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MAPS OF HISTORY · IB HISTORY · PAPER 3 · EUROPE

IB HISTORY · PAPER 3 · HIGHER LEVEL

Paper 3: Europe

Paper 3 is the Higher Level paper on one region of the world, studied in depth. This page gathers what our atlases hold for Europe: the sections our IB notes are tagged for, the chapters behind each, evidence to use and model essay plans, followed by the other atlases set in the region. In all, eleven atlases cover the region.

Which sections does your class study? Your teacher can tell you. The numbers here follow the provisional outline of the new course, which identifies sections by number until the final guide is published. We will add their titles then.

Map from The Soviet Union under Stalin, 1924–1953
THE SOVIET UNION UNDER STALIN, 1924–1953 · CHAPTER 3
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Section 13.5

One chapter in The Industrial Revolution carries IB notes for this section.

Section 13.7

One chapter in The Industrial Revolution carries IB notes for this section.

Section 13.8

Ten chapters in The Soviet Union under Stalin carry IB notes for this section.

When Stalin became General Secretary in April 1922, his colleagues regarded the job as administrative. Yet the Secretariat let him appoint local party secretaries, and those secretaries chose delegates to party congresses. Control over appointments could thus shape who voted at a congress.— The Soviet Union under Stalin, chapter 1: The Succession

Section 13.11

Two chapters in The Soviet Union under Stalin carry IB notes for this section.

Practice questions and essay plans

Paper 3 asks for depth, so these questions come from chapters tagged for the sections above. Each comes with the outline of a model plan; the full plans are in the chapters’ IB notes in the atlas.

PAPER 2 · THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION · CHAPTER 7

How did the role of the state in industrialisation before 1870 compare in Belgium and the German states?

THESIS

Belgium and the German states both relied more on the state than Britain had to start industry. Where private capital was scarce, governments helped build railways and markets. Their contributions differed: Belgium’s state planned and paid for a national railway network directly, while the decisive action in the German states was the Prussian-led customs union, with banks and private firms carrying more of the investment.

THE THREE POINTS

  1. Transport gave the state a part in industrial growth in both cases.

  2. In the German states, a customs union helped create a market for industry.

  3. Entrepreneurs, financiers and people from abroad also had a part in both cases.

The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 7 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: The Continent Follows.

PAPER 2 · THE SOVIET UNION UNDER STALIN · CHAPTER 1

How far did control of the party apparatus account for Stalin’s rise to power by 1929?

THESIS

The party apparatus was the decisive condition of Stalin’s rise because appointments could be translated into dependable majorities at congresses. That power became effective in a particular political situation: his rivals underestimated him, while “socialism in one country” appealed to a party tired of waiting for world revolution.

THE THREE POINTS

  1. Through the Secretariat, Stalin built a loyal following within the party before his rivals recognized what he was doing.

  2. Stalin’s rivals gave him opportunities because they feared Trotsky more than they feared him.

  3. At each stage Stalin also advanced the policy that held the greater appeal.

The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 1 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: The Succession.

PAPER 2 · THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION · CHAPTER 8

To what extent did science-based innovation explain Germany’s industrial rise after 1870?

THESIS

Science-based innovation explains much of Germany’s industrial rise, especially its dominance in chemicals and electricity. Yet steel and coal depended more on resources, markets, the basic steel process applied to Lorraine ore, banks and tariffs. Science helps explain the kind of industries Germany came to lead more than the full scale of its growth.

THE THREE POINTS

  1. Science-based firms led the new industries.

  2. Steel grew through resources and a new process.

  3. Institutions supplied capital for growth at scale.

The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 8 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: The Second Industrial Revolution.

PAPER 2 · THE SOVIET UNION UNDER STALIN · CHAPTER 12

Examine how Stalin’s authoritarian rule was challenged, and explain why those challenges failed during his lifetime.

THESIS

Stalin faced challenges from party oppositions, peasants, national movements in the borderlands, a communist state abroad and, at the end of his life, prisoners. Tito alone succeeded while Stalin lived. Elsewhere, overwhelming force and control over information and appointments defeated opposition; real change came only after Stalin’s death.

