DSE History — Origins of the Cold War 1945 to 1949 Prep Guide (for tutors) | Three layers of cause, a timeline drill, blockade and airlift data

2026-11-05

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Secondary History

Ask for causes and students write ideology, then pile every event into one paragraph. This lesson separates causes into three layers, structure, economy and trigger, then makes students order seven events so the answer has a spine.

Objectives — Students can: (1) sort causes into structural, economic and trigger layers with one example each; 2) order seven events from 1945 to 1949 and explain how each made the next harder to reverse; (3) use the 322 days of blockade and 277,000 airlift flights to explain why the blockade failed.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

If any of these fails, fix it before the lesson starts.

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
End of the Second World War	When did Germany surrender, and which four powers occupied it?	1945, occupied in zones by the US, Britain, France and the USSR
Ideology	What was the basic economic difference between the USSR and the USA?	Planned economy against market economy, plus different political systems
Conferences	Which came first, Yalta or Potsdam?	Yalta in February 1945, Potsdam in July and August 1945

02 Lesson flow (45 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0-5 min	Prior knowledge check	Ask the three prior questions and mark years on a board timeline	Answer orally and copy any wrong item once
5-17 min	Act one: three layers	Draw three circles for structure, economy and trigger, one event each	Copy the circles and add a second example
17-30 min	Act two: cooperation to confrontation	Walk through the Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan year by year	Order seven event cards and state the link between neighbours
30-40 min	Act three: the Berlin blockade	Use the airlift figures to show why the blockade backfired	Compute the daily tonnage the city needed
40-43 min	One-sentence summary	Ask for one sentence on why the Cold War hardened in 1947	Answer orally; tutor corrects only causal wording
43-45 min	Exit check	Hand out three items and collect them	Work alone with books closed

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: Act one: three layers, not one

Draw three circles. Structure: two superpowers, the UN veto, occupied zones. Economy: the Truman Doctrine with 400 million dollars and the Marshall Plan with 13.3 billion dollars for 16 countries. Trigger: the Berlin blockade and the birth of NATO.
Each layer does different work: structure makes confrontation possible, economy gives it tools, trigger makes it public.
One sentence per layer scores better than ten sentences about ideology.

Ask students to repeat: structure explains why it was possible, economy explains the tools, trigger explains when it went public.

Scene 2: Act two: the Marshall Plan was not charity

Proposed in June 1947, it ran from 1948 to 1952 with 13.3 billion dollars taken up by 16 Western European states.
Two aims coexisted: rebuild markets so American goods had buyers, and block communist gains in poor countries.
The Soviet response was Comecon, plus a ban on Eastern European participation. One programme, aid on one side and threat on the other, is exactly how two blocs hardened.

Ask students to repeat: the Marshall Plan was economic aid and a line drawn at the same time.

Scene 3: Act three: why the blockade failed

The blockade of West Berlin began on 24 June 1948 and ended on 12 May 1949, 322 days in all.
The West supplied the city by air: 277,000 flights carrying 2,300,000 tonnes, about 8.3 tonnes per flight.
The blockade was meant to paralyse West Berlin; instead it pushed West Germany towards the West and NATO was founded in April 1949.
Any answer on why it failed must state the outcome, not just the process.

Ask students to repeat: the blockade sped up NATO, the opposite of what it intended.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Causes essay	Why did the Cold War develop between 1945 and 1949?	Three layers, one event and one explanation each, then a single summary sentence	Structural, economic and trigger layers, one example each
Timeline ordering	Place seven events in order	Fix the 1945 and 1949 endpoints, place the two 1947 items, then fill by cause	From Yalta to the founding of NATO
Data use	What do 277,000 flights tell us?	Divide by days, compare with city needs, state a conclusion	About 860 flights a day
Causal chain	How did the Marshall Plan produce two blocs?	Aid, then Soviet refusal and control of Eastern Europe, then a fixed line	An economic tool becomes a bloc boundary

Sanity check (teach this): Read back three figures: 322 days, 13.3 billion dollars, 16 countries. One wrong figure costs marks across the whole data question, so omit a year rather than invent one.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Which came first, the Truman Doctrine or the Marshall Plan?	The Truman Doctrine in March 1947; the Marshall Plan was proposed in June	Check whether proposal and implementation are confused, since the plan took effect in 1948
Why did the West not send ground troops through the blockade?	That risked direct fighting, so the airlift was the lower-risk option	Check whether the answer names avoiding war
How are NATO and the blockade linked?	The blockade accelerated the founding of NATO in April 1949	Check whether the link is causal rather than two facts side by side

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Ideology only	There was a Cold War because the USA and the USSR thought differently	Ideology is background. Name the event through which it became conflict.
Muddled years	The Marshall Plan was proposed in 1948	Proposed in 1947, in force in 1948; say which one you mean.
Treating the blockade as a win	The USSR blockaded successfully and the West gave way	It was lifted after 322 days, and NATO was founded.
Data without conversion	Only quoting 277,000 flights	Divide by the days and give a daily figure before drawing a conclusion.

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

Redo this chapter — Redo the ordering task with one causal sentence per pair
Interwar dictatorships — Contrast appeasement with containment in three points
History chapter index — Pick one more chapter and write the timeline only

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
How many days did the Berlin blockade last?	322 days	Error: writing a year or under 300 days
Two aims of the Marshall Plan	Rebuild markets and block communist influence	Error: giving only one aim
Which layer explains why it went public in 1947?	The trigger layer	Error: answering with the structural layer

09 Tutor FAQ

Which year is this for?

Mainly S4, and useful as an opener when S5 revisits the Cold War.

Is 45 minutes enough for seven events?

Yes, because only three are taught in depth; students order the rest with cards while the tutor circulates.

Is there a companion worksheet?

Three practice items with answers on the page, and the interwar chapter for comparison.

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A TutorZone lesson-prep guide. Written by the TutorZone team; questions and lesson flow are original and are not taken from any school or publisher material.