S4 History Paper: Causes Of The First World War, The Course Of The War And The Paris Peace Conference (100 Marks)

S4 History Paper: Causes of the First World War, the Course of the War and the Paris Peace Conference (100 marks)

2026-11-12

S4 History paper: 6 questions, 100 marks, 75 minutes. Covers alliances, the Sarajevo crisis, Verdun, total war and the Treaty of Versailles.

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Section A: Pre-war alliances and the arms race (16 marks)

Source A: the Dual Alliance of 1879, the Triple Alliance of 1882, the Franco-Russian Alliance of 1894, the Entente Cordiale of 1904 and the Anglo-Russian Entente of 1907. Peacetime army strength in 1914: Germany 840,000, Austria-Hungary 415,000, France 730,000, Russia 1,300,000 and Britain 250,000. Dreadnoughts in 1914: Britain 29, Germany 18.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
1	(a) Name the two opposing alliances and their member states. (4 marks)	Answer: The Triple Alliance (Germany, Austria-Hungary, Italy) and the Triple Entente (Britain, France, Russia). 1 mark for each alliance named and 1 mark for each list of members.
2	(b) Using Source A, calculate the difference in army strength between the three Entente powers and Germany with Austria-Hungary. (4 marks)	Answer: Germany and Austria-Hungary had 840,000 plus 415,000 = 1,255,000 men. The three Entente powers had 730,000 plus 1,300,000 plus 250,000 = 2,280,000 men. The difference is 2,280,000 – 1,255,000 = 1,025,000 men in favour of the Entente.
3	(c) Calculate the ratio of British to German dreadnoughts in 1914 (take Germany as 1) and explain what the ratio shows. (4 marks)	Answer: The ratio is 29 divided by 18 = 1.61, so Britain had about 1.61 times as many dreadnoughts, that is 11 more ships. Britain still held naval superiority, but Germany had been building rapidly since 1900, so the two powers were locked in a naval arms race that deepened mutual distrust.
4	(d) Explain how the alliance system and the arms race pushed Europe towards war. (4 marks)	Answer: Alliances tied the great powers into two rival blocs, so any local dispute could widen through treaty obligations (1 mark). Members tended to act firmly to keep allies confident, which made compromise harder (1 mark). The arms race convinced governments that war could be won and each side justified its own build-up by the other side, creating a vicious circle (1 mark). Mobilisation plans such as the Schlieffen Plan were driven by speed, so once ordered they were hard to reverse, leaving little room for diplomacy (1 mark).

Section B: The spark and the escalation of the crisis (16 marks)

Source B: on 28 June 1914 the heir to the Austrian throne was assassinated at Sarajevo by a Serb nationalist. On 23 July Austria-Hungary sent an ultimatum to Serbia; on 28 July it declared war on Serbia; on 30 July Russia ordered general mobilisation; on 1 August Germany declared war on Russia; on 3 August Germany declared war on France; on 4 August German troops entered Belgium and Britain declared war on Germany.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
5	(a) Using Source B, calculate how many days passed between the Sarajevo assassination and the Austro-Hungarian declaration of war, and between the assassination and the British declaration of war. (4 marks)	Answer: From 28 June to the Austro-Hungarian declaration on 28 July is 30 days; from 28 June to the British declaration on 4 August is 37 days.
6	(b) Explain how Germany giving Austria-Hungary a blank cheque escalated the crisis. (4 marks)	Answer: Germany promised unconditional support, so Austria-Hungary believed that firm action against Serbia would not bring Russian intervention (2 marks). It therefore made its ultimatum extremely harsh, almost impossible to accept, so mediation failed and the crisis quickly became a war among the great powers (2 marks).
7	(c) Describe the Schlieffen Plan and explain two reasons why it failed. (4 marks)	Answer: The plan was to knock out France quickly with the main force through Belgium, in about six weeks, then switch troops east against Russia to avoid a two-front war (1 mark). Reasons for failure (1.5 marks each, any two): Belgian resistance and British entry slowed the advance; Russia mobilised faster than expected, forcing troops east; the French counter-attack at the Marne pushed the Germans back to the Aisne; supply lines were overstretched and there were too few troops to envelop Paris.
8	(d) The First World War broke out mainly because a local dispute between Austria-Hungary and Serbia got out of control. Do you agree? (4 marks)	Answer: 1 mark for a clear stand. Agreeing: the harsh ultimatum and the Austro-Hungarian declaration were the direct trigger, and Russian backing for Serbia turned it into a great-power war. Disagreeing: the alliance blocs had already split Europe; the Anglo-German naval race and colonial rivalry destroyed trust; mobilisation timetables paralysed diplomacy; nationalist and domestic pressures pushed governments towards firmness. The conclusion should state that the local dispute was only the spark while deeper structural causes were decisive (2 marks).

