Conflict and Tension 1918-1939 is an AQA wider world depth study that investigates international relations. The course focuses on what caused the Second World War. It considers how and why the war happened, and why it was so challenging to find resolutions to the issues which caused it. You will study the roles of key individuals and groups in influencing change, and how they were affected by and shaped by international affairs.

This study will help you to interpret the intricacies and diverse interests of different individuals and states. You will investigate themes such as self-determination, ideas of internationalism and the problems of revising the peace settlement. This course will enable you to develop historical thinking, to identify and analyse causation and consequence, and encourage you to critically question sources.

Conflict and Tension 1918-1939 is split into 3 key enquiries. Peacemaking; the League of Nations and international peace; and the origins and outbreak of the Second World War.

• ❖ Enquiry 1 looks at the armistice at the end of the First World War and the aims of the peacemakers. You will also study the Versailles settlement, the impact of the treaty, and also the wider settlement.
• ❖ Enquiry 2 looks at the League of Nations, diplomacy outside the League, and its collapse in the 1930s.
• ❖ Enquiry 3 looks the development of tension in the 1930s, its escalation, and the outbreak of war in 1939.

Some of the key individuals studied on this course include:

• ❖ Neville Chamberlain.
• ❖ Winston Churchill.
• ❖ Georges Clemenceau.
• ❖ Edouard Daladier.
• ❖ David Lloyd George.
• ❖ Adolf Hitler.
• ❖ Benito Mussolini.
• ❖ Edouard Daladier.
• ❖ John Maynard Keynes.
• ❖ Franklin Delano Roosevelt.
• ❖ Woodrow Wilson.

Some of the key events you will study on this course include:

• ❖ The end of the First World War.
• ❖ The Paris Peace Conference.
• ❖ The signing of the Treaty of Versailles and international reaction to it.
• ❖ The formation of the League of Nations and how it worked in practice in the 1920s.
• ❖ Flash points of tension, including events in Poland, Corfu and Bulgaria.
• ❖ The Wall Street Crash, the Washington Arms Conference, events in Manchuria and Abyssinia.
• ❖ The reoccupation of the Rhineland, Anschluss with Austria, the Sudeten Crisis, Appeasement, the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the invasion of Poland, and the declaration of war.

The Conflict and Tension 1918-1939 course forms part of paper 1, which you have a total of 2 hours to complete. You should spend 1 hour on this section of the paper. There will be 4 exam questions, which will assess what you have learned on the course.

• ❖ Question 1 is worth 4 marks. This question will require you to examine a source. It assesses your ability to analyse and evaluate, using a source to make a judgement.
• ❖ Question 2 is worth 12 marks. This question will require you to examine 2 sources. It assesses your ability to evaluate sources and apply your contextual knowledge.
• ❖ Question 3 is worth 8 marks. This question will require you to show your knowledge and understanding of the key features and characteristics of the course. You will have the opportunity to show your ability to explain and analyse historical events using second order concepts such as causation, consequence, change, continuity, similarity and difference.
• ❖ Question 4 is worth 16 marks, plus 4 marks for spelling and grammar. Here, similar skills to those in question 3 will be assessed, but you will also be required to make a judgement in an extended response.