THE THREE POINTS

  1. Stalin defeated party opposition first through organisation, then through terror.

  2. The regime used mass force against social and national resistance.

  3. Tito succeeded beyond the reach of Soviet troops.

The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 12 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: Death and Judgement.

Paper 1 case studies set in this region

These chapters were written for a Paper 1 Focused Study, so their notes are tagged for Paper 1 and Paper 2. They are set in the region, and their evidence serves a regional essay just as well.

Norse world · Paper 1 · Climate and Innovation

In 2021, Margot Kuitems’s team found the cosmic-ray signal of 993 in tree rings from three pieces of metal-cut wood at L’Anse aux Meadows. They counted 29 rings from that signal to the bark, dating the felling to 1021.— Climate and Innovation, chapter 4: Greenland and Vinland

Soviet Union to Russian Federation · Paper 1 · Political and Economic Transitions

Soviet troops killed 21 demonstrators in Tbilisi in April 1989 and 14 civilians at the Vilnius television tower in January 1991. Both crackdowns stopped short, and demands for independence continued. Force could turn moderates toward separation without persuading them to remain in the Union.— Remaking the State, chapter 9: The Union Unravels

Europe 1945–1960 · Paper 1 · Conflict and Displacement

The Kielce pogrom of 4 July 1946 killed at least 42 Jews. Afterward, some 90,000 to 100,000 Jews left Poland through the Bricha network, increasing the population of camps in the American zone.— Uprooted, chapter 4: The DP Camps

More atlases set in this region

These atlases are filed under Europe for Higher Level. Their IB notes are in preparation; meanwhile every chapter carries the study layer (why it happened, the turning point, what it changed and a discussion question), and each atlas has its own IB History page.

The Age of Revolutions 1775 – 1848

Boston, the Bastille, and the barricades of 1848: the seventy years in which the modern political map — and the modern citizen — were invented.

A QUESTION TO ARGUE · CHAPTER 7

Why did victories over Spanish armies fail to end Napoleon’s war in Spain?

HOW WE WOULD ARGUE IT

Napoleon could defeat an army without finding a government able and willing to end the war. Juntas continued to claim authority, guerrillas made French communications costly to protect, and Wellington's army, supplied by sea, remained a threat in the field. Difficult terrain and poor forage increased the strain. Joseph's installation at Bayonne had also left his government without legitimacy among many Spaniards. Each victory dealt with part of the resistance; none removed all of it.

The chapter behind it: The Empire and Its Cracks.

The 12 chapters

The Russian Revolution 1855 – 1924 · HL (1855–1924)

Follow seventy years on one map: a Tsar frees the serfs and keeps his power; reaction and the railway follow. Then come two revolutions in one year, a civil war across eleven time zones, and the making of the first communist state.

A QUESTION TO ARGUE · CHAPTER 8

How did a stranded foreign legion turn a simmering conflict into a full civil war — and what does that say about contingency in history?

HOW WE WOULD ARGUE IT

The Legion supplied an army and a railway route; it did not supply all the reasons to fight. Members of the dispersed Assembly, people resisting grain requisitioning, and officers and Cossacks in revolt already opposed the Bolsheviks. What they lacked was a disciplined force holding territory along an axis that could connect local conflicts. Without the Legion, their risings might have remained separate and been crushed piecemeal. With it, opponents gained Siberia, the gold and a rival government. Conditions made civil war likely, while an unintended accident helped make it actual and shaped where and when it spread. Both the underlying conflict and the chance event matter.

The chapter behind it: The Ring of Fire.

The 14 chapters

The First World War 1871 – 1923 · HL (1871–1923)

Europe split into two armed blocs, and a Balkan quarrel became a world war. Why did this happen, and why did the map drawn in 1919–1923 settle so little? Follow the war and its whole European arc on one living map.

