What Paper 1 actually is

Paper 1 is the source paper, sat by both SL and HL candidates. It lasts 1 hour (plus 5 minutes reading) and is marked out of 24. You are given a small booklet of four sources — some written, usually one visual (a cartoon, photograph or map) — all on a single narrow topic.

You do not need to memorise these sources. Instead you must read, interpret, evaluate and cross-reference them, and bring in your own knowledge. Paper 1 rewards source skills, not just recall.

The five prescribed subjects

You choose one prescribed subject. Each contains two case studies, and you must study both. The five are:

• Military leaders — Genghis Khan and the Mongols, and Richard I of England.
• Conquest and its impact — the Spanish conquest of Mexico and Peru and its consequences.
• The Move to Global War — Japanese, and German and Italian, expansion in the 1930s.
• Rights and protest — the US civil rights movement and apartheid South Africa.
• Conflict and intervention — Rwanda (1990s) and Kosovo (1990s).

Note: there is no prescribed subject called "diplomatic crises" — a common distractor. The fifth option is Conflict and intervention.

What kind of paper is it?

The four questions and their marks

The four questions always follow the same shape:

• Question 1 (5 marks) — comprehension: (a) what a source says (3), (b) the message of a visual source (2).
• Question 2 (4 marks) — value and limitations of one source, with reference to its origin, purpose and content.
• Question 3 (6 marks) — compare and contrast what two sources reveal.
• Question 4 (9 marks) — a mini-essay using all four sources and your own knowledge.

Manage your time by the marks: Question 4 is worth the most, so leave it room.

Origin, Purpose, Value, Limitations

The heart of source analysis is OPVL. For any source you ask:

• Origin — who produced it, when, where, and in what form?
• Purpose — why was it created, and for whom?
• Value — what makes it useful to a historian studying this question?
• Limitations — what can it not reliably tell us (bias, missing context, hindsight)?

Exam craft: tie value and limitations back to origin and purpose. "Because a government minister wrote this speech to reassure the public, it is valuable evidence of official messaging, but limited as a guide to what really happened."

Spot the impostor

Whose expansion was it?

Sort each 1930s-40s event under the power responsible.

Comparing sources and the mini-essay

Question 3 asks you to compare and contrast. Do both: find where two sources agree and where they diverge, and quote or paraphrase precisely. A running comparison ("Whereas Source B argues..., Source C instead suggests...") scores better than dealing with each source separately.

Question 4 is a short essay. Group the sources into an argument, weave in your own knowledge, and reach a supported judgement. Reference sources explicitly (Source A, Source D) as evidence.

Date the incident

Match the source skill

Tap an item on the left, then its match on the right.

Move to Global War: Japanese expansion 1931-1941

Japan's expansion began with the Mukden (Manchurian) Incident on 18 September 1931, a staged sabotage of a railway used as a pretext to invade Manchuria. Japan set up the puppet state of Manchukuo in 1932, and — condemned by the Lytton Report — left the League of Nations in 1933.

The Marco Polo Bridge Incident of 7 July 1937 opened full-scale war with China. Expansion into South-East Asia and a US oil embargo led to the attack on Pearl Harbor on 7 December 1941, bringing the USA into the war.

Move to Global War: German and Italian expansion

Italy under Mussolini invaded Abyssinia (Ethiopia) in October 1935, again exposing the League's weakness. Nazi Germany remilitarised the Rhineland on 7 March 1936, achieved the Anschluss (union) with Austria in March 1938, and — after the Munich Agreement of September 1938 — annexed the Sudetenland.

The Nazi-Soviet Pact of 23 August 1939 cleared the way for the German invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, which triggered war in Europe. Historian A. J. P. Taylor (The Origins of the Second World War, 1961) controversially argued Hitler was an opportunist rather than a planner — a useful interpretation to weigh.

Which question?

Order the road to global war

Tap the events in sequence, earliest first.

The other prescribed subjects at a glance

You will only sit one, but it helps to place them:

• Military leaders — leadership, campaigns and legacy of Genghis Khan and Richard I.
• Conquest and its impact — the Spanish conquest of the Aztec (Cortés, 1519-1521) and Inca (Pizarro, from 1532) empires.
• Rights and protest — US civil rights (Brown v. Board 1954; Civil Rights Act 1964) and apartheid South Africa (from 1948; Sharpeville 1960).
• Conflict and intervention — the Rwandan genocide (1994) and the Kosovo conflict and NATO intervention (1999).

The big ideas to take away

You now know how Paper 1 works and can apply it to your chosen prescribed subject. Press Finish to see your score.