DSE History — Causes of the Second World War Tutor Prep Guide

DSE History — Causes of the Second World War Tutor Prep Guide | Five dates, 1919 to 1939

2026-11-03

Tutor lesson-prep guides · Secondary History

Students can recite the treaty, appeasement and the Depression, but cannot say which one was the trigger. This lesson separates them with dates: 336 days from Munich to the invasion of Poland, nine days from the Nazi-Soviet pact, two days from the invasion to the British and French declaration.

Objectives — Students can: (1) state the gaps left by the 1919 settlement in arms, territory and reparations (an army of 100,000 and 132 billion gold marks); (2) sort six causes into economic, political, military and psychological groups with one fact each; (3) use three dates to separate concession, secret pact and declaration (336 days, 9 days, 2 days), and keep causes apart from the trigger in an essay paragraph.

01 Prerequisites (3-minute check)

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

Skill	Quick check	Pass mark
Treaty date	In which year was the Treaty of Versailles signed?	1919
Army limit	To how many men was the German army limited?	100,000
Timeline reading	How many days from 30 September 1938 to 1 September 1939?	336 days
Causal terms	What is the difference between a cause and a trigger?	A cause is a long-term condition; a trigger is the final event

02 Lesson flow (60 minutes)

Time	Stage	Tutor does	Student does
0–8 min	Open with the treaty	Write the military, territorial and reparation terms	Copy the three figures
8–20 min	Sort six causes	Hand out cards, ask for four groups	Place the cards and justify each
20–32 min	The arithmetic of appeasement	Casualties, rearmament, hope for a push east	State the three calculations
32–44 min	Five-date timeline	1936 Rhineland, 1938 Austria, 1938 Munich, 1939 pact, 1939 Poland	Order the cards and count the gaps
44–52 min	Essay paragraph	Stance, two causes, one counterpoint	Write 120 words
52–60 min	Exit check	Mark three answers on the spot	Work alone

03 Teaching script (read it out)

Scene 1: The treaty left gaps, not peace

The 1919 settlement cut the German army to 100,000 men, imposed 132 billion gold marks in reparations and removed about one eighth of its territory plus all colonies. An army that size can keep order but cannot defend borders; reparations that large need foreign loans; removed territory left millions of German speakers inside other states. Together they made “tear up the treaty” a promise any German politician could sell. Ask students to say the sentence: the treaty did not stop Germany from fighting, it made Germany want to.

Students should state the three gaps left by the treaty.

Scene 2: Appeasement was a calculation, not stupidity

On 30 September 1938 the Munich agreement gave Germany the Sudetenland and Britain and France did not fight. Three calculations sat behind it: the memory of the First World War dead, incomplete rearmament, and the hope that Germany would turn east against the Soviet Union. The result was war 336 days later, on 1 September 1939. Students must see appeasement as a reasoned mistake: writing “they were stupid” earns no analysis marks.

Students should name the three calculations and how each failed.

Scene 3: One trigger, many causes

The Nazi-Soviet pact came on 23 August 1939; Poland was invaded 9 days later; Britain and France declared war 2 days after that. The common error is to call the invasion a cause. If the question asks for causes, the answer is the 20 years after 1919: treaty resentment, depression, totalitarian systems, arms racing, appeasement and a League that could not act.

Students should say where the trigger goes in their answer, and where the causes go.

04 Question types and worked steps

Type	Example	Steps	Answer
Timeline ordering	Five cards: 1936 Rhineland, 1938 Austria, 1938 Munich, 1939 pact, 1939 Poland	1. Order by year 2. Order by month 3. Mark who conceded at each step	1936, March 1938, September 1938, August 1939, September 1939
Cause sorting	Six causes into economic, political, military and psychological groups	1. One sentence per card 2. Merge similar cards 3. Pick the strongest evidence per group	Economic: depression. Political: dictatorship and a weak League. Military: arms race. Psychological: treaty resentment.
Source comparison	The British PM returning home against Churchill in the Commons	1. Quote one line each 2. State the stance 3. Note the constraints of the moment	One argues for avoiding war, the other that concession invites more demands
Essay paragraph	“Appeasement was the main cause of the war.” Do you agree?	1. Stance 2. Two supporting causes 3. One counterpoint 4. One-line conclusion	Agree with a limit: appeasement brought the war forward; the deep causes were the treaty and the economy

Sanity check (teach this): Checks: 1919 to 1939 is 20 years, not ten; Munich to the invasion is 336 days, under a year, which is the evidence that concession was followed quickly by war; the Nazi-Soviet pact is 9 days before the invasion and must not be placed a year earlier. Treating 3 September 1939 as the start of the war confuses the British and French declaration with the invasion of 1 September.

05 Independent practice (3 questions)

Question	Answer	What to watch
Years from 1919 to 1939	20 years	Subtracting 1939 minus 1919
Days from Munich to the invasion	336 days	Rough 30-day months
Days from the Nazi-Soviet pact to the invasion	9 days	Confused with Munich
Days from the invasion to the declaration	2 days	Treated as the same day

06 Common mistakes and what to say

Mistake	Student writes	Say this
Trigger written as cause	“The war happened because Germany invaded Poland.”	“That is the trigger. The question asks for causes, so tell me what happened in the twenty years after 1919.”
Appeasement as stupidity	“Britain and France were too stupid to stop him.”	“Concession was calculated: casualties, rearmament, hopes of a push east. Show the calculation, not the insult.”
Timeline reversed	Putting the Nazi-Soviet pact before Munich.	“The pact is August 1939 and Munich is September 1938: nine days before the war against a year before.”
List without argument	“1936, 1938, 1939 are all there but nothing is explained.”	“After each event write one sentence on how it made the next step possible, or you have handed in a chronology, not an answer.”

07 Homework (paper, section and question numbers)

History chapter index — Review the First World War chapter, then redo the timeline ordering
Causes of the First World War — Redo practice questions 1 and 2, then compare with the three terms of 1919
French Revolution and Napoleon — Trace how nationalism spread into Germany and link it to the fourth cause

08 Exit check (last 5 minutes)

Question	Answer	Decision
Years from 1919 to 1939	20 years	Wrong: 19
Days from Munich to the invasion	336 days	Wrong: 365
Days from the pact to the invasion	9 days	Wrong: confused with Munich
Three causes plus one trigger	Treaty resentment, depression, appeasement; the trigger is the 1939 invasion	Wrong: a list without argument

09 Tutor FAQ

Must every date be memorised?

The five turning points should be, because they carry the argument; the rest only needs correct order.

Can “German ambition” be the whole answer?

It can be the opening line, but marks come from the conditions and choices that follow.

Is the essay structure the same in Chinese?

Yes: stance, causes, counterpoint, conclusion; keep one topic sentence per paragraph.

Find a tutor — free Tutor Registration →

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.