History HL: Paper 1 & 2 Discussion

[IBisfunjustkidding]

So how'd you find the paper 1 and 2 exams?

TZ1: I thought paper 1 was alright, my OPVL's could have been better but one hour was not enough! One of the sources was from a book we read in history class this year, nice surprise.

Paper 2: I did questions 1 (WWI Causes) and 28 (Truman's contributions to Cold War).

[alefal]

I found them quite good, actually.

I don't know what TZ my P1 was in, but it My paper 1 was about Ruhr Valley (route 2: 1918-1936 -- Peacemaking and Peacekeeping). My OPVL wasn't amazing either, but you don't really have time for much. My essay was pretty much rushed through, but I think I managed to mention the most important things.

Paper 2: I did Q1 (Causes of WW2 - I have yet to meet someone who did not do this one, actually) and Q14 (the nature of opposition against a named totalitarian state, and how the government dealt with it -- I chose to write about Soviet Union under Lenin and Stalin's rule). I felt both of the essays went fine, but I spent too much time on Q1, so I had less time to write about the Soviet Union.

EDIT: Changed some stuff that TykeDragon pointed out underneath.

Edited May 9, 2013 by alefal

[TykeDragon]

Alefal, we (as in Europe and Africa) are TZ2, OP is TZ1 so did different papers

Our Q1 was causes of WW2 not WW1!

I also did these:

Q1: 'Assess the following as causes of the Second World War: the Peace Settlement after the First World War; the economic crisis after 1929; ideological extremism.'

Q16: 'Assess the following in the rise to power of Stalin: errors of his rivals; use of propaganda; popular support'

I felt both went pretty well to be honest! (Especially the WW2 one)

Yeah, our document paper was on the consequences of the Ruhr Crisis. The picture source was of Poincare stabbing a man representing Germany with a bayonet, and the man was falling back into a pair of waiting hands labelled 'Bolsheviks.' Pretty nice and clear I think! The essay Q4 was assessing the impact of the Ruhr Crisis on international relations from 1923-29, and I basically used the sources to describe the strong short term impact and own knowledge to suggest it did not in the long term, using own knowledge such as Treaty of Rapallo (may not be credited for if they look harshly on that it was 1922, but my point was clear that it suggested the Ruhr crisis didn't cause Germany to go to Russia), the golden years of Weimar Republic recovery (1924-28) the fact that Germany and Russia joined the League of Nations in 1926, and the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact that denounced war.

[alefal]

Alefal, we (as in Europe and Africa) are TZ2, OP is TZ1 so did different papers

Our Q1 was causes of WW2 not WW1!

Ah, yeah, it makes sense that they have another TZ. And, of course, WW2. It was still a World War, though! Hehe, I've fixed that in my original post.

The picture source was of Poincare stabbing a man representing Germany with a bayonet, and the man was falling back into a pair of waiting hands labelled 'Bolsheviks.' Pretty nice and clear I think!

Yeah, and the caption, which was from a German Unionist (from the Ruhr Valley, I believe?), said something along the lines of "The French think they can do everything with a bayonet, but they can't dig for coal" (though slightly more concise).

[TykeDragon]

Yeah something like that haha

[IBisfunjustkidding]

Our Paper 1 (Communisn in Crisis) was on Lech Walesa/ Polish solidarity, and the sources also talked about Russian policies and foreign influences specifically America's influence/role. The last question was what made the Soviet spheres of influence basically revolt at that specific time. I used prior knowledge of glasnost and perestroika, but could have done so much more.

Paper 2:

Our WWI question for TZ1 was worded similarly except, of course, asked to assess desire for revenge (I talked about Franco-Prussian war and Bosnian crisis specifically France and Russia), economic motives (somehow tied in weltpolitik's expansion with navy to economy lol and talked about something else I don't remember), and Balkan nationalism (I addressed July Crisis/ Serbian nationalism).

Q28 I talked about the role of Truman in the Potsdam conference/splitting of Germany, the Truman Doctrine and Marshall plan which clearly divided USSR and USA, and atomic bomb/ nuclear warfare (though he kind of was placed into the atomic bomb situation ). No one really did that question in my class. They mostly did Q25 about whether Cold War was strictly ideological or not.

So I didn't memorize historian views, so throughout I was so vague and mentioned how "some historians" argued this or that.

Edited May 9, 2013 by IBisfunjustkidding

[itank28]

I live in Greece and I think we had TZ 1, 1st question was on causes of WW1, which I did...

I also did reasons for Stalin's rise to power, which I think I failed miserably at, I wasted too much time on the first question. Besides, the wording was really confusing such as "popular support" (what is that, popular support from the people? party?)

Anyway, crossing my fingers for a 7, I'd feel ok with a 6, gutted with a 5!

[Liberal Lady]

TZ1. I did the question that talked about how a democratic state handled their economic crises, and also the question about the events that caused tension in the period between the world wars. I can't remember the questions exactly; my brain is a little fried from testing.

[Yap]

I don't remember if I had TZ0 or TZ2 but Paper 1 was about the Ruhr invasion...

I thought the Paper 2 Questions were decent.... Could have been better but could also been waaaay worse like *cough* a certain other paper in which there is a possibility of not being allowed to talk about it yet. But you cannot blame me, I don't know which paper.

[alefal]

I don't remember if I had TZ0 or TZ2 but Paper 1 was about the Ruhr invasion...

I thought the Paper 2 Questions were decent.... Could have been better but could also been waaaay worse like *cough* a certain other paper in which there is a possibility of not being allowed to talk about it yet. But you cannot blame me, I don't know which paper.

