MAPS OF HISTORY · IB HISTORY · UPROOTED
IB HISTORY · 1945 – 1990 · 12 CHAPTERS
IB History: Refugees in Europe and Indochina — notes, maps and essay plans
After 1945 Europe’s borders moved and millions were made to follow them; after 1975 three million people fled Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos. Two maps, one question: what drove people out, and who took them in?
This page gathers the atlas’s IB notes: where each of its 12 chapters fits the syllabus, the concepts and evidence it supports, practice questions with model essay plans, primary sources, and starting points for the Internal Assessment.
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Where it fits the course
Every chapter’s IB notes name the parts of the course it serves. Across the atlas they add up to this: It is the paired atlas for the Paper 1 Focused Study Conflict and Displacement, whose page holds a free source-question set.
- Paper 1 · Conflict and Displacement · 12 CHAPTERS
- Paper 2 · Conflict · 12 CHAPTERS
- Paper 3 · Asia and Oceania, section 12.11 · 4 CHAPTERS
- Old course · World history topic 11: Causes and effects of 20th-century wars · 2 CHAPTERS
- Old course · World history topic 12: The Cold War: superpower tensions and rivalries (20th century) · 3 CHAPTERS
Chapter by chapter
Across its 12 chapters, the atlas holds 72 points of evidence and 40 primary sources. Here you can read all the evidence for chapters 1 and 2. For each later chapter there is one point and the practice question; the rest is in the atlas. Select a chapter title to open its free page and read the full explanation.
1. Europe Uprooted
CHAPTER 1 · MAY 1945 · CONCEPTS: CAUSATION, CONSEQUENCE
EVIDENCE TO USE · ALL 6 POINTS (A FREE CHAPTER)
- By August 1944, about 7.6 million foreign civilians and prisoners of war were working in the Reich, making up more than a quarter of its labor force. When Germany was defeated, millions found themselves far from home at the same time.
- Nazi Germany had already used population movements to reshape territory. It expelled about 920,000 Poles from the western Polish lands annexed in 1939 and, by 1941, had settled more than 300,000 ethnic Germans there.
- At Yalta in February 1945, Roosevelt, Churchill and Stalin agreed that Poland’s eastern border would run roughly along the Curzon Line. They also agreed to return each other’s liberated citizens. These decisions helped turn the end of the war into a new, planned movement of people.
- Nearly six million displaced persons had been repatriated from Germany’s western zones by the end of September 1945. Yet more than a million could not or would not go home; they became the “last million” of the camps.
- The Allied category of “displaced person” applied to citizens of Allied states and excluded Germans. Millions of German civilians fleeing west in early 1945 thus received no international aid and became the defeated state’s own responsibility.
- How many Europeans had been uprooted by May 1945? Estimates range from about seven to eight million DPs on German soil to more than 40 million displaced Europeans. The difference reflects both who counted and which groups they included.
2. The Expulsions of Germans
CHAPTER 2 · 1945–1950 · CONCEPTS: CAUSATION, PERSPECTIVES, SIGNIFICANCE
EVIDENCE TO USE · ALL 6 POINTS (A FREE CHAPTER)
- At Potsdam, the great powers accepted the transfer of Germans from Poland, Czechoslovakia and Hungary. Section XIII of the agreement of 2 August 1945 said that it “will have to be undertaken” and asked that it be “orderly and humane”.
- Acceptance became an administrative plan on 20 November 1945. The Allied Control Council provided for the transfer of 6.65 million Germans, including 3.5 million from Poland and 2.5 million from Czechoslovakia, and allocated them among the occupation zones.
- The Allies did not start the removals. In the “wild expulsions” of May–August 1945, before Potsdam, an estimated 700,000 to 800,000 Germans were driven from Czechoslovakia. Among them were about 20,000 Brno residents marched toward Austria.
- British support for mass transfer was already evident before the war ended. On 15 December 1944 Churchill told the House of Commons that expulsion was the most “satisfactory and lasting” method and that “a clean sweep will be made”.
- The people expelled had to find a place in the two German states. The 1950 West German census counted 7.9 million expellees, or 16.5 percent of the population; East Germany held about 4.3 million.
- The death estimates differ substantially, and the methods and periods counted matter. Overmans and Haar put documented deaths at around 500,000 to 600,000, while a 1958 West German population calculation produced 2.2 million losses. For Czechoslovakia, the Czech–German historians’ commission estimated 15,000 to 30,000 deaths.
