To what extent was it a world war?

Cambridge IGCSE History 0470 · Paper 1 Section B, Depth Studies Syllabus: 2027 and 2028 Depth study A: The First World War, 1914 to 1918 Key Question 2 of four

This is the Key Question that asks you to weigh a label. Everybody calls the conflict of 1914 to 1918 a world war. Cambridge asks how far that name is earned, and the words "to what extent" are the whole assessment. A file that lists the places the war reached cannot answer it, because a list only proves the war was fought in many places. The question is whether being fought in many places, by people drawn from many places, makes a conflict a world war, or whether it stayed a European war that used the world as a supply of soldiers and a set of sideshows.

So this file is built to argue it both ways. Every one of the four focus points below is set out twice: once as evidence that the war was genuinely global, and once as evidence that the global part was marginal to what actually happened. On this Key Question a candidate who has only learned the first half is capped, and the cap is low. The How Cambridge marks History 0470 Paper 1 notes explain why in general terms; this page is about what the two sides look like on this particular content.

What the file covers: the role of British Empire troops on the Western Front, the campaigns in Africa, Japan's contribution, and the Arab Revolt, which are the four focus points, plus the specified content that sits under them, plus the boundary with Key Question 3 and the way Cambridge's own mark schemes handle the "how far" turn.

1. What the syllabus actually asks

This is the wording printed in the Cambridge IGCSE History 0470 syllabus for 2027 and 2028, in the Depth studies section. Learn the Key Question itself. Cambridge builds 10 mark questions straight out of it, and it has already done so.

Key Question 2

To what extent was it a world war?

Focus points

• How important was the role of troops from the British Empire on the Western Front?
• What was the contribution of Indian and South African troops in Africa?
• What was the contribution of Japan to the Allied victory?
• How important was the Arab Revolt?

The specified content, and which of it is yours

Depth study A prints one list of Specified content covering all four Key Questions together, not a separate list per Key Question. That matters, because it means the syllabus does not formally hand you a boundary and you have to read one off the wording. Here is the whole list, verbatim, with the bullets that belong to this Key Question marked in bold.

• The Schlieffen Plan and how it worked in practice:
• the German advance through Belgium and the impact of the British Expeditionary Force
• the effect on the western front of Russian mobilisation
• The battles of Mons and the Marne, the race to the sea and the First Battle of Ypres:
• the reaction to the stalemate: trenches and the development of a war of attrition
• The nature and problems of trench warfare
• The use and impact of developments such as tanks, machine guns, aircraft and gas
• The impact of the battles of Verdun and the Somme:
• the leadership and tactics of Haig at the Battle of the Somme
• The role and experiences of British Empire troops on the Western Front:
• Case study: Indian troops
• Case study: Canadian troops
• The war in Africa:
• Case study: German East Africa
• Case study: South West Africa
• Contribution of Japan in Asia:
• the siege of Tsingtao
• naval assistance in securing the sea lanes
• The Arab Revolt
• The war at sea:
• the Battle of Jutland and its consequences
• the use of convoys and submarines and the U-boat campaign
• The reasons for, and results of, the Gallipoli campaign
• Events on the Eastern Front and the defeat of Russia
• The impact of war on civilian populations
• The German offensive of 1918 and the Allied advance:
• the impact of American entry into the war
• Conditions in Germany towards the end of the war:
• the Kiel Mutiny and German Revolution
• the abdication of the Kaiser
• The Armistice

Four bold bullets, four focus points, in the same order. The mapping is exact and it is the cleanest boundary the syllabus gives you.

Read the focus points as arguments, not as a list

Cambridge defines its own three layers in the subject content introduction: key questions define the over-arching issues, focus points identify the issues that enable candidates to gain an understanding of the key question, and specified content provides guidance on what needs to be studied for each key question.

Read that second definition carefully. Focus points are not four topics to be revised in turn and then forgotten. They are the four routes into the argument, and every one of them is already phrased as a question with a scale in it: "how important", "what was the contribution", "how important". Each is a finished 10 mark title, and four of the five real questions Cambridge has set on this Key Question are almost word for word one of them.

Two places where the syllabus does not line up with itself

Neither of these is a trap, but both are worth knowing before you organise your notes.

Indian troops are filed in two places. The specified content puts "Case study: Indian troops" under the Western Front bullet. The second focus point then asks about "the contribution of Indian and South African troops in Africa", while the matching specified content bullet, "The war in Africa", names campaigns rather than troops: German East Africa and South West Africa. So Indian troops appear once by name under Europe and once by implication under Africa. Cambridge has already examined that seam directly: a 10 mark question asked whether the most important contribution made by Indian troops was in the East Africa campaign. If you had revised Indian troops as a Western Front topic only, that question would have looked unanswerable, and it is not.

