interference in the labour market, through, for example, the introduction of compulsory
wage arbitration and increased employer contributions to social insurance payments.”
Richard J Evans (2005): “the idea that democracy was on the way to establishing itself at this
time (1924-28) is an illusion created by hindsight… and the fact that the two major bourgeois
parties, the Centre party and the Nationalists, soon fell into the hands of avowed enemies of
democracy boded ill … Not even in the relatively favourable circumstances of 1928 had the parties
of the ‘Weimar coalition’ succeeded in gaining a majority in the Reichstag.”
Eberhard Kolb (1984): In reviewing Borchardt’s arguments, writes: “Altogether Borchardt
concludes, the German economy in 1925-29 must be described as ‘an abnormal’, in fact, a sick
economy.” Kolb’s estimate is “it is generally accepted that the economic situation in Germany was
highly precarious even before the world depression.”
Detlev Peukert (1987): wrote of “the illusion of domestic stability”; the years between 1924 and
1929 seem stable only by contrast with the periods of crisis that preceded and followed them.
There were deep structural tensions in German society including those created by the peace treaty
and the foundation of the Republic in 1918-19. 1924-29 was a period of intense modernity and
experiment; but, argues Peukert “the exceptionally severe check to Germany’s economic growth
that followed the First World War reduced the scope for compromises and trade-offs.” The ‘cult of
modernity’ provoked intense conservative reaction.
Adam Tooze (2006): “One key factor contributing to the de-stabilization of the Weimar republic
after 1929 was the disappointment of the hopes invested in America’s ‘new order’ by Germany’s
pro-Republican forces. In 1923-24 the successful stabilization… had depended crucially on the
involvement of the United States. From 1928 American lending to Germany began to fall.”
Jonathan Wright (2002): in writing of Stresemann’s last days, talks of “preparing for Hugenberg
and Hitler” over ratification of the Young Plan. As early as January 1929 reports reached
Stresemann of Hindenburg hoping that confrontation and crisis would provide the opportunity to
challenge the Grand Coalition with some kind of authoritarian government.
Page 129
Question 3
“The Nazis said they were the only true volkspartei (people’s party), drawing support from all
social classes.” How well does this describe the growth of the Nazi Party before 30th January
1933?
The aim of this essay is to enable the candidate to review and discuss the appeal of Nazism across a
wide social base, from its foundation in 1919 until the assumption of power. Many essays might focus
on the later years of the period, from 1928 when the Nazis began to make inroads into the farming areas
of North Germany. Candidates ought to review the intense debate that has long existed on who voted
Nazi.
The candidate might make use of evidence such as:
A review of the stages of the growth of NSDAP:
•
•
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1919-1924: regional origins (Munich, Bavaria); one of a cluster of extremist nationalist groups;
formation of paramilitary wing, the SA; Beer Hall Putsch.
1925-1928: NSDAP re-founded after failure of Beer Hall Putsch and resultant schisms; after
Bamberg conference (1926) nationwide organisation divided into gaue (regions): 1927 membership growth stagnant; party congress at Nuremberg orientates propaganda towards middle
classes. Rank and file SA members increasingly from social layers below the middle class.
1928-1933: 1928 election – still only a minority party but progress being made in rural
constituencies in the North, among peasant voters. The September 1930 electoral ‘breakthrough’.
By 1932, as the country’s largest political party − a credible future government.
Notion of a ‘People’s party’ – Nazism, its core message and appeal, its millenarianist vision, the
chiliasm of despair.
Nature of support for the NSDAP in terms of:
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Social class – the Mittelstand (petty bourgeoisie) were well represented. Likewise farmers,
especially peasant farmers.
Economic status of members, supporters and voters. Above all (cf their political rivals) NSDAP
was a ‘catch-all’ party, but certain groups (eg teachers) were well represented.
Age – over a third of NSDAP members in 1933 were under age of 30, but the Nazi vote was higher
the more older or retired people lived in the electoral district.
Gender: irony − women excluded from leadership status within Nazi movement but by the
Depression years in some constituencies the recorded female vote for NSDAP was higher than the
male vote.
Geography – northern and eastern Germany (in their agricultural constituencies) solid for NSDAP
by 1933.
Denomination – many Protestants voted Nazi.
‘Mentalities’ – Nazis key into rejection of Republic and republican values by millions of voters;
beneficiaries of the surge towards authoritarianism.
Role of propaganda.
Nature of support for political rivals such as:
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SPD – in particular spoke for the skilled working class. Working class loyalties and values were
deeply embedded in its million members.
KPD – attracted many of the unemployed and young.
Centre – origins in Bismarck’s kulturkampf, attracting solid support from millions of Catholics.
DDP won votes from many among the better educated and more affluent layers.
DVP of the bürgertum (the middle and upper classes).
DNVP – conservative nationalists.
The candidate may summarise by noting that the Nazi Party of 1933 was thus a qualitatively different
phenomenon from the Party of the 1919-1928 period, when it was regional and overwhelmingly middle
class in membership.
Page 130
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The traditional Marxist view of Nazism was that it was ‘petty bourgeois’, its core support was the
middle class, but especially the lower middle class. Such a view is now superannuated. But the
Hungarian Marxist Mihaly Vajda (1976) has provided a thoughtful analysis on Nazism. He argues
that the unemployed who supported the NSDAP were ‘new’, “proletarianised out of a petty
bourgeois, mostly peasant milieu.” Noting the steady rise in right wing voters, Vajda argues that the
years of Nazism’s surge in growth, “As soon as they saw a strong and influential party promising
both the improvement of their social position and the ‘rise’ of the German nation, they immediately
joined it.”
Many years ago Richard Brady (1937) argued that “there was a plank in the Nazi platform to meet
the prejudices of nearly every group to be appealed to.”
More recently, Ian Kershaw (1998) writes “the NSDAP were no mere middle-class party, as used
to be thought. Though not in equal proportions, the Hitler Movement could reasonably claim to
have won support from all sections of society. No other party throughout the Weimar Republic
could claim the same.”
Richard J Evans (2005): cautions against the argument that unemployment drove people to support
the Nazis: “The unemployed flocked above all to the Communists.” He emphasises the collapse of
“the conventional political right.” Fear drove masses of such people towards Hitler and the Nazis.
By 1932 the Nazis were “a catch all party of social protest with particularly strong middle class
support and relatively weak working class backing at the polls.” The Nazis successfully projected
an image of dynamism and salvation of the national community.
Dick Geary (1993): ably encapsulated research findings to that date. He reminds us that most
Germans did not support Nazism. So who did? “Nazi electoral support was much stronger in
Protestant than Catholic Germany, a feature of both urban and rural areas.” The Nazis did better in
small towns than in the cities. Working class Nazis tended to be from small towns, working in
artisan or cottage industry. The manual unemployed supported the KPD rather than the NSDAP.
Historians such as Evans, Geary and Kershaw have relied heavily on the painstaking research of
German-born historians such as Jürgen Falter and Detlef Mühlberger. The former has described
the Nazis as “A People’s Party with a middle class belly.” The latter’s research “points
overwhelmingly in one direction: that the Nazi movement effectively transcended the class
divide.” Though in unequal proportions, ‘the ability of the Nazis to generate support from all social
classes gave the Nazi movement its potency.”
Tim Kirk (2006): “Above all, the Nazi movement was a young movement… The average age of a
party member in 1930 was 31.” “By July 1932 the NSDAP represented a greater range of social
and economic groups than any of its competitors.”
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Question 4
Was Nazi foreign policy mainly determined by economic factors?
The aim of this essay is to allow the candidate to isolate and review the principal determinants of Nazi
foreign policy and to evaluate the significance among these factors of economic motives.
The candidate might use evidence such as:
Timetable of key events:
•
March; August 1933
•
•
1933/35 passim
October 1933
•
•
•
•
•
January 1935
March 1936
July 1936
9th September 1936
5th November 1937
•
•
•
•
•
March 1938
September 1938
15th March 1939
23rd August 1939
1st September 1939
Schacht appointed President of Reichsbank; became Minister of
Economics.
rearmament and conscription: unemployment cut.
Germany quits League of Nations and World Disarmament
Conference.
Saar plebiscite.
Remilitarisation of the Rhineland.
Nazi Germany begins active assistance to Franco in Spain.
At Nuremberg Rally Hitler announces launch of Four Year Plan.
The Hossbach Memorandum; Hitler informs some of his closest
advisers that he plans to go to war, outlining the steps he intends to
take in achieving lebensraum (living space) in the East.
Anschluss.
Sudeten Crisis.
Czechoslovakia disintegrates.
‘Molotov-Ribbentrop’: Nazi – Soviet non-aggression pact.
German invasion of Poland.
Outline of German foreign policy before the Nazis came to power – continuities?
•
•
Stresemann: regulate relations with Britain, France and the USA, negotiate the fulfilment by
Germany of the economic clauses of the Versailles treaty; in the long term revise Germany’s
eastern frontiers; auslandsdeutsche (Germans in foreign countries) to be brought back to live
together in one state.
Brüning: replaces Stresemann’s pragmatic, cautious gradual revisionism with a much sharper
political and economic nationalism, to be continued and intensified by the Nazi regime.
Hitler’s views on foreign policy:
•
•
•
His writing: Mein Kampf (1924) and the Second Book (1928) with their vision of:
- reversing the Treaty of Versailles
- reuniting all ethnic (‘pure’) Germans within one ‘national community’
- lebensraum: expansion Eastwards a necessity of the Reich
- Crusade against the ‘Judaeo-Bolshevik conspiracy’ bent on destroying Germany: saw Judaism
and Marxism as Germany’s principal foes
- defeat France
- seek alliance with Britain
Lebensraum: consistent themes in Hitler’s public speeches, as early as 23 May 1928: goal of
lebensraum clearly set out.
To confidants, in secret session: eg 23rd May 1939, outlines aggressive intentions to army officers.
Page 132
“Working towards the Führer”: the “ceaseless radicalisation” (Ian Kershaw) of Nazi policies,
especially foreign policy.
•
Decision-making including the sphere of foreign policy was a structure in which the Führer’s broad
brush approach was acted upon by his inner circle and functionaries who found that Hitler
invariably favoured the most radical solution. A momentum, a cumulative radicalisation, was thus
created in Nazi foreign policy, which drove it inexorably towards expansion. In this way, the
Führer’s belief in the role of force in history unfolded.
The Economic dimension.
•
•
•
Autarky: in the context of a global economic depression and an increasingly protectionist world
market, the idea of economic sufficiency gains sufficiency. It complements the geo-political
concept of lebensraum. Hitler and leading Nazis such as Göring and von Ribbentrop increasingly
view autarky as realisable within a supra-national, regional economy (Grossraumwirtschaft) created
by conquest.
Rearmament: a radical aggressive foreign policy was central to Nazism. A rearmed Germany, the
creation of a peace-time economy fully geared to preparing for war, was thus an early priority for
Hitler and the Nazis.
‘Guns before butter’ or ‘Guns and butter’?: economic growth and development directed towards
domestic, consumer needs was subordinated to the needs of the armed forces. The ‘conservative’
economist Schacht was removed and replaced by the bullish Göring, overlord of the Four Year
Plan. (But the argument can also be advanced that ‘guns’ necessary for conquest, would create the
living space enabling the economy to develop a consumerist thrust (‘butter’), rewarding the ‘volk’)
Page 133
The candidate may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
William Carr (1972): in Arms, Autarky and Aggression, this historian of an earlier generation
showed readers how these three features of Hitler’s foreign policy were intertwined.
Richard J Evans (2005): “It was, without question Hitler, personally, who drove Germany
towards war from the moment he became Chancellor subordinating every other aspect of policy to
this over-riding aim.”
Neil Gregor (2005): Summarising Hitler’s writings, argues that Hitler’s core beliefs were that “the
task of any nation’s foreign policy was to match the living space to the size and needs of its
population... the only possible foreign policy options (for Germany) were either a peaceful, tradebased campaign of overseas colonialism or territorial expansion through military means the reversal
of the punitive restrictions of the Treaty of Versailles was not an end in itself but at best a means to
an end.”
Ian Kershaw (2000): in phrases such as “ceaseless radicalization” and Hitler’s “expanding
messianism”, Kershaw depicts the Führer as being driven by ideology; “Through the introduction
of the Four Year Plan, Germany was pushed in the direction of expansion and war.”
Tim Kirk (2006): “Hitler was sceptical of economic motives as the basis for foreign policy, but
there was nevertheless a strong economic dimension to his foreign policy in that one of its central
objectives was providing for Germany’s material needs. Territorial expansion would be the means
of providing the food and raw materials that Germany needed.” This in turn would encourage
German population growth. It was a hubristic foreign policy that would combat the alternative, “a
degenerate commercialisation” that would deliver Germany into the hands of the enemy, ‘the Jews’.
Richard Overy (2004): writes that the “predatory economics of the Third Reich derived from
Hitler’s view of national economic competition outlined in the 1920s. It set the German command
economy apart from the Soviet experiment where economic colonization was internal and
productive rather than external and piratical”. Overy, in a scholarly polemic with Tim Mason
waged many years ago, argued that German economic planning and foreign policy goals in the
1930s did not aim at short, limited wars. Rather he argues, the foreign policy actions of March
1936 until March 1939 “were all driven by economic as much as racial motives”. Stepping stones
on the path to Grossraumwirtschaft, the concept of an autarkic territorial bloc rather than a discrete
national economy.
Laurence Rees (1997): discussing the consequences of the crucial decision in 1936 to proceed
with rearmament as against consumerism quotes the banker Johannes Zahn, a contemporary of
Schacht’s: “Rearmament cannot be sold, though the purchasing power remains.” Without
expansion, without utilising rearmament, “Germany was heading inexorably towards ruin.”
Mihaly Vajda (1976): Nazism was wedded to expansion. Hitler and the Nazis controlled a fascist
control economy, not a liberal laissez faire consumerist democracy. By the pivotal year of 1936
they had solved the social crisis of mass unemployment, but they could not travel down the road of
New Deal America. To do so would be to commit political suicide. Hitler, encouraged by his inner
circle, intoxicated by power, refused to accept limits, insisted on continually reaching out, driven by a
restless hubris.
Adam Tooze (2006): “Up to now we have not had a full and coherent account of the role played
by economic factors in Hitler’s drive to war. At the heart of any such discussion must be the
dynamics of the armaments economy. It was military spending that increasingly dominated the
German economy.” Like Evans and Kershaw, he places Hitler at the heart of German foreign
policy and he reminds us that “it is only if we couple together all three aspects of the Führer’s role –
diplomatic, military and industrial – that we can truly grasp the way in which he set about
unhinging the European balance of power.” Tooze continues that Hitler did have a “vision of
national prosperity for all the volksgnossen (racial comrades)” but Germany was not, especially
when compared to the USA, an affluent society. Tooze argues that the German people passionately
identified with a drive to rearmament that was conjoined with an expansionist foreign policy:
“rearmament in the 1930s was as much a popular spectacle as it was a drain on the German
standard of living, a form… of spectacular public consumption.”
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Question 5
To what extent had the Nazis achieved their aim of creating a “volksgemeinschaft” (national
community) by 1939?
The aim of this essay is to enable candidates to analyse and account for the extent of success that the
Nazis achieved by 1939, in their drive to create an exclusive German nation (the Volk), purged of
‘impure elements’, rising above the divisions and conflicts of modern society through a shared sense of
national purpose.
The candidate might use evidence such as:
The core elements of the concept of national/racial community defined in racial terms Blut und Boden,
(blood and soil). Conscious of the superiority of the German race and pledged to follow the Führer,
racial comrades would rise above the divisions of class, region, workplace, religious beliefs to strive to
create a harmonious and affluent new Germany.
The area in which the Nazis attempted to translate theory into practice such as:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Workers and the workplace; the destruction of existing working class organisations, trade unions and
political parties and their replacement with DAF (German Labour Front)
Attempt to create new values systems, a new mass consciousness among workers with socialism
and Marxism replaced by volkisch aspirations.
The coordination of all women’s organisations into Nazi Frauenfront (women’s front); antifeminist with women aware of their inferior status in ‘outside’ society, but of their primacy within
the separate spheres of home and family.
The coordination of all youth movements into the Nazi-controlled organisations of Hitler Youth
(boys) and Bund Deutsch Madel (girls) and with radical re-structuring of the education system,
reflecting youth being at the core of Nazis’ vision of national regeneration.
Middle classes: given their level of support for the Nazis before 1933 there was a strong correlation
between the values of many identifiably middle-class Germans and those of the Nazis. (But the
middle class was far from homogeneous.)
Hitler and the Nazi Party’s collectivist and consumerist dream of an affluent volk whose lifestyle
corresponded to their racial superiority.
The churches; the attempt to coordinate all Protestants into one ‘German Faith Movement’ and the
Concordat with the Catholic Church.
Cultural, sporting and social life: the nature and significance of Party organisations such as Kraft
durch Freude (Strength Through Joy) and Schönheit der Arbeit (Beauty of Labour).
Charity work as a means of mobilising communal sentimentality through the N.S Volkswohlfahrt
(National Socialist People’s Welfare organisation) which absorbed, coordinated and expropriated
(eg socialist and Jewish charities organisations) existing charitable bodies.
Marginalisation and exclusion of those beyond the pale of ‘national community’ such as:
•
•
•
Germany’s 500,000 Jews – the principal target/scapegoat of Nazi racial policy.
Gypsies.
Asocials – an umbrella term applying to people such as travellers, beggars, prostitutes, alcoholics,
delinquents and the work shy. In Nazi ideology asocial behaviour was evidence of racial inferiority
and such people must not infect the German race.
Page 135
The candidate may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
KD Bracher (1969): “That which the DAF offered as a substitute for freedom (eg appeals to
national pride) ... could not alter the fact that employer and employee continued to stand in opposite
corners … (after 1936) all branches of industry suffered under the pressure of price competition and
labour shortage...”
Michael Burleigh (2000): Charity “became a favoured means of mobilising communal
sentimentality; the most under-rated, but quintessential, characteristic of Nazi Germany.”
Richard J Evans (2005): “The problem was that any programme of social change that the Nazis
might have desired was in the end ruthlessly subordinated to the over-riding determinant of
preparation for war… the realisation of any social or racial utopia was postponed until Germany
had acquired its much-vaunted living space in the East.” Evans argues that the Nazi Revolution
“was first and foremost cultural rather than social… the idea of racial engineering.”
Neil Gregor (2000): Many areas of German society, “it seemed, remained relatively immune to
the attractions of Nazism; working class and Catholic sub-cultures in particular remained at least
partially intact.” He reminds readers, however that “rejection of one aspect of the system did not
have to preclude participation in other, maybe more murderous aspects.” Gregor reminds readers
that “National Socialism was, above all, an attempt to construct an ideologically-inspired
alternative modern utopia” with a radical programme of racial engineering.
Tim Kirk (2006): “Despite the ambitious rhetoric of its propaganda, Nazism did not bring about a
revolution ... either in terms of real social change or in the way social reality was perceived.” Thus
the labour movement was left weaker and the employers stronger from 1933; “the effect was to
reinforce rather than transcend or overcome class divisions, the working class was contained rather
than integrated into a positive ‘national community’.” Kirk asserts that the erosion and breakdown
of communal identities and solidarities was well underway before 1933, a secular trend observable
in other modern industrial societies.
David Schoenbaum (1966): argued that Nazism accelerated secular trends in the German
economy and society “creating at least an atmosphere of opportunity”; “In the context of both
ideological mobilisation and industrial recovery, every social group was integrated almost
overnight into the new system. The immediate dissatisfactions were wiped out.” While what
Schoenbaum terms “objective social reality, the measurable statistical consequences of National
Socialism” indicates that by 1939 the goal of a ‘national community’ was yet distant, nonetheless,
“interpreted social reality … reflected a society united like no other in recent German history, a
society of opportunities for young and old, classes and masses.”
Adam Tooze (2006): highlights Hitler’s collectivist dream of national prosperity for all the
volksgenossen (racial comrades). “The fundamental problem was the enormous gap between these
high flown aspirations and German reality… Germany in the 1920s and 1930s was not an affluent
society.” What Tooze encapsulates as the attempt to create “volksgemeinschaft on a budget, was in
peacetime Germany unattainable.” “The real instrument for the attainment of American-style
consumer affluence was the newly assembled Wehrmacht.” In Tooze’s argument, the Wehrmacht
and rearmament became central to the peculiar features of the Nazi Volksgemeinschaft. In
particular the Luftwaffe “provided a point of imaginary identification” for millions of Germans.
The new weapons of the army were “assertions of national strength, the common property of the
German nation.” – a subtle updating of Schoenbaum’s “interpreted social reality.”
Page 136
Question 6
To what extent did Hitler’s popularity by 1939 rest on image-building by the Ministry of
Propaganda?
The aim of this essay is to explore the part played by Goebbels and his Ministry, in building mass
adulation of Hitler. The candidate should take into account the acceptance by most Germans of Hitler’s
‘strong leadership’, top-down authority replacing democracy and debate. The component parts of the
propaganda machine might be examined.
The candidate might use evidence such as:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Early perceptions of the nature of Nazi propaganda and its portrayal of Hitler
The Ministry of Propaganda and how it worked
- The importance of Goebbels
- Aspects of propaganda such as
- Radio
- Press
- Film
- The mass rally
- Art and architecture
- Postage stamps
- ‘kitsch’ in a mass production economy.