3. Borders Move, People Follow
CHAPTER 3 · 1944–1950 · CONCEPTS: CAUSATION, CONSEQUENCE, CONTINUITY
EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6
- The Lublin agreements of 9 and 22 September 1944 arranged an exchange across Poland’s eastern border: about 1.2 to 1.5 million Poles and Polish Jews moved from the Soviet republics to Poland, while about 482,000 Ukrainians went the other way. The exchange was voluntary on paper, but coercion played a part in practice.
Practice question: Compare and contrast the causes, methods and consequences of population transfers in Poland and Finland between 1944 and 1950.
5 more points of evidence, 3 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 3 in the atlas.
4. The DP Camps
CHAPTER 4 · 1945–1947 · CONCEPTS: CHANGE, PERSPECTIVES, SIGNIFICANCE
EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6
- By early 1946 the Soviet Union had recovered about 5.35 million citizens from across Europe, some by force under the Yalta accords. At Dachau on 19 January 1946, eleven of 399 former Soviet soldiers killed themselves rather than board a train east.
Practice question: Why did repatriation resolve many displaced persons’ cases between 1945 and 1947, while leaving others unresolved?
5 more points of evidence, 3 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 4 in the atlas.
5. From Relief to Rights
CHAPTER 5 · 1947–1952 · CONCEPTS: CHANGE, SIGNIFICANCE, PERSPECTIVES
EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6
- Relief gave way to resettlement on a large scale. Between July 1947 and December 1951 the International Refugee Organization (IRO) resettled 1,038,750 people, including 328,851 in the United States, 182,159 in Australia, 132,109 in Israel and 123,479 in Canada.
Practice question: To what extent did the Cold War shape the 1951 Refugee Convention?
5 more points of evidence, 4 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 5 in the atlas.
6. Integration and the Cold War
CHAPTER 6 · 1950–1961 · CONCEPTS: CHANGE, CONSEQUENCE, CONTINUITY
EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6
- West Germans whose property had survived the war were required by the Equalisation of Burdens law of 14 August 1952 to pay half its assessed 1948 value over thirty years into a fund for expellees. By 1986, the fund had paid out more than 130 billion marks.
Practice question: Discuss why states and international organizations responded so rapidly to Hungarian refugees in 1956.
5 more points of evidence, 4 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 6 in the atlas.
7. Communist Victory
CHAPTER 7 · 1975 · CONCEPTS: CAUSATION, CONSEQUENCE
EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6
- The Geneva agreements of July 1954 divided Vietnam. More than a million people moved south, about 800,000 of them Catholics; the US Navy carried nearly 310,000. Their movement set a precedent for flight after a communist victory.
Practice question: Compare and contrast the causes and forms of displacement in Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos in 1975.
5 more points of evidence, 3 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 7 in the atlas.
8. Re-education and Flight
CHAPTER 8 · 1975–1978 · CONCEPTS: CAUSATION, PERSPECTIVES
EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6
- How many people passed through Vietnam’s re-education camps? UNHCR put the number at more than a million. Gareth Porter and James Roberts estimated 200,000 to 300,000 long-term detainees in 1988. The estimates concern different groups, and Hanoi’s secrecy leaves the numbers uncertain.
Practice question: To what extent did Vietnamese government policy cause the Hoa exodus of 1978–1979?
5 more points of evidence, 2 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 8 in the atlas.
9. The Boat People
CHAPTER 9 · 1978–1979 · CONCEPTS: CAUSATION, PERSPECTIVES, CONSEQUENCE
EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6
- About 88,000 people arrived by boat in neighboring countries in 1978; in 1979 the number rose to about 207,000. At the peak in May and June 1979, between 54,000 and 59,000 landed in a single month.
Practice question: Evaluate why Southeast Asian first-asylum states restricted asylum in 1979.
5 more points of evidence, 3 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 9 in the atlas.
10. Geneva and the US Response
CHAPTER 10 · 1979–1982 · CONCEPTS: CHANGE, CONSEQUENCE, SIGNIFICANCE
EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6
- At the Geneva meeting on 20–21 July 1979, 65 governments raised their resettlement pledges from about 125,000 to 260,000 places and promised about $160 million. Indonesia and the Philippines also offered sites for processing centers.
Practice question: To what extent did the Geneva meeting of July 1979 resolve the Indochinese refugee crisis?