Japan's geography does not match its evidence. The focus point asks about "the contribution of Japan to the Allied victory", with no geographical limit. The specified content narrows it to "Contribution of Japan in Asia" and names two things, the siege of Tsingtao and naval assistance in securing the sea lanes. But when Cambridge wrote the mark scheme for its own 10 mark question on Japan, the fullest exemplar was about a Japanese fleet based at Malta, escorting Allied transports in the Mediterranean. That is not Asia. Take the focus point as the wider and safer guide, and treat "in Asia" as an indication of where most of it happened rather than a fence.

2. Where this Key Question stops, and Key Question 3 starts

This is the most important boundary in the Depth Study, because Key Question 2 and Key Question 3 overlap more than any other pair here, and a candidate who confuses them writes a good answer to the wrong question.

Key Question 3 is "How important were other fronts?" and it lives in its own file. Its focus points are the war at sea, the failure of the Gallipoli Campaign of 1915, the importance of the Eastern Front, and the impact of war on civilian populations. Its specified content is the four bullets in the list above that are not bold: Jutland and its consequences, convoys and submarines and the U-boat campaign, the reasons for and results of Gallipoli, events on the Eastern Front and the defeat of Russia, and the impact of war on civilian populations.

Key Question 1 owns the Western Front stalemate: the Schlieffen Plan, Mons and the Marne, the race to the sea, First Ypres, trench warfare, the new weapons, Verdun and the Somme. If you are writing about why nobody could advance, you are in Key Question 1.

Here is the line the syllabus actually draws, read off the bullets rather than guessed at.

1. Key Question 2 is organised by who fought and where they came from
2. Key Question 3 is organised by which front or which dimension
3. so a Japanese fleet is yours because it is Japanese, and Jutland is not yours even though it is naval

Applied to the four hardest cases:

The underlying difference is worth stating in one sentence, because it is also the difference between the two 10 mark arguments. Key Question 2 asks how far the war reached. Key Question 3 asks whether what happened outside the Western Front changed the outcome. They are not the same question and they do not have the same answer. It is entirely possible, and it is the strongest position available, to argue that the war reached across the world and that almost none of what happened outside Europe decided it. Say that in a Key Question 2 answer and you have a judgement. Say it in a Key Question 3 answer and you have a different judgement about a different thing.

When you write, mark the crossing explicitly. A sentence like "Indian troops also fought at Gallipoli, which mattered for the reach of the war rather than for its outcome" spends one clause and shows the examiner you know which question you are in.

3. How Paper 1 sets this Key Question

The three level ladders, the (a) 4 and (b) 6 and (c) 10 split, the assessment objective weighting, the two rules Cambridge changed for the 2024 series and the examiner faults that apply to any question on the paper are all in the How Cambridge marks History 0470 Paper 1 notes. That page states outright that it covers Section B and the Depth Studies as well as the Core Content. Read it once. Nothing here repeats it.

What is specific to this Key Question is where it sits on the paper and how new it is.

Section B is Questions 9 and 10 for this Depth Study

Section B has always begun at Question 9, and the two questions on Depth study A are always Question 9 and Question 10. That has not moved in any of the 48 Paper 1 mark schemes from 2018 to 2024.

What has moved is where Section B ends. Papers up to and including the 2023 series carried seven depth studies and ran from Question 9 to Question 22. The 2024 papers carry five, the five in the current syllabus, and run from Question 9 to Question 18. The old China, South Africa, and Israelis and Palestinians options are gone, and a Second World War depth study has taken the E slot. For 2027 and 2028 the layout to expect is Question 9 to Question 18, two questions per depth study in syllabus order, and yours first.

That is genuinely useful in the exam room. You never have to read past the top of the fourth page.

It is new, and Cambridge set it immediately

Of the 48 Paper 1 papers from 2018 to 2024, five set a question on this Key Question, and all five are from 2024. Not one paper from 2018 to 2023 touched it, because this content was not in the syllabus those papers were set against. Every Question 9 and Question 10 in those years is the Western Front stalemate, other fronts, or the road to the Armistice.

Four of those five sat at Question 9, one at Question 10. Read the pattern the other way and it is more striking still: in the first year this content was examinable, Cambridge set it in five of the seven papers. Do not treat it as a minor addition that might be skipped.

Three further things follow from that table, and each one changes how you prepare.

