Course+Outline

The British International School Shanghai History IGCSE syllabus looks at some of the major international issues of the twentieth century (core content), as well as covering the history of particular regions in more depth (depth studies). The emphasis is on both historical knowledge and on the skills required for historical research. Students learn about the nature of cause and effect, continuity and change, similarity and difference and find out how to use and understand historical evidence as part of their studies. IGCSE History will stimulate any student already interested in the past, providing a basis for further study, and also encouraging a lifelong interest in the subject. The British International School Shanghai IGCSE course does not contain a coursework option.


 * CORE CONTENT:**

The peace treaties of 1919-23: the roles of individuals such as Wilson, Clemenceau and Lloyd George in the peacemaking process, the impact of the treaties on the defeated countries, contemporary opinions about the treaties.
 * 20th CENTURY INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS**

The League of Nations: strengths and weaknesses in its structure and organisation, successes and failures in peacekeeping during the 1920s, the impact of the World Depression on the work of the League after 1929, the failures of the League in the 1930s, including Manchuria and Abyssinia.
 * THE LEAGUE OF NATIONS**

The origins of the Cold War: the 1945 summit conferences and the breakdown of the USA-USSR alliance in 1945-6; Soviet expansion into Eastern Europe to 1948, and American reactions to it; occupation of Germany and the Berlin Blockade.
 * THE COLD WAR**

The expansion of the US economy during the 1920s: mass production in the car and consumer durables industries, the fortunes of older industries, the development of credit and hire purchase, the decline of agriculture. Weaknesses in the economy by the late 1920s. Society in the 1920s: the 'Roaring Twenties', film and other media, prohibition and gangsterism, race relations, discrimination against black Americans, the Ku Klux Klan, the changing roles of women. The Wall Street Crash and its financial, economic and social effects. The reaction of President Hoover to the Crash. The Presidential election of 1932: Hoover's and Roosevelt's programmes.
 * DEPTH STUDY:**
 * USA 1919-1941**

Roosevelt's inauguration and the 'Hundred Days'. The New Deal legislation, the 'alphabetic agencies' and their work, and the economic and social changes they caused. Opposition to the New Deal: the Republicans, the rich, business interests, the Supreme Court, radical critics like Huey Long. The strengths and weaknesses of the New Deal programme in dealing with unemployment and the Depression.