5 more points of evidence, 4 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 10 in the atlas.
11. Camps, Screening and the CPA
CHAPTER 11 · 1980–1990 · CONCEPTS: CHANGE, CONTINUITY, PERSPECTIVES
EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6
- In January 1981 Thailand introduced “humane deterrence”: new boat arrivals were held in austere camps such as Na Pho and denied access to resettlement. From 2 July 1982 Hong Kong detained every arrival in closed camps.
Practice question: Examine why policy in Southeast Asia shifted from resettlement toward screening and return during the 1980s.
5 more points of evidence, 3 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 11 in the atlas.
12. Two Crises Compared
EPILOGUE · 1945–1990 · CONCEPTS: CHANGE, CONTINUITY, SIGNIFICANCE
EVIDENCE TO USE · 1 OF 6
- An estimated 12 to 14 million Germans fled or were expelled during and after the war. The two German states received millions of them as citizens. Between 1975 and 1995, more than three million people left Indochina; about 2.5 million were resettled abroad.
Practice question: Compare and contrast how states and international organizations responded to displacement in Europe in 1945–1960 and Indochina in 1975–1990.
5 more points of evidence, 4 primary sources and the model plan for this question are in the IB notes of chapter 12 in the atlas.
Practice questions and essay plans
Each chapter closes with a practice question and a model plan. The plan gives a thesis, three points with evidence and a link back to the question, a counter-argument and a judgement. Chapter 1’s plan appears here in full. The other plans are outlined here and given in full in the atlas.
PAPER 2 · UPROOTED · CHAPTER 1
Examine why the end of the Second World War in Europe led to mass displacement.
Mass displacement at the war’s end had several connected causes. Nazi labor and population policies had already uprooted millions; the collapse of the eastern front sent German civilians fleeing; and Allied decisions at Yalta shaped further movements across borders. The end of fighting brought returns as well as new removals, some planned before surrender.
Nazi policy had uprooted millions before Germany surrendered.
EVIDENCEBy August 1944, about 7.6 million foreign workers and prisoners were working in the Reich. Around 920,000 Poles had also been expelled from annexed lands.
LINKDefeat freed people who had been drawn into the German war economy, leaving many far from home at once. Herbert’s research shows that foreign labor was integral to that economy, rather than a measure improvised at the end.
As the eastern front collapsed, German civilians began a second mass movement west.
EVIDENCEFrom January 1945, millions fled East Prussia and Silesia. Many left late, after officials including Erich Koch had forbidden evacuation.
LINKThis flight emptied districts before postwar expulsions began. The distinction matters when explaining the movements and counting German losses or deaths.
Allied wartime agreements gave further population movements a place in the peace.
EVIDENCEAt Yalta in February 1945, the leaders agreed on a Polish eastern border roughly along the Curzon Line and on returning each other’s liberated citizens, including Soviet citizens to be repatriated by Britain and the United States.
LINKBorder change and repatriation were political decisions made before surrender. Putting them into effect helped determine where people could live and made further displacement deliberate policy.
Much of the emergency existed before peace terms took effect. Nazi occupation and forced labor had already displaced millions, and the fighting sent German civilians west. Germans who fled in January 1945, for example, were not fleeing because of an Allied border decision.
The war created the immediate emergency, while decisions made for the peace shaped how long displacement continued and how far it extended. Nearly six million DPs returned within months, yet border changes and transfers agreed by the victors uprooted far larger numbers for years. Allied and national decisions therefore help explain why mass displacement outlasted the fighting.
Read the chapter behind this plan: Europe Uprooted.
PAPER 2 · UPROOTED · CHAPTER 3
Compare and contrast the causes, methods and consequences of population transfers in Poland and Finland between 1944 and 1950.
Soviet territorial gains displaced people in both countries, and both transfers aimed at ethnically uniform states. What happened next differed: Finland used democratic law to resettle citizens leaving Karelia, while Poland’s communist state combined exchanges and expulsions with forced internal deportation. Choice and coercion appeared in both cases, though in different forms.
The immediate causes had much in common: both countries lost eastern territory to the Soviet Union and had to receive people leaving it.
The states managed the movements differently. Finland offered land and compensation to evacuees, while Polish authorities also used force and deliberate dispersal.
The costs fell on different groups, and Poland’s resettlement connected several populations’ losses.