The burgeoning Hitler myth – the Führerprinzip
Hitler’s popularity across the period under review
- 1933-35 coalition leader; crises and stresses; plebiscitary successes; internal security
- 1936: annus mirabilis
- Rhineland
- Berlin Olympics
- 1937-39
- Anschluss
- Kristallnacht
- Sudetenland
- Coming of war
The Führer and his people
- The Mittelstand
- Rural population
- Working class
- Women
- Young people
- The old elite such as aristocracy, officer caste
The basis of Hitler’s popularity
- Winning the ‘Battle for Work’
- Foreign policy – a succession of bloodless triumphs
- Law and order eg role of the Gestapo
- Scapegoating those perceived as ‘enemies of the volk’ especially
- Jews
Communists asocials
The vacuum of criticism, dissent, opposition; coercion in a police state.
The Hitler Myth… Hitler possessed Weberian ‘charismatic authority’. This had its roots in the
peculiar features of his leadership of the Nazi Party and of the broader cult of ‘strong leadership’; a
historic feature of Germany’s political right. In power he was projected as the embodiment of
national mission and as such had to remain above the hurly-burly of everyday political life. As an
illustration, he was successfully projected as Germany’s saviour, the supreme judge of the national
interest in the Rohm Purge. Approval of his actions in June/July 1934 was almost universal.
Page 137
The candidate might bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Early post-1945 explanatory models depicting a German population atomised by terror and mutely
receptive to Nazi propaganda.
ZAB Zeman (1964): the Nazis’ phenomenal growth “was due to the skilful exploitation of
propaganda techniques.”
David Welch (1993, 2003): has long emphasised the centrality of the ‘Hitler Myth’ and the
Führerprinzip (Leadership principle). The cult of the leader was “undoubtedly the most important
theme cementing Nazi propaganda together.” For many Germans he “filled a vacuum caused by the
sudden loss of the monarchy in 1918.” Thus, “a remarkable degree of consensus was achieved”, and
the cult of the leader “surpassed any normal level of trust in political leadership.”
Neil Gregor (2005): “the function of propaganda was not to dupe, but to mobilise what was
already latent.”
Ian Kershaw (2000): has charted the success of Hitler as “a secular redeemer” when popular piety
was still strong. By 1936, Hitler’s popularity among Germans outstripped Bismarck’s. The Hitler
cult projected him as the “strong man able to overcome through force the apparently insurmountable
chasms prevailing in a comprehensive state crisis.”
Richard J Evans (2005): has traced the embedding of the Hitler cult “propagated in the nation
with the full resources of the state.” Goebbels defined his Ministry’s task to be the “spiritual
mobilisation” of the German people.
Robert Gellately (2005): argues that Hitler “strove to combine popularity and force, and there
emerged a hybrid regime best described as a ‘consensus dictatorship’. He quotes eye-witnesses
such as Golo Mann and Martin Broszat, the former stating, “People were ready for it (the Nazi
take-over)”
Norbert Frei (1987): Hitler “balanced coercion and terror with individual populist measures,
suggestive rhetoric and vast social and political promises.” Out of this grew the Hitler Myth. In its
creation, propaganda was essential.
WS Allen (1965): “the history of mass propaganda in the mature dictatorial structure of Northeim
was one of increasing indifference.” Enthusiasm gave way to ritual in this small town.
Tim Kirk (2006): in discussing Kershaw’s model of Hitler’s ‘charismatic authority’. Refers to
this stemming in part from the political rights cult of strong leadership and of the nature peculiar to
Nazism of ‘plebiscitary democracy’: “mass politics based on popular acclaim rather than popular
participation.”
Page 138
Germany: Versailles to the Outbreak of the Second World War
Part 2
Question 1
How useful is Source A as evidence of the political consequences of the Great Inflation of 1923?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for the quality of their evaluation of the provenance of
the source.
The candidate may be awarded up to 2 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s value.
The candidate offers a structured consideration of the usefulness of Source A in providing an adequate
understanding of the political consequences of the Great Inflation in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance will earn credit. These may include:
•
•
•
•
For 2 years Hitler had been absolute ruler of the National Socialist German Workers’ Party (Nazis).
Hitler was the star speaker of this still small regional extreme right-wing Nationalist group.
In 1923 his message was one of salvation. Only the Nazis could rescue Germany from its problems
and restore its fortunes.
1923, year of crisis for the Weimar Republic
- Franco-Belgian occupation of Ruhr
- Collapse of the mark; hyper inflation
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
Hitler is claiming that:
•
•
•
•
•
Farmers will reject the worthless paper money and will refuse to trade their farm produce.
Money had lost its value and people were still starving.
The German people no longer wanted democracy, they wanted dictatorship.
Parliamentary democracy in Germany has failed, and it will be crushed.
The future of Germany will lie in the result of the struggle between the Nazi party and the KPD, the
political extremes of left and right.
Page 139
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The crisis of 1923: January: French and Belgian troops occupy the Ruhr; passive resistance;
economy disrupted; fuels inflation to meet welfare needs; mark collapses in value.
By mid summer 1923 a German variation of the ‘scissors crisis’ had manifested itself with farmers
hoarding food and not placing it on the market for purchase. In towns and cities food shortages
thus became critical. A barter economy began to develop.
The Ruhr crisis invoked national unity and solidarity of support for passive resistance; bad news for
political extremists like Hitler.
National unity was, however, severely tested by the rapidly escalating inflation crisis which acutely
affected the overwhelming majority of Germans. This provided political capital for extremists such
as Hitler. Subdued since the failure of the Nazis to hijack May Day from working class
organisations in Munich, his fortunes revived.
11 August: Chancellor Cuno’s Grand Coalition collapses when SPD withdraw over his failure to
curb inflation. Stresemann becomes Chancellor with SPD support.
To balance the budget Stresemann must stabilise the mark, meaning an end to passive resistance in
the Ruhr. This inflames the nationalist extremists, especially in Bavaria. They plan revolt.
Bavaria’s northern neighbours, Saxony and Thuringia, with far left governments, appear to be
heading for Communist insurrection.
Communist inspired strikes across Germany in summer 1923.
Reichswehr remains loyal to Stresemann’s government. Bloody suppression of the socialists in
Thuringia and Saxony.
In Bavaria, Hitler forms an alliance with General Ludendorff; the Munich Putsch of 8/9 November
1923.
The putsch is easily suppressed but Hitler is now a national figure.
Points from recall which provide wider and more critical contextualisation of the views in the
source:
•
•
•
Hitler was still a minor political phenomenon restricted to the regional rather than the national
stage, and forced to seek allies for his attempt to launch a coup d’etat.
The immediate political consequence of the inflation crisis was the strengthening rather than the
weakening of parliamentary democracy as it propelled the ‘vernunftrepublikaner’ Stresemann
centre stage as Chancellor heading a strong cabinet of party politicians, particularly the SPD.
The long term political result was to create a legacy, a ‘folk memory’. When economic crisis of a
qualitatively different nature returned in 1929, anti-republican sentiments revived, in particularly,
among the ‘mittelstand’.
Page 140
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Alan Bullock (1952): “The French occupation of the Ruhr still continued (by August 1923), but
the initial mood of national unity had gone. The intensification of the inflation, the desperate
economic position of millions of Germans and the growth of extremism, both on the Right and on
the Left, seemed to have brought the country close to civil war.”
Ian Kershaw (1998): “Crisis was Hitler’s oxygen… and the deteriorating economic conditions in
Germany (with their distinctive flavour in Bavaria) as summer turned to autumn, and the currency
collapsed totally under the impact of the ‘passive resistance’ policy, guaranteed an increasing
appeal for Hitler’s brand of agitation.”
Writing of Stresemann becoming Chancellor in mid-August 1923, Jonathan Wright (2002) states;
“The desperate situation made the great coalition possible. Stresemann and the SPD leaders both
saw it as the last chance for constitutional government. If it failed then the alternatives were civil
war and dictatorship.” The previous month, 7th July 1923, Stresemann made his oft-quoted remark
that Germany was “dancing on a volcano and we are facing a revolution.”
Richard J Evans (2003): “Hyper inflation added to the feeling in the more conservative sections
of the population, of a world turned upside down, firstly by defeat, then by revolution, and now by
economics.”
Eberhard Kolb (1984): records how the Stresemann government passed “the crucial test of the
autumn weeks of 1923.” Above all the extreme left was badly weakened but this was less so with
the right-wing challenges to the Republic. “In particular sections of the population and in elite
professional groups there was still a massive reservoir of anti-republicanism and anti-democratic
feeling.”
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source A is useful as evidence of the political consequences of the Great
Inflation on 1923.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument, showing
a clear understanding of the views of the source. There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider
context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Greater awareness and development of
historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 141
Question 2
How well do Sources B and C illustrate differing viewpoints on the motives behind the foreign
policy of Gustav Stresemann?
(16 marks)
Candidates may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of each source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
Contextual and historical interpretations (maximum 10 marks)
These 10 marks will be awarded for:
•
•
•
•
the quality and depth of the contextual recall
the quality and depth of the wider perspectives
the range and quality of historians’ views
provenance comment (if appropriate).
The candidate considers the views in Sources B and C on the motives behind Stresemann’s foreign
policy, and offers a structured evaluation of how much the two perspectives reveal in terms of:
Source B
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance will earn credit. These may include:
•
•
•
Stresemann: Chancellor 1923 and foreign minister 1923-29, architect of Germany’s re-built status
among Europe’s great powers.
His audience was the world’s press, but specifically French, British and American journalists.
October 1925; statement made in the immediate aftermath of the signing of the Treaty of Locarno.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
•
•
‘The idea of peace’, ‘the road to peace’; Germany’s peaceful intentions; rejection of the notion of
force.
‘my own personal experience and knowledge’... Stresemann’s long-standing experience as a
politician.
Locarno as ‘an achievement’.
A settlement such as Locarno had been necessary for the ‘European’ portion of the globe.
The Locarno treaty exemplified the new found ‘spirit’ among those who signed it.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Stresemann had become Chancellor (for 100 days) and foreign minister when Germany was
imperilled by the Franco-Belgian occupation of the Ruhr and by hyper-inflation.
Stresemann had undergone a conversion from being a wartime annexationist to becoming
Germany’s foremost advocate of ‘fulfilment’ of its obligations under the Treaty of Versailles. He
had taken over the mantle of Rathenau, assassinated in June 1922 by extreme nationalist terrorists.
As a ‘vernunftrepublikaner’ (republican of reason), Stresemann was committed to a policy of
negotiation and détente with Germany’s wartime enemies but especially France (he found a kindred
spirit in Aristide Briand).
Locarno Pact confirmed the inviolability of the Franco-German and Belgo-German frontiers and
the demilitarised zone of the Rhineland. Stresemann had taken the initiative, offering France a pact
of mutual guarantee and non-aggression.
Stresemann did not, however, commit Germany to any treatment of mutual guarantee with Poland.
There was no ‘Ost Locarno’.
Germany was no longer one of Europe’s outcasts. The hatred and ill-will of the punitive Versailles
Treaty was to be replaced by mutual understanding.
As evidence of the new European spirit, in 1926 Germany was admitted to the League of Nations.
Page 142
Source C
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance will earn credit. These may include:
Accurate comment on Sally Marks will receive credit under historiography.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
•
Stresemann concealed the truth from Locarno signatories, Britain and France, from Germans, and
even from himself.
In domestic politics he had to tread a careful line; Stresemann was distrusted by the Left (SPD)
because of his previous (pre-1918) imperialist convictions; the Right (ultra-nationalists) accused
him of betraying Germany.
Stresemann used this isolation to his advantage; Britain, France and USA gave way to his demands,
fearing the alternative.
Rather than being a ‘good European’ Stresemann was a ‘great German nationalist’ with all that this
later phrase implies.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
Stresemann masked his real aims – revision of Versailles and the creation of German hegemony in
Central and Eastern Europe.
His real motives were contained in his letter to former Crown Prince, 9th September 1925, only
made public in 1932.
He sought the dismemberment of Poland and was prepared to pursue a policy of friendship with the
USSR.
Before 1918 Stresemann had been an unashamed imperialist; in wartime earning the nickname of
‘Ludendorff’s young man’. This made the internationalist SPD wary.
The nationalist right loathed the Dawes and Young Plans – the Hugenberg-Hitler campaign of 1929
against the latter.
Within a decade he had achieved a significant dismantling of the sanctions and punishments of the
Treaty of Versailles. He was able to achieve concessions in the aftermath of the Locarno treaties of
autumn 1925 such as the evacuation of the Cologne zone (December 1925), reduction in the
number of occupation troops in the remaining two zones, the withdrawal of the Inter-Allied Control
Commission from Germany (31 January 1927) and in 1926, entry into the League with a seat on the
Council.
Page 143
Points from recall which provide wider and more critical contextualisation of the views in the
sources:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
German territorial ambitions pre-1914 and during 1914-1918; colonial and Mittel Europa.
The ‘diktat’ of Versailles; Germany comes to terms with the reality of military defeat by the Allies:
- German army post-1918; role of von Seeckt.
- Potential of the German economy for recovery.
Weimar Republic’s foreign policy: the crisis years 1919-1923
- France dominant; Poincaré.
- Weimar’s response: Wirth (Centre Party) origins of fulfilment.
- ‘Ostpolitik’ at a time of changes in the geo-politics of Central and eastern Europe, particularly
creation of Soviet Russia and the successor states (particularly Poland).
- German Soviet relations; Treaty of Rapallo, 1922 and Treaty of Berlin, 1926.
- The gravity of the national crisis of 1923.
- Stresemann becomes Chancellor then Foreign minister at the time of the Republic’s Stunde
Null (Zero hour), at the nadir of its fortunes.
Stresemann’s principles and character; pragmatic conservative, stern realist.
Stresemann’s strategies of foreign minister:
- While searching for rapprochement with the Western powers, Stresemann did not abandon his
pursuit of revision of the Treaty’s punitive clauses. Rapprochement with the wartime victors
(means); revision of the peace settlement (ends).
- Consolidation of the economy in the aftermath of the Dawes Plan agreement. His ‘Atlanticist
Policy’; negotiating deals with the US; building a ‘special relationship’ with the Great War’s
only real victor.
- Locarno Pact; Germany’s endorsement of her Western frontiers but without closing the option
of territorial revision in central and eastern Europe and of the return to Germany of the
‘Auslandsdeutsche’ populations of Poland and successor states.
Stresemann’s differences and icy relations with von Seeckt over the means, pace and form of
revision.
Stresemann’s recognition of the strength of German national feeling.
His dealing with the Crown Prince – the letter of 7th September 1925; hidden agenda for a militarily
revived Germany or attempt to convince a still influential German nationalist that peaceful revision
was the only way forward?
Page 144
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The dilettante Communist journalist Claud Cockburn (1957) provided Sally Marks with
ammunition: Stresemann “was one of those Germans who had, at a fairly early date, discovered
that the way to get away with being a good German was to pretend to be a good European.”
AJP Taylor (1945): Stresemann “never concealed that he asked for concessions in order to win
more.” But “where he differed from the Pan-Germans was in believing that this supremacy could
not (now) be won by military power, but must be achieved by the weight of German industry.”
Annelise Thimme (1968): “The aim of his foreign policy was revision of the treaty of Versailles
and the end of German isolation, both of which he achieved. He went further and gained the
confidence of the world, including Germany’s former enemies.”
Eberhard Kolb (1984): “his long-term approach to the achievement of revisionist aims and his
relatively moderate use of the means available, allowed Germany to keep her options for the
future.” Kolb argues that the main role in his plans was played by Germany’s economic potential,
with the key feature being the links with the USA. At the same time Stresemann recognised the
need to satisfy France’s demand for security.
Detlev Peukert (1987): summarised Stresemann’s achievement as “a workable foreign policy true
to the spirit of Weimar.” Thus, “He came down clearly for a peaceful foreign policy of voluntary
agreements, at any rate as far as Western Europe was concerned and as long as the Reichswehr
remained a ‘quantité négligeable”.
Jonathan Wright (2002): In 1924 “Germany had the chance to break out of isolation… (and)
bring its economic and political weight to bear for revision of the Versailles treaty. At last a viable
strategy to follow instead of simply reacting to the policies of other powers.” Wright argues that
Stresemann rejected von Seeckt’s secret preparations for war and the associated policy of
cohabitation with the Soviets as unrealistic given the dominance of the Western powers. But, like
one of his role models, Bismarck, Stresemann “was too subtle to commit himself to a single
blueprint.” ... “Stresemann followed Bismarck, arguing that consistency in a politician meant that
he only had one idea.”
Marshall Lee and Wolfgang Michalka (1987): emphasise his stern realism post-1918, “the
restoration of a sovereign and equal Germany … could only be achieved by making use of the
German economy.” This set him on course for a battle of wills with von Seeckt and his overambitious plan for the destruction of Poland with Soviet help. The authors remind readers that
“What for Stresemann… had served as the final goal was for Hitler only the jumping off point…”
Adam Tooze (2006): Stresemann was in no doubt as to the emergence post-1918 of the USA as
the dominant force in the world economy… “Crucially, the economy was the one sphere through
which Germany could build a connection to the US, the only power that could help Germany in
counterbalancing the aggression of the French and the disinterest of the British.”
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of the two sources is helpful in offering a full perspective on the motives behind
Stresemann’s foreign policy.
Page 145
Marks
1-4
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the sources; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the sources. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
5-7
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the sources, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
8-11
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the sources, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp
of topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
12-16 The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the views of the sources and their value as interpretations on the issue.
There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant
analysis. Greater awareness and development of historical interpretations and/or historians’
views will be credited highly.
Page 146
Question 3
How fully does Source D explain how Hitler and the Nazis were able to consolidate their hold on
power in 1933-34?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context;
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s fullness in explaining/analysing the issue.
The candidate offers a structured evaluation of Source D as an adequate explanation of the range of
factors that allowed Hitler and the Nazis to consolidate their hold on power in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance will earn credit. These may include:
accurate comment on Ian Kershaw will receive credit under historiography.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views:
•
•
•
•
Nazi leaders were convinced that the arsonist (van der Lubbe) had not acted on his own, that this
was the first act of a KPD insurgency.
The crime was committed six days before the Reichstag elections.
The Nazi leaders, racked with fear of a Communist coup, had moved quickly to punish the KPD.
In the immediate aftermath of the Reichstag Fire the Nazis improvised legislation which later
became the lynch-pin of their authority throughout the Third Reich.
Page 147
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
The candidate might display an understanding of the timetable of the consolidation of power, viz.,
•
•
30 January 1933
4 February
•
•
27 February
28 February
•
5 March
•
23 March
•
7 April
•
•
•
•
•
2 May
22 June
27 June
30 June 1934
2 August 1934
•
•
The KPD: its nature and its potential as a threat to the Nazis.
The seven bastions of constitutionalism confronting Hitler [i] the Constitution itself, [ii] federal
structure of the Reich, [iii] the Reichstag and the party system, [iv] the President and presidential
powers, [v] the civil service, [vi] the judiciary and [vii] the Army.
The notion of ‘gleichschaltung’ (coordination) both of the seven bastions (above) and of wider
areas of German life (eg youth organisations, the churches, sport etc).
The Reichstag Fire is thus only one in a substantial number of factors, but is it of pivotal
significance?
In the process of consolidation of power infighting ensued both within the governing coalition and
Chancellor Hitler’s inner circle. Hugenberg was quickly marginalised and by summer 1934 von
Papen was isolated. Himmler’s power grew as did that of the SS, and the bellicose SA leadership
became seen as a threat to the Chancellor’s authority.
Role of propaganda in securing Hitler in power?
•
•
•
•
Hitler becomes Chancellor heading a coalition government.
President Hindenburg signs ‘The Decree for the Protection of the German
People’.
Reichstag Fire.
Using Article 48 of the Weimar Constitution, President Hindenburg suspends
civil liberties and extends police powers of search and arrest, including the
detention of ‘suspects’ in protective custody. Existing gaols were rapidly
overcrowded.
Elections; Nazis make sufficient gains to ensure that they cannot be defeated
by a coalition of parties (unlike previous ‘Presidential Cabinets’).
Enabling Law passed; grants the government four years of emergency powers.
The Cabinet/Hitler can pass decrees without involving the president.
Dachau, the first concentration camp is opened.
‘Law for the Restoration of the Professional Civil Service’, co-ordinates the
executive with the Nazi will.
Free trade unions banned.
SPD banned.
DNVP dissolves itself.
Night of the Long Knives.
Death of President Hindenburg. Hitler becomes Head of State, Führer and
Reich Chancellor; Army swears personal oath of loyalty to Hitler.
Page 148
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Helmut Krausnick (1962): views the decree of 28 February, passed the day after the fire, as “the
decisive stage in the consolidation of power”. It gave the government the power to silence any
opponent.
Michael Burleigh (2000): the decree of 28 February “suspended freedom of assembly and
expression” yet “it rested on a fiction” as the Leipzig Supreme Court could not link van der Lubbe
directly to the KPD.
Ian Kershaw (1998): “The Emergency decree that took away all personal liberties and established
the platform for dictatorship was warmly welcomed.”
