AQA A2 History Unit 3G (British 1865-1914)

First World War is a little bit tough as an essay question on its own, purely because the course finishes in 1914 and it's quite tenuous the things on the specification.

Early Ireland was said to us to contain things like the Land Acts, First Home Rule Bill, Parnell etc.

The causes of the First World War could be an ideal question - it would pretty much include all foreign policy after 1902 (Anglo-French/Russian Ententes, naval race, Algeciras Crisis, Balkans Wars, etc.)

The Early Ireland you speak of is on the specimen paper, and is therefore unlikely to crop up.

I'm hoping for:

- the Second Reform Act;
- and/or the 1906 election;
- and/or the rise of the Labour Party;
- and/or the social reforms of the 'New Liberal' governments (although this is very unlikely IMO)

What paragraphs would you do for the First World War causes though? 5 factors (one being the foreign policy you mentioned, I suppose you could make that into 2) but what else could you have?

1906 election would be a good question- there's some good points for that.

I'm scared about foriegn policy - particularly Grey and Salisbury's
For Grey 1905-14 what types of events could you write?
What about Salisbury's? I know they said his period was splendid isolation but do you think a particular essay question could come up on the handling of the second boer war, like last year where they asked students to assess disraeli's handling of the eastern crisis? With Lib government I feel like the social reforms or why they won the 1906 election would be a good essay but I have a horrible feeling the exam will be HARD.

For Grey you can write about the Agadir Crisis, Algeciras Conference, the naval race with Germany, Entente Cordiale and French relations and there's some bits about Russia in there too

Salisbury, there is a quite a good chunk for as well. They definitely could just ask about the Boer War as a specific event- my teacher set us an essay on it 'how far was the boer war a unionist failure?' that wouldn't be too bad if you knew the ins and outs of it.

For foreign policy, I've made a sheet with each foreign secretary on and picked 3/4 events for each which I know well and cover a wide range of motivations and a mixture of success/failure. Rather than learning all the events and losing my mind, I've narrowed it down so I know them better. I found this a really good idea!

I also have that feeling, I am dreading stupidly worded questions.

do you guys think the suffragettes/trade unions/ireland could come up, as challenges to the Liberal party in 1906-14?
I have a strong feeling that causes of the WW1 will be in there ( its WW1 centenary this year)
My teacher also feels that Gladstone's domestic reforms in his first ministry could come up, in comparison to his foriegn policy and
Balfour's ministry could be in there too, as well as the 1867 Reform Act. Last year they asked a very narrow foriegn policy question - i think this year it will be more broad and the narrow focus could be on the Liberal govt 1906-14, Balfour's ministry. Maybe trade unions could come up as a whole topic of its own. There's too many possibilities it scares me.

For the Boer War essay, I used a motivation per paragraph so like yes it was a failure for low cost (lots of soldiers to maintain) no it wasn't a failure for the empire (annexing of territory) etc.

We were told not to go for the specific event question if possible because obviously you need to know a lot of details!

I definitely think that the problems that the liberals faced 1906-1914 could come up- I really like that essay too so I would be happy haha!

I think if Gladstone's 1st ministry comes up it'll be in comparison to either disraeli's policy or Gladstone's foreign policy but that would be a bit nasty if it was just his first ministry.

Yeah there's so many combinations that could appear, it makes me incredibly scared. :P

Thank you for your help you deserve an A* . I just wanted to ask you what do you mean by motivation? We really just the boer war in passing in my class :/

Aw thank you haha- I would love that (I would probs cry on results day) as do you anyone who actually puts in effort in this subject does- it's a lot harder than people realise

By motivation I mean what motivated the foreign secretary in to doing certain things in foriegn policy such as balance of power, prestige, low cost, peace abroad, consolidation and expansion of empire, trade and naval supremacy for example, a lot (most) of disraeli's foreign policy was motivated by prestige, royal titles act, his handling of the eastern crisis I hope this makes sense!?

That's silly when it's a topic that could definitely come and it's a good point for any other foreign policy essay- is there any bits that you get particularly stuck on?

We just looked at key events in our class- like the Jameson Raid where I think a British guy called Jameson attempted to hold a revolt in South Africa with the help of Transvaal leader Rhodes ( I don't really know much about this) and we also took a look at the problem with the Uitlanders who were new settlers that the Boer settlers felt threateneed by --i think the Uitlanders wanted rights? I'm so sorry to trouble you but could you help me with the causes of why the war happened?

Sure I haven't really revised the boer war yet so you will have to bear with me when I get confused

Right, back in Gladstone's foreign policy there was an issue with south Africa if you remember (which was the first boer War) and the confusion over the convention of Pretoria and suzerainity (sp?) led to the 1899 boer war.

In 1884, huge gold deposits were found in the transvaal which meant uitlanders came flooding in to exploit the newly found gold. Cecil Rhodes who was pm for cape colony (a British territory in South Africa) along with colonial secretary chamberlain thought Britain should take firm control of the transvaal.

So..this led to the jameson raid that you were talking about 1895- Dr jameson (brit living in bechuanaland) invaded the transvaal with 500 men hoping the uitlanders would revolt with him because they were heavily taxed and had no voting rights so thought they'd want a new government too. But poor old jameson had no support and was imprisoned within days.

Now, the boers blamed the British government for this because they assumed jameson would have had permission from the government to invade.

Britain went to war in 1899 because of the gold reserves, their wish to cement their position in South Africa and the aggression between the president of the transvaal and British officials.

Milner (high commissioner for south Africa) was aggressive and wanted the uitlanders to have voting rights. But kruger (transvaal President) didn't want the British telling him what to do. The two met in 1898 after a boer policeman had shot a British worker and was acquitted without trial. kruger was still very stubborn about immigrant's rights. Milner stationed troops around the transvaal borders. He refused to remove them so kruger declared war.

Right, hope that long jumble makes sense :P sorry for the lack of detail, is there anything else?

do you guys think the suffragettes/trade unions/ireland could come up, as challenges to the Liberal party in 1906-14?
I have a strong feeling that causes of the WW1 will be in there ( its WW1 centenary this year)
My teacher also feels that Gladstone's domestic reforms in his first ministry could come up, in comparison to his foriegn policy and
Balfour's ministry could be in there too, as well as the 1867 Reform Act. Last year they asked a very narrow foriegn policy question - i think this year it will be more broad and the narrow focus could be on the Liberal govt 1906-14, Balfour's ministry. Maybe trade unions could come up as a whole topic of its own. There's too many possibilities it scares me.

I don't think a question encompassing all of the challenges to New Liberalism will appear. AQA would prefer to split each element up (Home Rule Crisis, Constitutional Crisis, etc.)

I agree with you on the causes of WW1 and the Second Reform Act - one of those is almost certainly poised to make an appearance IMO. Add the rise of the Labour Party to that, too.

AQA usually structure their exam papers so that two questions delve deeply into specific issues/events, whilst the other deals more broadly with events spanning across the period. No one seems to be discussing the latter, so I thought I'd ask: which possible breadth questions is everyone hoping for?