The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 3 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: Borders Move, People Follow.
PAPER 3 · UPROOTED · CHAPTER 10
To what extent did the Geneva meeting of July 1979 resolve the Indochinese refugee crisis?
Geneva eased the immediate crisis of closed shores by restoring a bargain: states would offer first asylum while other countries resettled refugees. But it left the causes of flight and the Cambodian emergency unresolved, and it relied both on Vietnam restricting departures and on Western generosity that later faded.
Expanded resettlement made first asylum workable again.
The fall in arrivals also depended on controls within Vietnam.
The Cambodian emergency and the longer-term problem of flight remained.
The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 10 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: Geneva and the US Response.
PAPER 2 · UPROOTED · CHAPTER 4
Why did repatriation resolve many displaced persons’ cases between 1945 and 1947, while leaving others unresolved?
Repatriation brought millions home, but it could not resolve every case. Soviet control changed what return meant for eastern Europeans; genocide and postwar antisemitism had destroyed Jewish communities; and resistance made forced return morally and politically unsustainable in the West.
For many eastern Europeans, a changed border meant a different country to return to.
Jewish survivors faced the destruction of their communities and continuing antisemitism.
Resistance and protest exposed the cost of forced repatriation.
The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 4 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: The DP Camps.
Primary sources
Before reading a primary source, it helps to know where it came from and its context. Each chapter’s IB notes provide both. Here are the sources from chapter 1 in full.
TEXT · CHAPTER 1
Agreement relating to prisoners of war and civilians liberated by forces operating under Soviet command and forces operating under United States command
- CREATOR
- Maj. Gen. John R. Deane (United States) and Lt. Gen. A. A. Gryzlov (Soviet Union)
- DATE
- 11 February 1945
- ORIGIN
- Bilateral agreement signed at the Crimea (Yalta) Conference; text from C. Bevans, Treaties and Other International Agreements of the United States of America 1776–1949, vol. 3 (US Government Printing Office, 1969)
Context. The United States and Soviet Union agreed how to hand over liberated citizens. A parallel British–Soviet agreement was signed the same day; together they shaped postwar repatriation.
US government publication; via the Avalon Project, Yale Law School · original ↗
TEXT · CHAPTER 1
Report of Earl G. Harrison on displaced persons in Germany and Austria (extract on camp conditions)
- CREATOR
- Earl G. Harrison, US representative on the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees
- DATE
- August 1945
- ORIGIN
- Typescript report to President Truman, Official File 127, Truman papers; US National Archives (NAID 169048805), p. 12
Context. Truman sent Harrison, dean of the University of Pennsylvania law school, to inspect camps in Germany and Austria in July 1945, paying particular attention to Jewish survivors.
US National Archives; Harry S. Truman Library · original ↗
PICTURE · CHAPTER 1
Displaced persons at the camp at Wittlich, Germany
- CREATOR
- US Army photographer
- DATE
- 18 April 1945
- ORIGIN
- Photograph published in History of the Fifteenth United States Army (1946), p. 118
Context. The original caption says 48 people shared this room. Wittlich in the Rhineland was among the assembly centers Allied armies opened for liberated forced laborers in spring 1945.
Picture: Displaced persons crowded into a barracks room full of iron beds at the Wittlich camp in Germany, April 1945.
