Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History · 4HI1 · Free · no account needed
The origins and course of the First World War, 1905–18 — exam questions
16 original Incandio exam-style questions on the origins and course of the First World War, 1905–18, 148 marks, about 222 minutes of writing. Each one carries the command word, the tariff and the specification statement it assesses, exactly as a paper presents them. This is an original Incandio practice question, written to reflect the structure and demands of the qualification. It is not an official Pearson Edexcel past-paper question.
This is the practice set for The origins and course of the First World War, 1905–18 — the option that teaches it. Read the option first if the idea is new; come here when you want to find out whether you can turn it into marks. Completely free, no account needed to read.
What these questions ask of you
2 command words run through this set, and on Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History each one means something precise. Answering the wrong command is the commonest way a candidate who understands the option still loses the mark.
- Describe (6 marks)
- TWO features, each with supporting detail. Recall only; explanation earns nothing here Misread as: explaining why the feature mattered, which is a different objective on a different question
- How (8–16 marks)
- a judgement on the EXTENT, built from both sides — agreement and disagreement, or three aspects and a criterion Misread as: agreement only on the source question (capped at 4), or the two printed bullets and nothing else on the sixteen-marker (held at 10)
Assessed on Paper 1 (4HI1/01) and Paper 2 (4HI1/02), against AO1, AO3, AO4.
Where these sit in the specification
Pearson Edexcel International GCSE History (4HI1) — statements 4HI1 A1.1 AO1 · 4HI1 A1.4 AO1 · 4HI1 A1.2 AO1 · 4HI1 A1.3 AO1 · 4HI1 A1.5 AO1 · 4HI1 A1.4 AO3 · 4HI1 A1.5 AO3 · 4HI1 A1.3 AO3 · 4HI1 A1.1 AO3 · 4HI1 A1.2 AO3 · 4HI1 A1.1 AO4 · 4HI1 A1.2 AO4 · 4HI1 A1.4 AO4 · 4HI1 A1.3 AO4 · 4HI1 A1.5 AO4. Incandio is aligned to this specification; it is not published by, endorsed by or affiliated with Pearson, and it reproduces none of Pearson's wording.
The 16 questions
Answer them on paper, then open the option's exam practice to have them marked. The mark scheme, the accepted and rejected answers and the annotated model answer are in Incandio and are not printed here — an answer beside its question is not practice.
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(6)Describe
Describe TWO features of EITHER the Triple Alliance OR the Triple Entente.
(Total for Question 1 = 6 marks)
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(6)Describe
Describe TWO features of EITHER the Battle of Jutland OR the U-boat campaign against Britain.
(Total for Question 2 = 6 marks)
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(6)Describe
Describe TWO features of EITHER the Moroccan Crises OR the Bosnian Crisis of 1908–09.
(Total for Question 3 = 6 marks)
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(6)Describe
Describe TWO features of EITHER the Schlieffen Plan OR the Gallipoli campaign.
(Total for Question 4 = 6 marks)
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(6)Describe
Describe TWO features of EITHER the entry of the USA into the war OR the Ludendorff Offensive of 1918.
(Total for Question 5 = 6 marks)
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(6)Describe
Describe TWO features of EITHER the Schlieffen Plan OR life in the trenches on the Western Front.
(Total for Question 6 = 6 marks)
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(8)How
How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about the Gallipoli campaign? Explain your answer.
Source A: We came ashore into fire from ground that had been empty in March. Every ridge above the beach was held, and the trenches on the skyline had been dug at leisure. Whoever decided to try the ships first gave them their five weeks, and we paid for those weeks with the whole of the first day. From the diary of a British junior officer at Helles, written in May 1915. Incandio-authored in the register of the period.
Source B: The conception was among the boldest of the war and remains so. Command of the Straits would have opened a road to Russia, taken Constantinople out of the fight and turned the whole southern flank. What defeated it was not the idea but its execution: forces committed piecemeal, intelligence that was little better than a guide-book, and a headquarters that watched the landings from a ship offshore. From the memoirs of a British politician who had supported the campaign, published in the 1920s. Incandio-authored in the register of the period.
(Total for Question 7 = 8 marks)
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(8)How
How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about the German collapse in 1918? Explain your answer.
Source A: In the storehouse at the crossroads there was cocoa, and tinned meat, and boots that had not been worn. The men would not go on until they had eaten and some of them did not go on afterwards. We had been told for two years that the blockade was hurting the English as much as us. Any corporal who walked through that store knew otherwise by the afternoon. From the diary of a German infantry officer, written in April 1918. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: The army is not beaten in the field. It has been let down at home by a strike movement and a press that has been permitted to say anything, and the reserves sent forward this spring were of a quality we should not have accepted in 1916. The line will hold if the nation holds. From a report by a German staff officer, written in October 1918. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 8 = 8 marks)
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(8)How
How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about Sir Douglas Haig? Explain your answer.
