This exam tips covers Exam Tips for Steps to War within Steps to War for GCSE History. Revise Steps to War in Conflict and Tension 1918-1939 for GCSE History with 8 exam-style questions and 15 flashcards. This topic appears regularly enough that it should still be part of a steady revision cycle. It is section 12 of 13 in this topic. Treat this as a marking guide for what examiners are looking for, not just a fact list.
💡 Exam Tips for Steps to War
🎯 Question Types for This Topic (Paper 1, Section C):
- Source utility — "How useful is Source A to a historian studying...?" (12 marks, ~20 minutes) — Evaluate using NOP: what is it (nature), who produced it and when (origin), why was it produced (purpose)? Use own knowledge to test accuracy. Do not just describe what the source says.
- Write an account — "Write an account of how [step] led to increasing tension" (8 marks, ~15 minutes) — Analytical narrative. Show HOW each step connected to the next and caused tension, not just what happened.
- How far do you agree that [specific step] was the main cause of war? (16 marks, ~30 minutes) — Extended essay. Note: this essay is 16 marks with NO separate SPaG allocation in Section C.
- This topic also provides evidence for appeasement and outbreak-of-war essays.
📈 How to Move Up Levels:
- Write an account — Level 1 (1–2 marks): "Hitler remilitarised the Rhineland and then invaded Poland." — Lists events with no causal connections.
- Write an account — Level 2 (3–5 marks): "The remilitarisation of the Rhineland in 1936 broke the Treaty of Versailles because Germany had agreed to keep the zone free of troops." — Accurate but doesn't explain why this mattered or what it led to.
- Write an account — Level 3 (6–7 marks): "The Rhineland (1936) was significant because France and Britain's failure to act convinced Hitler that appeasement would always work, which directly encouraged the Anschluss two years later." — Explains consequence and makes a connection between events.
- Write an account — Level 4 (8 marks): Sustained narrative analysing the CHAIN of escalation: "Each step was possible because of the previous one. The Rhineland proved appeasement worked, enabling Anschluss; Anschluss showed that even forbidden actions faced no consequences, enabling the Sudetenland demand; Munich showed Hitler he could take all of Czechoslovakia; the Nazi-Soviet Pact removed his last fear, making Poland inevitable."
- Essay — Level 4 (13–16 marks): Complex evaluation making a sustained argument about which step was most significant — with a justified conclusion comparing the Rhineland to the Nazi-Soviet Pact as turning points.
⚠️ Common Mistakes to Avoid:
- Listing events without connecting them. The steps only make sense as a chain of escalation — each one caused the next.
- Confusing dates. Rhineland was March 1936; Anschluss was March 1938; Sudetenland was September 1938; Prague was March 1939; Poland was September 1939.
- Treating all steps as equally significant. The Rhineland and the Nazi-Soviet Pact are the most important turning points — Rhineland proved appeasement worked; the Pact removed Hitler's last restraint.
- Forgetting that Czechoslovakia was not consulted at Munich. This is a key specific fact for essays about appeasement.
- In essay questions, only writing about what Hitler did. You also need to analyse why Britain and France let him — both are needed for Level 3+.
Quick Check: Why was March 1939 (Hitler taking the rest of Czechoslovakia) a turning point in British policy?
Until March 1939, Hitler's demands could be justified using self-determination (Rhineland was German territory, Austria was German-speaking, Sudetenland had 3 million ethnic Germans). Taking the rest of Czechoslovakia — whose people were Czech, not German — proved that Hitler's aims went beyond "correcting Versailles injustices" and into pure territorial conquest. This destroyed the logic of appeasement, and Britain issued guarantees to Poland shortly after.
Practice questions for Steps to War
In which year did Hitler remilitarise the Rhineland?
What was the result of the rigged plebiscite held after the Anschluss in March 1938?