Y321: the Middle East 1908-2011: Ottomans to Arab Spring | OCR A-Level History A (H505)

Y321: the Middle East 1908-2011: Ottomans to Arab Spring

140 questions
14 subtopics
Thematic study and historical interpretations, one of twenty-one
Y301 to Y321

The Middle East 1908–2011: Ottomans to Arab Spring is unit Y321 of OCR History A, one of the twenty-one options in unit group 3, the thematic study and historical interpretations; a student sits one of them.

Its four key topics and three depth studies are the Role of the Great Powers in the Middle East, Zionism, Israel and the Palestinian issue, Statehood and Pan Arabism in the Middle East, religion, ethnicity and political Minorities, British Policy and the Middle East 1908–1948, Arab-Israeli Conflict 1948–1956, Nasserism 1952–1970. 140 recall questions across 14 subtopics.

Sample questions from Y321: the Middle East 1908-2011: Ottomans to Arab Spring

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

The Role of the Great Powers in the Middle East: aims, mandates and the Cold War powers

Name the mandates awarded to Britain and to France in the post-war settlement.

Show the answer
Britain received Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq, while France received Syria and Lebanon.
The Role of the Great Powers in the Middle East: Great Power involvement in war, oil wars and strategy

Which five states founded OPEC, and where?

Show the answer
Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela founded it at Baghdad in September 1960.
Zionism, Israel and the Palestinian issue: occupation, the peace process and the Palestinians

What was agreed at Oslo in 1993, and what was left unresolved?

Show the answer
Israel and the PLO recognised one another and agreed phased Palestinian self-rule; Jerusalem, refugees, borders and settlements were deferred to final-status talks that never reached agreement.
Statehood and Pan Arabism in the Middle East: Arab nationalism, Nasser and the Turkish republic

Give two examples of rivalry between Arab states.

Show the answer
Egypt fought a proxy war against Saudi-backed royalists in Yemen in the 1960s, and competed with Qasim's Iraq after 1958 for the leadership of Arab nationalism.
Religion, ethnicity and political Minorities: Sunni and Shi-a in the Arab States, Hezbollah and Hamas

How did the Brotherhood's relations with the Egyptian state develop after 1952?

Show the answer
Early cooperation with the Free Officers gave way to a ban and mass imprisonment after an attempt on Nasser's life in 1954, and the movement was afterwards tolerated only intermittently while remaining the best-organised opposition.
Religion, ethnicity and political Minorities: Al Qaeda, minorities and the diaspora

Why did the Kurds not obtain a state of their own?

Show the answer
The peace terms drafted in 1920 offered them autonomy, but the settlement with the new Turkish republic in 1923 dropped it, leaving Kurds divided between Turkey, Iraq, Iran and Syria, all of which resisted separatism.
Depth study: British Policy and the Middle East 1908–1948 — policy approaches to the British Mandates

How did Britain manage Faisal and Iraq?

Show the answer
After the costly revolt of 1920 the Cairo conference of 1921 made Faisal king, treaties in 1922 and 1930 secured Britain air bases, advisers and control of foreign policy, and the formal independence granted in 1932 left that influence largely intact.
Depth study: Arab-Israeli Conflict 1948–1956 — Arab attitudes and the war of 1948–1949

What did the armistices of 1949 settle, and what did they leave open?

Show the answer
They fixed ceasefire lines that gave Israel more than the partition plan and left Jordan holding the West Bank and Egypt holding Gaza, but they were not peace treaties, so recognition, borders and the refugees remained unresolved.

The 14 subtopics

One subtopic is one session. Work down the list.

