Check that this is your course

This guide is for AQA A-level History (7042), Component 2, option 2K: International Relations and Global Conflict, c1890-1941. It begins with five European Great Powers and ends when separate wars in Europe and Asia became one global conflict.

The examination lasts 2 hours 30 minutes, is worth 80 marks and contributes 40% of the A level. You answer one compulsory 30-mark question evaluating three primary or contemporary sources and two 25-mark essays chosen from three.

The whole course in one argument

War was not an automatic product of alliances or nationalism. Political systems, imperial rivalry, military planning and repeated crises created danger, but leaders made choices that converted danger into war. The First World War became global through empire, economic resources, maritime power and the entry of additional states.

The post-war settlement tried to reconcile security, national self-determination and the interests of victors. It created new states and institutions but also contested borders and obligations. The League achieved limited settlements and humanitarian work, yet collective security depended upon states accepting costs. Locarno and other agreements mattered, but peace was never irreversible.

Depression, revisionist ambitions, strategic weakness, anti-communism and memories of the previous war shaped the responses to Germany, Italy and Japan. Appeasement was a strategy developed under constraints, not merely cowardice, but its failures mattered. China's resistance to Japan was central, not a side story. By December 1941 decisions by Germany, Japan, the Soviet Union, Britain and the United States had connected regional wars into world war.

Six questions holding the course together

1. Why was the Great Power system unstable by 1900?
2. Why did crises and alliances increase tension before 1911?
3. Why did a Balkan crisis become world war?
4. Why was the post-war settlement difficult to sustain?
5. How far did diplomacy maintain peace in 1923-35?
6. Why did separate conflicts become global war by 1941?

Essential vocabulary

• Great Power: a state able to exert major military, economic and diplomatic influence.
• Balance of power: a distribution of strength intended to prevent one state dominating.
• Nationalism: political loyalty to a nation and claims made in its name.
• Militarism: the influence of military values, institutions and solutions upon policy.
• Mobilisation: preparing armed forces and transport systems for war.
• Alliance: an agreement between states, often involving security commitments.
• Self-determination: the principle that peoples should choose their political status.
• Collective security: states acting together against aggression.
• Revisionism: seeking to alter an existing international settlement.
• Appeasement: attempting to settle grievances through negotiation and concessions to avoid or delay war.
• Isolationism: limiting political commitments abroad; it never meant complete economic separation.

Part one: Great Power rivalries and entry into war, c1890-1917

1. Great Powers, c1890-1900

Britain and France had parliamentary systems, while Germany, Russia and Austria-Hungary gave monarchs, armies and unelected elites greater influence. Labels such as democracy and autocracy do not alone explain policy: institutions shaped who advised leaders, controlled budgets and could obstruct decisions.

Britain's industrial lead was narrowing as German production expanded. Russia pursued industrial reform but remained unevenly developed. Britain possessed the strongest navy; France and Russia supplied large armies; Germany combined industrial strength with a powerful army. Capacity mattered only when states could finance, transport and coordinate it.

The Scramble for Africa produced imperial disputes. In the Balkans, Ottoman decline encouraged national movements and rivalry between Russia and Austria-Hungary. France and Russia allied, while Germany remained linked to Austria-Hungary. Britain still had disputes with France and Russia, but concern about German power was growing.

Knowledge check: Why did political structure and economic strength influence foreign policy without determining it?

2. Great Powers and crises, 1900-1911

Balkan nationalism threatened Austria-Hungary's multinational empire and offered Russia influence through Panslavism. In Germany, military institutions held strong influence. Naval and land arms races increased cost and suspicion, while mobilisation timetables and offensive plans made delay seem dangerous during a crisis.

The Moroccan crises tested French expansion and German diplomacy. Instead of dividing France and Britain, German pressure helped strengthen the Entente. Britain then reached an agreement with Russia, creating the Triple Entente alongside the Franco-Russian alliance. The Entente was not a single automatic war machine, but it altered expectations and planning.

Ottoman weakness and the Young Turk movement changed Balkan calculations. Austria-Hungary's annexation of Bosnia in 1908 angered Serbia and humiliated Russia, which was not ready for war. The crisis ended without general conflict, but grievances and commitments deepened.

Knowledge check: Explain why one pre-war crisis ended peacefully but still made later crisis management harder.

3. The coming of war, 1911-1917

The Balkan Wars weakened Ottoman control and enlarged Serbia, alarming Austria-Hungary. Great Power diplomacy imposed some limits but did not settle competing national claims. After Franz Ferdinand's assassination at Sarajevo, Austria-Hungary chose to confront Serbia with German support. Russia backed Serbia; mobilisation and military planning narrowed choices. Germany implemented the Schlieffen Plan and invaded neutral Belgium, contributing to Britain's declaration of war.

Responsibility was unequal but multi-actor. The international system created danger; decisions during the July Crisis created general war. Avoid saying alliances simply pulled unwilling states in automatically.

The conflict widened through empires and strategic choices. Italy joined the Entente after bargaining over territory. Submarine warfare, economic links, the Zimmermann Telegram and defence of neutral rights contributed to US entry in 1917. European war had become world war.

Knowledge check: Which July Crisis decision most changed the range of choices available to other states? Justify your answer.

Part two: failed peace and the origins of the Second World War, 1917-1941

4. The end of war and peace settlement, 1917-1923

War and revolution destroyed the Russian, German, Austro-Hungarian and Ottoman empires. New states and borders tried to satisfy nationalist claims, but populations were mixed and rival claims overlapped.