Section C: The Western Front and trench stalemate (17 marks)

Source C: after the battle of the Marne in September 1914 the armies dug in. The battle of Verdun lasted from 21 February to 18 December 1916, with about 700,000 casualties on both sides. The battle of the Somme lasted from 1 July to 18 November 1916; on the first day the British army suffered 57,470 casualties, of whom 19,240 were killed, and the whole offensive advanced about 10 kilometres.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
9	(a) How many days did Verdun last, and what was the average number of casualties per day? (4 marks)	Answer: From 21 February to 18 December is 301 days; the daily average is 700,000 divided by 301, about 2,326 casualties.
10	(b) How many days did the Somme offensive last, and what percentage of the first-day British casualties were deaths (one decimal place)? (4 marks)	Answer: From 1 July to 18 November is 140 days; the death rate is 19,240 divided by 57,470 times 100, about 33.5 per cent.
11	(c) Calculate the average daily advance of the Allied forces during the Somme offensive, in metres. (4 marks)	Answer: 10 kilometres is 10,000 metres; 10,000 divided by 140 is about 71 metres a day. Such heavy casualties for so little ground show the enormous cost of trench warfare.
12	(d) Explain three reasons for the trench stalemate on the Western Front. (5 marks)	Answer (any three: 1 mark for the point, 0.7 for the explanation, up to 5 marks): machine guns and rapid-firing artillery made frontal attacks extremely costly, favouring the defender; railways and conscription let both sides reinforce quickly, so a breakthrough could not be exploited; trenches, barbed wire and mines formed layered defences; tanks and aircraft were too few and too unreliable before 1916 to break the balance; both sides aimed at wearing the enemy down and preferred holding ground to retreating.

Section D: Total war and the impact of the war (17 marks)

Source D: the belligerents mobilised about 65,000,000 men, of whom about 9,000,000 died and 21,000,000 were wounded. In one belligerent country the number of women in employment rose from 3,200,000 in 1914 to 4,900,000 in 1918. Governments greatly extended their powers, introducing rationing, control of production and conscription.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
13	(a) Calculate the percentage of mobilised men who died (one decimal place). (4 marks)	Answer: 9,000,000 divided by 65,000,000 times 100 is about 13.8 per cent, so roughly 14 out of every 100 mobilised men died.
14	(b) Calculate the increase in the number of women in employment, in numbers and as a percentage. (4 marks)	Answer: The increase is 4,900,000 minus 3,200,000 = 1,700,000, which is 1,700,000 divided by 3,200,000 times 100, about 53.1 per cent. With men at the front, women took jobs in factories, transport and medical services.
15	(c) Name the four empires that broke up after the war. (4 marks)	Answer: the German Empire, Austria-Hungary, the Russian Empire and the Ottoman Empire (1 mark each).
16	(d) Discuss how the First World War changed the social and political structure of Europe. (5 marks)	Answer (1 mark each, any five): four empires broke up and several new states appeared in central and eastern Europe, with national self-determination as a principle; the Russian Revolution created a communist regime and a new ideological divide; state intervention in the economy and society expanded permanently, with welfare and taxation growing; women entered the labour market in large numbers and won the vote in several countries; casualties and inflation loosened class relations and strengthened veterans and labour movements; revulsion at the war produced pacifism and ideas of collective security, while also feeding a desire for revenge and extreme nationalism.