Subtopic	What it covers	Questions
The Role of the Great Powers in the Middle East: aims, mandates and the Cold War powers	Recall questions on Britain’s aims before 1914, the League mandates, the United Nations, the end of British dominance in 1956, the Baghdad Pact, the Eisenhower Doctrine and the Soviet Union’s client states.	8
The Role of the Great Powers in the Middle East: Great Power involvement in war, oil wars and strategy	Recall questions on great Power involvement in war from 1914 through the Cold War to the Gulf Wars, the Great Powers and resources, oil wars and strategy.	12
Zionism, Israel and the Palestinian issue: Zionism and Israel’s wars to 2008	Recall questions on Herzl and the Basel congress, the World Wars and Zionism, the Jewish Agency, Palestine before 1948, the UN plan and the war that followed, and Israel’s wars of 1956, 1967, 1973, 1982, 2006 and 2008.	10
Zionism, Israel and the Palestinian issue: occupation, the peace process and the Palestinians	Recall questions on the settlements and separation barrier, Camp David, Oslo and the Road Map, the refugee exodus, Arafat’s PLO, the two intifadas, the Palestinian Authority and water in the Occupied Territories.	10
Statehood and Pan Arabism in the Middle East: Arab nationalism, Nasser and the Turkish republic	Recall questions on Arab nationalism from 1908, the Arab Revolt, Nasser’s rise and Suez, the union of Syria and Egypt, the Arab-Israeli wars and Arab politics, rivalry between Arab states, Ataturk’s secular state and Turkey after him.	9
Statehood and Pan Arabism in the Middle East: monarchies, Baathist regimes and Iran	Recall questions on Jordan’s survival, the Saudi-Wahhabi alliance and Ibn Saud, the Baath Party, Assad’s Syria and 2011, Iraq from Faisal to Saddam Hussein and relations with the United States, and Iran from the Pahlavis to 1979.	11
Religion, ethnicity and political Minorities: Sunni and Shi-a in the Arab States, Hezbollah and Hamas	Recall questions on Sunni and Shi-a in the Arab States, Egypt and the Muslim Brotherhood from 1920, Iran and the Islamic Revolution, Hezbollah and Hamas.	8
Religion, ethnicity and political Minorities: Al Qaeda, minorities and the diaspora	Recall questions on Hamas’s election victory of 2006, Al Qaeda’s origins and methods, Lebanese Christians, Armenians, Copts, the Jews of the Arab world, the Kurds, Palestinians as a minority and the Middle Eastern diaspora.	12
Depth study: British Policy and the Middle East 1908–1948 — aims before 1914 and the wartime agreements	Recall questions on British aims before 1914 and their coherence, the McMahon-Hussein correspondence, the Sykes-Picot Agreement and the Balfour Declaration, and how historians judge each.	8
Depth study: British Policy and the Middle East 1908–1948 — policy approaches to the British Mandates	Recall questions on policy approaches to the British Mandates of Palestine and Transjordan, British oil companies, relations with Faisal and Iraq, relations with Arabs and Jews and the proposed solutions, problems and policy in British Egypt.	12
Depth study: Arab-Israeli Conflict 1948–1956 — Arab attitudes and the war of 1948–1949	Recall questions on Arab states’ attitudes to the Palestinians, the All-Palestine Government, Israel’s creation, the Arab attack, the balance of forces, Israel’s survival, the truces and armistices, the refugee debate, the New Historians and collusion with Jordan.	11
Depth study: Arab-Israeli Conflict 1948–1956 — border conflict, Suez and their consequences	Recall questions on Arab policy after 1949, fedayeen raids and reprisals, the Suez Canal nationalisation, the secret agreement, the failure of the Suez operation, Israel’s gains, interpretations and the impact on Palestinians and neighbouring states.	9
Depth study: Nasserism 1952–1970 — Nasser and Pan Arabism	Recall questions on Nasser and Pan Arabism.	8
Depth study: Nasserism 1952–1970 — Suez Crisis 1956, 1967 War and the death of Pan Arabism	Recall questions on the Suez Crisis 1956, regional rivalry and the Arab Cold War 1956–1963, Nasser and the Non-Aligned movement, 1967 War and the death of Pan Arabism.	12

Y321: the Middle East 1908-2011: Ottomans to Arab Spring is 140 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.