Wilson promoted self-determination and a League; Clemenceau prioritised French security; Lloyd George balanced security, public expectations, empire and European recovery. Versailles imposed territorial losses, disarmament, reparations and the war-guilt clause upon Germany. Separate settlements reshaped eastern and southern Europe and the former Ottoman lands. No single principle governed every decision.

The United States rejected League membership and limited political commitments. Britain, France and Germany viewed enforcement differently. Border conflicts continued, while the Ruhr occupation in 1923 showed how reparations, French security and German resistance could destabilise Europe.

Knowledge check: Why could the settlement be defensible from one national perspective and destabilising from another?

5. Attempts at maintaining peace, 1923-1935

The Dawes Plan stabilised German payments and finance. Locarno guaranteed Germany's western borders and enabled German entry into the League. The Geneva Protocol failed, while the Kellogg-Briand Pact renounced war without creating reliable enforcement. These agreements improved relations but depended upon political cooperation and economic stability.

The Depression damaged trade, credit and democratic governments. Lausanne effectively ended reparations, but the London Economic Conference failed to produce coordinated recovery. Italy, Japan and Germany pursued revisionist aims with growing force.

Japan seized Manchuria in 1931. League condemnation did not reverse the occupation. Italy invaded Abyssinia in 1935; sanctions were incomplete and Britain and France feared driving Mussolini towards Hitler. These failures showed that collective security was not useless in principle but weak when leading states would not accept strategic and economic costs.

Knowledge check: Rank Locarno, Depression and Manchuria by their effect on international stability. Explain your criterion.

6. The coming of war, 1935-1941

Hitler challenged Versailles through rearmament, the Rhineland, Anschluss and pressure upon Czechoslovakia and Poland. Britain and France initially used appeasement because of military weakness, public memory of war, economic limits, uncertainty about allies, fear of communism and belief that some grievances could be negotiated. Munich sacrificed Czechoslovak territory; the occupation of Prague showed that Hitler's aims exceeded national self-determination.

Italian aggression in Abyssinia and Albania, intervention in the Spanish Civil War, and the Rome-Berlin Axis altered the balance. In Asia, Japan's full-scale war in China from 1937 met sustained Chinese resistance. Western states condemned aggression but balanced Asian commitments against European danger.

The Nazi-Soviet Pact removed the immediate danger of a two-front war for Germany and partitioned influence in eastern Europe. Germany invaded Poland; Britain and France declared war. War expanded through German victories, Italy's entry and the invasion of the Soviet Union. Japan attacked Pearl Harbor in December 1941, bringing the United States into the war; Germany then declared war on the USA. Regional conflicts had become connected through alliances, resources and state choices.

Knowledge check: Why is it misleading to explain the Second World War only through Hitler's actions in Europe?

Anchor dates

• 1894: Franco-Russian alliance.
• 1904: Anglo-French Entente.
• 1905 and 1911: Moroccan crises.
• 1908: Bosnian Crisis.
• 1912-13: Balkan Wars.
• 1914: July Crisis and European war.
• 1917: US entry and Russian revolutions.
• 1919: Paris Peace Conference and Versailles.
• 1923: Ruhr occupation.
• 1924: Dawes Plan.
• 1925: Locarno Treaties.
• 1929: world economic crisis begins.
• 1931: Japanese seizure of Manchuria.
• 1935: Italian invasion of Abyssinia.
• 1936: Rhineland remilitarised; Spanish Civil War begins.
• 1938: Anschluss and Munich.
• 1939: Nazi-Soviet Pact and war in Europe.
• 1941: invasion of the Soviet Union; Pearl Harbor; US entry.

How to answer the source question

Evaluate each source for the precise enquiry. Identify its argument and emphasis, test its content with exact knowledge, and connect author, timing, audience and purpose to what it can reveal or conceal. A diplomatic memorandum may be valuable for official aims without representing public opinion. A public speech may reveal persuasion and priorities without giving a complete private strategy. Avoid generic statements that a source is useful because it is contemporary or limited because it is biased.

How to build the essays

Use criteria and comparison. For a question on the main cause of war in 1914, compare structural pressures with decisions in the July Crisis, then connect them. For a question on League failure, distinguish the design of the institution from member choices and the changing balance of power. For appeasement, assess aims, constraints, alternatives and outcomes rather than using hindsight as the only test.

Practice before you leave

1. Why was the Great Power system unstable by 1900?
2. How important were the Moroccan crises in creating the Triple Entente?
3. How far were German decisions responsible for general war in 1914?
4. Why was the Paris settlement difficult to enforce?
5. How successful were attempts to maintain peace in 1923-35?
6. Why did collective security fail in Manchuria and Abyssinia?
7. How far was appeasement responsible for war in Europe?
8. Why did war become global in 1941?

If the course still feels tangled

Reduce it to a chain: rivalry created danger; crisis decisions created war; peacemakers built a contested order; cooperation stabilised it temporarily; Depression and aggression weakened it; European and Asian wars became connected. Then return to one section and add the named states, decisions and evidence.

Your next step

Create six rows for the six course divisions. In each add one pressure on the international system, one decision by a government and one judgement about whether diplomacy widened or narrowed the choices that followed. Then practise one source paragraph and one comparative essay plan.