US Army photograph, public domain, via Wikimedia Commons · original ↗
Every other source in the atlas (37)
- Chapter 2: The Expulsions of Germans
- Speech in the House of Commons on Poland (extract on expulsion) Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom · 15 December 1944
- Protocol of the Proceedings of the Berlin (Potsdam) Conference, Section XIII: Orderly Transfer of German Populations Governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union (Truman, Attlee, Stalin) · 1 August 1945
- Allied Control Council plan for the transfer of the German population Allied Control Council for Germany; transmitted by Robert Murphy, US Political Adviser for Germany · 20 November 1945 (telegram of 30 November 1945)
- “Umsiedler” (expellees) at the Berlin-Pankow freight station Otto Donath · 1946
- Chapter 3: Borders Move, People Follow
- Protocol of Proceedings of the Crimea Conference, Section VII: Poland (extract) Franklin D. Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin · 11 February 1945
- Speech in the House of Commons on Poland (extract on the transfer of populations) Winston Churchill, Prime Minister of the United Kingdom · 15 December 1944
- Report on the Tripartite Conference of Berlin (Potsdam communiqué): Western frontier of Poland Governments of the United States, the United Kingdom and the Soviet Union · 2 August 1945
- Chapter 4: The DP Camps
- Report of Earl G. Harrison (extract: recommendation on separate camps) Earl G. Harrison, US representative on the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees · August 1945
- Report of Earl G. Harrison (extract: conclusion on Palestine) Earl G. Harrison · August 1945
- Letter to General Eisenhower concerning conditions facing displaced persons in Germany Harry S. Truman, President of the United States · 31 August 1945 (released 29 September 1945)
- Chapter 5: From Relief to Rights
- Statement by the President upon signing the Displaced Persons Act Harry S. Truman, President of the United States · 25 June 1948
- Statute of the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, paragraphs 1–2 United Nations General Assembly · 14 December 1950
- Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, Article 1A(2) United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries on the Status of Refugees and Stateless Persons · 28 July 1951
- Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, Article 33: Prohibition of expulsion or return (“refoulement”) United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries · 28 July 1951
- Chapter 6: Integration and the Cold War
- Statement by the President concerning the admission of refugees from Hungary Dwight D. Eisenhower, President of the United States · 8 November 1956
- White House statement concerning the admission of additional Hungarian refugees The White House · 1 December 1956
- General Assembly resolution 1285 (XIII): World Refugee Year United Nations General Assembly · 5 December 1958
- Arrival of the third group of Hungarian refugees Wim van Rossem / Anefo · 25 November 1956
- Chapter 7: Communist Victory
- Memorandum for the record: Vietnam evacuation (President Ford and Secretary Kissinger with the bipartisan congressional leadership) White House / National Security Council record · 29 April 1975
- Remarks upon establishing the President’s Advisory Committee on Refugees (extract on the evacuees) Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States · 19 May 1975
- Boatloads of Vietnamese refugees approach the US fleet PH3 Harold Brown, US Navy · 30 April 1975
- Chapter 8: Re-education and Flight
- Memorandum on Indochina refugees (extract on the causes of the outflow) Dick Clark, US Coordinator for Refugee Affairs, to Vice President Walter Mondale · 18 June 1979
- Statement by Press Secretary Fitzwater on the Vietnam–United States Special Resettlement Program Marlin Fitzwater, White House Press Secretary · 13 January 1990
- Chapter 9: The Boat People
- Memorandum on Indochina refugees (extract on the first-asylum countries) Dick Clark, US Coordinator for Refugee Affairs, to Vice President Walter Mondale · 18 June 1979
- Tokyo Economic Summit: remarks to reporters at the conclusion of the conference (extract) Jimmy Carter, President of the United States · 29 June 1979
- 35 Vietnamese boat people awaiting rescue Lt. Carl R. Begy, US Navy · 15 May 1984
- Chapter 10: Geneva and the US Response
- Meeting on Refugees and Displaced Persons in South-East Asia: report of the Secretary-General (extract) Kurt Waldheim, Secretary-General of the United Nations · 7 November 1979
- The Indochina Refugee Situation: An Update (extract) Central Intelligence Agency, National Foreign Assessment Center · November 1979
- Refugee Act of 1980, section 201(a): definition of “refugee” 96th Congress of the United States · 17 March 1980
- Khao-I-Dang Holding Center gate Cameron Macauley · May 1984
- Chapter 11: Camps, Screening and the CPA
- Declaration and Comprehensive Plan of Action (extract on refugee status and return) International Conference on Indo-Chinese Refugees · Approved in draft 8 March 1989; adopted at Geneva 14 June 1989
- Amerasian Homecoming Act (section 584 of the Foreign Operations Appropriations Act, 1988), extract 100th Congress of the United States · 22 December 1987
- Philippine Refugee Processing Center, Morong, Bataan Project Ngoc (UC Irvine Libraries, Special Collections) · 1990
- Chapter 12: Two Crises Compared
- Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, Article 1B(1): the geographical option United Nations Conference of Plenipotentiaries · 28 July 1951
- Refugee Act of 1980: statement on signing S. 643 into law Jimmy Carter, President of the United States · 18 March 1980 (the Act was approved on 17 March)
- Remarks upon establishing the President’s Advisory Committee on Refugees (extract on immigration) Gerald R. Ford, President of the United States · 19 May 1975
- Aerial view of the Orote Point refugee camp, Guam US Navy · c. 1975
Internal Assessment starting points
Each starting point is an idea for an investigation: a question, the concept it tests, the kinds of sources you could use and where they are held, and one caution. The investigation must be your own work, and your teacher approves the question.
