Y218: International Relations 1890-1941 | OCR A-Level History A (H505)

Y218: International Relations 1890-1941

84 questions
8 subtopics
Non-British period study, one of twenty-four
Y201 to Y224

International Relations 1890–1941 is unit Y218 of OCR History A, one of the twenty-four options in unit group 2, the non-British period study; a student sits one of them.

Its four key topics are the causes and nature of the First World War, the Paris Peace Conference, the League of Nations, and international diplomacy 1919–1935, Dictators and Appeasers in Europe 1929–1941, the Far East 1918–1941. 84 recall questions across 8 subtopics.

Sample questions from Y218: International Relations 1890-1941

Answer each one closed book first, then open the answer.

The causes and nature of the First World War: long-term causes, pre-war crises and the July Crisis

Outline the Schlieffen Plan and the assumption on which it rested.

Show the answer
Germany would send the bulk of its army through Belgium to defeat France within weeks, then switch by rail to the east; it assumed Russia would mobilise too slowly to matter, and because such plans depended on rigid timetables they left statesmen very little room to pause once a crisis began.
The causes and nature of the First World War: the nature of the fighting and reasons for the outcome

Assess the criticism that the generals were incompetent butchers.

Show the answer
Commanders were slow to abandon costly frontal attacks and were remote from the front, but they were also managing mass citizen armies with communications that broke down beyond the parapet, and by 1918 they had developed the combined artillery, tank, aircraft and infantry tactics that won the war.
The Paris Peace Conference, the League of Nations, and international diplomacy 1919–1935: the peace treaties of 1919–1920

How did Germans characterise the treaty, and what political damage did that do?

Show the answer
They called it a Diktat imposed without negotiation and rejected the war guilt clause on which reparations rested, and the belief that the army had been stabbed in the back by the politicians who signed poisoned the Weimar Republic from the start.
The Paris Peace Conference, the League of Nations, and international diplomacy 1919–1935: the League of Nations and diplomacy to 1935

How did the League handle the Greek-Bulgarian crisis of 1925?

Show the answer
After Greek troops invaded Bulgaria following a frontier incident, the League ordered a withdrawal and Greece obeyed and paid compensation, which appeared to show collective security working against a small state.
Dictators and Appeasers in Europe 1929–1941: the Depression, Mussolini and appeasement

What was the Hoare-Laval Pact and why did it matter?

Show the answer
It was a secret Anglo-French proposal to give Mussolini much of Abyssinia; when it leaked, public outrage forced both ministers out and exposed the democracies as willing to buy off an aggressor at a victim's expense.
Dictators and Appeasers in Europe 1929–1941: Spain, the Nazi-Soviet Pact and the war to 1941

State three effects of the Spanish Civil War on international relations.

Show the answer
It drew Germany and Italy into close cooperation that became the Axis, it exposed the democracies' non-intervention as ineffective and one-sided, and it gave the Germans a testing ground for aircraft and tactics.
The Far East 1918–1941: Japan after Versailles and the Manchurian Crisis

How did the Depression change Japan's approach to the Far East?

Show the answer
The collapse of exports and rural incomes discredited cooperation with the Western trading system and made a self-sufficient empire on the Asian mainland appear the only secure alternative.
The Far East 1918–1941: the war with China and the road to Pearl Harbor

How did American policy towards Japan harden between 1939 and 1941?

Show the answer
The United States gave notice on its commercial treaty with Japan, restricted exports of aviation fuel and scrap metal, increased loans and supplies to China, and finally froze Japanese assets and cut off oil.

The 8 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
The causes and nature of the First World War: long-term causes, pre-war crises and the July Crisis	Recall questions on Balkan nationalism, imperial rivalry, militarism, the Schlieffen Plan, the alliances, the naval race, the Moroccan and Bosnian crises, the Balkan Wars, the July Crisis and the war aims of the powers.	12
The causes and nature of the First World War: the nature of the fighting and reasons for the outcome	Recall questions on the failure of the Schlieffen Plan, trench warfare, Verdun and the Somme, the generals, the Eastern Front and Tannenberg, technology, Jutland, American entry and the reasons for Allied victory and Russian defeat.	12
The Paris Peace Conference, the League of Nations, and international diplomacy 1919–1935: the peace treaties of 1919–1920	Recall questions on the Big Four and their aims, the terms and German reception of the Treaty of Versailles, and the treaties of St Germain, Trianon, Neuilly and Sèvres.	8
The Paris Peace Conference, the League of Nations, and international diplomacy 1919–1935: the League of Nations and diplomacy to 1935	Recall questions on the League’s purpose, organs and weaknesses, the Greek-Bulgarian and Corfu crises, the Conference of Ambassadors, humanitarian work, naval agreements, Locarno, Kellogg-Briand, Manchuria and Abyssinia.	12
Dictators and Appeasers in Europe 1929–1941: the Depression, Mussolini and appeasement	Recall questions on the Depression and international relations, Mussolini’s aims, the Abyssinian War and Hoare-Laval, Italian policy to 1940, appeasement and its motives, the Rhineland, Munich and the end of appeasement.	11
Dictators and Appeasers in Europe 1929–1941: Spain, the Nazi-Soviet Pact and the war to 1941	Recall questions on non-intervention in Spain, German and Italian aid to Franco, the effects of the Spanish war, Soviet relations with the West, the Nazi-Soviet Pact, the outbreak and spread of war and Hitler’s invasion of the USSR.	9
The Far East 1918–1941: Japan after Versailles and the Manchurian Crisis	Recall questions on Japanese resentment of Versailles and the Washington system, Japan’s aims and the Depression, the Manchurian Crisis, Manchukuo, the Lytton Report, the League’s failure, the Stimson Doctrine and the crisis’s consequences.	10
The Far East 1918–1941: the war with China and the road to Pearl Harbor	Recall questions on the Sino-Japanese war from 1937 and the powers’ response, Britain’s weakness in Asia, hardening American policy, Indo-China and the oil embargo, the Tripartite Pact, the failed negotiations and the attack on the United States.	10

Y218: International Relations 1890-1941 is 84 of the 6,240 questions in the guide.Get the guide, £8

How the guide is worked

Answering a question from memory stores it far better than reading the answer again. The guide runs that as a fixed procedure on one subtopic at a time, about twenty minutes a session.

Step 1 · Closed book
Cover the answers. Work through one subtopic and write down what you can. Leave blanks where you have nothing.
Step 2 · Open book
Go back to the top. Read each printed answer and write it out in full, including the ones you had right.
Step 3 · Closed book again
Same questions, same order, from memory. The gap between pass one and pass three is the session result.

Read the full method, the return schedule and the research behind it.