Richard J Evans (2003): the Nazi propaganda barrage in the Fire’s immediate aftermath had the
desired effect. With the resources of the state at its disposal the Nazi leadership “was able by and
large to convince civil servants, police, prison administrators and legal officials – conservative
nationalists almost to a man – that the forcible suppression of the labour movement was justified.”
Piers Brendon (2000): the Fire and the Reichstag Fire Decree of 28 February “was the death
warrant of democracy”. “In its (the Reichstag’s) flames Hitler forged the fetters of tyranny.”
Norbert Frei (1987): “The Fire gave the government the unhoped for reason and justification,
even before the election, for an all embracing blow against the KPD – and for the final invalidation
of the constitutional state.”
Tim Kirk (2006): “The political change brought about by the Nazis during their first 18 months in
power was rapid and far-reaching, much more so than that achieved by Mussolini’s Fascist
regime… Although there had been no revolution, and although the country’s elites remained in
place, retaining both their wealthy and their social status; Germany felt a very different place.”
The consensus among recent historians is that the Nazi response to the Fire – as chaotic and
unplanned as the arsonist’s acts – was crucial to enabling Hitler to transform his role from that of
yet another ‘coalition Chancellor’ into that of ‘Führer’, employing a mix of illegal violence and
legal procedures.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source D is helpful in offering a full perspective on the factors which let
Hitler consolidate his hold on power.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument, showing
a clear understanding of the views of the source. There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider
context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Greater awareness and development of
historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 149
South Africa 1910 – 1984
Part 1
Each question is worth 25 marks
Question 1
“A defence against the threats of imperialism, capitalism and blacks.” How fully does this
explain the popularity of the Pact government 1924 – 1929?
The aim of this essay is to enable the candidate to analyse the main reasons why Hertzog’s National
Party, in alliance with the much smaller Labour party, won the 1924 election and increased their
electoral lead in the 1929 election. Answers should focus on the apparent threats from imperialism,
capitalism and blacks, and the Pact policies which appeared to counter them.
The candidate might use evidence such as:
Evidence which substantiates the analysis
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Afrikaner nationalist hostility to the British Empire.
Smuts’ allegiance to the Empire, especially after the SAP absorbed the Union Party.
Smuts’ advocacy of a ‘Commonwealth’ at the 1921 Imperial Conference.
Hertzog’s anti-Imperial statements.
Earlier confrontations with white labour, including the Rand strikes of 1922.
The SAP’s close relations with the mine owners.
The rapidly rising numbers of urban blacks.
The Pact governments’ policies, including:
(a) the attempt to clarify the relationship with Britain, leading to the Balfour Declaration
(b) the promotion of white labour, including the civilised labour policy
(c) the Pact’s introduction of a comprehensive Native policy, including the withdrawal of the Native
Bills.
Evidence which suggests that the statement over-simplifies the reasons for the popularity of the
Pact
•
•
•
•
•
The importance of Hertzog’s promotion of Afrikaner culture.
Hertzog’s acceptance of the Balfour declaration left the issue of relations with the Empire
unresolved for some.
Segregation was not a new policy.
Hertzog was not unfavourable to the interests of capital.
The government helped industry with tariffs on imported goods and gave export bounties for
farmers.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
Barber: “There was much common ground between the major white parties. However, Hertzog’s
approach was more forceful and strident”.
Davenport: The view that Hertzog’s government was antagonistic to the interests of mining
capital has been substantially dented. Davenport also argues that Hertzog was much less hostile to
the British Empire than later Afrikaner nationalist governments, largely because of Hertzog’s
personal restraint. He also argues that in terms of segregation, the Pact government “attempted
considerably less in that direction than its predecessor”.
The Marxist historian RH Davies argued that the interests of mining capital dominated until 1924
but under Hertzog a realignment of class interests led to the domination of what he called ‘national’
− ie manufacturing and agricultural capital − capital interests. Hertzog’s government favoured the
interests of this new alignment of capitalist interests.
JP Brits in Liebenberg and Spies: argues that class interpretations of the Pact’s popularity
overlook ethnic considerations.
Page 150
Question 2
What factors best explain the growing appeal of Afrikaner nationalism in the 1930s?
This question asks the candidate to evaluate a range of factors which contributed to a growing sense of
ethnic and nationalist identity among Afrikaners during the 1930s.
The candidate might use evidence such as:
Political
•
•
•
•
•
Distrust of Fusion, and the formation of the United Party.
Malans’s break-away Purified National Party founded on Christian-Nationalist principles (1933).
Changes in the leadership of Afrikanerdom: the leaders of the new break-away Purified National
Party were young, urban intellectuals (unlike the older, rural Afrikaners who followed Hertzog into
Fusion).
The Broederbond sought to unite Afrikaners across class barriers: opposed political alliances with
non-Afrikaner organisations.
The limited electoral appeal of Malan’s Purified National Party: the majority of Afrikaners voted
for Hertzog in 1938.
Cultural
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The role of the Broederbond, founded 1919, now expanded to include white collar workers and
professionals.
The formation of the FAK (1929) and the emphasis on Christian National Education, which
stressed the need for volkseenheid (unity of the volk).
The Eufees celebration of the centenary of the great Trek in 1938.
The language movement made rapid progress.
The cultural nationalism embedded in the Afrikaans poetry of NP van Wyk Louw appealed to even
those who found political nationalism repugnant.
The publisher Burger Boekhandel which published 1,100 Afrikaans books 1917 – 1940.
Die Huisgenoot reached 20% of all Afrikaner families by the 1930s.
Die Transvaaler edited by Verwoerd from 1937.
Social
•
•
•
•
•
•
Findings of the 1932 Carnegie Commission on poor whites revealed the extent of urban poverty.
Growing fears of loss of ethnic identity in the cities.
50 % of Afrikaners were urbanised by 1936.
The specific appeal to women as the guardians of Afrikaner values.
Growing awareness of the inequality of poor Afrikaners.
Malan’s commitment to the poor white question.
Economic
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Afrikaner business and capital were developed.
Close links between the Broederbond and SANLAM.
The FAK organised the Volkskongres of 1939 as a result of the findings of a special commission
established to investigate poverty among Afrikaners.
The Volkskongres established the machinery for Afrikaner mobilisation in the economic field.
A Relief Fund (Reddingsdaadfonds) was set up so that Afrikaners could help Afrikaners.
Broederbond aimed to establish Afrikaner TUs to win the allegiance of Afrikaner workers.
The Spoorbond (for railway workers) was the first Christian National Trade Union (1934).
Page 151
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include:
•
•
•
•
•
William Beinart: After 1934, the Broederbond became “a major foundation of Malan’s Transvaal
support… a font of Christian national, republican and sometimes pro-fascist tendencies”. He also
notes, however, that by the end of the 1930s, the political loyalties of Afrikaans speakers remained
divided… “Malan’s Nationalists gained steadily but were not yet close to electoral victory when the
Second World War broke out”.
Dan O Meara: emphasises the significance of the poor white problem on the emerging leadership
of the Purified National Party: “The huge poor-white problem of the 1920s and 1930s was the
crucible in which was formed the emerging vision of this new urban-oriented elite. Their primary
point of reference was no longer the grim aftermath of the Anglo Boer War…Instead they grappled
with the traumatic adaptation by Afrikaners to the tide of urbanisation unleashed by the
development of capitalist agriculture and South Africa’s industrialisation. The collapse of the old
Hertzogite party in 1934 gave this younger generation both the opportunity and the platforms
through which to test different approaches to these problems...”.
In The rise of Afrikanerdom: Power, Apartheid and the Afrikaner Civil Religion Dunbar Moodie
draws attention to the role of civil rituals and the commemoration of national events (such as Blood
River) in creating a common sense of purpose and destiny and uniting Afrikaners “in their sense of
unique identity and destiny, inspiring the faithful, converting the sceptical, and ever reminding
them of their sacred separation from English and black African”.
In Christian nationalism and the rise of the Afrikaner Broederbond Charles Bloomberg points out
that the Broederbond became involved in organising Afrikaner trade unions “in order to rescue
Afrikaner workers from the clutches of a new anti- nationalist (ie socialist) ideology”.
Giliomee: emphasises the importance of the language movement (‘cultural nationalism’) and the
growing interest in Afrikaner history (the politicization of the Great Trek and Anglo-Boer War)
“During the 1930s a new generation of Afrikaners sought to rediscover themselves through
acknowledging both the heroism and the suffering of war”.
Giliomee remains convinced, however that despite the growing appeal of Afrikaner nationalism,
nothing that was achieved in the 1930s was decisive, as far as electoral success was concerned. For
him, “the crucial turning point was the Afrikaner nationalists’ outrage over the country being taken
into the World War on a split vote, confirming in their eyes SA’s continuing subordination to
British interests”.
Page 152
Question 3
How significant an impact did participation in the Second World War have within South Africa?
The question invites candidates to evaluate the political, social and economic impact of SA
participation in World War 2, and to make a judgement as to the significance for the future of South
Africa of those changes that undoubtedly took place.
Candidates might include evidence such as:
Political impact
•
•
•
•
•
•
The split in the United Party between Hertzog and Smuts in September 1939.
The reunion of the Malan and Hertzogite Nationalists as the HNP in 1940.
Continuing political divisions between Afrikaners.
The formation of the breakaway Afrikaner Party.
The formation of the OB.
The 1943 election result, with Malan’s NP forming the official opposition although they won only
43 seats, against the UP and Labour’s 103.
Social impact
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Large numbers of whites volunteered for military service.
Relaxation of Pass laws.
The drift from the reserves into the towns.
Increased urbanisation of blacks.
Relaxation of colour bar in a range of industries including engineering and manufacturing.
Rent strikes and bus boycotts.
The growth of squatter camps.
Squatter action in J’burg.
Economic impact
•
•
•
•
Boost to secondary and manufacturing industry.
Emergence of black trade unionism and strike action among black workers.
The formation of the Council for Non-European Trade Unions in 1941.
Greater bargaining power for Africans.
The significance of social and economic developments for the future
•
•
•
The increased numbers of skilled black workers.
African Trade Union action.
The consequences of urbanisation for SA’s farmers.
Page 153
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include:
•
•
•
•
•
AM Grundlingh: argues that the divisions in Afrikanerdom damaged the electoral chances of the
HNP in 1943. This election was a triumph for Smuts, and the pro-war forces, who refused to be
drawn into petty, party-political bickering. However, Smuts’ near disdain for the machinations of
party politics would contribute to his defeat in 1948.
Grundlingh: also points out that the solidarity engendered by common wartime experiences
(among whites in SA’s armed forces) was not readily translated into a common post-war political
consciousness. Once out of uniform, old differences and distinctions in political outlook reemerged. Similarly, he argues that the war did not radicalise black ex-servicemen.
Worden: sees the drift to the towns as part of a lengthier process: the war accelerated what was
already happening. Impoverishment in the reserves, and low-paid farm work, encouraged blacks to
seek work in the towns. Citing the work of B. Freund, Worden argues that by the mid 1930s,
many factories were already employing black workers, while P. Maylam has shown that the
numbers of Africans living in towns had already doubled between 1921 and 1936, before increasing
by two-thirds between 1936 and 1948.
James Barber: “The war exposed the very questions that Hertzog and Smuts had pushed aside
when they fused their parties: neutrality and loyalty to the Crown. …(Nevertheless) Afrikaner
nationalism was deeply divided”. The 1943 election revealed how divided the white community
was generally. After the election the HNP concentrated on building up its support among
Afrikaners at home.
William Beinart: Had it not been for the war, the compromises that Smuts and Hertzog hammered
out under the Fusion agreement might have lasted. While Afrikaner exclusivist thinking, the tight
equation of ethnicity with nation, certainly found support, the survival of a more broadly based
white party may have provided sufficient Afrikaans speakers with an alternative political home.
Page 154
Question 4
How distinctive was African urban culture by the 1960s?
By asking candidates to evaluate the extent to which African urban culture was distinctive by the 1960s,
the question allows candidates to explore an issue which has been the focus of much historical research
in South Africa since the radical History Workshop was established at Witwatersrand University in
1977. Since then, much work has been done to explore the lives of ordinary people within both black
and white communities and to present the findings of this work to a wide audience. This focus is in
contrast to the assumptions that predominated in the mid twentieth century (reflected in Alan Paton’s
Cry, The Beloved Country); namely, the belief that rapid urbanisation destroyed traditional African
culture and left nothing positive in its place. Candidates should evaluate the extent to which Africans
created a distinctive urban culture in response to the social and economic circumstances confronting
them.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
The theoretical framework
•
•
•
•
•
The traditional and liberal views of African urbanisation as destructive and damaging.
Sociological evidence of the breakdown of traditional values and systems of authority.
The radical movement in the universities in the 1970s and the growing interest in popular and oral
history.
Sociological and anthropological methodology applied to popular history.
Black self-assertion in urban areas.
Black Churches
•
•
•
•
Black fundamentalist churches such as the Zionist and Apostolic churches practised healing, river
baptism, dancing, night communion and drumming.
Most churches had uniforms and a strong sense of identity.
Nazarites adopted ‘praise poems’ to new contexts.
Black churches retained aspects of traditional religion, including respect for ancestors.
Black literature
•
•
The role of Drum as a focus for black journalistic revival, ‘bringing a voice to a voiceless people’.
Black writers such as Bloke Modisane (Blame me on History), Can Themba (Requiem for
Sophiatown), Nat Nakasa (the first black journalist to work for the Rand Daily Mail) and Peter
Abrahams (Tell Freedom).
Black music
•
•
Sophiatown was a crucible of new black urban music, influenced by American jazz.
African urban music styles included isicathamiya based on a Zulu style of male singing, articulating
the country in the city; marabi (heavily influenced by American music) and mbaqanga, a mature
jazz style which emerged in Sophiatown.
Male culture among migrant labourers in the mineworkers compounds of the Rand
•
•
Mine marriages redefined adolescent boys as females.
‘Gifts’ to these youths helped them accumulate enough money to pay lobola (the price paid by
males for the right to marry) and become adult, married men.
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Social structures and informal networks
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The role of the shebeen.
The survival of traditional customs relating to marriage, (ie bridewealth payments) initiation and
circumcision.
Court structures mirrored the kgotlas (public meetings of African rural society).
The importance of football especially in Soweto.
The protection racketeers who also offered some genuine protection and representation in
grievances.
The totsis, or gangsters, of Sophiatown.
The development of a slang language tsotsitaal – the language of the tsotsis.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
P Mayer and I Mayer: Townsmen or tribesmen? (1960) This study of migrant workers in East
London suggested that migrant workers were still ‘encapsulated’ in their rural networks and
attempted to hold aspects of urban and consumer culture at bay.
Robert Ross: “More obviously than most other facets of African life, its finest music has come out
of the development of African forms in and in reaction to the new world of its cities”.
William Beinart: “Church membership clearly provided an arena for social interaction, discipline
and belief in a world of rapid mobility, urban insecurity and abrupt social change”.
Phil Bonner: Soweto: a history is a history workshop account of ordinary people’s lives in
Soweto.
In Going for Gold T Dunbar Moodie examined the lives of the migrant mineworkers on the Rand.
As part of his study, he considers the creation of an all-male culture in the particular circumstances
of the mining compounds.
Working life: factories, townships and culture on the Rand explores the new way of life, which
workers created in the towns. This online resource is produced as part of the SAHO website and is
based on Luli Callinicos’ book Working Life produced by the History Workshop.
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Question 5
What factors best explain the limited access of African resistance between 1948 and 1964?
The question asks candidates to identify and evaluate the reasons why African resistance met with such
limited success between 1948 and 1964, and to reach a balanced conclusion. Some candidates may
observe that although African resistance seemed to be in a state of complete disarray by 1964, future
developments would eventually be built on the legacy of those years. Although candidates should be
aware of the main developments of the period (The Defiance Campaign, the Congress Alliance and the
Freedom Charter, the Alexandria bus boycott and popular resistance, the ANC/PAC split and
Sharpeville, MK and POQO), this is not intended to be the main focus of this essay.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
Strengths and weaknesses of the resistance movement
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Divisions between Africanists and those who favoured a multi-racial future for SA.
ANC/PAC split.
Disagreements about the relationship between African resistance and the white CPSA.
Failure to involve the black urban working class in defiance.
The ANC leadership ignored more militant action taken by radicals in the Eastern Cape.
ANC failed to direct localised resistance.
The significance of rural resistance was not recognised until the late 1950s.
In Sophiatown the ANC was more concerned about the rights of property owners than the issue of
forced removals.
In the 1960s African resistance was gradually transformed from a loosely organised movement into
clandestine revolutionary elite.
Government strengths
•
•
•
•
•
Use of the judicial process (the Treason Trial and Rivonia) and legislation such as the Criminal
Law Amendment Act (1953).
Power of state to achieve a massive crack-down.
International community largely ignored what was happening.
The international community approved of the SA government’s anti-communist stance and gave
tacit approval to government action.
The economic growth of the 1960s.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include:
•
•
•
•
•
Reference to the debate about whether or not mass mobilisation took place. Mobilisation of the
masses is widely accepted as the key to successful resistance. Some historians (O’Meara and
Pampallis) believe that the ANC was now a mass movement with more radical goals; others
(Lambert, Fine and Dixon, Feit and more recently McKinley) believe that the fundamental
weakness of the ANC lay in failure to link up with local, popular movements. Tom Lodge has
challenged the view that the ANC was too middle class.
Dale McKinley: “Little effort was made to organise the black urban working class…fearing the
power of the apartheid state, the ANC recoiled from mass mobilisation”.
Dubow: emphasises the negative effects of the Treason Trial. “It absorbed political energies,
disrupted the momentum of popular mobilisation and created a serious power vacuum within the
ANC”.
Tom Lodge: Although rural resistance succeeded in stalling state intervention, rural protest
movements remained parochial in impact. “Despite the evidence of a degree of sensitivity to rural
tensions, Congress during the 1950s could do little to exploit them. Its organisational vulnerability
apart, its sociological and ideological orientation during the 1950s helped to distance it from rural
culture”.
Colin Bundy: analysed the links between the national movements and outburst of rural protest and
concluded that “although class conflict in rural areas was present – and acutely so at different times
and places – the national movements were for the most part relatively insensitive to them” until the
later 1950s. ... “The national movements...were structurally ill equipped to respond to the inchoate
and murmurous patterns of peasant resistance. They failed to lead – or to follow – them.”
Page 157
Question 6
What were the most significant consequences for black South Africans of the “homelands” policy
established by the Promotion of Bantu Self Government Act of 1959?
The question asks candidates to evaluate the consequences for black South Africans of the homelands
policy pursued by successive Nationalist governments 1959-1984.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
Political
•
•
•
•
•
•
Blacks were excluded from white politics on the basis of their alleged political rights within the
Bantustans.
Eight homelands (later ten) were established by the legislation of 1959.
Four of the homelands (Transkei, Bophuthatswana, Venda and Ciskei) were granted independence.
The homelands policy gave considerable wealth, patronage and power to local black politicians and
bureaucrats, many of whom were Pretoria’s puppets.
The growth of corruption in the black bureaucracies.
Separate development stimulated ethnic differences, even where this ethnic identity was based on
created, rather than historic, tribalism.
Social
•
•
•
•
•
Led to the forced relocation of millions of Africans.
Low standard of living in the new homelands: most lacked water and electricity.
The population of the Bantustans rose by 70% in the 1970s.
Poverty characterised the homelands: indicators include rates of infant mortality, child
malnutrition, incidence of diseases.
Overpopulation led to environmental degradation: land was cleared in the search for firewood.
Economic
•
•
•
•
Lack of local industry meant Africans had to travel long distances to work.
By the late 1960s, white South Africans could invest directly in the homelands and in the 1970s
there was considerable growth in decentralised industries and ‘displaced urbanisation’.
The growth of Sun City brought money to Bophuthatswana.
New classes of economically successful African traders and entrepreneurs emerged in the
homelands.
Page 158
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Nigel Worden: identifies three main results of the policy of separate development (a) the
magnitude of the forced removals which he claims some historians regard as “tantamount to
genocide”; (b) the stimulation and entrenching of ethnic divisions and (c) the creation of a new
class of black, middle class collaborators.
Heather Deegan: writing in The politics of the new South Africa (2001) claims that “although the
institution of the homelands policy was a political expedient in that it was aimed at breaking
African nationalism, it nevertheless created a brand of African leaders who upheld their tribal
identities and became increasingly aware of their political roles.”
Writing in Ethnicity and pseudo-ethnicity in the Ciskei, 1995 JB Pieres: claims that homeland
ethnicity was largely imposed and reinforced with “newly invented ceremonies and rituals”.
William Beinart: writing in Twentieth century South Africa claims that it is inadequate simply to
describe the homelands in terms of social and environmental devastation. He emphasises (a) that
there were Africans who benefited from the homelands policy, through their cooperation with the
SA government. Some African politicians (for instance Chief Buthelezi in Kwa Zulu) succeeded in
defying Pretoria (b) that the SA state had to invest in the homelands (“the costs of the homelands
began to outweigh their capacity to subsidize the wages of workers”).