How did the August 1945 Harrison Report affect treatment of Jewish displaced persons in the US zone by the end of 1946?
CONCEPTChange
SOURCESThe Harrison Report and Truman’s letter to Eisenhower; US Army directives on Jewish camps; camp newspapers; survivor testimony; UNRRA reports.
WHERE TO FIND THEMUS National Archives (Record Group 59 and 260, many items online); Truman Library; United States Holocaust Memorial Museum collections; Arolsen Archives online collections.
CAUTIONCompare Army and UNRRA descriptions with camp newspapers and residents’ accounts. Officials may describe events in ways that defend their own decisions.
How did selected West German school textbooks from 1950 to 1990 connect the expulsion of Germans with Nazi occupation?
CONCEPTPerspectives
SOURCESHistory textbooks of different decades and states; curriculum guidelines; expellee association publications; newspaper debates about textbooks.
WHERE TO FIND THEMLeibniz Institute for Educational Media / Georg Eckert Institute, Braunschweig (textbook library and online catalogue); Federal Archives (Bundesarchiv).
CAUTIONSelect a defined group of textbooks and explain what that selection can show. Take account of approval by individual West German states.
How were Hungarian refugees received in one city or region of a resettlement country in 1956–1958?
CONCEPTConsequence
SOURCESLocal newspapers; government files on reception camps; church and charity records; oral history interviews with refugees or their families.
WHERE TO FIND THEMThe National Archives (UK) Home Office files; Library and Archives Canada; National Archives of Australia; local record offices; UNHCR Archives, Geneva (by request).
CAUTIONCompare newspaper celebrations of generosity with evidence of difficulties refugees faced, including unemployment or return to Hungary.
How far did press and television coverage influence the July 1979 Geneva meeting on boat people?
CONCEPTCausation
SOURCESNewspaper reports from June–July 1979 in at least two countries; government statements; Foreign Relations of the United States documents on the meeting.
WHERE TO FIND THEMOnline newspaper archives (for example The Times, The New York Times, Le Monde through library access); Office of the Historian (FRUS 1977–1980, vol. XXII); American Presidency Project.
CAUTIONCoverage and policy may change together without the coverage causing the policy. Look for evidence that decision-makers actually responded to it.
What do Vietnamese refugees’ oral accounts add to official explanations of departure in 1978–1979?
CONCEPTPerspectives
SOURCESRecorded oral histories of former boat people; memoirs; official statements by Vietnam and receiving states for comparison.
WHERE TO FIND THEMVietnamese American Oral History Project, University of California, Irvine (Southeast Asian Archive); The Vietnam Center and Archive, Texas Tech University; national oral history collections in Australia and Canada.
CAUTIONFor interviews, follow school guidance on informed consent. When reading memories recorded decades later, consider how subsequent experiences may have shaped them.
Why did Canadian private sponsorship of Indochinese refugees in 1979–1980 exceed government expectations?
CONCEPTCausation
SOURCESGovernment announcements and statistics; records of sponsoring churches and community groups; newspaper coverage; later reports such as those marking the programme’s anniversaries.
WHERE TO FIND THEMLibrary and Archives Canada; Canadian Council for Refugees (published histories); church and diocesan archives; local newspaper archives.
CAUTIONAnniversary accounts may celebrate sponsorship. Compare them with contemporary reports of disagreement and difficulties in the program.
How fairly were Vietnamese asylum seekers screened in Hong Kong under the CPA from 1989 to 1996?
CONCEPTSignificance
SOURCESReports by human rights organisations; UNHCR statements and statistics; Hong Kong government records and Legislative Council debates; court cases on detention.
WHERE TO FIND THEMHong Kong Public Records Office; Legislative Council records (online); Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International report archives; UNHCR publications.
CAUTIONExamine government and advocacy accounts of the same procedures, and make clear what standard of fairness you are applying.
Revision tools
The atlas ends with a map quiz that asks you to find places and moments on the map itself (part of every plan from Starter up). The quick quiz and the discussion questions with our answers are free pages on this site, and the printable study guide gathers every chapter’s notes into one document for revision.
Read next
- The Second World War, 1936–1945 · WW2
- The Cold War, 1945–1991 · THE COLD WAR
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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