GCSE History: The Road to the Second World War 1933–39

This material covers the origins and outbreak of the Second World War as studied in the GCSE History conflict and tension option on the inter-war years – for example the third part of AQA's 'Conflict and tension: the inter-war years, 1918–1939'. Peacemaking and the League of Nations are covered in a separate material in this category.

You start with Hitler's aims – overturning the Treaty of Versailles, uniting German speakers, winning Lebensraum in the east and destroying communism – and follow the steps by which he carried them out. You revise Germany's departure from the Disarmament Conference and the League in 1933, the Saar plebiscite and the announcement of conscription in 1935, the short-lived Stresa Front and the Anglo-German Naval Agreement, the remilitarisation of the Rhineland in March 1936, and the new links with Italy and Japan through the Rome–Berlin Axis and the Anti-Comintern Pact. The Spanish Civil War and the bombing of Guernica show Germany testing its forces.

The central part of the material is appeasement. You study the Anschluss of March 1938, the Sudeten crisis and the Munich Agreement of September 1938, the occupation of the rest of Czechoslovakia in March 1939 and the British guarantee to Poland, and you weigh the arguments for appeasement – fear of another war, public opinion, military unreadiness, sympathy with German grievances, fear of communism – against the case that it encouraged Hitler and sacrificed Czechoslovakia. You then look at why Stalin signed the Nazi–Soviet Pact in August 1939 and how the invasion of Poland on 1 September led Britain and France to declare war on 3 September 1939.

The quiz tests the order of events, dates and reasons, including a chronology question. The flashcards drill key dates and terms. The written work asks for explanations and for judgements on appeasement and on the relative importance of the causes of war, and one item uses a short public-domain extract from Neville Chamberlain's broadcast of September 1938. In the oral exam an examiner asks one question at a time and gives brief feedback at the end.

The material is revision practice written by Zestly and is not produced or reviewed by any exam board; check the details of your own specification with your teacher.

• Describe Hitler's foreign policy aims
• Explain how Hitler challenged the Treaty of Versailles between 1933 and 1936
• Explain the reasons for appeasement and evaluate the Munich Agreement
• Explain why appeasement ended in March 1939
• Explain why Stalin signed the Nazi–Soviet Pact
• Judge the relative importance of Hitler's actions, appeasement and other factors in causing war in 1939

Practice material written by Zestly, based on the DfE GCSE history subject content (wider world depth study) and part 3 of options such as AQA 'Conflict and tension: the inter-war years, 1918–1939'. Quotation: Neville Chamberlain (1869–1940), radio broadcast of 27 September 1938, public domain.