Source A: He came to the hospital at Etaples in the spring and spoke to the men in the beds, and afterwards to the sisters, and asked what we needed and whether the trains were arriving in time. He did not say anything about the offensive. When he had gone the ward sister said he had looked at nobody's face, and I thought that was unfair, but I remembered it. From the diary of a British nurse serving in France, written in 1917. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: The Commander-in-Chief visited the casualty stations twice this month and satisfied himself as to the arrangements for evacuation. He has directed that the medical services be strengthened before the next operation. He does not visit the forward dressing stations, holding that a commander who allows himself to be affected by the sight of casualties will not be able to order the attack that is necessary to end the war. From a report by a British staff officer at General Headquarters, written in 1917. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 9 = 8 marks)
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(8)How
How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about the Anglo-German naval race? Explain your answer.
Source A: The yards on the Tyne are working through the night and the town has not had wages like it since anyone can remember. Everybody here knows what the ships are for and nobody says it in those words. At the launch on Saturday the speeches were about employment and about the Empire, and the German name was not mentioned once, which is how you know who they were talking about. From a letter written by a shipyard clerk in north-east England, 1909. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: The Cabinet has agreed four keels and will lay down four more if the German programme is accelerated, which the Admiralty is confident it will be. Our estimate rests on returns from the yards at Kiel and on the Navy Law itself. It should be said plainly that the naval question is now the principal obstacle to any understanding with Germany, and that neither government can concede it without appearing to have been beaten. From a memorandum written by a British government official, 1909. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 10 = 8 marks)
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(8)How
How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about the July Crisis of 1914? Explain your answer.
Source A: The note was delivered at six in the evening with forty-eight hours to reply, and the terms were drawn so that no government which intended to remain a government could accept all of them. When the Serbian answer came it granted almost everything, and the Legation staff had their trunks in the hall before it was read. From the memoir of a European diplomat, published in 1931. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: We have been told that the reply is unsatisfactory. It concedes a great deal and reserves one point, and any competent lawyer could have made a settlement out of it in a week. The truth is that a settlement was not wanted; what was wanted was a free hand, and the note was written to be refused. From a letter written by a British official in Vienna, July 1914. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 11 = 8 marks)
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(8)How
How far does Source A support the evidence of Source B about the first day of the Somme? Explain your answer.
Source A: We had been told the wire would be gone and the enemy in his dugouts finished. We walked forward at the pace we had been given. The wire was standing in front of B Company and they went along it looking for a gap, and the machine guns had all the time in the world. By eight o'clock I could see no officers at all on our right. From an account by a British infantry sergeant, written in a letter home in July 1916. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: The bombardment was the heaviest yet fired by British guns and much of the enemy's front position was destroyed. Where our men were held up it was chiefly by uncut wire on narrow frontages, and the difficulty was largely a shortage of shells that would burst on contact. Gains were made and held on the right of the line, and the enemy has been drawn away from Verdun. From a report by a British staff officer, written for headquarters in July 1916. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 12 = 8 marks)
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(16)How
Extract C suggests that the alliance system was the main cause of the outbreak of war in 1914. How far do you agree with this interpretation? Use Extract C, Sources A and B and your own knowledge to explain your answer.
Extract C: Two armed camps had been assembled over thirty years, and once they existed a quarrel between any two members became a quarrel between all of them. The alliances were defensive on paper and mechanical in practice: each promised support, each therefore required mobilisation, and mobilisation in the east obliged mobilisation in the west because of a plan written for a war on two fronts. In July 1914 statesmen did not choose a European war. They were unable to have a Balkan one. From a study of the origins of the First World War, written by a British historian in 1994. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source A: His Majesty has been assured of our full support and has been told that any delay would be judged unhelpful. The Chancellor understands that Serbia may not accept, and considers that the risk of Russian intervention must be run now rather than in three years, when the Russian railways are finished. From a report by a diplomat in Berlin, written in July 1914. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: There is no treaty which requires us to fight. There is a naval conversation, an understanding about the Channel, and a guarantee of Belgium signed before any of us were born. The Cabinet has met four times and is still divided, and it will be the Belgian question that decides it, because that is the only one on which the country would be united. From the diary of a British Cabinet minister, written in early August 1914. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 13 = 16 marks)
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(16)How
Extract C suggests that the Gallipoli campaign failed because of poor planning. How far do you agree with this interpretation? Use Extract C, Sources A and B and your own knowledge to explain your answer.
