What the exam asks
In Section I, Part A (Multiple Choice) and Part B (SAQ 1), you must master Skill 3 (Claims and Evidence in Sources) alongside the reasoning processes of causation and comparison.
Specifically, exam questions will ask you to:
- Compare the political, economic, social, and cultural effects of the Cold War in the Eastern and Western Hemispheres.
- Explain how both communist states and newly independent nations responded to 20th-century economic challenges.
- Identify a historian’s claim in a secondary source, compare the arguments of two historians, and explain how specific historical evidence supports, modifies, or refutes those arguments.
Core ideas
Comparing Cold War Effects Across Hemispheres
While the United States and the Soviet Union avoided direct nuclear conflict, their ideological rivalry reshaped societies globally. The effects shared major similarities across hemispheres, though the contexts differed (decolonization in much of Asia and Africa vs. older republics in Latin America facing U.S. hegemony, or dominance).
| Dimension | Eastern Hemisphere (Europe, Asia, Africa) | Western Hemisphere (Americas) | Extent of Similarity |
|---|---|---|---|
| Political (GOV) | Proxy wars (Korea, Vietnam, Afghanistan, Angola); formal military blocs (NATO, Warsaw Pact); rise of the Non-Aligned Movement (Bandung Conference, 1955). | U.S.-backed coups and interventions (Guatemala 1954, Chile 1973, Nicaragua); Cuban Revolution (1959) and the 1962 Missile Crisis; Organization of American States (OAS). | High: Both saw superpower intervention topple or prop up regimes and turn local conflicts into proxy wars. Difference: The formal alliance blocs (NATO and the Warsaw Pact) were centered on Europe, whereas the U.S. enforced hemispheric dominance across Latin America. |
| Economic (ECN) | Marshall Plan vs. COMECON; state-directed communism (Five-Year Plans, Great Leap Forward); socialist or mixed economies in postcolonial states (e.g., Tanzania, India). | U.S. economic imperialism (e.g., United Fruit Company); Cuba’s nationalization and reliance on Soviet subsidies; state-led Import Substitution Industrialization (ISI) in Brazil and Mexico. | Moderate to High: States in both hemispheres debated free-market capitalism vs. state-led redistribution, often accepting foreign aid with ideological strings attached. |
| Social & Cultural (SIO / CDI) | Suppression of dissent (Soviet-led invasion ending the Prague Spring reforms, 1968); nuclear anxiety; anti-colonial and anti-war student protests (1968). | Liberation theology in Latin America; Civil Rights and anti-Vietnam War movements in the U.S.; state terror and “dirty wars” targeting leftists. | High: Ideological polarization reshaped daily life, sparking youth and social justice movements that challenged established power structures in both hemispheres. |
State Responses to 20th-Century Economic Challenges
Throughout the 20th century, states responded to economic crises, wartime devastation, and postcolonial dependency in distinct ways:
- Communist Command Economies: The USSR (Stalin’s Five-Year Plans, collectivization) and China (Mao’s Great Leap Forward) abolished private property to force rapid industrialization, often causing severe famine and economic stagnation. Later, Deng Xiaoping’s reforms (1978) introduced market mechanisms in China while keeping Communist Party rule.
- Postcolonial State Intervention: Newly independent states in Asia and Africa (such as Nasser’s Egypt, Nkrumah’s Ghana, and Nehru’s India) frequently nationalized key industries (like the Suez Canal), built state-run infrastructure, and used high tariffs to break neocolonial dependency.
- Western Welfare States and Neoliberalism: Western capitalist democracies expanded social welfare programs after 1945, before shifting toward free-market neoliberalism (deregulation, privatization) in the 1980s, a model also imposed on indebted Latin American and African nations.