Board: OCR | Unit: Y214 | Component: 2 (Non-British Period Study)
About this option
Y214 covers France from the Bourbon Restoration through the July Monarchy, the Second Republic, and the Second Empire to the eve of the Franco-Prussian War. The period study structure requires students to track the contested struggle for political stability across six decades of monarchies, republics, and empire, assessing how far France resolved the political legacy of the Revolution.
Key themes
- The Bourbon Restoration and its limits: Louis XVIII, the Ultra-royalists, and Charles X
- The 1830 Revolution: the July Monarchy and Orleanist liberalism
- 1848 in France: the Second Republic, the June Days, and Louis-Napoleon’s rise
- The coup of 1851 and the Second Empire: Napoleon III’s authoritarian consolidation
- Economic modernisation under the Second Empire: railways, Haussmann’s Paris, and industrial growth
- The liberalisation of the Empire and growing opposition, 1860–70
- The Franco-Prussian War and the fall of the Second Empire
What the exam asks
Component 2 is a Non-British Period Study. Questions require breadth across the full chronological period; source analysis and interpretation in context are central to the paper. Essays assess change and continuity across a long arc and reward candidates who select precise evidence from multiple points in the period — rather than narrating events in sequence.
Historiography
Key interpretive debates for this option include:
- Whether France had a recurring revolutionary cycle after 1789, or was on a path towards stable liberal government
- The revisionist rehabilitation of Napoleon III: Plessis and others on the modernising achievements of the Second Empire
- The 1848 revolutions across Europe as a turning point in liberal politics: why did they fail?
Related packs and cross-board resources
Interpretations pack — coming September 2026
A teaching pack for this option is in development, covering all core historiographical debates. It will include named historians with argument summaries, paired comparison tasks built to OCR mark scheme logic, and provenance analysis prompts — all in a downloadable PDF.
£9.99 per pack · Available September 2026
OCR Y213 covers the preceding period (The French Revolution and Napoleon, 1774–1815). AQA 2H (France in Revolution, 1774–1815) and Edexcel 2C.1 cover the revolutionary context that shapes the politics of this period.
Return to the OCR resources hub.