Extract C: The campaign was conceived as a naval operation, converted into a landing after the ships had already announced the intention, and then reinforced piecemeal by a government that would not choose between two theatres. Nobody in London ever decided what force was to be committed or by what date the straits had to be open. The men who went ashore in April were asked to redeem a plan that had been abandoned in March, and the ground had been fortified in the six weeks between. From a study of British strategy in the First World War, written by an Australian historian in 2009. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source A: We came off the boats into water above the waist and the wire was in the shallows where nobody had said it would be. Above the beach the ground goes up like a wall, and they were on top of it before daylight. The maps we were given showed a slope. From an account by an Australian infantryman, written in 1915. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: The Turkish soldier has been consistently underestimated in this office, and by me. He entrenches quickly, he is well led at the regimental level, and he does not give ground when he is shelled. Any renewal of the offensive must reckon with a defence that has improved every month we have been here, whatever reinforcements we are sent. From a report by a British staff officer at Gallipoli, written in September 1915. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 14 = 16 marks)
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(16)How
Extract C suggests that Germany was chiefly responsible for the outbreak of war in 1914. How far do you agree with this interpretation? Use Extract C, Sources A and B and your own knowledge to explain your answer.
Source A: His Majesty's Government has authorised me to say that Vienna may count on Germany's full support in whatever measures are thought necessary against Serbia, and that any delay would be regrettable. It is desirable that the matter be settled while the general indignation at the murder is still fresh. From a despatch by a German diplomat in Vienna, 6 July 1914. Incandio-authored in the register of the period.
Source B: We have accepted every demand but one. To admit foreign officials to an inquiry on our own soil would be to cease to be a state, and no government in Europe would sign it. We had scarcely delivered our reply when their minister asked for his passports; the note was not written to be answered. From a memorandum by a Serbian official, written in the last week of July 1914. Incandio-authored in the register of the period.
Extract C: The decisive act of the July Crisis was taken in Berlin on 5 July, and everything afterwards followed from it. Vienna had wanted a war with Serbia for years and had never dared; what changed was an unconditional promise of support given before anybody in Berlin knew what Serbia would be asked or what it would answer. From that moment the German government pressed for speed, discouraged mediation and treated a Balkan quarrel as the opportunity its general staff had been describing since 1912. From a study of the origins of the First World War, written by a German historian in 1961. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 15 = 16 marks)
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(16)How
Extract C suggests that the Battle of the Somme was a failure. How far do you agree with this interpretation? Use Extract C, Sources A and B and your own knowledge to explain your answer.
Extract C: Six miles in five months and four hundred thousand British casualties is not a victory by any measure a soldier of 1914 would have recognised. The wire was uncut, the bombardment had warned the enemy for a week, and the men walked. What is said in defence of it — that it relieved Verdun, that it taught the army its trade, that the Germans could not replace their losses — is said by people looking backwards from 1918 and was not why the battle was fought. From a study of the British army on the Western Front, written by a British historian in 1998. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source A: We were told the wire would be gone and the enemy in his dugouts finished. We walked forward at the pace we had been given. The wire was standing in front of B Company and they went along it looking for a gap, and the machine guns had all the time in the world. From an account by a British infantry sergeant, written in a letter home in July 1916. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
Source B: The enemy has been drawn away from Verdun and his reserves are being consumed at a rate he cannot sustain. Gains were made and held on the right of the line. Where our men were held up it was chiefly by uncut wire on narrow frontages, and the difficulty was largely a shortage of shells that would burst on contact. From a report by a British staff officer, written for headquarters in July 1916. Incandio-authored for practice, not a real document.
(Total for Question 16 = 16 marks)
Have them marked, then defend the answer
Practice tells you the mark; teaching it back tells you whether you understand it. On Incandio a topic counts as mastered only once you have taught it and defended it.
- Mark these questions — 16 questions, marked on Incandio against the authored scheme, with the mistake you actually made named.
- Teach it — explain the origins and course of the First World War, 1905–18 to Ember, an AI pupil who does not have it yet and asks the awkward question.
- Defend it — three rounds against the mind with the strongest claim on it, marked against descriptors you can read first.
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Back to the option
- The origins and course of the First World War, 1905–18 — Option A1: the alliance system and international rivalry, 1905–14; the growth of tension in Europe, 1905–14; the Schlieffen Plan and deadlock on the Western Front; the war at sea and Gallipoli; the defeat of Germany.
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