Course map

Paper 1: prescribed subjects

The move to global war: Japanese expansion in East Asia, 1931 to 1941
SL and HL: Paper 1
- Explain the causes of Japanese expansion: nationalism and militarism, domestic political and economic issues, instability in China
- Know the events: Manchuria (1931), the Sino-Japanese War from 1937, the Tripartite Pact and Pearl Harbor (1941)
- Assess the responses: the League and the Lytton report, the Second United Front, the US and rising US-Japanese tension
Lesson Practice
The move to global war: German and Italian expansion, 1933 to 1940
SL and HL: Paper 1
- Explain the impact of fascism, Nazism and domestic economic issues on Italian and German foreign policy
- Know German challenges to the post-war settlements, Abyssinia and Albania, and German expansion to 1939
- Assess the end of collective security, appeasement and the international responses to 1940
Lesson Practice
Rights and protest: the civil rights movement in the United States, 1954 to 1965
SL and HL: Paper 1
- Explain the nature of discrimination: violence, disenfranchisement, segregated education and the Jim Crow legacy
- Know the protests and legislation: Montgomery, the Freedom Rides, Freedom Summer, the 1964 and 1965 Acts
- Assess the roles of King, Malcolm X, Johnson and the NAACP, SCLC, SNCC and the Nation of Islam
Lesson Practice
Rights and protest: apartheid South Africa, 1948 to 1964
SL and HL: Paper 1
- Explain petty and grand apartheid: classification, segregation, forced removals, education and the Bantustans
- Know the protests: bus boycotts, the Defiance Campaign, the Freedom Charter, Sharpeville and the turn to armed struggle
- Assess the Rivonia trial and the roles of Mandela, Luthuli, the ANC, the SACP and MK
Lesson Practice

Paper 2: world history topics

Authoritarian states: how they emerged
SL and HL: Paper 2
- Explain the conditions in which authoritarian states emerged: economic factors, social division, war, weak political systems
- Compare the methods used to take power: persuasion and coercion, leaders, ideology, force and propaganda
- Use states from more than one region, such as Germany, the USSR, Italy, China and Cuba
Lesson Practice
Authoritarian states: keeping power and the results of policies
SL and HL: Paper 2
- Explain consolidation: legal methods, force, charismatic leadership and propaganda; the treatment of opposition
- Assess the aims and impact of economic, political, cultural and social policies, including on women and minorities
- Judge how far authoritarian control was achieved, and the effect of foreign policy on keeping power
Lesson Practice
Causes and effects of 20th-century wars: causes and practices
SL and HL: Paper 2
- Explain economic, ideological, political and territorial causes, short and long term
- Compare types of war (civil, interstate, guerrilla), technology and the theatres of war
- Assess mobilization and the influence of foreign powers on the outcome
Lesson Practice
Causes and effects of 20th-century wars: effects
SL and HL: Paper 2
- Assess the successes and failures of peacemaking and the territorial changes
- Explain the political repercussions of wars
- Explain the economic, social and demographic impact, and changes in the role and status of women
Lesson Practice
The Cold War: rivalry, mistrust and accord
SL and HL: Paper 2
- Explain the breakdown of the grand alliance and the emergence of rivalry in Europe and Asia, 1943 to 1949
- Assess superpower relations from 1947 to 1979: containment, peaceful coexistence, Sino-Soviet and Sino-US relations, detente
- Explain the reasons for the end of the Cold War, 1980 to 1991
Lesson Practice
The Cold War: leaders, nations and crises
SL and HL: Paper 2
- Assess the impact of leaders from different regions, such as Truman, Stalin, Khrushchev, Mao and Castro
- Explain the impact of the Cold War on countries other than the US and USSR
- Compare two crises from different regions, such as Berlin and Cuba, by causes, impact and significance
Lesson Practice

HL Paper 3: History of Europe

Imperial Russia, revolution and the Soviet Union, 1855 to 1924
HL only: Paper 3
- Assess how far Alexander II reformed Russia, and the policies of Alexander III and Nicholas II
- Explain the causes and consequences of 1905, the impact of the First World War and the revolutions of 1917
- Assess Lenin's consolidation of the Soviet state: Civil War, War Communism, the NEP and terror
Lesson Practice
Europe and the First World War, 1871 to 1918
HL only: Paper 3
- Explain European diplomacy after 1871, imperial rivalry and the foreign policy of Wilhelm II
- Weigh the short- and long-term causes of the First World War, including the July Crisis
- Explain the war's impact on civilians in two countries and the reasons for the Central Powers' defeat
Lesson Practice
European states in the inter-war years, 1918 to 1939
HL only: Paper 3
- Assess Weimar Germany from 1918 to 1933: early challenges, the Stresemann years and the crisis years
- Explain the rise, consolidation and domestic policies of Hitler and Mussolini, and the nature of their states
- Explain Spain from 1918 to 1939: Primo de Rivera, the Second Republic and the Civil War
Lesson Practice
Versailles to Berlin: diplomacy in Europe, 1919 to 1945
HL only: Paper 3
- Assess the peace settlements of 1919 to 1923 and the League of Nations in Europe
- Compare Italian, German, British, French and Soviet foreign policies; collective security, appeasement and Munich
- Explain the causes of the Second World War, the wartime alliance and the reasons for Axis defeat
Lesson Practice

Sources, essays and the investigation

How History is assessed: sources, essays and the historical investigation
SL and HL: Paper 1; Paper 2
- Analyse sources by origin, purpose and content, and judge their value and limitations
- Plan essays that answer the question, weigh perspectives and reach a supported conclusion
- Plan a historical investigation: the question, the sources, the investigation and the reflection
Lesson Practice

IB Diploma Programme History, SL and HL. The internal assessment, a research proposal, is not practised here.