Section E: The Paris Peace Conference and the Treaty of Versailles (17 marks)

Source E: the Paris Peace Conference opened on 18 January 1919 and the Treaty of Versailles was signed on 28 June 1919; Germany and Soviet Russia took no part in the discussions. Germany lost about 13 per cent of its territory and about 10 per cent of its population; its army was limited to 100,000 men, its navy to 15,000 men and 6 battleships; the Rhineland was demilitarised for 50 kilometres east and west of the river; in 1921 the reparations bill was fixed at 132 billion gold marks.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
17	(a) How many days passed between the opening of the conference and the signing of the treaty? (4 marks)	Answer: From 18 January to 28 June 1919 is 161 days, showing that the victors negotiated for almost half a year while Germany was excluded from the discussions.
18	(b) If the 132 billion gold marks were paid over 30 years, what would the average annual payment be, in hundred million gold marks? (4 marks)	Answer: 1,320 divided by 30 = 44 hundred million gold marks, that is 4.4 billion a year. Economists then widely doubted that Germany could pay for so long, and reparations became a running post-war dispute.
19	(c) Give one main term of the Treaty of Versailles on each of territory, armaments and reparations. (4 marks)	Answer: territory – Alsace-Lorraine returned to France, Poland gained the Polish Corridor, or the colonies became League mandates; armaments – an army of 100,000 men, no air force or submarines, or a demilitarised Rhineland; reparations – 132 billion gold marks fixed in 1921, plus merchant ships and coal.
20	(d) Explain the war-guilt clause, Article 231, its effects on Germany and how Germans reacted to it. (5 marks)	Answer: The article made Germany and its allies responsible for starting the war (1 mark) and became the legal basis for reparations (1 mark). Effects: rearmament limits and payments gained moral justification, Germany signed under protest and its international standing fell (1 mark). Reaction: Germans of all parties called it the war-guilt lie, argued that they had fought a defensive war, and the anger fed revanchism and support for extreme parties (2 marks).

Section F: Judging the treaty, the League of Nations and the fragile peace (17 marks)

Source F: the League of Nations was founded on 10 January 1920 with 42 founding members. On 19 November 1919 the US Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles by 55 votes to 39; with 96 votes cast, a two-thirds majority of 64 was needed. In 1914 one US dollar bought 4.2 marks; in November 1923 one dollar bought 4.2 trillion marks.

#	Question	Answer and marking notes
21	(a) Calculate the number of votes needed for the US Senate to ratify the treaty, and the shortfall against the votes actually cast in favour. (4 marks)	Answer: The number needed is 96 times two thirds = 64 votes; 55 votes were cast in favour, a shortfall of 64 – 55 = 9 votes, so the treaty was rejected.
22	(b) Calculate how many times the mark had fallen against the dollar by November 1923 compared with 1914. (4 marks)	Answer: 4.2 trillion divided by 4.2 is 1,000,000,000,000 times, so the mark had almost no external purchasing power left and middle-class savings were wiped out.
23	(c) State two structural weaknesses that prevented the League of Nations from keeping the peace. (4 marks)	Answer (any two, 2 marks each): key powers were absent or left – the United States never joined, Germany and Soviet Russia were long excluded, Japan and Italy withdrew; it had no army and members would not supply forces, so sanctions were weak; decisions needed unanimity, which made action slow; it was tied to the Versailles settlement and was seen by Germany and others as a victors club, so its authority was doubted.
24	(d) The Treaty of Versailles was too harsh and must bear the blame for the outbreak of the Second World War. Do you agree? (5 marks)	Answer: 1 mark for a clear stand. Agreeing: territorial losses and reparations wrecked the German economy and created a sense of humiliation that extreme parties exploited; Germany was excluded from the talks, weakening the new republic; unequal disarmament later gave mass support to rearmament demands (2 marks). Disagreeing: Germany recovered in the 1920s through the Dawes Plan and Locarno, so the treaty was not unchangeable; the Depression of the 1930s, the the League being unable to enforce sanctions and the pursuit of narrow national interests were decisive; the expansionism of Hitler was not simply caused by the treaty (2 marks). The treaty was one important long-term cause, but the war had many causes (1 mark).

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