Above all, Beinart: emphasises two results. Firstly, despite the emphasis on ethnic differences
between homelands, opposition to the SA government’s policies worked to bolster a national
African identity. Secondly, the new urban areas created in the homelands − the pattern of dispersed
urbanisation – altered the face of South Africa in terms of future economic developments.
Leonard Thompson: emphasises the contrast between the affluence of white South Africa and the
poverty of the homelands. This poverty was compounded by overpopulation with 23.8 people per
sq mile as opposed to 9.1 for all of South Africa, including the homelands.
Page 159
South Africa (1910 – 1984)
Part 2
Question 1
How well do Sources A and B illustrate differing views of the strategies pursued by the ANC in
the inter-war years?
(16 marks)
Interpretation (maximum 6 marks)
Candidates may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of each source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
Contextual and historical interpretations (maximum 10 marks)
These 10 marks will be awarded for:
•
•
•
•
the quality and depth of the contextual recall
the quality and depth of the wider perspectives
the range and quality of historians’ views
provenance comment (if appropriate).
The candidate considers the views in Sources A and B on the strategies pursued by the ANC in the
inter-war years and offers a structured evaluation of the two perspectives in terms of:
Source A
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. Accurate comment
on the American historian Peter Walshe’s dated but classic account of the rise of African nationalism
will receive marks under historiography.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
•
Early ANC leaders did not expect to gain political power.
They hoped the justice of their cause would change White men’s attitudes.
They aimed for equal opportunity, not political power, or African domination.
They hoped improved understanding, and greater justice, would allow Africans to make a growing
contribution to South African society.
Points from recall which develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Early leaders included John Dube (founder President), Solomon Plaatje (the first secretary), Josiah
Gumede (president 1927-30), Pixley Seme (1930-6), Reverend James Calata (1936-8) and ZR
Mahabane.
Most of the early leaders were mission educated; some had studied abroad.
As doctors, lawyers, ministers etc they were from the African middle class.
The methods of the early ANC including deputations and petitions.
Most of the leadership embraced the values of Western civilisation.
They were firmly committed to a non-racial future for SA.
Those chiefs accorded honorary positions were invariably Christian converts.
Some leaders, including Dube, were reluctantly prepared to accept rural segregation as long as there
was a just distribution of land.
Page 160
Source B
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. Accurate comment
on Dale McKinley as a Marxist historian will receive marks under historiography.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
•
The ANC failed to establish grassroots organisations among the masses in South Africa.
The ANC leadership was preoccupied by petit bourgeois interests such as obtaining a free market.
The ANC hoped to achieve these aims through a parliament dominated by the bourgeoisie.
The ANC’s policy of working with those who had political power bound them more closely to the
ruling class.
Points from recall which develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
By the 1930s, the membership probably did not exceed 1000.
Women played little part in the early ANC.
The more radical ICU was far more significant in the 1920s because they attempted to establish a
mass movement.
The ANC failed to recognise the significance of rural resistance.
By the 1930s, the ANC leadership was bittterly divided and split into warring cliques.
Points which offer wider contextualisation of the views in the sources
•
•
•
•
•
Under Gumede the organisation established close links with the Communist Party.
Gumede’s flirtation with the Communist party deeply divided the ANC.
The Native Republic policy he advocated was also very damaging and split the ANC.
ANC radicals in the Western Cape mounted a campaign of civil disobedience to achieve the native
republic, further exacerbating splits within the organisation.
Opposition to Hertzog’s Native Bills was led by the All African Convention, not the ANC.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Peter Walshe: early leaders were profoundly influenced by the ‘Cape tradition’ of relative
liberalism. Where Congress leaders accepted compromises, the ultimate goals were equality before
the law and equality of opportunity. Walshe concedes that there was a growing disillusionment
with Congress in the 1930s but claims that out of this emerged a new resilience and determination.
Saul Dubow: Argues that the ANC was so moribund in the 1930s that unintentionally this may
have helped it in the long run since it was not associated with the complete failure to prevent the
passing of Hertzog’s Native Bills in 1936-7.
Nigel Worden: “The national political organisations (and he is referring to the ANC) failed to
identify with the kinds of struggles and grievances being faced by the majority of South Africans”.
William Beinart: argues that within the early ANC, regional organisations tended to go their own
way and that there were considerable differences between them. Transvaal leaders got drawn into
workers’ issues; the Western Cape was influenced by Garveyism.
Shula Marks and Stanley Trapido disagree with the standard Marxist critique of the ANC,
represented here by McKinley. While recognising the class background of the ANC leadership,
they claim that in a colonial situation, a group’s class position “offers no certain guidance to its
political affiliation”. They argue that powerlessness inclined them towards cooperating with the
state but that they faced constant rebuff and discrimination. “In many respects they shared in and
identified with the experience of the masses, and at key moments acted as intellectual catalysts,
providing both leadership and a more coherent ideology for peasants and workers”.
Page 161
Marks
1-4
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the sources; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the sources. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
5-7
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the sources, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
8-11
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the sources, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp
of the topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
12-16 The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the views of the sources and their value as interpretations on the issue.
There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant
analysis. Greater awareness and development of historical interpretations and/or historians’
views will be credited highly.
Page 162
Question 2
How fully does Source C illustrate the theoretical and ideological origins of apartheid?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s fullness in explaining/analysing the issue.
The candidate offers a structured evaluation of Source C as an adequate illustration of the theoretical
and ideological origins of apartheid in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit.
These may include comments on the significance and influence of the Calvinist Dutch Reformed
Church within South Africa.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
The Dutch Reformed Church recognises that God, not man, created separate nations and races.
The DRC believes that it is vital to recognise these nations and races so that each can fulfil its Godgiven destiny through their own language, culture and community.
Although all nations are part of a single creation, each nation has been given a sense of itself as a
nation.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The theology of the Dutch Reformed Church and the influence of Abraham Kuyper.
Kuyper’s views that ‘nations’ were the “ordinances of creation”.
The belief that the volk was an organic identity deriving from creation.
The role of the Broederbond.
The influence of the FAK and the 1944 Volkskongres on Afrikaner racial policy.
The influence of Diederichs, Cronje and Verwoerd who studied in Germany in the 1930s.
The possible influence of German ideas about nationality.
The significance of Cronje’s book A Home for Posterity (1945), which advocated racial separation.
Cronje’s belief that miscegenation led to racial decline.
Belief in white supremacy lay at the heart of apartheid ideology.
The content of the Sauer Report.
The economic justification for apartheid.
Page 163
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
Allister Sparks: “It was in the Broederbond where all these ideas and influences were synthesised into
the ideology of apartheid… It was the Broeders who were the real authors of apartheid”.
In The Rise of Afrikanerdom, T Dunbar Moodie emphasises the negative aspects of apartheid
ideology such as the belief that miscegenation led to racial decline, racial integration was sinful
since it defied God’s will, whereas racial separation represented the Divine Will.
The radical historian, Harold Wolpe, argued that the apartheid ideology was a way of justifying the
extension of the economic of cheap labour to manufacturing industry.
The Afrikaner historian Hermann Giliomee has described apartheid as a “radical survival plan”.
He finds its earliest roots in the Dutch Reformed Church (“Thus DRC ministers and missionary
strategists were first in the field to formulate an apartheid ideology”) but claims that “by the 1940s
Stellenbosch academics, Die Burger journalists and Western Cape politician conceived the
apartheid political plan that took shape between the 1943 and 1948 elections”. He goes on to claim
that “it was scholars in the field of anthropology, African administration and law, sociology and
history who figured prominently in the construction of the apartheid policy”. He identifies three
different strands: one based on historical claims, one on ethnic differences and the third on racial
differences.
Candidates may also refer to the debate about the nature of apartheid theory in 1948: was it a fully
developed blueprint for subsequent action (as critics such as Brian Bunting and Dan O’Meara have
argued) or was it an election slogan which could be interpreted in different ways and which evolved
gradually as Deborah Posel has argued?
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which Source C is helpful in offering a full illustration of the theoretical and ideological origins of
apartheid.
Marks
1-4
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument, showing
a clear understanding of the views of the source. There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider
context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Greater awareness and development of
historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 164
Question 3
How useful is Source D for understanding the changes in African resistance in the 1970s and
early 1980s?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for the quality of their evaluation of the provenance of
the source.
The candidate may be awarded up to 2 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s value.
The candidate offers a structured evaluation of Source D as to its usefulness in understanding the
changes in African resistance in the 1970s and early 1980s in terms of:
Provenance:
•
•
•
•
•
Steve Biko was the acknowledged leader of the Black Consciousness movement in South Africa.
As a student at Natal Medical School he was initially involved with NUSAS but later helped form
SASO.
In 1972 he became honorary president of the Black People’s Convention.
During 1974 Biko was placed under a banning order by the SA government but nevertheless his
ideas remained hugely influential among black South Africans.
Biko argued that the Africans’ struggle within South Africa necessitated both psychological
liberation and then physical liberation.
Points from the source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
Black people must unite to overcome their sense of inferiority.
By seeking to emulate whites, blacks are belittling themselves.
The philosophy of Black Consciousness is to be proud of being black.
Points from recall which develop and contextualize those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The spread and influence of black consciousness ideas.
The influence of DuBois and Marcus Garvey on the SA Black consciousness movement.
The possible influence of liberation writers such as Frantz Fanon (author of The Wretched of the
Earth) on Biko.
Biko helped set up the Black Communities Programme in 1970, establishing self-help groups for
black communities.
The influence of the BCM in the protests and strikes of 1972-3.
The connection between BCM and the Soweto riots.
The Azanian People’s Organisation was formed in 1978, bringing together BPC, BCP and SASO,
all organisations which had been banned in 1977 after the Soweto riots.
The spread of black consciousness ideas among the ANC in exile as large numbers of activists
joined ANC training camps.
Points from recall which offer a more critical contextualization of the view in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Nothing particularly original about Black Consciousness: its roots can be traced back to at least the
beginning of the twentieth century and to earlier Africanist movements.
The BCM did not develop a coherent political strategy which limited its effectiveness.
Despite the BCM, black resistance in the 1980s was dominated by the non-racialism of the
ANC/SACP.
By the late 1970s the ANC was increasingly focusing on urban areas and building mass
organisations.
The 1980s also saw the emergence of a vigorous black labour movement.
By the early 1980s community based organisations were emerging: these were drawn together in
1983 to form the UDF.
The impact of the liberation movements elsewhere in southern Africa.
Page 165
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
In Black Power in South Africa Gail Gerhart: considered the development of African nationalism and
traced a coherent line of development from Lembede to Biko. However, writing in 1978, she
believed that Black Consciousness was not sufficiently in touch with pressing political and
economic problems and that as a result, Black Consciousness would ‘outlive its usefulness’.
Meli: relates the emergence of black consciousness to the international student protest of the late
1960s, as well as to the process of decolonisation occurring at the same time. However, he denies
that black consciousness was anything new, but rather sees it as a new manifestation of African
nationalism, descending directly from the organisations that the government had banned earlier in
the 1960s. As an ANC historian he is critical of the contradictions within the BCM, and of its
abandonment of non-racial resistance to injustice.
The Marxist historians Baruch Hirson: (Year of Fire and Ash, 1979) and Dale McKinley (1997)
downplay the importance of the BCM, claiming that it did not fundamentally threaten the immediate
interests of the apartheid state because the movement failed to develop a coherent political strategy
which would have enabled adherents to confront the institutions of apartheid.
Saul Dubow: argues that after Soweto the government would never again regain control over the
black population. “It heralded the demise of white supremacy and made real the possibility of
liberation for the first time”.
Clark and Worger: emphasise that after Soweto, many young activists joined the ranks of the
ANC and PAC in exile, and these new recruits would make a major contribution to the sabotage
campaign which was under way by the early 1980s.
Nigel Worden: links the heightened African resistance of the early 1980s to the economic
recession which caused African living standards to fall.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which Source D is useful in furthering understanding of the changes taking place within the black
resistance movement in the 1970s and early 1980s.
Marks
1-4
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate provenance
comments.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and little if any
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate
provenance comments.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate provenance comments and the interpretation is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the provenance of the source and the views in it. There is a solid grasp
of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Greater
awareness and development of historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be
credited highly.
Page 166
Soviet Russia (1917-1953)
Part 1
Each question is worth 25 marks
Question 1
“A revolution that no-one expected, planned or controlled.”
February Revolution?
How valid is this view of the
The aim of this question is to allow the candidate to give an account and analysis of the events
surrounding the February Revolution and the extent to which it was a planned political coup or a more
spontaneous event. Candidates might consider the variety of influences which were brought to bear at
this time − from the existing power structure itself to outside and even revolutionary factors. This may
lead to a discussion of the social, economic and political factors in the immediate, medium and long
term.
Relevant areas for discussion might include:
Points in support of the claim
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The sudden nature of the unrest, the move to the political and popular revolution noting the
immediate events of 25th February and International Women’s Day as evidence of discontent –
economic and perhaps political at that time.
Initiated by workers and the reserve troops in the capital alone to show motivation of different
sectors and for more than short term reasons.
The role of the Army joining the rioters from 25 February onwards − the failure of the Tsar to retain
loyalty, again longer term discontent.
The failure to support Tsarism might have seemed spontaneous and the revolution uncoordinated it
quickly changed in a few days to a more politicised protest, showing the underlying problems.
Justifying the lack of sustained political drive candidates may discuss the notion of the leaderless
revolt, the lack of Bolshevik or any other direction at that time but might discuss Lenin and Trotsky
– their writings and influence and noting that although the major leaders were abroad, no political
party organised the revolution, political influence was part of the failure of many to support
Tsarism.
The development of opposition parties as evidence of discontent, writings of Lenin.
Economic change and its impact − the economic situation, the demand for bread, the pressures of
modernising Russia as seen by the strikes, Putilov and others, the key was reform of situation …not
a brief protest here.
The food shortages, queuing and inflation exacerbated by the War, showing considerable
discontent.
That February was evidence of the failure of autocracy – the nature of Tsarism by 1917 and actions
of the Tsar, an evaluation of his strengths and weaknesses, including his role in the War, the effect
of the Tsarina’s rule and influence of Rasputin.
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Points against the claim
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•
•
•
•
An awareness of the range of disillusioned groups, diverse in motivation and coming from both
upper and lower strata of society: the role of the elites, the alienated intelligentsia and the possible
palace coup − Yusupov.
Role of Guchkov and Generals Krymov and Alexeev… ready to desert the Tsar?
Earlier predictions of the possible failure of the Tsarist regime in a revolution, if the War went the
wrong way: − Sazonov; the regime would find itself “hanging in the air”, and Durnovo: − “In the
event of defeat, social revolution in its most extreme form is inevitable”. Not everyone was caught
by surprise.
Widespread recognition that change was in the air? Don’t under-estimate the role of various
working groups in pushing for revolution. Detail on workers groups that were getting organised…
Schliapnikov and the Petrograd Bureau? Mezraionka? Shop stewards? Influence of Viborg
workers?
The changes which occurred under the Provisional Government may be cited as evidence of
significant discontent with the previous regime and that it was more than a week of popular unrest.
Candidates may evaluate the relative merits of each explanation and show how these may or may not
reflect the political nature of the revolution.
The key themes centre on spontaneous or
planned/controlled revolution.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Pipes: “Rebellions happen, revolutions are made”.
Peter Kenez: “there was not to be found anywhere in the country any groups of the
population…which were ready to put up a fight for the old regime”.
R B McKean: “the Great War acted as the spark which set the combustible of mass discontent
alight”.
Trotsky: “Nicholas II inherited from his ancestors not only a giant empire, but also a revolution”.
James White:
revelations about the presence of Bolshevik “revolutionaries”, perhaps
“disappeared” to allow for the greatness of October.
Abraham Ascher: provides the analogy of the volcano.
Rex Wade: “the long awaited revolution had come swiftly, arising out of strikes and popular
demonstrations...”.
Corin and Fiehn: “... The main push came from the workers in the cities...”.
Page 168
Question 2
To what extent was Bolshevik foreign policy between 1917-1924 faithful to the ideology of
international revolution?
Candidates might evaluate the foreign policy pursued and measure its success in terms of following
‘international revolution’ and pursuing the goals set. They might be expected to explain that the
international revolution was to take Bolshevism to the rest of the world, to rid other countries of their
capitalist masters, their aristocrats and their oppressive money makers and to replace them with the
workers and a democratically elected assembly where there would be equality for all.
Relevant areas for discussion might include: detail covering (broadly) the following phases:
Securing peace: Brest – Litovsk
•
•
With the hope that this would have triggered mass peace protests among the Allied and Central
powers and it failed to do so.
Lenin so determined to consolidate the revolution that no sacrifice would be too great, hence peace
compromise…not extension of the idea of international revolution.
Comintern
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March 1919 − Lenin founds Comintern with Soviet Communist Party as model for overthrow of
capitalist regimes.
Difficulty of maintaining internationalism – Comintern became associated with USSR alone.
Lenin’s talk of the international revolution more to do with propaganda to maintain the party in
power than the actuality of the revolution.
The period 1919-20 did see some attempt to export revolution through the Comintern but it was not
wholehearted.
The capital moved from St Petersburg to Moscow is further evidence of the separation from the
West.
Civil War
•
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Hopes of international revolution put on hold, but Lenin still thought it would spread.
Foreign governments pro-Whites so no international revolution, however Bolsheviks could brand
them imperialists and encourage revolution.
1920 Polish War − the ‘red brigade in Europe’ and then moving the international revolution to
Germany. Failure here is a significant disappointment for Lenin.
Attitudes towards national minority movements... Ukraine, Finland etc.
Recovery and Peace
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Move of Lenin to more pragmatic policy of co-existence rather than international revolution: − “We
have entered a new period in which we have won the right to our international existence in the
network of capitalist states.”
Soviet Union isolation policy changes to prevent emergence of a capitalist block-hence Treaty of
Rapallo 1922, trade agreement with Britain 1921.
Failure of revolutionary attempts in Berlin and Munich and Bela Kun’s Soviet Revolution in
Hungary showing success only via the Bolshevik model.
Second Congress of the Third International 1920: 41 countries set up 21 conditions following
international principles: the central point was the security of the USSR not international revolution.
Difficulty always in separating Comintern from Soviet Government.
Their activities were damaging to diplomacy eg Curzon annoyed at Soviet agents in Persia,
Afghanistan and India – threat v Anglo-soviet trade agreement 1921.
‘Curzon Ultimatum’ Soviets agreed.
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Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
Suny: “Ideology served as a source of ideas; a prism through which the world was viewed, and a
rationalisation for actions taken…”.
Figes: the peace of Brest-Litovsk marked the completion of Lenin’s revolution; it was the
culmination of October.
R Pipes and N Davies: both viewed invasion of Poland as a likely catalyst to revolution, not just in
Poland but throughout Europe.
Zinoviev: Spring 1920 “in a year the whole of Europe will be Communist”.
Page 170
Question 3
How successful was NEP in tackling the economic and political problems facing the Bolsheviks in
the 1920s?
An evaluation of the success of NEP should cover the reasons for its introduction, its economic success
and its role as part of the socialist revolution. Hence candidates may present evidence of the impact in
both economic and political terms. It should be looked at as part of the socialist programme not in
isolation.
Relevant areas for discussion might include:
•
Impact of War Communism − grain requisitioning, banning private trade, nationalisation of
industry and rationing and labour discipline − to compare.
Problems
•
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1921 famine − 5 million dead because of drought and requisitioning programme, international aid,
one of worst famines of twentieth century.
Economy − industrial output 20% pre-war levels; 1921 finished products 16% 1912 levels;
unfinished 12% (C Ward).
Peasant threats − Tambov rising August 1920 − June 1921, ‘powerless to resist rebels’ March 1921
(Figes).
Worker opposition – January 1921 bread ration cut by 1/3rd in cities, militarised factories, no union
representation but controllers for the state.
Party divisions − Workers’ Opposition – Schliapnikov and Kollontai.
Problems from Kronstadt − March 1921 rebellion and mutiny, authority had to act.
Attitudes and hopes of Bukharin and Preobrazhensky.
NEP success − Economic
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No grain requisitioning, ban on private trade removed, small business re-opened, state controlled
heavy industry.
1922 results good − food in markets, brisk trade in other goods. 1923 cereal production increased
23% compared to 1920: 1920-23 factory output up 200%, although from a very low base.
Shops, cafes, restaurants re-open and cities begin to revitalise.
Nepmen and their success − first three to four years – deals, corruption and ‘get-rich-quick’
mentality.
Walter Duranty – two years on, there were over 25,000 private traders in Moscow.
Limitations – progress not even – 1923 Scissors Crisis − some believed it marked the end of the
Soviet experiment, return of capitalism.
Problems – huge unemployment 1.24 million jobless in 1924 – younger workers hardest hit.
Generated further class divisions within the peasantry.
Impact on intellectual life − sovietisation.
NEP success –Political
•
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Zinoviev states it was ‘a temporary deviation, a tactical retreat’.
Bukharin said it was an economic concession to avoid political concessions.
‘New Exploitation of the Proletariat’ – attitudes of urban workers in first two years.
1922 − censorship, writers and scholars deported, pre-publication censorship − Glavlitt.
GPU, secret police and arbitrary imprisonment and death penalty as instrument of social policy.
Attack on rivals, show trials – 34 SR leaders condemned as terrorists, 11 executed.
