Causes and Effects of 20th-Century Wars Notes by David M. Smith

Causes and Effects of 20th-Century Wars Notes by David M. Smith

Course Companion Definition

  • IB Diploma Programme Course Companions support students in their two-year Diploma Programme course of study.
  • They help students understand what is expected and present content aligned with the IB's purpose and aims.
  • The books reflect the IB philosophy, encouraging deep understanding through connections to wider issues and critical thinking opportunities.
  • They mirror the IB philosophy of a whole-course approach, use of diverse resources, international mindedness, the IB learner profile, and core requirements like theory of knowledge, extended essay, and CAS.
  • Each book can be used with other materials and encourages students to draw conclusions from a variety of resources.
  • The Course Companions provide advice on course assessment and academic honesty.

IB Mission Statement

  • The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable, and caring young people who create a better, more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.
  • The IB works with schools, governments, and international organizations to develop challenging programs and rigorous assessment.
  • These programs encourage students to become active, compassionate, and lifelong learners who understand that others, with their differences, can also be right.

The IB Learner Profile

  • IB learners strive to be:
    • Inquirers: They develop curiosity and skills for inquiry and research, showing independence in learning and sustained love of learning.
    • Knowledgeable: They explore concepts, ideas, and issues of local and global significance, acquiring in-depth knowledge across disciplines.
    • Thinkers: They use critical and creative thinking skills to approach complex problems and make reasoned, ethical decisions.
    • Communicators: They express ideas confidently and creatively in multiple languages and modes of communication, collaborating effectively.
    • Principled: They act with integrity, honesty, fairness, justice, and respect, taking responsibility for their actions and consequences.
    • Open-minded: They understand and appreciate their own cultures and personal histories, and are open to diverse perspectives and values.
    • Caring: They show empathy, compassion, and respect for others, committing to service and making a positive difference.
    • Risk-takers: They approach unfamiliar situations with courage and explore new roles, ideas, and strategies.
    • Balanced: They understand the importance of intellectual, physical, and emotional balance for personal well-being.
    • Reflective: They give thoughtful consideration to learning and experience, assessing strengths and limitations for personal development.

A Note on Academic Honesty

  • It is vital to acknowledge sources to avoid plagiarism, which is representing others' ideas or work as your own.
  • Use footnotes and bibliographies to credit sources properly, except for common knowledge.
  • Misconduct includes plagiarism and collusion, which is supporting misconduct by another student.

Academic Misconduct

  • Misconduct is any behavior that gives you or another student an unfair advantage.
  • Plagiarism is the representation of someone else's ideas or work as your own.
  • To avoid plagiarism:
    • Acknowledge the words and ideas of others.
    • Enclose verbatim passages in quotation marks and acknowledge them.
    • Treat electronic media like books and journals.
    • Acknowledge sources of photographs, maps, illustrations, computer programs, data, graphs, audio-visual materials, etc., if they are not your work.
    • Acknowledge works of art and the creative use of a part of a work.

Collusion

  • Collusion is supporting misconduct by another student, including:
    • allowing your work to be copied.
    • duplicating work for different assessment components.
  • Other forms of misconduct include:
    • taking unauthorized material into an examination room.
    • misconduct during an examination.
    • falsifying a CAS record

Paper 2 Guide

  • This book provides in-depth knowledge of a world history topic, key historical concepts and develop skills.
  • It introduces different historical perspectives related to key events and personalities.
  • Use the book to gain more detailed knowledge about an event or leader, understanding of different perspectives and explanations of historical events.
  • Increase your understanding and skills, particularly the skill of analysis.
  • Consider the exam-style questions at the end of each chapter and think how you would apply your knowledge and understanding in an essay in response to the question.
  • Make sure you develop strategies to help you learn, retaining the information and understanding you have acquired.

Paper 2 Prescribed Content

  • Make sure you understand all the terms used under the heading “prescribed content” because these terms will be used to structure examination questions.
  • Topic: Prescribed content include the following aspects
    • Causes of war: economic, ideological, political, territorial, and other causes; short- and long-term causes
    • Practices of war and their impact on the outcome: Types of war (civil wars; wars between states; guerrilla wars);
    • Technological developments; theatres of war – air, land and sea, the extent of the mobilization of human and economic resources, the influence and/or involvement of foreign powers
    • Effects of war: The successes and failures of peace making
    • Territorial changes, political repercussions, economic, social and demographic impact; changes in the role and status of women

Paper 2 Examination

  • The Paper 2 examination is an essay-based examination in which you are expected to answer two questions in 90 minutes in two different topic areas. You must choose questions from two different topics.

Command Terms

  • Make sure you understand what the command terms used in essay questions are asking you to do. The most common command terms are:
    • Compare and contrast: Identify similarities and differences relating to a specific factor or event.
    • Discuss: Review a range of arguments.
    • Evaluate: Weigh up strengths and limitations, often expressed as “successes and failures.”
    • Examine: Consider an argument or assumption and make a judgment as to the validity of either.
    • To what extent: Usually refers to a quotation or a statement, inviting you to agree or disagree with it.

Essay Focus

  • Understanding the focus of questions is vital.
  • There are usually two or three focus words in a question.
  • Examples:
    • Evaluate the significance of economic factors in the rise to power of one 20th century authoritarian leader.
    • The outcome of Civil war is often decided by the actions of Foreign powers.To what extent do you agree with this statement with reference to two civil wars each chosen from different regions.
    • Evaluate the social and economic challenges facing one newly independent state and how effectively they were dealt with.
    • The command term tells you what you have to do and the focus words tell you what you have to write about.

