CIE history

IS there anyone doing CIE history A-level :international option?

am literally the only person in my city taking this subject!!

if there is anyone?..we could create our community+i really need people for support and question answer stuff!! especially for AS level?

Hey! I am taking CIE History too! I am actually sitting A2s at the moment, but I did the International option at AS and got an A. Need a hand with anything specifically?

Hey could you please send me a sample answer or an essay plan for the USA as a world power unit? I'm a private candidate and really struggling at the moment to find enough essay correction resources, thanks!

Sure! Here is an exemplar answer for "To what extent had the US become an imperial power by 1914?"

This is an essay provided by my college, so it should be full marks.

Hope it's what you were after!

It is, to a great extent, evident that the US had emerged as an imperial power by 1914. Already, by the 1890s, the American economy was increasingly dependent on foreign trade. A quarter of the nation's farm products and half its oil were sold overseas. With the “end of the frontier”, manufacturers, and trade unions feared that the country might miss out in the struggle for global markets and raw materials. Popular opinion was influenced by social Darwinist emphasis on “survival of the fittest.” Henry Cabot Lodge, a powerful member of the Senate Committee on Foreign relations, strongly urged the country to join the imperialist club by stating: “As one of the great nations of the world, the United States must not fall out of the line of march”. Supporting arguments for expansion were put forward by Alfred Thayer Mahan, a naval strategist and the author of The Influence of Sea Power Upon History, who argued that national prosperity and power depended on control of the world's sea-lanes. "Whoever rules the waves rules the world."

All these views led to a more assertive foreign policy. The United States came close to declaring war against Germany over Samoa in 1889; against Chile in 1891 over the treatment of U.S. sailors; and against Britain in 1895, over a territorial dispute between Venezuela and Britain. The USA defeated Spain in the war of 1898 and took control of the Philippines, Puerto Rico and Guam. Hawaii was annexed as Congress recognized its importance as a port for the navy. Despite its promise from the Teller Amendment that Cuba should be an independent nation, the United States set up a military government in Cuba and made the soldiers' withdrawal contingent on the Cubans accepting the Platt Amendment. The amendment gave the United States the right to intervene in Cuba to protect "life, property, and individual liberties," as well as to buy or lease Cuban land for naval bases. This was clearly a form of imperial control.

This attitude was a key aspect of Roosevelt’s foreign policy; his strong-arm approach became known as the Big Stick Policy. The Monroe Doctrine of 1823 had emphasised the need to keep the Western Hemisphere free from European involvement, Roosevelt’s 1904 Corollary extended this to justify the US assuming “international police power” to preserve peace and order in the hemisphere and protect American interests. He also intervened to ensure strategic and economic advantages, as with Panama. During the Spanish-American War, the battleship USS Oregon had to travel almost 14,000 miles around the tip of South America to get from California to Cuba. A canal would shorten the journey to just under 5,000 miles. In 1903, the United States encouraged a revolt in Panama. Roosevelt sent warships to prevent Colombian troops from intervening. The revolt succeeded, and the United States quickly recognized Panama as an independent nation. After 10 years of construction, the canal opened on August 15, 1914. Roosevelt called it “the most important action I took in foreign affairs.”

Economic imperialism was emphasised by Taft, whose Dollar Diplomacy was to encourage and protect American trade and investment in Latin America and Asia. In Nicaragua, for example, the US supported a revolt that brought a pro-US leader into power in 1911. American banks then provided loans to the new government. The government was corrupt and unpopular, however, and a new revolt broke out in 1912. Taft sent marines to put it down and to protect American business interests. The United States also wanted to prevent foreign colonization of China in order to maintain its own access to Chinese markets. With this goal in mind, Secretary of State John Hay issued several foreign policy statements, which became known collectively as the Open Door Policy. China remained open to American trade and influence.

Imperialism was sometimes presented as a form of missionary activity. Josiah Strong wrote that the United States had a “divine mission” to spread its “Anglo-Saxon civilization” around the world. This view was exploited by President McKinley who claimed the Filipinos were not ready for selfgovernment, when they demanded independence after the Spanish-American War. He said that he wanted to "uplift and civilize and Christianize" the Filipino people and allowed his army to destroy villages and herd civilians into prison camps. Mark Twain, one of many Americans who opposed the US policy toward the Philippines, wrote bitterly, "We have destroyed their fields; burned their villages; and turned their widows and orphans out-of-doors . . . And so . . . we are a World Power."

In challenging the view that the USA had become an imperial power by 1914, the Monroe Doctrine can be cited. Its insistence that the US should not be involved with European affairs set up the idea of US isolation, and as rejecting the expansionism of the European powers. This was supported by groups such as the Anti-imperialist league formed in 1898 to fight US annexation of the Philippines and headed by Democratic Presidential candidate Bryan in 1900, but the fact of their opposition indicates there was a change that they were reacting against, “overseas conquest would do nothing but subvert America's unique experiment”.

It is also true that US imperialism was limited: both Cuba and the Philippines were promised future independence. Presidents had to justify their involvement on moral as well as economic grounds: Wilson called this policy Moral Diplomacy in 1913, but actually intervened in Latin America more than either Taft or Roosevelt.

Overall, the US was undoubtedly an imperial power by 1914. While still reluctant to become entangled in European alliances, and distancing itself from colonial disputes in Africa, the US had annexed territories in the Pacific and Caribbean, intervened at will in South America, built a powerful navy and created trading links with China. The impulses were mainly economic, but the US had shown it was willing to use force to defend and extend its influence across the Pacific as well as in Latin America.

Hey! I am taking CIE History too! I am actually sitting A2s at the moment, but I did the International option at AS and got an A. Need a hand with anything specifically?

I am a private candidate and the only candidate in my Whole city taking this subject.Could you give me a walk through your AS history,(international option) the do's and don'ts and what resources?,essays and stuff. Basically, how did you get an A? XD

could you please give me your essays!!, i know its big request.But understand my situation like a self-thought student in the whole city as far as i know!

Would be very kind of you!

I am a private candidate and the only candidate in my Whole city taking this subject.Could you give me a walk through your AS history,(international option) the do's and don'ts and what resources?,essays and stuff. Basically, how did you get an A? XD

could you please give me your essays!!, i know its big request.But understand my situation like a self-thought student in the whole city as far as i know!

Would be very kind of you!

Why don't you drop me a pm with your email, and we can work through some stuff together?