Crushing peasant revolts − Tambov 1922, salt given as reward for good behaviour.
Attack on Church – Union of Militant Godless, death penalties for leaders of Russian Orthodox
Church, thousands of priests imprisoned.
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Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
Walter Duranty: “To the Communists and to the small group of proletarian leaders …NEP was
doubtless repugnant” (witness).
Corin and Fiehn: “By the end of the 1920s NEP had run out of push”.
NEP the compromise – because of failure to recover economically and protests − Tambov and
Kronstadt the “symbolic parting of the ways between the workers councils and the Bolshevik
Party” Fitzpatrick or betrayal reintroducing the bourgeois experts, Nepmen, kulaks, a compromise
in ideology for long term gain.
Katerina Clark: it was the heyday of the intellectual not particularly committed to one particular
party.
Shapiro: “NEP years were something of a golden age in Russian intellectual life”.
Jeffrey Brooks: quotes a Stakhanovite on the impact “the effect was a circle of obligation, effort,
entitlement and reward including all publicly recognised segments of the population”.
Page 172
Question 4
To what extent was Trotsky responsible for his own downfall in the 1920s?
Candidates would be expected to discuss the debate as to why Trotsky the chief executor of the
revolution did not take over the mantle from Lenin as the chief inspiration in 1924.
Relevant areas for discussion might include:
The positive qualities
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1905 he held great popularity making volatile speeches against the regime; in Petersburg Soviet he
was outstanding.
1917 – chief executor of the revolution.
1920 − the hero of the revolution – because of the Civil War – oratory, leadership as Commissar for
War.
1927 – ostracized, the intellectual, for many the purest in ideological terms.
Background
•
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Jewish origins, although an atheist and no sympathy ever shown to Jewish groups.
Influenced his decisions eg did not accept position of Commissar for Home Affairs.
Influenced perception eg Civil War anti Red propaganda anti-Semitic prejudice.
Used by Stalin in struggle for power.
Upbringing – comfortable, landowning peasants, good education, not a ‘bandit’ revolutionary
(Stalin) rather an émigré revolutionary.
Ideology
•
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‘Permanent Revolution’ – and he was awaiting the international phase after October.
Commissar for Foreign Affairs – 1918 Brest-Litovsk ‘neither war nor peace’ resulting in more
costly and humiliating peace, castigated by Lenin, the Party and the nation. But became
Commissar for War but this would damage him in the future to be seen as a traitor.
cf. Stalin’s ‘socialism in one country’ – better appealed to Bolsheviks than ‘permanent revolution’
which Deutscher states “sounded like an ominous warning to a tired generation”.
Tactics
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Mistrust because of constant changing political opinions and enthusiastically embracing previously
discredited ideas eg ‘democratic centralism’ post Civil War.
The 1904 split from Mensheviks – opportunist?
Pursues his objective and ignores opinion, hence resentment eg post Civil War militarisation of
labour, the recognition of trade unions as part of government.
Questioning Lenin’s decisions − Stalin did not.
Not realizing the importance of some decisions eg ban on factions.
Devoting time to writing, not Government. Criticising others, causing some to question his loyalty.
1924 November – Stalin’s speech ‘Leninism or Trotskyism’ result − Trotsky seen as anti-Leninist.
Missed opportunities
•
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•
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•
That Stalin took all opportunities to further establish himself, by the time of his appointment as
General Secretary in 1922 he was in the three leading areas of the Party – The Politburo: the
Orgburo: and the Secretariat. He built up loyalty through appointments, Trotsky did not.
Trotsky’s arrogance led him to reject posts eg 1922 − deputy, rejected because of work overload,
allegedly. And this could have been a genuine attempt to make him second in command.
No attempt to come back from isolation, frequent absence from Government.
Not attending Lenin’s funeral − misled by Stalin or not.
Not challenging Stalin – over the Georgian question and at the time of Lenin’s Testament, in both
arrogance or naivety cost him dear.
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Party’s fear of Trotsky
•
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The talent of ‘the pen’ resulted in him being feared and seeming stubborn and arrogant.
Ruthlessness in the Civil War.
Demand for dictatorial policies-reminiscent of Bonaparte, whose power base was also the army.
Conversely Stalin was much more appealing – the team player who they all knew.
Other contenders
Candidates would discuss the merits of Stalin and indeed the other players, Kamenev, Zinoviev,
Bukharin and Rykov, in as much they detract support from Trotsky.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
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•
•
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•
Figes: Trotsky and émigré revolutionaries “tended to be…international and cosmopolitan in their
outlook”.
I Deutscher: of ideology, said that for Trotsky “the isolation of Bolshevism was…a nightmare too
terrible to contemplate”.
R Pipes: “Stalin was in an unrivalled position that assured his future career for some time before
Lenin’s death”.
D Volkogonov: of Trotsky’s isolation “Stalin’s campaign was greatly assisted by Trotsky
himself”. Indeed he describes this as the “decisive event leading to Trotsky’s defeat”.
Deutscher: Trotsky’s inability to recognise this “wilful, sly but shabby and inarticulate man” as
his rival.
Deutscher: that Stalin always followed the majority viewpoint.
McCauley: Stalin had luck on his side. Dzerzhinsky’s death allowed him to infiltrate his
supporters into the political police.
G Hosking: “Comrade Card Index”.
Ward: “socialism in one country” appealed to most people.
Conquest: Stalin simply outmanoeuvred his colleagues.
Page 174
Question 5
Were the Purges and the Terror no more than a product of Stalin’s paranoia?
It is the aim of this question to allow candidates to consider the many reasons, whether rational or not,
for the actions of the state from 1934 onwards. A consideration of the range of people who fell victim
to this and the scale of the action might be expected.
Relevant areas for discussion might include:
Stalin’s motivation
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•
•
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•
Wanted to bring the Party under control.
Felt threatened by opposition.
Wanted absolute power, control of all people at all levels.
To prepare for war.
Evidence of paranoia.
Or other factors
•
•
•
•
•
•
There were problems with the Party – sloth and inertia at local level J Arch Getty.
Economy – scapegoats for poor 5 Year Plans, therefore attacking leadership, shaking up managers
eg Stakhanovite movement.
Social instability caused by the economy – ‘quicksand society’ Moshe Lewin.
This stabilises society – to maintain the institution of the NKVD, slave labour.
Addresses the fear of war.
Legacy of Lenin.
The role of Stalin at various stages of the Purges and the Terror from:
•
•
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The assassination of Kirov and Stalin’s use of this to instigate the Show Trials – purging Leningrad
party − plotting terrorist attacks discovered – but extends to thousands more and unjustified.
The elimination of Party members who were not ‘faithful’ − Stalin worried about spies and traitors
and the effect of denouncing was to allow old grudges to be settled…and to the extent that this
included Yagoda.
The deportation of dissidents – authors, film makers eg Ossip Mandelstam, Solzhenitsyn – quota
system by 1937 28% to be shot.
Dekulakisation.
The Army – Tukhachevsky et al- that he risked getting rid of his best commanders.
Religious persecution.
The terror for all…reasons becoming so arbitrary – telling a joke against Stalin, being the friend of
someone arrested.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
C. Ward: “An avalanche of monstrous charges, nightmarish allegations…”.
R. Conquest: “the one fundamental drive …is the strengthening of his own position”.
A Nove: states that the Purges were Stalin’s decisions but that in over-zealous hands wanting to fulfil
or over-fulfil numbers, the numbers arrested go up.
S Cohen: states that Stalin wanted to rid himself of the Bolshevik Party.
I Deutscher: notes the opinion that he sent the men of the old guard to their deaths as scapegoats
for his economic failures and states that there is no more than a grain of truth in this.
Page 175
Question 6
What factors best explain the Soviet Union’s recovery from its initial defeat by Nazi Germany in
1941-1942?
Any consideration would include background to the Nazi invasion. The ‘shock’ of Barbarossa and a
consideration of the unpreparedness in light of the expected alliance of the two powers.
Relevant areas for discussion might include:
The negative factors would necessitate coverage of
•
•
•
•
The basic facts covered would include Barbarossa to Stalingrad, the Leningrad Blockade to Kursk.
Huge loss of life and its impact on the war machine should be highlighted as evidence of the
potential outcome − problems caused by the Red Army purge in the 1930s.
Initial economic dislocation (eg loss of agricultural lands).
Diplomatic context (Nazi-Soviet Pact to buy time?).
The reasons for victory
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The War for the Russian Motherland…now not the USSR… eventual efficiency of War economy
as a result of 1930s policies…and loyalty to the Motherland and to Stalin.
The relocation of industries to beyond the Urals (evacuation of approx 10 million people).
The scorched earth policy.
The role of Stalin in rallying the people.
Geo-strategic issues (size of the country, climate etc., making it difficult for the Wehrmacht).
Role of propaganda and the Orthodox Church, turning the negatives around of rationing,
conscription, loss of homes.
Stalingrad may be discussed in terms of the type of fighting required; suiting the Russians; the use
of snipers; manipulating the war zone. Stalingrad is seen at this level as “a matter of prestige
between Hitler and Stalin”, which alongside the “dogged, rugged, Siberian obstinacy” and “the
stamina of Soviet soldiers was incredible” shows the determination involved.
Considering enemy weaknesses (dealing with Russian climate, land mass meaning Germans overstretched and cannot apply same tactics as in France.
Effects of Allied bombing of Germany; Allied invasion in the West.
Russian strengths might include the economic stability attained allowing the supply of the military
with adequate materiel; the constant upgrading of the Red Army; opening up new fronts and Allied
support; Kursk evidence of Russian military development enough to beat the Germans in tank
battles.
Answers may take a longer perspective to explain victory.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Richard Overy: notes the strengths and the weaknesses of the Soviet forces as reasons for the
outcome. He also highlights the “uneasy symbiosis” of the “efforts of the people in defiance of the
system they inhabited” and the role of the state and the leader.
Roy Medvedev: criticises the Generalissimo as being “short-sighted and cruel, careless of losses”.
Chris Ward: notes the economic, military and the political, but also points out the importance of the
social factors – the people’s ear. He also notes Hitler’s blunders.
Richard Sakwa: notes that Stalin “appeal(ed) to Russian pride rather than Marxism or Leninism
as inspiration for resistance”.
John Laver: highlights the establishment of a command economy and authoritarian rule and the
appeal to patriotism in order to galvanise support for ‘Mother Russia’.
Richard Sakwa: notes that there were two wars being fought simultaneously, “against the Nazi
aggressor and the continuing war of the Stalinist regime to stay in power”.
John Laver: notes the suitability of Russia economically to the demands of total war and
Geoffrey Hosking: stresses that productivity was impressive in terms of military output.
Reconciliation with the Church and religions is highlighted by many historians including J N
Westwood, Richard Overy and Geoffrey Hosking.
Roy Medvedev: notes the special “united front”.
Page 176
Soviet Russia (1917-1953)
Part 2
Question 1
How useful is Source A as an explanation of growing support for the Bolsheviks between April
and September 1917?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for the quality of their evaluation of the provenance of
the source.
The candidate may be awarded up to 2 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s value.
The candidate offers a structured consideration of the usefulness of Source A in explaining Bolshevik
popularity by October 1917, in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
•
•
•
•
commentary which shows an awareness of Lenin’s role and the influence of his writings
written after the honeymoon period of the Provisional Government
that this is the key document which provides the ‘manifesto’ for Bolshevism
representing views on how revolution should proceed – general principles.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
That the Provisional Government’s attitude to war was a negative factor “predatory imperialist war”
which allows Bolshevism to flourish.
No support for the Provisional Government …and the ‘falsity’ of promises have been highlighted.
That the Bolsheviks would embrace both workers and peasants…and talks about the “revolutionary
government” and all would be included.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
War − the struggle between the Soviet wanting an early peace and Milyukov’s determination to
fight on, leading to his resignation. In ‘The April Crisis’ the Mensheviks join the government and
popularity is gained amongst the rank and file. But there remained the desire for peace, as the
fraternization of Russian and German troops shows.
Mensheviks and SRs lost support after the June Offensive.
Land − that faced with a food shortage which fuelled unrest in the cities and at the Front, the
government proclaimed a grain monopoly. The Minister of Agriculture was as unenthusiastic as
the peasants and government prices failed to keep up with inflation, even in August. And the
question of land was to be discussed after the Constituent Assembly was formed.
There was growing radicalism because of the breakdown in trade and frustration at national policies
− authoritarian managerial culture, inflation, war. May-June strikes, Kronstadt.
For some the Bolshevik party played a key role in guiding the workers to success, under the vital
leadership of Lenin – other clauses highlight attitude to police, army, banks, fraternisation.
Masses did want to revolt but for a variety of reasons: − Kerenskyism, fatigue, desire for “peace,
bread and land”, and Lenin successfully taps into this.
That the Coalition and the status quo could no longer be endured…and there was a mood of
Bolshevism.
Page 177
Points from recall which offer a more critical contextualisation of the view in the source
•
•
•
•
•
The October revolution was more against the Provisional Government than for Bolshevism.
For some it was a coup d’etat as Lenin and his ‘evil minority’ took over − these views not widely
held within the Bolshevik Party in Petrograd before his return, hence limited support.
Workers did not expect the Bolsheviks to run the state on their own – consternation in the ranks.
There was an ambiguity of support. Workers seemed Bolshevik in mood, but it was apparent that
they were only supporting them if certain conditions were to be met…the promise of peace and
bread. The soldiers were war weary, not Bolsheviks.
The constituent Assembly elections reveal the limited support of the Bolsheviks gaining 24% of the
votes and the SRs gaining 53%.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
C Read and R Service: state that Lenin was a key figure, much of the revolution presents as a
coup but there was independent action at local level.
O Figes: notes that “amidst a social revolution centred the popular realisation of soviet power”.
Stephen Smith: as a revisionist sees the active role of the lower ranks in pushing forward the
revolution and Sheila Fitzpatrick takes this further by suggesting that the workers, peasants and
soldiers created the revolution.
H Shukman: states that Trotsky realised they could not be sure of all the workers and soldiers in
Petrograd let alone the country at large.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source A is useful for understanding the extent of Bolshevik support by
September almost at the point of the October Revolution.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate provenance
comments.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and little if any
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate
provenance comments.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate provenance comments and the interpretation is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the provenance of the source and the views in it. There is a solid grasp
of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Appropriate
reference to historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 178
Question 2
How fully does Source B explain the immediate political and social consequences of the October
Revolution?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s fullness in explaining/analysing the issue.
The candidate offers a structured evaluation of Source B as an adequate explanation of the political and
social development of the Bolshevik state in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
•
•
•
Reference to October 1918 – a source written a year after the revolution therefore significant
comment can be made by this time.
Tikhon Russian Orthodox Patriarch. Very conservative in politics. Always defended Church
independence.
Initially actively opposed Bolsheviks, but did not support Whites. Church and state separation by
January 1918 may inform his comments.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
•
•
“everyone is living in constant fear”, referring to the idea of the police state which was just
overthrown.
Hundreds are left to rot for months in prison or executed.
People now seen as hostages − without trial killed for the flimsiest reason − revenge killings, not
political.
Seizing lands and factories – which is against the main promises of Bolshevism.
Stealing money and possessions.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Destruction of other political parties, Kadets (two beaten to death by Bolshevik sailors), SRs,
Mensheviks. Closing down opposition press.
Legal system abolished replaced by revolutionary justice which was arbitrary and violent, children
made up 5% of the population of Moscow prisons in 1920.
Class warfare was encouraged by Lenin – burzhui – beaten robbed and arrested. The state
encouraged people to attack the middle class and “loot the looters” April 1918 – “The Immediate
tasks of the Soviet Government”.
Civil servants went on strike and were purged, promoting juniors who were obedient.
Factories militarised workers imprisoned or shot if targets were not reached.
Removal of the freedoms granted by the Provisional Government – dictatorship beginning –
because of banks refusal to co-operate with nationalisation.
The destruction of the Constituent Assembly.
Control imposed over the Soviets, setting up Sovnarkom. Centralised Party control − Politburo
tight-knit group with all power.
Party having control over the State, the large-scale use of Terror, Red-Terror and the Cheka, deaths
estimated at 300,000 although officially stated as 13,000 for 1918-20.
Grain requisitioning brigades were little more than bandits, peasant retaliation was in fact a war
against the government, many arrested, shot or sent to labour camps to perish.
17 July 1918 Tsar, his family and servants shot.
Page 179
Points from recall which offer a more critical contextualisation of the view in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Reforms which addressed the needs of the people eg Land Peace, Press decrees, Workers’ control
decree, Rights of the People of Russia decree.
8 hour day for workers, control of factories, railways, women equal and could own property, social
insurance.
Abolition of titles etc move to the egalitarian ‘comrade’ and status of workers and peasants
improved.
The imposition of harsh measures and strong leadership was vital in order to promote the
development of socialism and was the transition to the dictatorship of the proletariat.
Evidence of instability − Figes states “drunken mobs went on the rampage …Sailors and soldiers
went round the well-to-do districts robbing apartments and killing people for sport”: Maxim Gorky
“a pogrom of greed, hatred and violence”: Provinces – plundering houses, violence, looting
burzhui.
Building forces of terror and wiping out opposition vital to ensure the survival of the revolution/the
Bolsheviks.
The civil war did impact on the Party and is justification for measures taken – the initial civil war
against the Alekseevs, Kornilovs and Kerenskys…then on to the Civil War.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
William Rosenberg: There was no doubt that obedience to the clergy, and a powerful, propertied
Orthodox church was all incompatible with socialist values and institutions.
Richard Sakwa: notes that Plekhanov and Gorky (amongst others) would see the Bolshevik
Revolution as a betrayal of the working class.
Vladimir Brovkin: “rural women were largely immune to Communist propaganda”.
James White: Lenin encourages less sympathetic campaigns of terror.
James White: “An ‘iron hand’ Lenin believed was necessary in order that the revolution should
maintain momentum”.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source B is helpful in offering a full explanation of the immediate political
and social consequences of the October Revolution (up to say 1919).
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument, showing
a clear understanding of the views of the source. There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider
context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Appropriate reference to historical
interpretations and/or historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 180
Question 3
How much do Sources C and D reveal about differing viewpoints on the success of the
programme of industrialisation during the Stalinist period?
(16 marks)
Interpretation (maximum 6 marks)
Candidates may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of each source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
Contextual and historical interpretations (maximum 10 marks)
These 10 marks will be awarded for:
•
•
•
•
the quality and depth of the contextual recall
the quality and depth of the wider perspectives
the range and quality of historians’ views
provenance comment (if appropriate).
The candidate considers the views in Sources C and D on the success of the programme of
industrialisation during the Stalinist period, and offers a structured evaluation of the two perspectives in
terms of:
Source C
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
Isaac Deutscher, well-known historian, writer and journalist. Born in Poland he became a member of
the Polish Communist Party in 1926 but was expelled in 1932 because he was anti-Stalinist. He came
to London in 1932 and wrote for The Economist and The Observer. At the time of writing this he was
lecturing at Cambridge University.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
•
Highlights the enthusiasm of the urban working classes and the younger generation for
industrialisation.
The dream of Russia as a ‘socialist America’ links to Stalin’s idea of socialism in one country.
Great schemes are embarked upon like Dnieprostroi and Magnitogorsk, where the workers will be
in charge of their destiny.
That many volunteered for this eg members of the Komsomol, even to go to remote territories.
Points from recall which develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
The first Five Year Plan was very much a propaganda device to push citizens towards the goal of an
industrial socialist utopia. Competition between Gosplan and Vesenkha bidding targets up.
Detailed planning at first did not exist – broad directives and therefore local officials and managers
made the decisions.
Magnitogorsk designed as the socialist city of the future. “Everyone, even the labourers, felt that
Magnitogorsk was making history, and that he personally had a considerable part in it” John Scott
(American, Communist, volunteer worker).
Dnieprostroy Dam, the world’s largest construction site for two years, increased Soviet electric
power output fivefold in the 1930s, part of ‘gigantomania’. Foreign companies and individuals
involved eg Col. High Cooper engineer in charge − American.
Others – Moscow-Volga canal, Moscow metro. Thousands of skilled workers came from Britain
and America .
Komsomol – the Young Communist League as part of the Cultural Revolution endorsed the vision
of the new cities, of ‘soviet man’, the ‘soldiers of production’ one of the directors of the
Magnitogorsk site stated they were “the most reliable and powerful organising force of the
construction”. The ‘shock brigades’ who reported back.
But there was use of forced labour, the purge of the managers, technicians and planners and the
development of the ‘quicksand society’ Lewin.
Page 181
Source D
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
Kravchenko was an industrial manager who is giving a primary account of Stakhanovism. He is candid
in his criticism of the movement and notes that the illusion of success masks the division and repression
which was in fact the result.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant view(s)
•
•
•
The miracle performance of Stakhanov which was held up as an example to all.
The celebration of achievement was manipulated by the press – to further inspire workers.
The impact on the other two shifts showing the actuality of the situation.
Points from recall which develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The Stakhanovite movement from 1935 onwards was created to inspire and to discipline workers.
Idea of Konstantin Petrov, Party organiser to increase quotas. He was normally a very good worker
but was given optimum conditions (picks, proppers, hauliers etc) hence the result. He was given
200 roubles (normally 30) and other privileges, on cover of Pravda. Magnitogorsk stakhanovite
was V P Ogorodnikov who became a household name for his record breaking shifts in the steel
mill.
