Unit 2: Option C: Conflict and Change in 19th and 20th Century Britain
The Experience of Warfare in Britain: Crimea, Boer and the First World War; 1854-1929
Part a) questions
Crimean War:
January 2009 question
How far do Sources 2 and 3 challenge the view given in Source 1 that the officers commanding the British Army in the
Crimean War were unfit for the position?
June 2010 question
How far do Sources 2 and 3 challenge the impression given of Lord Raglan in Source 1?
January 2011 question
How far do Sources 1 and 2 challenge the impression of the Charge of the Light Brigade given in Source 3?
May 2011 question
How far do the sources suggest that Captain Nolan was to blame for the disastrous charge of the Light Brigade at
Balaclava?
January 2013 question
How far do the sources suggest that Mary Seacole ‘was a great help to men in the Crimea’?
Boer War:
May 2012 question
How far do Sources 1 and 2 challenge the reasons for Britain’s involvement in Boer War given in Source 3?
WWI - The Western Front:
June 2009 question
How far does Source 3 challenge the impression given in Sources 1 and 2 that the Battle of the Somme had achieved
worthwhile objectives?
January 2012 question
How far do sources 1 and 2 challenge the assessment of Field Marshal Sir Douglas Haig given in Source 3?
WWI – The Home Front:
January 2010 question
How far do the sources suggest that, despite high casualty rates, the British public supported the continuance of the First
World War?
May 2013 question
How far do the sources suggest that, in the years 1914-18, the British public gave its full backing to the war effort?
Part b) questions
Crimean War:
January 2010 question
Do you agree with the view that it was largely as a result of the work of Florence Nightingale that the medical care for
British soldiers improved during the Crimean War?
January 2012 question
Do you agree with the view that, as a result of the Crimean War, Lord Cardigan ‘became a national hero’ (Source 6, line
32)?
May 2012 question
Do you agree with the view that, in terms of reform, the ‘lessons of the Crimean War were not learned’ (Source 5, line
28)?
May 2013 question
Do you agree with the view that the work of William Howard Russell and Roger Fenton presented the British public with a
realistic portrayal of the Crimean War?
Use Sources 4 and 5 and use your own knowledge.
Do you agree with the view that Mary Seacole, and not Florence Nightingale, was the real ‘angel of mercy’ during the
Crimean War?
Use Sources 4 and 5 and use your own knowledge.
Do you agree with the view, expressed in Source 5, that Mary Seacole was treated differently from Florence Nightingale
because she was black?
Use Sources 4, 5 and 6 and use your own knowledge.
Do you agree with the view, expressed in Source 6, that ‘the elite were simply unable to meet the challenges of modern
warfare and society’?
Boer War:
January 2009 question
Do you agree with the view that popular enthusiasm for the Empire declined as a result of the Second Boer War?
June 2009 question
Do you agree with the view suggested in Source 5 that the main factor preventing the press from publishing ‘bad news’
during the Boer War was censorship by the military authorities?
January 2010 question
Do you agree with the view presented in Source 9 that the critics of the Second Boer War ‘were wrong to say that the
concentration camps were part of the deliberate use of the ‘methods of barbarism’?
June 2010 question
Do you agree with the view that the Second Boer War advanced the cause of social reform in Britain?
January 2011 question
Do you agree with the view that the Second Boer War resulted in imperialism being ‘discredited’?
January 2013 question
Do you agree with the view that the British public firmly supported the country’s involvement in the Boer W ar in the years
1899-1902?
May 2014 question
Do you agree with the view that the British public’s enthusiasm for the Empire increased during the Second Boer War?
Use Sources 4, 5 and 6 and your own knowledge.
Do you agree with the suggestion of Source 4 that there was overwhelming support for the Boer War from 1899 to 1902?
Use Sources 4, 5 and 6 and your own knowledge.
Do you agree with the opinion that the Boer War acted as a spur to much needed reform in Britain?
WWI - The Western Front:
January 2009 question
Do you agree with the view that during the First World War morale in the British Army remained high?
June 2010 question
Do you agree with the view that the Great War resulted in a ‘revolution in the art of warfare for the British Army’ (Source
8, line 46)?
January 2011 question
Do you agree with the view that conscientious objectors were treated fairly by the authorities during the First World War?
May 2011 question
Do you agree with the view that there was ‘genuine achievement’ by the British army at the Third Battle of Ypres
(Passchendaele) (Source 6, line 32)?
May 2012 question
Do you agree with the view that there were significant advances in the medical care received by the British Army during
the First World War?
January 2013 question
Do you agree with the view that the British soldier’s life in the trenches of the Western Front during the First World War
was one of unbroken horror?
May 2013 question
Do you agree with the view that the ‘battle of the Somme was a defeat’ for the British (Source 8, line 44)?
Use Sources 7, 8 and 9 and your own knowledge.
How far do you agree with the opinion that the Battle of the Somme in 1916 was a total disaster for Britain and her army
in France?
Use Sources 4, 5 and 6 and your own knowledge.
How far do you agree that the British Army was remarkably successful between August and November 1918?
Use Sources 7, 8 and 9 and your own knowledge.
Do you agree that, on the whole, the soldiers in the British Army were well looked after and treated fairly by the military
authorities?
Use Sources 7 and 8 your own knowledge.
Do you agree with the view that, as far as strategy and tactics were concerned, Haig and his generals were ‘pretty good’
(Source 7)?
WWI – The Home Front:
June 2009 question
Do you agree with the view that ‘the war changed very little for women’?
May 2011 question
Do you agree with the view that during the First World War British workers patriotically responded to the nation’s needs?
January 2012 question
Do you agree with the view that, during the First World War, British propaganda contributed little to the war effort on the
Home Front?
May 2014 question
Do you agree with the view that the government control of the Home Front during the First World War was effective?
Use Sources 7, 8 and 9 and your own knowledge.
Do you agree with the view, expressed in Source 7, that ‘British propaganda during the war was characterised by terrible
chaos and lack of direction’?
Use Sources 7, 8 and 9 and your own knowledge.
Do you agree with the view that people in the workplace demonstrated ‘simple patriotism’ throughout the war?