Markbands

  • Level descriptors are used to assess answers, ranging from 0 to 15 marks.
  • Higher levels require a clear focus, well-structured organization, accurate knowledge, effective links, critical analysis, evaluation of different perspectives, substantiated points, and a consistent conclusion.

Essay Writing

  • Addresses knowledge often in great detail; these answers tell the story but make little or no analytical comment about the knowledge shown.
  • Other answers often consist of statements which have some focus on the question but with limited or inaccurate factual evidence;
  • Examiners notes: lack of detail, inadequate knowledge, vague inaccurate generalizations
  • Good essays consist of a combination of three elements:
    • Question focus
    • Accurate and relevant knowledge
    • Analysis and comments on the knowledge shown, linking back to the question
  • A good essay structure will ensure that you don’t miss out key factors, keep your line of argument clear and your focus on the question at all times

General Introduction

  • Robert E. Lee: "It is well that war is so terrible or we should grow too fond of it."
  • This book is not narrative but explores the nature, causes, conduct, and consequences of wars.
  • Examines wars together, not in isolation, requiring comparison across regions to look for patterns.
  • Key concepts: causation, consequence, continuity, change, perspective, and significance.
Why do we fight?
  • Clausewitz: "War is the continuation of diplomacy by other means",
  • An enticing simplification, but not a complete explanation.
  • War can be a method for states to get something they want.
  • However, interpretations of some wars, like World War I, suggest stumbling into disaster through fear, ignorance, and diplomatic incompetence.
  • Ideological aspects of some wars, like WWII, don't fit Clausewitz's maxim well.
  • War, like all human endeavors, exists in a cultural context.
  • The warrior class has been important in various societies.
  • In wartime, we see militarization of society, especially in 20th-century wars.
  • Countries like Switzerland and Israel normalize military service, while others like the US and Great Britain see it as an extraordinary measure.
  • Civilian oversight of the military maintains a cautious approach.
Why do wars continue?
  • Soldiers motivations can be as varied as the soldiers themselves. Patriotism, peer pressure, employment and eventually conscription have propelled potential soldiers to the recruiting office.
  • Leadership, social cohesion, the end goal and camaraderie have all been used to help explain the human capacity to endure.
  • Wars continue despite suffering because of internal logic and proliferation of nuclear weapons.
  • Dyer: "The internal logic of war has often caused it to grow far bigger in scale than the importance of the issue originally would justify”.
To What Extent Does Technology Determine the Course of Wars?
  • Warfare is influenced by available technology; material science allowing for smelting harder metals.
  • Stirrups increased effectiveness of mounted warriors; electro-mechanical computing advanced during WWII.
  • Offensive to defensive technology drives development (e.g., trench system led to tanks).
  • Improvement in delivery systems increases lethality.
  • Ethical implications of weaponized technology are significant (Fritz Haber, Robert Oppenheimer).
  • Tactics and strategy often lag behind technology; generals fight the last war as communication did not allow for the effective command.
Why do wars end?
  • Wars end because combatants reason it's no longer in their interest to continue.
  • The issue of perspective is one complicating factor. (e.g. average soldier at Verdun? German arms manufacturers?).
  • Legitimate authority to make the decision is also important
  • Decision also based on resources available.
  • Some combatants are willing to endure more suffering than their opponent.
  • Ho Chi Minh: "You can kill ten of my men for every one I kill of yours, yet even at those odds you will lose and I will win”.
  • In liberal democracies, war cannot continue without public support.
Types of wars

Definitions:

  • Total war: Commits all resources to the war effort, targeting anything used to further enemy aims.
  • Civil war: Armed disputes over governmental systems or composition, lacking political systems to address competing interests.
  • Revolutionary war: Struggle led by a grass roots movement to overthrow what it perceives to be an oppressive authority.
  • Guerrilla war: A tactic to be used when one is too weak to fight in a conventional war

Syllabus Overview and Assessment

  • IB history syllabus divided into prescribed subjects, world history topics, and regional depth studies.
  • Comparative world history course with common concepts: continuity, change, cause, consequence, perspective, and significance. The same themes include:
    • Long-term causes, short-term and immediate causes, combatants, technology and equipment, operations and effect
  • The Paper 2 examination has 24 questions from which candidates must pick two.

Tips for Writing a Good Essay

  • Understand the command terms of the question.
  • Unpack the question; pull out the key terms and be sure to address each in your response.
  • Plan each response and make sure you understand both of these and you will show the examiner that “the demands of the question are understood” – a phrase that is used in the markbands for Paper 2.
  • Include differing perspectives (not necessarily historiography) where applicable.
  • Develop a clear thesis statement that addresses the requirements of the question.
  • Relate each paragraph back to the thesis/question; avoid a narrative response.

Historiography

  • Historiography refers to the methodology of history and to the accumulated body of historical literature on any given topic. It encompasses schools of historical thought, such as the Annales School, as well as the differing views of historians.

Command Terms

  • Analyse: Break down in order to bring out the essential elements or structure.
  • Compare: Give an account of the similarities between two (or more) items or situations, referring to both (all) of them throughout.
  • Contrast: Give an account of the differences between two (or more) items or situations, referring to both (all) of them throughout.
  • Discuss: Offer a considered and balanced review that includes a range of arguments, factors, or hypotheses.
  • Evaluate: Make an appraisal by weighing up the strengths and limitations.
  • Examine: Consider an argument or concept in a way that uncovers the assumptions and interrelationships of the issue.
  • To what extent: Consider the merits or otherwise of an argument or concept.