A QUESTION TO ARGUE · CHAPTER 8

Can a moral distinction be drawn between the British blockade and Germany’s submarine campaign?

HOW WE WOULD ARGUE IT

The difference in method matters. Britain generally stopped and diverted ships; unrestricted German attacks sank them without warning, immediately endangering passengers and crews. Britain's surface fleet made its method possible, while submarines faced different dangers when stopping a vessel. Both governments sought to weaken the enemy's war economy knowing civilians would suffer, and both faced disputes over maritime law. A photograph can show drowned passengers more readily than a statistic can show deaths from hunger, but visibility does not determine moral weight. A judgment must weigh the methods, military purposes, foreseeable suffering and alternatives in each campaign. The slow harm of economic pressure deserves attention alongside the sudden loss of a ship.

The chapter behind it: The Slowest Weapon.

The 15 chapters

The Road to War 1931 – 1941

Manchuria, Abyssinia, the Rhineland, Munich: a decade of tests that went unanswered, traced step by step as the world order gives way.

A QUESTION TO ARGUE · CHAPTER 7

Was Munich a betrayal, a blunder, or the best of the bad options available to Chamberlain in September 1938?

HOW WE WOULD ARGUE IT

The three verdicts bring different parts of the decision into focus. Betrayal describes what happened to Czechoslovakia: its friends decided to dismember a functioning democracy without consulting it. Blunder asks what the bargain did to the military balance. Britain gained time for radar and fighters, while Germany gained Czech arms and a stronger position and a fortified ally was weakened. The officers considering a German coup were never tested. Best-of-bad-options takes Chamberlain’s uncertainty seriously. Allies were unready, the Dominions reluctant, and the public wanted peace; he believed Hitler’s demands might be limited. That belief explains the decision, but it also exposes its cost. Czechoslovakia paid before Hitler’s intentions were established, and the coalition later faced a stronger Germany.

The chapter behind it: Anschluss and Munich: Appeasement at Full Stretch.

The 12 chapters

The Second World War 1936 – 1945

Ten years of war on one living map: fifteen guided chapters across two theaters, twenty-two territorial states, sixty-five battles and memory sites, and a map quiz at the end of it.

A QUESTION TO ARGUE · CHAPTER 8

Was the American victory at Midway a matter of luck or calculated risk?

HOW WE WOULD ARGUE IT

Both. Codebreaking and Nimitz’s deployment put American carriers in position; navigation, timing and disruption of Japanese defenses helped open the way for the dive-bombers. Preparation made that opportunity usable, without determining every event. Without intelligence there was no ambush, and different timing might have produced a different result.

The chapter behind it: Midway: Intelligence, Risk, and a Turning Point.

The 15 chapters

The Cold War 1945 – 1991

Blocs, walls and proxy wars: how forty-six years of armed peace nearly ended everything, several times — and then ended quietly, in a single autumn.

A QUESTION TO ARGUE · CHAPTER 7

Could the United States have won in Vietnam — and what would “winning” have had to mean?

HOW WE WOULD ARGUE IT

The answer depends on the outcome called victory. Mining Haiphong in 1965 or less restricted bombing might have imposed higher costs on Hanoi. Escalation also risked Chinese intervention, a danger American leaders had reason to fear after Korea: by 1967 Beijing had 170,000 support troops in North Vietnam. Washington’s political goal was a durable, independent non-communist South. More bombing could not itself give that state legitimacy or persuade its citizens to defend it. Most historians consequently judge the war unwinnable at an acceptable cost as defined. The definition deserves scrutiny too, because the military result Washington sought mattered as victory only if it secured that chosen political settlement.

The chapter behind it: Vietnam.

The 12 chapters

Revision tools

Test yourself on every atlas set in the region. Each atlas ends with a map quiz that asks you to find places and moments on the map itself; the quick quiz and the printable study guide are free pages on this site.

Maps of History is independent and is not affiliated with or endorsed by the International Baccalaureate Organization. IB course names describe alignment only; paper, theme and section names follow the new course outline and may change when the final guide is published.

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