Board: WJEC | Unit: 2 & 4 (Depth Study), Option 6
Unit 2 (AS) Part 1: France: The Causes and Course of Revolution, c.1774–1792 | Unit 4 (A2) Part 2: France: Republic and Napoleon, c.1792–1815
About this option
This depth study covers the full arc of Revolutionary and Napoleonic France across two units. Unit 2 (AS) examines the causes and course of the Revolution from the crisis of the ancien régime to the fall of the monarchy in 1792. Unit 4 (A2) continues from the Republic and Terror through to Napoleon’s defeat and legacy. Together they offer the most complete coverage of this transformative period available on the WJEC specification.
Key themes
- Unit 2: The crisis of the ancien régime; 1789 and the revolutionary outbreak; the constitutional monarchy and its failure
- Unit 2: The radicalisation of the Revolution: war, the Republic, and the coming of the Terror
- Unit 4: The Terror and Thermidor; the Directory and its instability
- Unit 4: Napoleon’s rise to power: Consulate and Empire
- Unit 4: The Napoleonic wars: expansion, the Continental System, and overreach
- Unit 4: Napoleon’s legacy: legal reform, European impact, and historical debate
What the exam asks
Units 2 and 4 are depth studies assessed at AS and A2 respectively. Both require analytical depth within a defined chronological range: questions focus on causation, significance, and judgement. Strong answers engage directly with historical debate, sustain a precise argument, and avoid broad narrative surveys. The A2 Unit 4 element builds on the AS foundation and expects greater sophistication in handling historiographical disagreement.
Historiography
The major interpretive debates relevant to both units include:
- The causes of the Revolution: Marxist class conflict (Soboul, Lefebvre) vs revisionist rejection (Furet, Cobban)
- The Terror: contingent emergency response to war and invasion, or inherent in revolutionary ideology?
- Napoleon: heir of the Revolution or its betrayer? Military genius or reckless gambler?
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 WJEC mark scheme logic, and provenance analysis prompts — all in a downloadable PDF.
£9.99 per pack · Available September 2026
AQA 2H (France in Revolution, 1774–1815) covers the same full period with an AO3 interpretations focus. OCR Y213 covers Revolution and Napoleon as a period study. Edexcel 2C.1 covers the revolutionary phase (to 1799) as a depth study. See also WJEC Unit 3, Option 5 for a breadth study covering the broader French context from 1715.
Return to the WJEC resources hub.
