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MINISTRY OF EDUCATION, SINGAPORE

In collaboration with

UNIVERSITY OF CAMBRIDGE LOCAL EXAMINATIONS SYNDICATE

General Certificate of Education, Ordinary Level

HUMANITIES (HISTORY) 2261/02

Paper 2: The Making of the 20th Century Modern World, 1910s–1991

SPECIMEN PAPER For Examination from 2024

1 hour 50 minutes
No additional materials are required.
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READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST

An answer booklet will be provided with this question paper. You should follow the instructions on the
front cover of the answer booklet. If you need additional answer paper ask the invigilator for a
continuation booklet.

Section A
Answer all parts of Question 1.

Section B
Answer two questions.

The number of marks is given in brackets [ ] at the end of each question or part question.
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Section A: Source-Based Case Study

Question 1 is for all candidates.

Study the Background Information and the sources carefully, and then answer all the
questions.

You may use any of the sources to help you answer the questions, in addition to those sources
you are told to use. In answering the questions you should use your knowledge of the topic to
help you interpret and evaluate the sources.

1(a) Study Source A.

How useful is this source as evidence of Hitler’s foreign policy ambitions? Explain your
answer. [5]

1(b) Study Source B.

Why do you think Rothermere wrote this letter? Explain your answer. [5]

1(c) Study Sources C and D.

How far does Source D prove that Source C was wrong? Explain your answer. [6]

1(d) Study Source E.

Do you think the cartoonist would have agreed with Chamberlain’s policy of
appeasement? Explain your answer. [6]

1(e) Study all the sources.

‘Chamberlain was right to follow a policy of appeasement.’ How far do these sources
support this view? Use the sources and your knowledge to explain your answer. [8]

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Was Chamberlain right to follow a policy of appeasement towards Germany?

BACKGROUND INFORMATION

Read this carefully. It may help you answer some of the questions.

From the time the Nazis came to power, Hitler followed an aggressive foreign policy. Britain
and France had to decide how to respond to this. Many people in Britain felt that Germany
had been treated too harshly in the peace settlement after World War I and should therefore
be allowed to break some of the terms of the Versailles Treaty. Amongst these people was
Neville Chamberlain, who became British Prime Minister in 1937. He followed a policy of
making concessions towards Germany, hoping this would satisfy Hitler and preserve peace.
This policy was known as appeasement. However, some people, like Winston Churchill,
warned that giving in to Hitler would just encourage him to make more demands.

At the Munich Conference in late September 1938, Chamberlain reached an agreement with
Hitler in which it was agreed that large areas of Czechoslovakia (the ‘Sudetenland’) should be
handed over to Germany. This action appeared to prevent war breaking out and Chamberlain
was given a hero’s welcome when he returned to Britain. Yet less than one year later, Britain
and Germany were at war.

Was Chamberlain right to follow a policy of appeasement towards Germany?

Source A: A speech made by Hitler, addressing the German Reichstag, on 26 September

1938.

I am grateful to Mr Chamberlain for his efforts. I assure him that the German people wish
only for peace.

The Sudetenland is the last problem that must be solved - and it will be solved. It is the last
territorial claim which I have to make in Europe. The aims of our foreign policy are not
unlimited. They are based only on a determination to save the German people. In 1919 ten
million Germans found themselves beyond the frontiers of Germany. Life has been a
nightmare for them. Of all the groups of Germans in Europe, those in Czechoslovakia have
the highest mortality rate, their child poverty rate is the highest, their unemployment is by
far the highest.

For twenty years, the Germans in Czechoslovakia and in Germany had to sit back and watch
because Germany was defenceless and could not protect itself in the new ‘democratic’
world.

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Source B: A letter from Lord Rothermere, owner of several British newspapers, to Winston
Churchill on 15 October 1938. Rothermere was a supporter of Chamberlain.

Chamberlain is Prime Minister and the leader of the Party to which you too belong. Any
member of his Party who criticises runs the risk of making themselves very unpopular with the
people of the country.

The British public is so terrified of being bombed that they will support anyone who keeps them
out of war. I always knew the public had no desire to stand up to the Dictators and I always
knew that when it came to choosing between peace or war ninety-five per cent of the electors
would rally to the peace policy, however humiliating such a policy might be.

I do hope you will become less critical of the government’s policy. If you became so unpopular
that you lost your seat and were no longer in Parliament, it would be a loss to the nation.

Source C: Neville Chamberlain, British Prime Minister, speaking in the British Parliament,
3 October 1938.

Before giving a verdict upon the Munich agreement, we should do well to avoid describing it
as a personal or a national triumph for anyone. The real triumph is that it has shown that
representatives of four Great Powers can find it possible to agree on a way of carrying out a
difficult and delicate operation by discussion instead of by force of arms. By doing this, they
have averted a catastrophe which would have ended civilisation as we have known it.

We are relieved at our escape from this great peril of war. There is also a deep feeling of
sympathy for the Czechs, a small and gallant nation, in the hour of their national grief and loss.
But I have done nothing to be ashamed of.

Source D: A pamphlet titled ‘The full facts of the Czech crisis’ produced by the leading
opposition party in Britain, November 1938.

Mr Chamberlain has continually referred to Hitler’s assurance that he has no further territorial
claims in Europe. But Hitler has made such claims on innumerable occasions. All such
assurances are utterly worthless. If frontiers are changed whenever the Nazi Party, by
propaganda and threat of war, has caused disturbance in another country, there is not a state
in Europe that is secure. In order to collapse, the Czechs did not need the friendship of the
Western Powers. This friendship could only have any meaning if it were aimed at preserving
the integrity of Czechoslovakia and curbing Nazi expansionism. ‘It sounds like a mockery,’
wrote a Czech newspaper, ‘when the British Prime Minister declares that Czechoslovakia was
saved from disaster. It is as though one should say after cutting off a man’s arms and legs that
he has been saved from death. This sort of logic is incomprehensible.’

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Source E: A cartoon published in a British newspaper, 9 September 1938. Hitler is holding

a banner saying, ‘All Germans everywhere are mine’.

NIGHTMARE WAITING LIST

Source F: An online article written in a History journal in 2021.

The USA did not approve of Chamberlain’s policies. American diplomats and politicians
worked tirelessly to make Britain realise that as long as it continued to believe in the
possibility of dealing honestly and realistically with Hitler, it would not succeed in its desire
to stop Hitler’s policy of expanding German territory.

Instead, the USA tried to persuade Britain to replace its policy towards Germany with an
aggressive one, based on deterrence. This changed policy would need to show the desire
to use the military forces Britain possessed (despite the fact that Britain had only two
divisions to send to the European mainland in August 1938). Only then would the Nazis
understand that they would not get away with threatening Czechoslovakia and other
countries, just as they had threatened Austria.

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Section B: Essays

Answer two questions.

2 ‘Germans hated the Treaty of Versailles because it blamed them for starting World
War 1.’ How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer. [10]

3 ‘US policy towards Japan in the 1930s was responsible for the outbreak of World War
II in the Asia-Pacific.’ How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer.
[10]

4 ‘Gorbachev was responsible for the collapse of Soviet control over Eastern Europe.’
How far do you agree with this statement? Explain your answer. [10]