It was a lie from the beginning and was the subject of many articles and speeches to give it a false
credibility.
However others soon took on the challenge and by 5 September two workers had beaten the record.
Recordmania swept the country.
It was seen as a way of compelling management to adopt new production methods and to attain
targets. Bribery and corruption not unheard of.
It created an artificial situation and was disruptive in the workplace, creating a division between
workers and technical staff – resentment from workers and distortions of production.
Thousands of administrators were dismissed, many were arrested. Engineers and technicians were
blamed for low output.
The result was to create an atmosphere of fright and repression.
But there was substantial growth in heavy industry and the USSR was transformed.
Points which offer a more critical contextualisation of the views in the sources
•
•
•
•
•
•
Stalin was also carried away by the momentum of the movement and he had initiated this full-scale
industrial revolution with little real awareness of the limits of national resources and the endurance
needed by the people.
The workers’ living quarters were “overcrowded and in an extreme state of disrepair” M Fainsod
1937.
That it never became an egalitarian society, that those who were useful prospered.
Command economy had weaknesses – targets, shortages, quality, ill-organised or even chaotic.
Industry was imbalanced – heavy industry dominated, consumer goods neglected.
Supplies of materials difficult – competing factories hijacking lorries, ambushing trains.
Untrained clumsy workers damaging expensive machinery, producing poor quality goods.
Page 182
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Sheila Fitzpatrick: targets more of a socialist fantasy than a rational calculation.
A Nove: new targets were far beyond practical possibility.
C Ward: but there were some dramatic advances (by 1932). Ward cites the Urals, Kuzbass, Volga,
and Ukraine as well as the gigantic schemes like Magnitogorsk.
Moshe Lewin: highlights the cost in human terms.
J N Westwood: “the Stakhanovite movement brought with it an upbeat message. ‘Life is getting
better’ implied that with greater productivity there would be greater consumption. The push for
consumer goods did last for the next half century and despite recurrent absurdities would do much
to enhance the live of ordinary people.”
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of the two sources is helpful in offering a full perspective on the success of
industrialisation during the Stalinist period.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the sources; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the sources. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
5-7
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the sources, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
8-11
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the sources, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp
of topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
12-16 The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the views of the sources and their value as interpretations on the issue.
There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant
analysis. Appropriate reference to historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be
credited highly.
Page 183
The Spanish Civil War (1931-1939)
Part 1
Each question is worth 25 marks
Question 1
What factors best explain the fall of the monarchy in 1931?
This question asks the candidate to consider the range of factors which best explain the fall of the
Spanish Monarchy in 1931. The candidate should be able to compare a variety of key factors which
contributed to Alfonso’s demise and to compare these and their relative importance.
The candidate may make use of evidence such as:
Long term factors
More immediate factors
Agrarian problem.
Relationship with the church.
Relationship with the army.
Regional differences.
Political structure − Turno Pacifico.
Historical precedent for removing monarchs.
Growth of anarchism.
The Dictadura (discrediting dictatorships).
Incompetence of the King.
Incompetence of Primo’s successors.
Pact of San Sebastian.
Industrialisation in Catalonia/Basque Region.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
Carr:
Brenan:
“
Callachan:
“The Republicans rejected monarchy as an illegitimate and outmoded form of
government; the Carlists rejected the Alfonsine branch...The Socialists considered (it)
reactionary...The anarchists rejected it in toto. To the regionalists it... strangled local
interests...the radical regenerationists believed (in) root and branch reform...”
“The destruction of the historic provinces and their replacement by ‘artificial
entities’...was at the root of the regionalist movements.”
“(it was) the personal unpopularity of the king himself (which brought down the
monarchy).”
“the conservative classes, during 1930, lost confidence in the monarchy.”
“Unlike England and France there was no upward movement from one (class) to
another.”
“...the corruption of all the upper layers of society.”
“The ease with which the dictator had been brought down encouraged the middle
classes...to think that Alfonso could be got rid of too.”
“Since 1788 not a single Spanish sovereign had had a natural reign.”
“The Army had become increasingly sensitive to any criticisms...”
“(The church) was weakest in the great latifundia lands...where a rural proletariat lived
in desperate circumstances.”
“...the large domains were managed without initiative or imagination...”
Malefakis:
Esenwein
and Shubert: “Where rapid industrialisation and massive immigration (took place) traditional culture
and identity were seen as seriously threatened.”
Fraser:
“A state within a state, (the Army) came to see itself as the incarnation of national
will.”
Preston:
“(the monarchy) had fallen into disrepute by the time Primo seized power.”
Page 184
Question 2
How great a threat did the desire for regional autonomy pose to the Spanish Republic in 1931?
This question asks the candidate to consider the regional movements in Spain, especially those of
Catalonia and the Basque country, and to assess the threat they posed to the Spanish Republic. The focus
should clearly be on 1931 although the candidate may recall earlier events which highlight the effects of
regionalism.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
General regional issues
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The reasons for the growth of separatism in Catalonia and the Basque territories.
The opposition to regionalism and its effect on the left and the right.
The contrast between Catalonia and the Basques.
The development of desire for autonomy in Catalonia and the Basque country since 1918.
The hostility of the Central government, including the actions of Primo de Rivera in 1923.
The changing political nature of the movements for autonomy, from the Lliga in Catalonia to the
Esquerra.
The growth of hostility towards them by the Army.
The ‘propaganda’ potential for the right to emphasise the danger to united Spain.
Basques
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Insular nature of the region, culturally, politically and religiously.
Right wing beliefs, incompatible with liberal Republic.
Desire for autonomy long-term and not restricted to ‘devolution’ but independence.
Hatred of outsiders including Castilian Spanish.
Basques had previously sided with CEDA.
Important sea ports, industry and communications routes to the North.
Potentially crucial to rebuilding of Spanish economy.
Sometimes argued by ‘36 only with Republic because of Franco’s centralism.
“let it purify its race; let it isolate itself from the outside world in character and customs; let it
recover its old religious fervour; let it long for its way of life before 1839.” (from PNV
programme).
Catalonia
•
•
•
•
•
•
Initially middle class, conservative movement.
By 20s, left wing, socialists.
Strong anarchist movement within trade unions, many of whom were anti-bourgoise.
Both Companys and Macia declared independence immediately in ‘31 and had to be persuaded to
wait for statute.
Strong arguments in Cortes only eventually overcome due to ‘Sanjurjada’.
Economically crucial centre of industry.
The candidate may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
Preston: “the statute (of Catalan autonomy) was regarded by the army and conservative classes as
an attack on national unity”.
Hugh Thomas: “The ‘Catalan’ question became acute because of the industrial development (of
Barcelona)” “in 1931, the effects of the depression would begin to be felt in Catalonia”
“…the CNT were in the minority, even amongst organised workers in Barcelona. But their verve
and violence commanded attention.” “... their tactics included riots, sabotage and antiparliamentarianism.”
Brenan: “The anarchists claimed 600,000 members in June 1932, 250,000 in Barcelona.”
Carr: “The Carlists, strong in Navarre, detested (PNVs) radical separatism; the Socialists, strong
in Bilbao, denounced its reactionary Catholicism.”
Page 185
Question 3
“A godsend to conservatives searching for a decent stick with which to beat the Republic.”
How fair is this assessment of Azaña’s attempts to reform the Church between 1931 and 1933?
The candidate is asked to evaluate the Church Reforms presented by the administration between 1931
and 1933 and assess how far their impact was as Raymond Carr’s quote has it. The candidate is not asked
to compare these reforms to others and the concentration should be on describing and evaluating
specific reforms. Some background relating to the standing and role of the Church and the difficulty
posed in loosening their grip on Spanish society may be used to place the reforms in context. Some
discussion of the anti-clerical nature of the new constitution would be credited. Please note this question
does not ask the candidate to cite motivation for the reforms.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
Long term factors which made reforms necessary or difficult
•
•
•
Powerful role in society.
Close connection to latifundias and army.
Control over education, in decline since 19th century.
Factors supporting reforms
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Control over education gave Jesuits access to ‘hearts and minds’.
Need to ‘republicanise’ the nation.
Azana’s view that − Spain had “ceased to be Catholic”.
Church opposed land reforms which were crucial to a ‘new’ Spain.
Religion not ‘outlawed’.
Dominant position of Catholicism still ‘standing’.
Many churchmen anti-republican (‘what kind of sin is liberalism?’).
Possible criticisms of Reforms
•
•
•
•
•
This was the wrong priority − agrarian reforms and the army were bigger issues.
There was personal malice in some reforms – taxes on bell-ringing, “all the convents in Madrid are
not worth the life of one Republican.”
In education, there was no viable alternative to catholic education.
Restrictions on teaching and banning of orders ‘anti-liberal’.
Cardinal Segura’s letter in May 1931 attacking Republic. Segura did not speak for all Catholics but
points from his letter may well amplify points made by candidates:
“no clear statement can be made of the political attitude of the Church.”
“It would have been wise...if the Republic had concentrated on the creation of good schools... rather
than attacking orders which maintained good, if exclusive ones.”
“The difficulty was that Spanish Catholics were forced into having to oppose the constitution... if they
wished to criticise its educational policy.”
“Bishops explicitly advised Catholics to vote against the Popular Front.”
30s Spain – “20,000 monks, 60,000 nuns and 35,000 priests (financed by state)”
“90 percent of those who were educated in religious schools did not confess or attend mass…”
“Though (Catholic schools) favoured the status quo and the better off … (they) were charitable and
educational”
“..the village priest was often looked on as an…amiable counsellor”
“Nearly 20 Spanish provinces had an illiteracy rate of 50 per cent or over”
“…the Church in Spain did incorporate a long tradition in Spanish life”
“It was easy…to represent anti-clericalism with anti-Spain.”
Arguably, debate over the religious clause of the constitution led to even greater polarisation of Spanish
society.
Page 186
The candidate may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
Beevor: The Spanish Civil War “The Church was detested by the workers and labourers for
preaching acceptance of poverty while amassing vast riches.”
“Republican attitude was that...the stranglehold of the Church must be broken”
“The Catholic press ...presented (the Constitution) as a blueprint for the persecution of religion.”
Thomas: The Spanish Civil War 1927 Catechism as evidence of attitude – “What kind of sin is
liberalism? ... a mortal sin.”
Carr: The Civil War in Spain This attack (on the Church by Azana) was understandable, given the
enormous emotional significance of the Church as a pillar of the ancient regime.
Page 187
Question 4
Robles declared that “Socialism must be defeated at all costs”. To what extent does this explain
the events of the Bienio Negro of 1933-1935?
The candidate is asked to discuss the events of 1933 to 1935 in Spain and come to a judgement as to the
regressive nature of the administration or otherwise and the extent to which the motivations were antisocialist. The evaluation should refer to the major events of this period and to the culpability of all
major protagonists on both the right and left of the political spectrum.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
Behaviour of Government
Other Factors
Widespread anti-reform activity ‘unleashed’ after
victory − latifundias took unrestricted revenge.
Malicious attacks on workers who were, in some
cases, driven far from home and abandoned, in
others they were beaten and tortured.
Workers associations closed down.
Jesuits returned to teaching.
Priests given ‘pensions’.
Amnesty for Sanjurjo and plotters.
Substitution of lay for religious schools
‘indefinitely postponed’.
Brutal repression in wake of Asturias.
Much unrest came from the left and their
abandonment of parliamentarianism.
CNT FAII riots.
Constant strikes.
Asturias Rising over legal appointment of CEDA
members to cabinet.
CEDA massively underrepresented.
Zamora refused to appoint Robles as PM.
The white Bolshevik drew venom from his right
wing ‘allies’ for the liberal nature of his reforms.
Army reforms were not wholly reversed – thus
helping to create a more effective force.
The candidate may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
Carr: The Civil War in Spain “When it (the Asturias rising) was over the nation was morally divided
between those who favoured repression and those who did not.”
Payne: Spain’s First Democracy “The stance and rhetoric of the CEDA were often provocative and
threatening.”
“Some degree of electoral reform would have moderated electoral polarization.”
Preston: The Coming of the Spanish Civil War Increasing mimicking of Fascist tactics − “A crowd
of 20,000 gathered and shouted ‘¡jefe¡!jefe!¡jefe!’ and ‘Our Leaders never make mistakes!’”
Thomas: The Spanish Civil War: Left also at fault − (After Right’s victory) El Socialista regularly
argued that the Republic was as bad as the monarchy had been.
Largo “reaffirmed his belief in the necessity of preparing a proletarian rising.”
Thomas describes this as “a fatal error of judgement”.
“Gil Robles was an accomplished parliamentarian…who disliked parliament.”
“JAP…openly boasted of their anti-parliamentarianism.”
“(by 1934) the Spanish Socialist Party was also heading away from constitutionalism.”
“…unrest was partly the consequence of a new ‘suicidal egoism’… employers…lower(ed) wages,
raise(d) rents and enforce(d) evictions.”
“…the government introduced a series of measures designed to halt the reforms of their
predecessors.”
“…Robles secured that priests would be treated as if they were civil servants on pensions and they
began to be paid two-thirds of their salary in 1931.”
“Though Agrarian Law remained on the statute, its application…was abandoned.”
“…the socialist party responded (to the government) ..by…denouncing the Republic.”
Page 188
Question 5
How effectively did each side use propaganda during the Spanish Civil War?
This question gives the candidate a chance to weigh up all the sorts of propaganda that were available to
the Nationalist and the Republicans during the Civil War and consider how effectively they were used
in each case.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
Right
Left
Controlled mainstream media (eg ABC)
Depicted republic as ‘godless’ and anarchic.
Regular radio broadcasts.
Mobilised fear of communism within Spain and
amongst potential democratic allies.
Church played a strong role in ‘informing’
population of atrocities.
‘Crusade’ linked to the expulsion of the Moors.
British and U.S. media both figured anti-red
articles.
Wealth of posters.
Several artistic ‘major players’ (Hemingway,
Orwell, Picasso, Miro)
Rhetoric of La Pasionaria − You are History!
Mobilisation of working class ideology.
Defence of Madrid − No Pasaran.
International Brigades as surrogate for ‘real’
international support.
Considerable musical evidence − ‘Jarama’, ‘No
Pasaran’, ‘Ay Manuela’ from a variety of
nationalities.
Jose Louis Sert’s offering at the 1937 World
Exhibition read: “The Spanish people have a
path, it leads to a star” and a quotation − “More
than half a million Spaniards are standing ready
with their bayonets in the trenches, they will not
be walked over.”
− President Azana−
Politically very effective internationally.
Gave ‘romantic’ credence to ‘Great Cause’ but no
great effect on Western Democracies.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
• Preston: Robles based much CEDA propaganda on techniques learned on a study tour of Nazi
Germany. Both Renovación Española and the Carlists had close relations with the Italian Fascists.
The Falange were actually subsidised by the Italian Government.
“German, Italian and Austrian exiles wrote dire warnings in Spanish leftist periodicals of the need to
fight fascism… Soviet arms played a crucial part in the defence of Madrid.”
“Atrocity stories about the sex-crazed, looting Spanish anarchists were spread by British Catholic
supporters of the Nationalists…they had considerable impact on the middle classes.”
• Gerald Howson: (Early reports of Nationalist atrocities) …were usually dismissed as leftist
propaganda. Republican atrocities…were given headline treatment.
(The effect) was to harden the already adverse opinion…of the Spanish Republic.
• Herbert Southworth: “I was myself actively engaged in the propaganda war of the Spanish
conflict, on the Republican side, with, I must now admit, meagre results.”
• Thomas: The theme of (International Brigade) recruitment was that “Madrid shall be the grave of
European fascism”.
From July 1936... (Picasso)...championed the Republican cause. In January, he had etched a series
of comic strips, The dream and lies of General Franco.
• Low: (La Pasionaria’s) propaganda value to the Party and the Republican cause was incalculable.
She was there to greet...Paul Robeson, Pandit Nehru, the Duchess of Atholl, Labour M.P. Ellen
Wilkinson...
The process of semi-deification of La Pasionaria went on apace.
Page 189
Question 6
Did Communist support during the Spanish Civil War harm more than help the Republican cause?
The candidate is asked to evaluate the overall effect of Communist support on the Republican war
effort. Specific reference should be given to Communist aid and its effect on the economic, military
and political sectors of the Republican side. Reference should clearly be given to the positive and
negative effects on morale at different interludes. It is not sufficient to cite this as one of the many
factors leading to the defeat of the Republic.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
Positive aspects to Communist support
•
•
•
•
•
•
Only support available (apart from Mexico).
Specific reference to ‘good’ aid (Tanks − excellent, ‘Mosca’ impressive, logistics important).
If Fascist support had been unopposed the Republic would have been defeated sooner.
Argument that ‘accounting deficit’ was small.
Huge boost to morale.
International Brigades and associated triumphs and advantages.
Negative aspects to Communist support
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Less than Italians and Germans.
Argument that accountancy deficit was large and gold was lost to Moscow.
Nature of support aimed at continuation, not victory... Stalin ‘drip-feeding’ supplies.
Republic the victims of a wider strategic policy from Stalin that they did not understand.
Role of Comintern?
Communist control of Republic inevitable... but drove divisions through socialist groups.
International Brigades and associated failings − too democratic, collectivization, demoralising
effect on militias.
‘Communisation’ of cause.
Distancing from western democracies.
Ultimately unreliable-Nazi-Soviet pact.
The candidate may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
Carr: “The war was kept going by Soviet supplies and the Popular Army”
“(del Vayo) ...was unconditionally in the service of the communist party.”
“...the International Brigades were shock troops whose losses were among the heaviest in military
history.”
“...very few Russians actually in Spain.”
“...the communists...virtually controlled the destinies of the left camp.”
“Many conservatives (in Britain)...because of their fear of bolshevism privately hoped Franco
would win.”
Brenan: “Stalin saw to it that the arms which he supplied...should secure the predominance of
the communist party,”
Esenwein: “...the communists were determined to put the Popular Front policy to...the collective
security of the Soviet Union”
“For many, the foreign volunteers who had come to Spain embodied the international spirit of antifascism.”
Page 190
The Spanish Civil War (1931 – 1939)
Part 2
Question 1
How fully does Source A explain the reasons for the failure of Agrarian reform between 1931 and
1933?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s fullness in explaining/analysing the issue.
The candidate offers a structured evaluation of Source A in providing an adequate explanation of the
reasons for Nationalist victory in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance will earn credit. These may include:
accurate comment on EE Malefakis will receive credit under historiography.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
•
•
Law was a complex ‘compromise’.
‘Vague’ and ‘contradictory’.
‘Revolutionary in …implication’.
Did make land available at affordable price.
Azaña responsible for its failure-conservative application.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
Agrarian reform arguably the greatest problem faced by the Republic.
Enormous anti-reform lobby had support of Latifundias, Church and Army.
Revolutionary measures within − 8 hour day, compulsory cultivation, security of tenure – evictions
almost impossible, blocked rent rises, restrictions to hiring of outside labour, confiscation of land.
However: Latifundias remained; many were recompensed for land; Mini-Fundias and other smallholders also suffered, despite many being pro-Republic.
The candidate may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
Thomas: The Reforms“..adversely affected migrant workers...”
“...agricultural workers were impressed (but) their expectations were extravagantly aroused...”
“…the decrees overworked the courts...”
“The laws worried small farmers without transforming the basis of agriculture in Spain...”
“...if it had been carried through effectively... it might have had a striking effect...”
“...the only real solution to the Agrarian Problem was to find a way to reduce the population on the
land by encouraging industry.”
Preston: “Agrarian violence was a constant feature of the Republic.”
“The anarchists were calling for expropriations...and collectives... The Republics... were not
prepared to do this...”
“The laws of obligatory cultivation were effectively ignored...”
“(the reforms)...did nothing to abate the revolutionary nature of the countryside...”
Brenan: “(In 1928)...15 million acres were totally unproductive. Of the pastureland, one half
was extremely poor...”
“...unless very radical land reforms were introduced (Spain) would cease to be (governable).”
Page 191
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source A is helpful in offering a full perspective on the reasons for the failure
of Agrarian reform between 1931 and 1933.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer relevant and appropriate
historical interpretations.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historical
interpretations or specific historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument, showing
a clear understanding of the views of the source. There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider
context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Greater awareness and development of
historical interpretations and/or historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 192
Question 2
How useful is Source B in illustrating the motives of the Right in Spain in 1936?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for the quality of their evaluation of the provenance of
the source.
The candidate may be awarded up to 2 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views, that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s value.
The candidate offers a structured consideration of the usefulness of Source B in providing an adequate
understanding of the motives of the Right in Spain between 1931 and 1936.
Points from Source
Provenance: Franco speech in very early days of Civil war... not initially leader of the revolt.
Extremely reluctant according to some accounts.
More soldier than politician with considerable grievances against the Republican Government since the
closure of his training facility in Zaragoza.
Its purpose may be to incite others to support in the uprising which had just begun.
Points from source which show that candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
•
•
Religious and military call to arms.
Working on fear of anarchy and revolutionary strikes.
Also playing on middle class fears that Government was ‘destroying its sources of wealth’.
