Educerie · IB Diploma · History
Paper 1 — Source analysis practice
Paper 1 style · 20 marks · 45 minutes
Note on the real paper. IB Paper 1 is 24 marks in 60 minutes, with questions worth 3, 2, 4, 6 and 9. This practice keeps the same five question types and the same order, but shortens question 4 to 5 marks so the test fits Educerie's standard 20-mark topic test. When you sit the real paper, question 4 is worth 9 marks and deserves 25 minutes — more than questions 1 to 3 combined.
About the sources. These are constructed practice sources written by Educerie in the style of Paper 1 sources, grounded in the documented record of the Abyssinia crisis. They are not archival documents and must not be quoted as such.
Source A — Constructed practice source: extract from a speech by the Emperor of Abyssinia to the Assembly of the League of Nations, June 1936.
I ask the fifty-two nations who gave the Ethiopian people a promise to help them in their resistance to the aggressor: what are they willing to do for Ethiopia? Outside the Kingdom of God there is no nation which is higher than any other. It is international morality that is at stake, and not an article of the Covenant. God and history will remember your judgement.
Source B — Constructed practice source: extract from a private memorandum by a British Foreign Office official, October 1935.
We must weigh what is desirable against what is possible. Effective sanctions would require the closure of the Suez Canal and an oil embargo. Either would risk war with Italy in the Mediterranean at a moment when our fleet is not adequate to it, and would drive Rome into the arms of Berlin. The Abyssinian case is just; that does not make its defence prudent.
Source C — Constructed practice source: a French political cartoon, 1936. A figure labelled "COLLECTIVE SECURITY" lies flat on the ground. Standing over it, a soldier labelled "ITALY" wipes his boots. To one side, two well-dressed men labelled "BRITAIN" and "FRANCE" look pointedly in the opposite direction, one consulting a pocket watch.
Source D — Constructed practice source: extract from a work by a historian, published 1998.
The sanctions imposed in 1935 were carefully designed to be insufficient. Oil, the one commodity whose denial might have halted the Italian advance, was excluded, and the Suez Canal remained open throughout. The result was the worst of both outcomes: enough coercion to make Mussolini an enemy, too little to make him a defeated one. The League did not fail for want of a mechanism. It failed because its principal members declined to use the mechanism they had.
1. (a) What, according to Source A, is at stake in the League's decision? [3]
(b) What is the message of Source C? [2]
2. With reference to its origin, purpose and content, analyse the value and limitations of Source B for historians studying the response of the League of Nations to the Abyssinia crisis. [4]
3. Compare and contrast what Sources B and D reveal about why the League's response was limited. [6]
4. Using the sources and your own knowledge, evaluate the claim that the League of Nations failed in Abyssinia because of the choices of its leading members rather than because of its own structure. [5]
Total: 20 marks
Command terms in this test. Question 3 says compare and contrast, which requires both similarities and differences, written as a linked comparison rather than two separate accounts. Question 4 says evaluate, and requires at least two sources cited by letter plus your own specific knowledge — dates, names, figures the sources do not supply.
Educerie · original questions written against the published IB Diploma Programme structure for History Paper 1, first assessment 2017. All four sources are constructed by Educerie for practice and are not archival documents; the historical events they describe are real. Last reviewed 5 September 2026.