All four focus points have already been used as 10 mark titles. British Empire troops, Canadian troops, Japan and the Arab Revolt each headed a part (c) in 2024, and Indian troops in East Africa headed the fifth. There is no focus point being held in reserve.

Every part of the question comes from the same focus point family, but not the same focus point. Look at June 2024 Question 9: part (a) is Japan, part (b) is the Arab Revolt, part (c) is British Empire troops. Three different focus points in one question. Revising two of the four and hoping is not a strategy here, because a single question can touch three.

Part (b) is where the causes live. Two of the five part (b) questions asked why: why the Arab Revolt broke out in 1916, and why war broke out in South West Africa. Both have answers that are nothing to do with the fighting, and both are covered below.

There is no examiner report on any of this

The Principal Examiner reports for 2018 to 2024 contain no commentary on any of these five questions. The March 2024 report reaches Section B and prints that there were too few responses to Questions 9 and 10 for any meaningful comments to be made, and reports for the June and November 2024 series are not among the documents these notes were built from. Across the whole 2018 to 2024 run, Depth study A draws that same "too few responses" line more often than not.

Two consequences. The general faults in the How Cambridge marks History 0470 Paper 1 notes are the ones you can rely on, because they were written from the reports that do exist. And the content specific faults in section 10 below are drawn from what the mark schemes themselves put in Level 1 and Level 2, which is the next best evidence and is explicitly labelled as such.

4. Focus point: how important was the role of troops from the British Empire on the Western Front?

The syllabus names two case studies here, Indian troops and Canadian troops. Cambridge has examined both.

The scale, in Cambridge's own figures

The mark schemes give you a small number of figures and you should use them exactly as printed, because they are what the examiner is expecting.

• The British Empire sent about 4 million troops to fight in the war.
• Over 5 million men fought on the Allied side on the Western Front altogether.
• 140,000 Indian troops fought on the Western Front.
• Over 400,000 Canadians fought on the Western Front, described in the same mark scheme as "just over 400 000".
• Troops came from Australia, New Zealand, India, Africa and the West Indies.

Notice what those numbers do when you put them together, because this is the heart of the argument and Cambridge builds its own exemplars out of it. Four million Empire troops is an enormous figure. Four hundred thousand Canadians against five million Allied soldiers on the Western Front is a small one. The same evidence supports both sides depending on which denominator you choose, and choosing the denominator is the judgement.

Indian troops

Cambridge's material on the Indian contribution is organised around the Indian Expeditionary Forces, and the lettering is worth learning because the mark schemes use it.

• Force A fought on the Western Front. It was attached to the British Expeditionary Force and sent to the Ypres Salient shortly after the outbreak of war.
• Force B fought in East Africa.
• Force D fought in Mesopotamia and was the largest.
• Force G fought at Gallipoli.

On the Western Front specifically, Force A led the assault at the Battle of Neuve Chapelle in March 1915, and around half of the Allied troops in that battle were Force A. Indian cavalry divisions took part in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, and Indian cavalry took part in the advance on the Hindenburg Line and the Battle of Cambrai in 1918. Against that, the mark schemes also record that Indian troops had issues with the climate and conditions on the Western Front, and that many lacked training in using British equipment and weapons.

By the end of the war in 1918, more than a million Indian troops had been sent overseas, to Egypt, Gallipoli and Mesopotamia as well as France.

1. India supplies a force that leads a Western Front assault in its first spring
2. but the force is small, cold and under-equipped for the theatre
3. so the Indian contribution grows by being sent everywhere else instead
4. which is an argument for reach, not for weight in France

Canadian troops

The Canadian record is the strongest single piece of evidence on the "yes it was a world war" side, and Cambridge's own exemplars treat it that way.

• Second Battle of Ypres, spring 1915. The Canadians' first engagement, and they held the line against the first large-scale gas attack.
• The Somme, towards the end of the battle.
• Vimy Ridge, 9 to 12 April 1917. Four divisions of Canadian troops fought together and captured the ridge from the German army. Cambridge calls it the largest territorial advance of any Allied force up to that point in the war, and describes the ridge as "seemingly impregnable". More than 10,600 Canadians were killed and wounded in the assault. The Paper 4 mark scheme adds that the assault was coordinated using tunnels, mines and air operations, and that the victory led to German collapse in the Arras sector.
• Passchendaele, 1917. Canadian troops were transferred there when little progress was being made, made rapid progress, and achieved their objectives at very high cost.
• The Hundred Days Offensive, 1918. Cambridge's exemplar calls this "the crucial offensive that ended the war" and says Canadian troops spearheaded much of the success and led many of the Allies' attacks.
• Canadian pilots operated over the Western Front, and Canadians made contributions to the Royal Flying Corps.