Also blaming plight of working class/peasantry ‘creating hunger, forcing working men to the
point of desperation.’
‘foreign governments’ hint at Soviet Union.
Points from recall which develop and contextualize those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
Azaña appeared anti-Church 31-33 – all the convents in Spain...
Army feared further (less lenient reforms) would now happen.
Poverty was widespread.
Violence was occurring daily.
Post-1934 the left had become increasingly radical.
Murder of Sotello.
Points from recall which provide balance and reveal the source’s limitations
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Government were left of centre but a Popular Front − not radical.
Army motivated by self-interest and failure of Robles.
Much violence was sponsored by the right.
‘Air’ of anarchism often a fabrication of right-wing press.
Soviet Union had no control at this stage.
Franco had previously offered to support Republic.
Church motivated by fear of loss of position and educational input.
Latifundias motivated by greed and self-interest.
Huge amount of the Armed forces stayed loyal to the Republic.
Subsequent defence of Madrid etc. anything but ‘anarchic’ in Franco’s sense.
Page 193
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
Robinson: Sotelo (believed) that the revolution of 1934 proved that the Left were not willing to
accept a parliamentary system which allowed the Right to govern.
When the leftist coalition won the majority of seats, though not of votes, and revolution seemed
again to threaten, (Robles’) followers began to desert and put their faith in violence.
Thomas: (between February and June 1936 according to Robles)...160 churches had been burned
to the ground, 269 mainly political murders and 1,287 assaults. 69 political centres had been
wrecked, there had been 113 general strikes and 228 partial strikes, while 10 newspaper offices had
been sacked. The conditions in the country and the regime were as grave as Robles described them.
The government was composed exclusively of liberal republicans (not radicals).
(The Carlists) believed that the rising should take place under the Monarchist flag and that its
success should be followed by the dissolution of all political parties....the masters of economic
power...believed that they were about to be overwhelmed.
Preston: (of Franco) Removed once more from a job he loved, Franco was more than ever a
general to be feared.
(Franco felt) revulsion at the Left’s disrespect for God and the Church.
Franco believed he was rebelling to save the Patria...from Communist infiltration.
Payne: According to José Antonio (Primo de Rivera) Spain needed a strong state dominated by a
revolutionary elite.
A very large number of people wanted a new Spain-which would be worthy of Spain’s great past.
Murders for political reasons (in 1936) were reported almost daily.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source B is useful as evidence illustrating the motives of the Right in Spain
between 1931 and 1936.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate provenance
comments.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and little if any
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate
provenance comments.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate provenance comments and the interpretation is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the provenance of the source and the views in it. There is a solid grasp
of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Appropriate
reference to historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 194
Question 3
How much do the views given in Sources C and D reveal about differing assessments of Franco’s
leadership abilities during the Spanish Civil War?
(16 marks)
Candidates may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of each source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
Contextual and historical interpretations (maximum 10 marks)
These 10 marks will be awarded for:
•
•
•
•
the quality and depth of the contextual recall
the quality and depth of the wider perspectives
the range and quality of historians’ views
provenance comment (if appropriate).
The candidate considers the views in Sources C and D on Franco’s leadership abilities, and offers a
structured evaluation of the two perspectives in terms of:
Points from Source C
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance will earn credit. These may include:
accurate comment on Sheelagh Ellwood will receive credit under historiography.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
•
•
•
Franco’s ‘delays’ were tactical and deliberate.
He had an overall plan to secure single, political leadership.
Speed in securing power once time was right.
Ruthless crushing of alternative leaders (Hedilla).
Aware of need for total victory to ensure single command.
Apparent distance from unpopular actions another tactic (‘long-handled spoon’).
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Franco was involved in delays (Alcazar) which have to be explained if his leadership is to be
praised.
There is evidence of clever use of difficult situations – the creating of the cult of the ‘Absent One’
acquired support of the Falange, giving the Right an ideology.
Rounding up of rivals did occur with considerable pace although ‘main’ rivals were already gone
(Sotello, Primo etc.).
The securing of German and Italian support can be credited directly to Franco, who negotiated
personally and energetically.
Franco was directly in command of Mola throughout the major victories.
The Republic had considerable advantages at the outset of the war which Franco overcame.
Some of the more disastrous mistakes (Guadalajara) were due to Italian incompetence, rather than
Franco’s tactics.
Page 195
Points from Source D
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance will earn credit. These may include:
accurate comment on Paul Preston will receive credit under historiography.
Points from source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
•
•
•
Fear and not inspiration was Franco’s method.
Lack of clarity − not tactical.
Questions over his ‘ponderous’ decision-making.
Unnecessary sacrifices and ‘wasted’ time.
Mola the real power.
Lack of competition the key to Franco’s ‘rise’.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
From the outset ‘Miss Canary Islands’ (as Franco was dubbed by his co-conspirators) had been
unwilling to commit to the Coup.
Franco is even reputed to have warned the Government of a possible uprising and to have offered
his services.
In securing leadership, Franco did have some good fortune. The deaths of Sotello, Sanjurjo, Primo
and, eventually, Mola left the competition considerably depleted.
The truth about Guernica and the direct responsibility still not entirely clear, although Franco did
have overall responsibility, of course.
Considerable debate over events like Guernica, which threatened to ‘backfire’.
Campaigns like Alcazar led to enormous, unnecessary loss of life.
Points from recall which offer wider contextualisation of the views in the sources
•
•
•
The Nationalist side was as diverse as the Republicans and it can be argued that only Franco’s ‘One
State’ philosophy united them.
Franco’s balancing of a traditionalist stance with the mobilisation of Primo’s youth movement
through the cult of the ‘Absent One’ was an impressive ‘juggling act’.
His negotiations with Hitler secured considerable support without any definite commitment to
support in a major conflict.
The candidate may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
Thomas: “(Before the rising) On the mainland, Franco remained for some time a myth. He was
spoken of incessantly, but no one seemed to know where he was.”
“Franco’s achievements in the Civil War were considerable.”
“As a Supreme Commander Franco showed none of the recklessness for which he had been known
as a young man in Morocco.”
“He established himself as the political leader of the most passionately concerned country in the
world by a contempt or political passions.”
“...no doubt he was assisted...by Serrano Súñer..”
“(There were)...many opportunities for the Nationalist Alliance to collapse...”
“...Franco’s calm, effortless, professional superiority first obtained him the leadership...”
Preston: “Franco’s battle tactics reflected his character: cruel unforgiving and vengeful. These
attributes, however were of inestimable value in allowing him to impose his will on the rebel
forces.”
Esenwein: “There are several reasons why Franco had been selected (as leader). First and
foremost was the fact that he had from the outset played a critical role in the uprising.”
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of the two sources is helpful in offering a full perspective on Franco’s leadership
abilities during the Spanish Civil War.
Page 196
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source; not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate provenance
comments.
5-7
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and little if any
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well-written
with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may make relevant and appropriate
provenance comments.
8-11
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate provenance comments and the interpretation is clearly
written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several relevant points and shows an
understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual grasp of
topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to historians’ views.
12-16 The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; showing
a clear understanding of the provenance of the source and the views in it. There is a solid grasp
of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Appropriate
reference to historians’ views will be credited highly.
Page 197
Britain at War and Peace (1939-1951)
Part 1
Each question is worth 25 marks
Question 1
To what extent had the Labour Party experienced a political revival under Attlee’s leadership by
1939?
The essay focuses predominantly on the Labour Party of the late 1930s and the extent to which it had
recovered from the schismatic period of 1931-1935. The candidate is required to make reference to this
period and to why it resulted in the party’s political decline but the essay should not be seen as a vehicle
for simply describing the causes of and events associated with that turbulent period. A successful
answer would be able to judge the degree to which recovery had taken place, estimate its likely
performance in a 1940 election and assess the role of Attlee in forging a more unified and politically
coherent Labour Party by 1939.
The candidate will assess the degree of political recovery experienced under the leadership of
Attlee using evidence such as:
•
•
•
•
•
A review of the decline of the Labour Party from holding office 1929-1931 to its cabinet split, fall
from power and relegation to a minority party in the Commons after the schism over MacDonald
and proposed spending cuts.
A very brief review of Lansbury’s period as leader and the overtly pacifist stance he brought to the
party philosophy.
Some recognition of partial recovery by 1935 where Labour achieved a net gain of 94 seats and a
swing of 9.4% nationally leaving them with 154 seats.
The circumstances under which Attlee became the leader and a review of the major policy changes
he invoked viz. − greater emphasis on planning as a socialist tool, the abandonment by late 1938 of
opposition to rearmament and a qualified abandonment of pacifism per se.
A review of the party’s national status by 1939, including evidence of success in by-elections
(especially the Ipswich one in Feb. 1938 where a National Government majority of 7,000 was
overturned), the fact that party membership had increased from 1.9 million in 1934 to 2.6 million in
1938 and that the party was able to run several big campaigns on focus issues each year eg “peace
and security” and “food and farming” in 1938/1939. Over 150 local constituency parties had their
own newspapers and by the end of the 1930’s labour could boast the support of the country’s
biggest selling morning paper, the Daily Herald.
However, there were a significant number of issues which still gave the party genuine cause for
concern.
• The party’s finances had never recovered from the damage caused by Tory legislation in 1927,
limiting the amount of trade union contribution to Labour’s finances.
• By 1938, 68% of trade union members had failed to contract in to paying contributions to Labour
party funds.
• Constituency activity was patchy and by no means universal with support holding up in traditional
poorer areas of Scotland and London but little evidence of a change of leadership making any
impression in the shires.
• There were still significant ideological divisions within the party with the left calling for an anti
fascist popular front and the leadership vigorously opposing it.
• Attlee was not seen as a convincing leader by other Labour heavyweights like Dalton, and
according to the historian Ben Pimlott, no leader of the opposition has been more abused or
deserving of that abuse for a weak performance than Clem Attlee in the late 1930s.
• The Labour Party was significantly weaker in its approach to media relations than the National
Government and Attlee’s weak speeches contrasted greatly with the confidence of both Baldwin
then Chamberlain.
Page 198
•
•
Significantly, commentators on this period are nowhere near convinced that Labour could have won
an election in 1940. The by-election successes did not in themselves represent anywhere near a big
enough swing to produce a Labour government in 1940 and as A Thorpe says “the overall
impression was of a party that had reached an electoral plateau”.
The consensus of opinion is that Labour had made significant strides on the road to recovery but
would have to wait for the impact of the war to provide the political impetus to propel the party into
power.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
The joint work of S. Fielding, P. Thomson and N. Tiratsoo in England Arise where they stress
limited progress but cast doubts on any possible election victory in 1940 “...taking the situation as a
whole, it was quite clear that the various crises (of 30s) had done little to actually stimulate political
change, either by raising interest or by changing allegiances. Conservative dominance remained
intact”.
Ben Pimlott: savages Attlee for his insipid despatch box performance of the late 30s in the face of
the massive social problems of the time.
Stephen Brooke: in Labour’s war places great emphasis on structural and ideological changes
within the party and the extent to which Attlee had committed it to state planning as a basic tenet of
party philosophy, but “had there been an election in 1939 or 1940 it is unlikely that Labour would
have won it. In December 1939, an opinion poll showed that 53% of those questioned preferred the
national Government, against 47% for the opposition”.
Both Christopher Rowe and Derrick Murphy agree that there was little chance of Labour ousting
the National Government in a potential election of 1940… “Labour would have stood little chance
of victory. The electoral hill to be climbed was simply too steep.”
Page 199
Question 2
“The importance of the Battle of Britain in ensuring Britain’s survival in the war in 1940 has
been exaggerated.” How valid is this view?
The basis of the essay’s argument lies in the controversy over whether the role of the Battle of Britain
in saving Britain from defeat in 1940 has been overstressed to the detriment of other theatres of war
involving the British military, in particular the navy’s role. Did so many necessarily need to owe so
much to so few or should we focus more on the role of the navy in protecting our shores? The
candidate would therefore be expected to review the part played by the RAF in retaining control of the
skies over Britain and assess whether this factor was as vital in ensuring we were not invaded as the
power of the navy and the German fear of its destructive capabilities on a potential landing force.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
•
•
•
•
A review of the events of the Battle of Britain in the summer of 1940 with an explanation of the
extent to which Fighter Command was able to fend off the threat of German air superiority by
defending Britain’s air space at great cost to human life.
An examination of the nature of Operation Sea lion and the extent to which Hitler believed he had
to win air superiority over the Channel in order to allow the invasion to take place.
Evidence of the severity of the Luftwaffe’s attacks on the RAF and its bases and the loss of life
which accrued because of this. Some assessment of the degree to which these attacks stretched
Fighter Command to its utmost limits and how German losses compared. How close Germany
came to achieving its stated goal of air superiority.
Out of these heroic efforts, the idea that a few hundred pilots and ground crew thwarted the German
aim of achieving control of the skies and therefore, thwarted any attempt at invasion.
The candidate would then be expected to scrutinise the counter argument that it was largely the
navy which was responsible for protecting Britain from invasion and that the role of the RAF has
been greatly exaggerated using evidence such as:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The belief amongst the navy that fast-moving ships at sea were safe from German air attack.
The evidence that no capital ship had been sunk by an aircraft up to that point.
That the German threat of stretching a minefield across the channel to prevent the navy assisting in
repelling an invasion force was an empty one since the German fleet contained very few of these
mine laying ships anyway.
That a slow moving invasion fleet of barges filled with soldiers would have been sitting ducks for
the navy and that the certainty of massive loss of human life from such attacks by the Royal Navy
would have dissuaded the Germans from launching any invasion even if they had gained temporary
air superiority.
Recent research suggests that the German navy had utterly rejected the notion of an invasion on all
of these grounds if only because it would have been almost impossible to supply and reinforce any
troops from the first wave of landings who did make it ashore.
Further evidence suggests that Churchill himself thought an invasion highly unlikely but talked up
the prospect as a method of drawing the USA into the conflict, keeping the British public behind
the war effort and the trade unions quiet during his period of political difficulty in late 1940.
Therefore the final contention of some would be that it was the Royal Navy which was instrumental
in preventing any German invasion of Britain in 1940, however heroic the efforts of the RAF.
Page 200
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Historiography on this subject is vibrant and controversial with the three senior military historians
at the Joint Services Command Staff College, Dr A. Gordon, Dr Christina Goulter and Prof G.
Sheffield all in broad agreement that it was the navy and not the RAF which prevented an invasion
in 1940.
Clive Ponting: has produced statistical evidence to show that far from being heavily outnumbered,
the RAF had changed its production methods to such effect that by October 1940, the RAF
outnumbered the Luftwaffe.
Angus Calder: asserts that the need for a myth of a generation of flying heroes was paramount and
that such a myth energised the population and sustained morale.
Respected Historian Richard Overy concurs that the Battle of Britain has assumed the epic
proportions of a Stalingrad and that the facts were juggled to produce a picture of the campaign
which was in fact a caricature of itself.
Max Hastings: would profoundly disagree and retains his belief in the primacy of the Battle of
Britain in safeguarding our nation.
Page 201
Question 3
How effectively did the Coalition Government mobilise Britain’s resources for war between 1940
and 1945?
This is necessarily a broad question and the candidate may display a limited range of knowledge of a
wide range of issues relating to this answer and still attain a high mark. The candidate has to beware
however, of interpreting ‘mobilisation’ in the strictest of military terms and a mere discussion of
conscription of both sexes will not suffice. What is called for is a discussion of the range of economic
policies put in place to manage scarce resources both in human and material sense and a judgement on
how effectively the state achieved this.
Candidate may use evidence such as:
•
•
•
•
The mobilisation of military resources and discussion of the choices that the government made over
allocation of resources to the different branches of the armed services, or to different campaigns.
The mobilisation of manpower on the Home Front, including the conscription of women.
Economic policies relating to the management of scarce economic resources, including rationing
and imports/exports.
State control of industry and agriculture and the fiscal controls employed to manage the economy in
total war.
Within that broad framework, the candidate may refer to more specific issues like Bevin’s role as
Minister of Labour 1940-1945 viz.
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The extent to which Bevin effectively took up the slack in the British economy and turned an
unemployment figure of 1.25 million in Jan 1940 into a situation where the economy was fully
geared for a total war.
His arrangements under The Emergency Powers (Defence) Act with the unions and employers to
secure Joint Production Committees to oversee productivity, working practices and elements of
dilution and the direction of labour which was vital to the war effort. eg Bevin Boys.
His conscription of women into the workforce and the significant part played by them not only in
munitions and heavy industry, but also in the Land Army and the services including the WVS. The
candidate would be expected to fully develop the analysis of the extent to which this mobilisation
of human effort was intrinsic to the economic welfare of the country at the time.
The degree to which the economy was successfully mobilised for war including such issues as
aircraft production and the policies limiting imports and exports of certain kinds.
The rationing scheme would be judged on its merits as a means of sharing scarce food, clothing and
fuel and the extent to which it was successful in achieving fair shares for all despite the black
market.
The candidate may also wish to discuss the policies employed by the government to manage the
economy and the degree to which state control over demand and supply, taxation, wages and prices
heralded a new era in government intervention and ensured that scarce resources were managed
effectively. Particular reference might be made to the tight control of agricultural production and
the huge increase in arable land brought under cultivation both in a farming and urban context
under Dig For Victory for example.
Areas such as the voluntary nature of civil defence services and Home Guard provision also
contribute to the effective use of human resources.
Page 202
On the other hand, candidates may wish to contradict this perception of successful government
action by pointing out that
•
•
•
•
•
Unemployment in Britain in Jan 1940 was still a staggering 1.25 million.
Industrial unrest during the war reached a peak of 4 million working days lost in strikes in 1944.
Concerns by trade unions over work dilution and possible post-war unemployment led male
workers to shun co-operation with women workers leading to gross inefficiency in some work
practices.
Taxation reached unprecedented levels especially at personal level and the expansion of the
bureaucracy in government was to be an irreversible trend.
Government failure to tackle the black market inevitably led to inequality of provision and misuse
of scarce resources.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
Calder: in The People’s War where he is generally supportive of the Coalition efforts with the
proviso that racketeering was rife.
Less complimentary in terms of manpower direction is Tiratsoo who focuses on worker discontent
and the huge number of days lost to strikes through complaints over management direction of
labour.
Stuart Hylton: is equally scathing over mismanagement of rationing and the Conservative
elements within the Coalition who regarded the policy as state socialism.
Addison: offers a succinct overview of the economic policies of the Coalition in a favourable light
as do Hennessey and Jefferys.
Page 203
Question 4
“A People’s war required a People’s peace.” To what extent is this an accurate assessment of the
reasons for post-war social reform?
The candidate is required to examine the main reasons behind the raft of social welfare legislation
passed after 1945 and assess the extent to which the main contributory factor was the feeling that it had
been a People’s war in which all had suffered equally and that the suffering had not simply been
endured in the pursuit of military victory over Nazism but in the fervent expectation that there would be
a better society in Britain after the war: ie a People’s peace.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A survey of the impact of the war on society and the extent to which it was seen as communal effort
with equality of suffering and bringing about a shared desire for a better life once victory was
secured.
Some evidence of the degree to which the war shattered the image of the pre-war establishment as
being the natural ruling class and the post-Dunkirk conviction that the “Guilty men” had to be
brought to task and that there should be a re-arrangement of social values and principles to take
account of this.
The impact of rationing, evacuation and state intervention in convincing the public that the
government should play a far greater role in restructuring society and eliminating many of the
iniquities of the 30s.
Labour’s role in promoting the notion of a People’s war as a convenient propaganda tool for
popularising collectivist policies and promoting the notion of a fairer society post war.
The candidate would also be expected to examine the role of the Beveridge report in providing a
legislative framework for the idealism of a People’s peace and raising the expectations further of a
post-war New Jerusalem.
Some evidence would be provided of the increasing popularity of the Labour Party through its
focus on post war reconstruction and a general trend of a swing to the left, heralding a mood of
fresh start and “never again” mentality.
The candidate should also assess the degree to which the Coalition government had already
introduced welfare legislation and whether the White Paper chase of 1944 was an early indication
of this mood of expectation generated by wartime sacrifice.
Evidence that the war created the climate for a Labour government which had looked highly
unlikely in 1939 and made welfare reform almost a certainty once victory was achieved.
On the other hand, candidates may refer to evidence suggesting an alternative explanation for
post-war reform such as:
•
•
•
•
Discussion on some form of an NHS were already well under way pre-1939.
The raising of the school leaving age was scheduled in law to take place in 1939 but war interrupted
this process.
Progressive legislation on housing, pensions and insurance benefits had been passed in the 1930s and
the National Government had further planned to extend this type of welfarism once the worst
excesses of the depression had passed.
Concerns over national efficiency were again prompting pre-war reformers to advocate improved
social and health care for the working class as an attempt to stem the tide of market loss to foreign
competition.
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Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Angus Calder: who is a strong adherent to the belief that experience of war created the ideal
climate for extensive social regeneration.
Paul Addison: who traces the roots of the post-war settlement and acceptance of the welfare state
back to the partnership within the Coalition government.
Kenneth Morgan: who looks at the longer term goals of the Labour Party and sees their
legislative programme as merely the culmination of a generation of socialist dreams rather than as
an immediate response to wartime suffering.