You had TZ2, then, the same as TykeDragon and me

I know your feeling, I had a vague dream about another paper which had some tricky questions!

[abtara]

I had TZ1 for paper 2, and the questions I answered were:

3. Analyze the factors that threatened the peace from 1919-1939. (paraphrased, but basically that)

25. To what extent was the Cold War caused by ideological differences? (also paraphrased.)

[cjy]

I was TZ2 and did 2 on Foreign intervention is RCW and SCW and 25 on fear starting the cold war. It was a **** paper

[TykeDragon]

itank, you live in Greece so you are TZ2, like the rest of Europe. Also explains how you had the same Stalin RTP question that I did your Q1 must have been WW2 not WW1? I remember the 'popular support' thing, but I was fine with that - Lenin Enrolment, popular policies, used support to have opponents defeated, etc. It was the 'use of propaganda' that threw me because there's not much of it in his RTP... but I talked about photographs with Lenin, cult of lenin, lenin institute and stalin's speeches on leninism - basically it was propaganda that made him look most keen and knowledgeable

[Pedro9604]

Paper 1 Communisim in Crisis

I was expecting china but then a random Polony Revolution (Gorbachev's policies) appeared, I got really nervous bc the teacher said there was 30 minuts left and I was in the middle of the question 2 OMGG!!! I totally wrote that kfnbdsklbndlksfbn faster and thank god I finished it just in time!!!

Paper 2 (route 2)

I answered Q1 (causes WW2) and Q25 (West-East relations) thank god those questions appeared, thats basically all I've studied in History!!

[Jaya Bajracharya]

Paper 1 on the Ruhr Crisis was rather nice, but much like others my OPVL were not that good.

Paper 2, I did the question of civil wars, but I kind of regret doing that, and I did the ideology of single party states. I thought that the quetions on SPS were wonderful!

[wjw]

I'm TZ1, and the Rhur Crisis wasn't that bad. I wish I had studied a bit more in depth, as I didn't have much depth in the essay question.

For paper 2 I did #1 and #14 (as did many others at my school, and here, as I see). I was really hoping for something on Spanish Civil War (#2 required analysis of two civil wars ), and studied that mainly, and did only a short review for WWI (didn't even review short term causes, stupidly), and Stalin.

For revenge, I talked mostly about the Balkan Crises and Germany, as I did for Balkan nationalism, and tried to tie in military and imperialism for economic motives. For Stalin's eliminating domestic opposition I mostly talked about his personality cult and the purges. These papers didn't go as well as I had hoped, but they weren't too bad.

[Pieisgood186]

My paper 1 was communism in crisis which dealt with the Rise of Solidarity...was expecting Gorbachev but close enough...there was no way they would ask on china since they have two of the last 3 years

Paper 2 was pretty easy I did number 14, how did one leader handle domestic opposition, which I used Stalin and then number 25 which dealt with origins of Cold War

[itank28]

itank, you live in Greece so you are TZ2, like the rest of Europe. Also explains how you had the same Stalin RTP question that I did your Q1 must have been WW2 not WW1?

Erm are you sure? Well, I wrote my essay on causes of WW1, and they asked us about the want for revenge, economy etc etc... maybe there's differences between schools?

I don't know, but this is making me super anxious that I might have misread WW1 for WW2 which would mean I get a 0!!!

[littlelionwoman]

itank28 I also live in Greece and I am also a bit confused about what timezone we are in I also thought it was TZ1?

In any case my Paper 1 was on the Ruhr Crisis of 1923, and I was very happy with it, although I found the sources a bit long and detailed and I wasted time reading over and over, however luckily I managed to finish just as the hour was up.

In terms of Paper 2 I was disappointed.. After seeing the paper, my history teacher felt that this year they seem to rewording the questions a great deal making it more confusing.

I was hoping for Spanish Civil War to come up, and I didn't do the WW1 question as planned because I did not like the fact it focused on revenge and economic conditions as causes.

Instead I did question 16. Stalin's rise and I am very happy with that, and I had a hard time deciding which to do my second essay on - I was inbetween the one on Guerilla warfare in the Chinese civil war as important to Communist success and the question on Cold War Origins, although I ended up picking the one on Chinese Civil War due to the fact that I felt I had more details and historiography in order to challenge the question.

Overall, I was not too happy, because I felt the difficulty level had been upped-up a lot this year, however I feel I did quite well

[itank28]

itank28 I also live in Greece and I am also a bit confused about what timezone we are in I also thought it was TZ1?

In any case my Paper 1 was on the Ruhr Crisis of 1923, and I was very happy with it, although I found the sources a bit long and detailed and I wasted time reading over and over, however luckily I managed to finish just as the hour was up.

In terms of Paper 2 I was disappointed.. After seeing the paper, my history teacher felt that this year they seem to rewording the questions a great deal making it more confusing.

I was hoping for Spanish Civil War to come up, and I didn't do the WW1 question as planned because I did not like the fact it focused on revenge and economic conditions as causes.

Instead I did question 16. Stalin's rise and I am very happy with that, and I had a hard time deciding which to do my second essay on - I was inbetween the one on Guerilla warfare in the Chinese civil war as important to Communist success and the question on Cold War Origins, although I ended up picking the one on Chinese Civil War due to the fact that I felt I had more details and historiography in order to challenge the question.

Overall, I was not too happy, because I felt the difficulty level had been upped-up a lot this year, however I feel I did quite well

Oh, glad you also had the same questions as me x)

You're right, I did feel as if they reworded the questions a lot, and it made it weird :/ Apparently the others found ppr 3 really easy though... hope that doesn't put SL's at a disadvantage!