International Relations 1945-1990

Outstanding GCSE lessons on International relations post-45

This section, dominated by the Cold War, focuses mainly on teaching its origins, its main crises and the reason why it came to an end. With the recent ‘strengthening’ of GCSE specifications many schools who had hitherto taught Inter-war International Relations alongside Germany 1918-39, now find themselves having to teach the post-45 period at short notice.

For that reason, we have been adding new smart tasks on the Marshall Plan, and ‘Who started the Korean War? with a lesson on the ending of the Cold War coming soon.

Vietnam War – Why did Johnson really escalate the war in Vietnam?

If Johnson claimed that he wanted peace when he became president, why did he escalate the war in Vietnam and drop more bombs there than were dropped in the whole of World War Two? Following a brief introduction focusing on troop numbers and the Gulf of...

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SMART TASK Key Stage 4: Stalin and the Korean War: can you interpret the cartoon?

This Smart task uses a Punch cartoon as part of a lesson on the Korean War.  It carefully steers students through several thinking processes.  To start with they have to raise good historical questions. They then annotate a copy using the guidelines provided.  When you...

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SMART TASK: Why did Communism end when it did in Eastern Europe?

Prior to writing an answer to this question students will need to organise their thinking. These factor cards might help. Ask students to think of different ways in which to arrange the cards to create a pattern that might help shape their answer to the question....

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Teaching international relations 1945-1990

This section, dominated by the Cold War focuses mainly on teaching its origins, its main crises and the reason why it came to an end.  With the recent 'strengthening' of GCSE specifications many schools who had hitherto taught Inter-war International Relations alongside Germany 1918-39, now...

Read more

Who started the Korean War? Smart Task

In this short starter smart task students are given two contradictory accounts of the start of the Korean War, both emanating from Korea. But which account do they think is more plausible and which extract goes with which book? Students look for loaded language and...

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The Marshall Plan: How should we interpret it? Just how philanthropic was it?

The activities in this very varied lesson ask students to raise questions, place sources on a continuum, add analysis to a short descriptive account and quickly tweet a caption to three contemporary cartoons.

Starter

Show slide 1 which is a German poster from 1949 advertising an exhibition...

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The end of the Cold War for new GCSE history: taking a fresh look

In a recent article in Teaching History (TH 164, September 2016) David Reynolds offers some clear insights into this period which might help to clarify issues for your GCSE students. Firstly , he identifies three distinct , but overlapping, phases within the period 1989-1991: Phase 1 (second...

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SMART TASK Russian take-over of Eastern Europe, 1946-9: Interpreting a political cartoon.

This simple activity encourages students to look at all the clues the cartoon provides, one at a time.  As they work through them students discuss the nature of irony and then attempt to date the cartoon using their contextual knowledge.  This proves a really good...

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SMART TASK Key Stage 4 Deciphering a Cold War cartoon, using the slow reveal technique.

The interactive PowerPoint presentation of the famous Stalin’ The Birdwatcher’ cartoon encourages students to add layers of meaning as more and more of the cartoon is revealed. They then have to guess the date from the internal clues, before seeing a detailed animated version. Cartoon reproduced...

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SMART TASK Key Stage 4: The Cuban Missile Crisis. Who was the real winner, Kennedy or Khrushchev?

Coming at the end of a study of the Cuban Missile crisis, students have to consider the ways in which the crisis might have been viewed by the USA and the Soviet Union. To stimulate discussion they are shown a short extract from Khrushchev’s motives...

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Who was more responsible for increasing Cold War tension between 1945 and 1949, the USA or the USSR?

This lesson challenges students to prepare a court case against both countries. The case against the USA will be made by one half of the class. That against the USSR will be made by the other half containing the more able students. Within their teams...

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Why did the US lose the war in Vietnam? A piece of cake?

In this lesson students focus on moving their understanding of the reasons for US defeat from simply listing and grouping, to prioritizing and linking.  They are shown a variety of revision guide models which they have to evaluate, before coming up with one of their...

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Smart Task: How close to World War Three did the world come in the 65 years after World War Two?

Helping pupils to develop overviews of different timescales is central to the Key Stage 3 curriculum.  When so few carry on post-14 to study the 20th century (probably only 1 in 5 pupils), it is essential that we help them to gain a clearer understanding...

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SMART TASK: 10 features of the Cold War but can you spot them?

Students often learn about the Cold War in chronological order. This activity offers them an opportunity to explore 10 aspects of the Cold War. You could make this into a Blockbuster game as used on other websites such as www.burntcakes.com You could also make your own...

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