The counter-argument is put to some extent by Addison who sees much of the post-war welfare
reform as an extension of pre-war policy making and a continuation of Coalition Government work
eg the argument that an NHS was already being planned in the late 30s and that Butler’s Education
Act was merely a rehash of 30s thinking.
Correlli Barnett: takes the view that the country was seduced by dreams and illusions of a New
Jerusalem which it could not afford and were ultimately ruinous to the country’s fortunes.
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Question 5
How successful was Ernest Bevin in preserving Britain’s status as a world power in the post-war
period?
The candidate should review the main elements of British foreign policy in the immediate post-war
period and analyse the extent to which Bevin was able to steer Britain to a successful position between
the superpowers, a comfortable relationship with Europe and a considered policy of decolonisation.
The candidate needs to recognise the extent to which Britain’s financial position had changed due to the
war and how her commitments had been enlarged. Having done so, the candidate requires to debate the
extent to which Ernest Bevin himself contributed to the formulation of foreign policy and whether his
views and personality helped retain a post-war role for Britain as a world power and whether this role
was appropriate to our capabilities given our financial position.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
A review of the changed financial position of Britain in the aftermath of the war, beginning with the
ending of Lend Lease, the “financial Dunkirk” and the various sterling crises which bedevilled the
economy over the next six years.
Against this background of severe financial hardship, the candidate should examine the enhanced
overseas commitments Britain had to undertake as a result of the war and the strain this put on an
already overburdened economy.
The candidate should also illustrate Britain’s difficult position relative to the new world order of the
competing superpowers of USA and USSR and whether Bevin himself was in any way responsible
for the onset of the Cold War mentality.
Specific foreign policy issues should be referred to including the breakdown in relations with the
USSR and the abandonment by Bevin of the Labour philosophy of “left speaking to left” in our
relations with the USSR. Did Bevin see through the Russians before the USA and hence distance
Britain from her erstwhile ally before the USA did?
Was Bevin successful in maintaining a place for Britain at the top table of international affairs and if
so, how was it done and at what cost to our economy and global standing?
Bevin’s role in the formulation of NATO and his success in tying the USA permanently to the
preservation of European security rather than seeing her return to her traditional isolationist role in
world affairs.
Some discussion of the extent to which critics have suggested that British foreign policy became an
extension of the USA’s due to our financial dependency on America. A successful partner in a joint
attempt to secure world peace and reshape the world geopolitically or merely “airstrip one” and an
obedient junior, dominated by a significantly more powerful ally and forced to follow her lead in
world affairs.
Was the creation of a British unilateral nuclear deterrent a significant statement of British foreign
policy independence given the refusal of the USA to engage in further nuclear co-operation, or a
futile and costly example of Britain trying to retain world power status when it had already
evaporated?
The whole issue of decolonisation and retreat from overseas commitments in places like Palestine
and Greece and Turkey. A shoddy example of abrogating responsibility for previous commitments
or a realistic re-appraisal of our capabilities?
Indian independence and the issue of further decolonisation. Successfully achieved and a noble
foreign policy initiative or an abandonment of the Indian sub-continent to civil war with undue
haste? How far our decision to decolonise was forced upon us by the superpowers for different
reasons and how far was it a rational decision taken for sound political and ethical reasons?
An examination of our relations with Europe and the argument that Britain “missed the bus” in this
period of enhanced European co-operation to be at the heart of an integrated European community
despite Bevin’s success in obtaining Marshall Plan funding for European (and British) economic
regeneration.
The extent to which Bevin’s personality and views coloured British foreign policy in this period
and whether his personal intervention in a number of key areas secured for Britain, a more
satisfactory outcome than at first appeared possible.
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Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
The views of John Saville who feels that Bevin’s anti-communism and strong belief in the intrinsic
value of the British Empire were significant factors which shaped our foreign policy in this period.
Kenneth Morgan: who stresses the difficulties faced in determining a role for Britain in the
changed post-war circumstances and credits Bevin with significant success in carving out such a
role.
Alan Bullock’s: seminal work on Bevin and his conviction that Bevin was a truly great Foreign
Secretary and one who clearly preserved Britain’s independent status as a world power.
Prof Michael Howard: placed Bevin with Palmerston as two of the greatest British Foreign
Secretaries in defining Britain’s global power.
Barnett’s: familiar discourse on the roots of British post-war decline being traced to a pursuit of
dreams and illusions which we could neither afford nor realise and the culpability of Bevin in
setting this train of policy-making in motion.
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Question 6
How important a factor in the Conservative election victory of 1951 was the party re-organisation
carried out by Butler and Woolton?
The candidate should present their argument as an examination of the factors which inspired a Tory
revival from the heavy defeat of 1945 and those factors which led to an increasingly unpopular Labour
administration losing power. The candidate should decide whether the isolated factor of the work of
Woolton and Butler in party reorganisation carries more weight in explaining the election result of 1951
than the other factors which they will discuss but with the added caveat that Labour polled more votes
in 1951 than it did in 1945 so some explanation of the idiosyncrasies of the British electoral system
should also be evident.
The candidate may use evidence such as:
Revival of the Conservatives:
•
•
•
•
The work done by Lord Woolton as Chairman of the party in reorganising the party at both local
and national level, appointing full time agents, instigating a membership drive and founding the
Young Conservatives movement. By 1950 the party membership has risen to 3 million and funding
was vastly improved through local constituency efforts and donations from big business and from
abroad.
Rab Butler’s development of the Industrial Charter in 1947 was a significant ideological step
forward and saw an acceptance of the political consensus or post-war settlement based on an
acknowledgement of the role played by the trade unions in economic life, support for the policy of
full employment and an abandonment of the traditional laissez-faire based policies of the 30s.
In 1949 the “Right Road for Britain” policy document pledged to preserve the welfare state and to
the continuation of a mixed economy, whilst also promising to build 300,000 new homes.
The candidate should also point out that the Conservative vote in 1945 was still 8.7 million and that
its support had held up reasonably well.
However this isolated factor should also be weighed in importance against other significant
factors which explain Conservative victory such as:
Labour’s decline
•
•
•
•
•
Labour’s continued economic difficulties certainly put wind in the Tories’ sails and by 1950 there is
ample evidence to suggest that the electorate was heartily sick of austerity, rationing, shortages and
bureaucracy as witnessed by the creation of the Housewives League as a pressure group.
Where the heroic efforts of the Red Army during the war had lifted support for the Labour party in
1945, the onset of the Cold War had the opposite effect by 1951. Where communism was seen as
stifling individual freedom, comparisons could be made with the limitations of personal freedom in
Britain under Labour.
The involvement in the Korean War was less than universally popular and the split which it caused
in the cabinet in April 1951 between the Bevanites and Gaitskellites rent the party asunder and
presented the electorate with a picture of a very divided party.
Other critics would argue that Attlee had no need to go to the polls in October 1951 since the
economic indicators for 1952 were reasonably healthy and that he made a tactical error in doing so.
Of course the candidate may well point out that Labour polled more votes than the Conservatives in
October 1951 and more than they had in 1945 yet lost more seats. The influence of the missing
Liberal candidates should be referred to.
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Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
•
Addison and Jefferys: point to the rebirth of the Conservatives a la New Labour as a vital factor
in explaining their revival.
Murphy: emphasises the disillusionment of the electorate with austerity and the impact of the
Cold war on the popularity of socialism as such.
Kenneth Morgan: would agree that austerity was a significant factor in reducing labour popularity
saying “It is not remarkable that Labour duly lost the October 1951 election. What is surprising is
that the defeat was so narrow”.
Sked and Cook: write of the wider disaffection of middle opinion (not necessarily middle-class
opinion) which was “at best puritanical and drab and at worst illiberal and restrictive of individual
choice”.
Pearce: looks at involvement in the Korean War as a significant factor whilst the left-wing
historian John Saville claims that by 1951 Labour was “morally and politically bankrupt”.
The balance of historical opinion therefore would seem to indicate that other factors were of greater
importance since the Conservative revival was also countered by an increase in the popular vote for
Labour.
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Britain at War and Peace (1939-1951)
Part 2
Question 1
How fully does Source A illustrate the impact of war on the class structure of British society?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s fullness in explaining/analysing the issue.
The candidate offers a structured evaluation of Source A as an adequate explanation of the impact of
the war on Britain’s class structure, in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
accurate comment on David Cannadine will receive credit under historiography.
Points from the source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
•
•
That there was a consensus of contemporary opinion that the war had completely changed the
people’s perception of a traditional three-class system in British society.
Contemporary observation that the war had completely levelled the classes.
Herald Tribune comment that the war was breaking down the class system.
Equally emphatic observation by Churchill that there was a continual and rapid reduction in class
differences.
The author confirms that this was the contemporary view and that there was greater mixing of
classes and a higher degree of social understanding.
Points from recall and from the views of historians which support, develop and contextualise
those in the source
•
•
•
•
Both Marwick and Titmuss argue in their writings that the war precipitated considerable social
change and that one of these changes was a diminution in class differences.
Many other contemporary observes argued that there was an equality of sacrifice, suffering and
experience during the war and that this resulted in permanent social change.
Andrew Roberts’ conclusive view that there was a significant flattening of the class structure
because of the commonality of experience on the Home Front.
That the ultimate expression of this change of attitude was the election of a Labour government in
1945 and the creation of a welfare state
Points from recall and from the views of historians which offer a wider contextualisation of the
views in the source
•
•
•
•
•
The source clearly suggests only one interpretation of the impact of the war on British society and
there is some indication that the author accepts the contemporary view only in a qualified sense.
For other historians such as Tiratsoo and H.L. Smith the war served to exacerbate class differences
and that there were considerable inequalities of sacrifice.
Historians such as Hylton and Ponting emphasise the degree to which those with the financial
wherewithal could escape the worst privations of the war from rationing, black market and ability
to self-evacuate to country houses and even foreign countries to avoid the dangers.
Addison points to the fact that the 1945 election saw a considerable number of people vote along
class lines in the traditional manner.
Tiratsoo points out that by 1950, 1% of the population still owned 50% of the country’s wealth and
so little in the way of wealth redistribution had taken place.
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The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source A is helpful in giving a full account of the changes brought about in
the British class system as a result of the war.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source: not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well
written with some relevant points of information made. Candidate may offer relevant and
appropriate historical interpretations.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is
clearly written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several points and shows
an understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual
grasp of the topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to
historical interpretation or specific historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument, showing a
clear understanding of the views of the source. There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider
context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Appropriate reference to historical
interpretations and/or historians’ views will be credited highly.
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Question 2
How much do Sources B and C reveal about the differing views on Churchill’s success as a war
leader?
(16 marks)
Interpretation (maximum 6 marks)
Candidates may be awarded up to 3 marks for their ability to establish the views of the each source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the sources.
Contextual and historical interpretations (maximum 10 marks)
These 10 marks will be awarded for:
•
•
•
•
the quality and depth of the contextual recall
the quality and depth of the wider perspectives
the range and quality of historians’ views
provenance comment (if appropriate).
The candidate considers the views in Sources B and C on the success of Churchill as a war leader, and
offers a structured evaluation of the two perspectives in terms of:
Source B
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
Accurate comment on S. Roskill will receive credit under historiography.
Points from the source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
•
Source author is highly critical of Churchill’s handling of the military campaign in the Far East
which not only permanently damaged Britain’s position there but also that of other European
powers.
Suggests that Churchill’s decision to defend Greece helped to delay victory in North Africa by two
years.
Is highly critical of the failure to secure Britain’s sea communications before embarking on the
bombing campaign of Germany.
Asserts that Churchill’s acceptance at Casablanca of the necessity of unconditional surrender of the
Axis powers was a significant strategic error.
Points from recall which develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
•
Source typifies the opinions of those who suggest that Churchill was limited in his capabilities as a
military tactician.
Argument is often used that Churchill was too interfering in his attitude towards his military
commanders.
There is substantial agreement that the Far East campaign was militarily inept and he himself
indicated that the fall of Singapore was the greatest British military disaster.
Many also consider the campaign in Greece to have been ill-conceived, poorly executed and
strategically misguided.
The decision to demand the unconditional surrender of the Axis powers may have considerably
prolonged the war.
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Source C
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance can earn credit. These may include:
Accurate comment on Paul Addison will receive credit under historiography.
Points from the source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
•
•
Takes a much broader view of Churchill’s capabilities as a leader and does not restrict his
comments to the military side.
Suggests that Churchill was the first to warn of the impending disaster that Hitler threatened as well
as being the leader of the Coalition government which mobilised the country for war.
That Churchill was instrumental in rejecting the possibility of a compromise peace with Hitler in
May/June 1940 despite the advice of other senior politicians.
That he was a powerful force in resolving the internal conflicts between the military and the
politicians in the running of the war.
It was Churchill’s skill as a negotiator and diplomat which bound together the vital alliance of
Britain, USA and USSR and forged victory in the war.
Points from recall which develop and contextualise this source
•
•
•
•
•
The candidate may wish to further exemplify Churchill’s qualities as a war leader, especially in
terms of his opposition to appeasement, his galvanising of the war effort and his stubborn
determination to ensure that Britain would stand alone against the Nazi menace when Europe had
succumbed.
An appraisal of Churchill’s oratorical skills and his binding of the nation to the cause of victory
when lesser politicians may have sought a compromise peace.
His single-minded pursuit of victory at all costs and his embodiment of the British spirit of
resistance in the face of formidable odds.
Churchill’s ability to persuade Roosevelt that the defeat of Germany was the first priority of the
Allies after Pearl Harbour.
That far from being a reckless adventurer, Churchill may even have been overly cautious in his
approach to military matters to preserve lives and prevent significant disasters.
Points which offer wider contextualisation of views in the sources
•
•
•
•
The candidate may wish to further explore the issue of Churchill’s capabilities as a military leader
and explore issues such as his interference with his army commanders in all fields, his failure to
open up the much argued for second front in Europe to relieve the pressure on the Soviets and his
persistence with the controversial area bombing campaign of Germany.
Further examination may be made of Churchill’s role on the Home Front and the assertion that he
was too preoccupied with his military role to pay enough attention to domestic politics and was
hence open to criticism that he allowed the Labour coalition ministers to seize the initiative on the
reconstruction debate and set the agenda for reform.
Mention may be made of the right wing view that the war was fought unnecessarily and resulted in
the exhaustion of Britain’s economic resources, her relegation to a second rate world power and the
loss of her empire.
The Tory view that Churchill was above party politics and was largely an absentee leader of a
political party he cared little for and as such ensured their electoral defeat in 1945.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
John Charmley’s: assertion that the war was needlessly prolonged, fought for the wrong reasons
and would not have been so had Halifax replaced Chamberlain.
Alan Clark: would concur with this and points to the huge damage done to both the Conservative
Party’s core values and the status of the Empire and Britain’s world power role by the prosecution
of the war.
Contrast this with much more sympathetic writers like Gilbert and more recently Reynolds and
Ian Wood as well as Andrew Roberts’ work.
Richard Lamb’s: work is very supportive of the traditional Churchillian image of national saviour
and military bulldog.
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The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of the two sources is helpful in offering a full perspective on Churchill’s success
as a war leader.
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the sources, not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the sources. The candidate may show minimal understanding
of immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
5-7
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the sources, and a
weak sense of content. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly,
indicating little grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be
fairly well written with some relevant points of explanation made. Candidate may offer
relevant and appropriate historical interpretations.
8-11
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretations and the answer is
clearly written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several points and shows
an understanding of the views of the sources, sets material in context, shows a good factual
grasp of the topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include a reference to
historical interpretations or specific historians.
12-16
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument; shows
a clear understanding of the views of the sources and their value as interpretations on the
issue. There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider context, and well developed levels of
relevant analysis. Appropriate reference to historical interpretations and/or historians’ views
will be credited highly.
Page 214
Question 3
How useful is Source D as evidence of the lasting impact of the war on women’s lives?
(12 marks)
The candidate may be awarded up to 3 marks for the quality of their evaluation of the provenance of
the source.
The candidate may be awarded up to 2 marks for their ability to establish the views of the source and
accurately support that evaluation with comment from the source.
The remaining marks will be awarded for the quality and depth of the immediate and wider context
recall, including historians’ views that the candidate provides in their overall interpretation of the
source’s value.
The candidate offers a structured consideration of the usefulness of Source D in understanding the lasting
impact of the war on women’s lives in terms of:
Provenance: appropriate and relevant comments on provenance will earn credit. These may include:
•
•
•
A primary source for the records of the prototype market research organisation Mass Observation in
1944.
The source is likely to be based on the opinions of a significant number of contemporary, primary
sources.
Is certainly one dimensional in its interpretation of the lasting impact of the war on women’s lives.
Points from the source which show the candidate has interpreted the significant views
•
•
•
•
The report stresses the desire of the majority of women war workers to return to domesticity after
the war and resume their pre-war role in the home.
Where women did wish to continue working, the report suggests they were a minority and were in
an older age bracket, either unmarried or widowed and likely to prefer their working environment
as provided by the war to previous work experience.
The source further suggests that these women saw no prospect of marriage as an option and hence,
by implication, saw continued work as the only real lifestyle alternative.
Despite this sentiment, the source further indicates that factory work held little real career appeal to
these women and that they lack any real career goals as such.
Points from recall which support, develop and contextualise those in the source
•
•
•
•
The limited opinion polls which exist on this issue suggest that as few as 25% of women war
workers wished to continue their wartime employment after the war ended.
Many women saw their wartime employment as a temporary phenomenon and a pragmatic
response to highly particular circumstances.
There is little evidence to suggest that women were welcomed into the workforce by either
employers or male workers and that very often, the work given to the women workers was
monotonous, and low paid and diluted labour.
Trade unions made it clear that they expected a resumption of normality after the war, particularly
in the light of the unemployment situation of the 30s and their fears of the impact of job dilution
during the war.
Page 215
Points from recall which offer a wider contextualisation of the view in the source
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
The candidate may wish to expand their answer to this question into areas outwith the narrow field
of war work and into the general theme of the impact of the war on women’s lives in general.
To that end they may wish to refer to Marwick’s theory that the war was a liberating experience for
women and that millions of women entered the workplace for the first time, thus changing their
perceptions of their role in society and within marriage. That such an experience opened up
hitherto unseen career possibilities for women who became an increasingly important feature of the
industrial workforce in the post-war period.
That this new found freedom and independence gained from being a wage earner outwith the
domestic situation translated into a greater degree of personal freedom both within and outwith
marriage and that was to be a lasting feature of the post-war period.
That the ending of the marriage bar was a clear example of this new attitude to women’s career
opportunities and heralded the arrival of the professional woman worker.
That many women now strove to break out of their traditionally envisaged gender role within
marriage and family, and saw subservience to their husbands as a thing of the past, based on their
new found freedom experienced within war work and the role of having been head of the family.
The counter argument to this is that war work was neither a new nor liberating experience for
women and that many women gave it up as soon as they were able. That lack of opportunity, low
wages, sex discrimination (and frequently abuse) low skilled job related tasks and lack of facilities,
all convinced many women that a return to domesticity and a pre-war family ideal was preferable to
the drudgery of wartime employment.
That government policies specifically encouraged such ideas, particularly with the immediate
withdrawal of government sponsored nurseries and the philosophy of the Beveridge Report which
encouraged women to have larger families through the Family Allowance provision and restrictions
on married women’s national insurance entitlements.
Candidates may bring a range of appropriate historians’ commentary to support their views.
These may include reference to:
•
•
•
•
Arthur Marwick: the main proponent of the notion of war work as a liberating experience for
women.
Richard Titmuss: in his early work on war as an agent of social change.
H.L. Smith: and his highly sceptical views of war work as either a new experience for women (at
best he suggests there may have been fewer than 2.5 million additional women workers during the
war and that many of these may well have worked before marriage) or a liberating one, given the
previously mentioned difficulties encountered by women in work.
Penny Summerfield: who goes some of the way to accepting a degree of psychological change in
women’s attitude to marriage but largely rejects the notion of war work as encouraging a feminist
dawn.
The candidate is therefore able to come to a conclusion, using a range of evidence, about the extent to
which a consideration of Source D is useful as evidence of the lasting impact of the war on women’s
lives.
Page 216
Marks
1-3
Vaguely written, merely re-describing the source: not answering the question or showing
understanding of the views in the source. The candidate may show minimal understanding of
immediate or wider context or any historical interpretations on the issue.
4-5
The candidate’s answer shows a limited understanding of the views in the source, and a weak
sense of context. Answer may lack clear structure with points made randomly, indicating little
grasp of significance, although in places the candidate’s interpretation may be fairly well
written with some relevant points of information made. Candidate may offer relevant and
appropriate historical interpretations.
6-8
The candidate makes relevant and appropriate comments of interpretation, and the answer is
clearly written and sensibly structured. The explanation ranges over several points and shows
an understanding of the views of the source, sets material in context, shows a good factual
grasp of the topic and a reasonably developed analysis, which may include reference to
historical interpretation or specific historians’ views.
9-12
The candidate’s interpretation offers accurate, wide-ranging and convincing argument, showing a
clear understanding of the views of the source. There is a solid grasp of immediate and wider
context, and well developed levels of relevant analysis. Appropriate reference to historical
interpretations and/or historians’ views will be credited highly.
[END OF MARKING INSTRUCTIONS]
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