The Canadians also had, in the words of one mark scheme, a reputation as fierce, rugged but sometimes ill-disciplined soldiers.

1. Canada arrives late, in spring 1915
2. performs at Ypres, Vimy and Passchendaele out of proportion to its numbers
3. and then spearheads the Hundred Days, the offensive that ends the war
4. so a dominion of the Empire is present at the decisive moment on the decisive front

That last chain is the single best piece of ammunition on this Key Question, because it puts an Empire contingent not at a sideshow but at the finish.

The case that Empire troops were a margin, not a difference

Cambridge writes this side out in full in its own Level 3 exemplar, and you should be able to reproduce the shape of it.

The Western Front was the most important front of the war. Most of the fighting there was conducted by British and French troops, with support from the Empire rather than in place of it. The fighting in West and East Africa, though effective, took place in a theatre not as crucial to the war's ultimate outcome as the struggle in France. And the intervention that actually produced the Allied breakthrough was American, not imperial. On numbers, the Canadian contingent of just over four hundred thousand set against over five million Allied soldiers on the Western Front is, in Cambridge's own phrasing, "not that significant", and the Canadians did not fight at all in the first months of the war.

The case that they were indispensable

Cambridge writes this out too, and its Level 5 exemplar turns on one point that is easy to miss. The British army was not large enough to meet all its commitments in the war. That is the pivot. Empire troops were not a bonus on top of a sufficient army; they were what made a British army of that size possible in that many places at once. They provided crucial support on the Western Front, their contributions in Africa and the Middle East led to important victories, and their presence in those theatres meant more British troops could be used on the Western Front.

There is also a morale and prestige strand the Paper 4 mark scheme names: increased Allied numbers mattered in a war of attrition, and Indian and Canadian troops were awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery.

5. Focus point: what was the contribution of Indian and South African troops in Africa?

The syllabus names two African case studies, German East Africa and South West Africa, and they behave in completely opposite ways. One was a quick, cheap, total success. The other was a long, expensive campaign that the British lost the opening battle of and did not finish until the last days of the war. Knowing which is which is most of the focus point.

South West Africa: the short campaign

South Africa was pro-British and shared a border with the German colony of South West Africa, which Cambridge glosses as Namibia.

Why war broke out there, which is the part (b) Cambridge actually set:

• The campaign was aimed at preventing the German navy from using the ports.
• Radio transmitters in South West Africa were a possible threat to British shipping.
• The Maritz rebellion broke out: an uprising in South Africa among Boers still unhappy about their defeat by the British in 1902. They gathered a force of around 12,000 and issued a proclamation calling on Boers to rise up against the British.

How it was fought and won. South African forces were mobilised under General Lukin. In January 1915 the Germans made a pre-emptive strike into Cape Province and South African forces prevented any advance. In February 1915 Generals Smuts and Botha led the preparations for the invasion. Germany offered terms of surrender, they were ignored, and martial law was declared. The South Africans split into four columns and invaded from the south and the north west coastline, with troops landed from the sea at Swakopmund. Botha, the South African Prime Minister, organised the attack from different directions and used fast-moving mounted units making quick, powerful thrusts that outflanked the enemy and divided it into small groups. The victory at the Battle of Gibeon in 1915 was decisive. Germany was forced to surrender when surrounded at Khorab. The region was afterwards run by South Africa as a mandate.

Why it was quick. The Germans were massively outnumbered from the beginning. The South African force had 60,000 volunteers. The tactics were effective. And Botha wanted a quick victory before Britain sent other troops there, which is a motive worth noticing: this was partly a South African campaign fought for South African reasons.

Casualties: South African about 500, German over 1,000.

German East Africa: the long campaign

Everything here is the mirror image.

• 1914: the Allies failed to take Tanga. It was an amphibious attack launched by British and Indian forces, and a force of 8,000 Indian reserves from Indian Expeditionary Force B was involved in the attack. The British lost.
• After that defeat, Force C was assembled and given the task of defending the railway in Uganda and supporting troops from East Africa. It became involved in fighting anyway.
• Lettow-Vorbeck conducted a successful guerrilla campaign and, in Cambridge's own words, the Germans managed to tie down far more Allied troops than their numbers warranted.
• 1916: Smuts took command of Allied forces and brought South African troops. He attacked from Kenya and captured the railway line from Dar es Salaam to Morogoro. South African forces won important battles at Salaita Hill and Nyangao and fought a series of battles from 1916 to 1918 which badly weakened the German forces.
• Smuts replaced his troops with Africans who could cope with the climate better. This is Cambridge's own point and it is one of the most quotable lines in the whole Key Question: most of the soldiers there were African because they were used to conditions which Europeans struggled with.
• By 1917 the Allies were closing in on the Germans in the southern part of the colony. Lettow-Vorbeck crossed into Mozambique. The Germans surrendered in November 1918, at the very end of the war.
• By 1918 the South Africans had almost taken over German East Africa.

1. Germany's colonial force is tiny and cannot win
2. so it does not try to, and fights a guerrilla campaign instead
3. which ties down far more Allied troops than it costs Germany
4. so the theatre drains Allied strength for four years without ever deciding anything

That chain is the honest verdict on East Africa, and it cuts both ways at once, which is exactly why it is useful in a part (c).

South Africa's contribution in total

The Paper 4 mark scheme puts the whole South African effort in one place:

• Over 250,000 South African troops took part in campaigns of the war, with 19,000 casualties in total.
• 3,000 joined the Royal Flying Corps and over 100 the Royal Navy.
• Eight South Africans won the Victoria Cross.
• South Africa occupied two German African colonies for the Allies.
• South African ports were used by the Allies for the campaign in Asia, for refuelling and rest for the navy.
• South Africa provided two-thirds of the gold production for the British Empire, which facilitated the purchase of munitions and war supplies from the USA.

That last one is the argument that is easiest to forget and hardest to answer. A dominion that pays for the alliance's American purchases is contributing to the war in Europe without sending a single man there.

Indian troops in Africa, and the question Cambridge built out of it

The November 2024 paper set: whether the most important contribution made by Indian troops to the war effort was in the East Africa campaign. Cambridge's own Level 5 exemplar says no, and the reasoning is the model answer to a "most important" question. It calls East Africa "the disastrous East African campaign" and "only one small area in which Indian forces were deployed", and concludes that because Indian troops were involved in every theatre of war, fighting on the Western Front, in East Africa and Gallipoli, their most important contribution was to the war effort as a whole.

Learn the move, not just the answer. The question named one place. The top band answer refused the frame and argued that the significance was the spread. That is a judgement, and it is available on almost every question in this Key Question because "to what extent was it a world war" is a question about spread.

Note that Cambridge's exemplar calls East Africa disastrous while a different 2024 mark scheme says Indian and African troops in Africa "led to important victories". Section 9 deals with that.

6. Focus point: what was the contribution of Japan to the Allied victory?

Japan is the focus point most students underestimate, and it is the one that most directly supports the word "world" in "world war", because it puts a non-European great power on the Allied side fighting for its own reasons.

The siege of Tsingtao

The syllabus names this by name. The port appears as Tsingtao in one question paper and as Qingdao in another mark scheme from the same year. Same place, two romanisations. Use whichever spelling the question in front of you uses.

Why it mattered to Germany, which is the part (b) Cambridge set:

• It was an important naval base, the base of all operations of the German and Austro-Hungarian navies in the area.
• The Germans had built it up from a small village into a modern port with strong defences.
• It was at the centre of Germany's imperialistic ambitions in the area.
• If it fell, it would mean the elimination of Germany's empire in the East, which is why the Germans sent all their forces in the far east to defend it, and why the British and Japanese targeted it.

The siege was carried out by the Japanese and the British together.

Naval assistance and the sea lanes

This is the second named piece of specified content and it is where the figures are.

• A Japanese fleet was based at Malta, protecting Allied ships against German submarines, doing what Cambridge calls very important work protecting the main sea routes vital for the movement of Allied troops and supplies.
• Altogether the Japanese navy escorted more than 700 Allied transport ships carrying over 500,000 sailors and soldiers.
• Japan was important in winning control of the sea lanes in the Pacific and Indian Ocean.
• The Japanese navy helped secure the sea route between the Suez Canal and Marseilles.
• Japan destroyed the German navy in Chinese waters.
• Japan seized German possessions in the Pacific and East Asia.
• Japan helped suppress a mutiny by Indian troops against Britain.

Half a million Allied soldiers moved under Japanese escort is the number to keep, because it converts an abstraction about sea lanes into a fact an examiner can mark.

The case against, which Cambridge writes itself

The mark scheme's own Level 3 exemplar for the opposing side is unusually blunt, and it is the best template on this focus point.

Japan was most interested in making gains for itself and strengthening its position in China and against the USA. It was worried about possible US advances on the Philippines, and its South Pacific Islands campaign was designed to give it control of the area so it was in a strong position in case of any future US moves. It used the war as an opportunity to make gains in China. In 1916 Japan agreed to give the Allies more help if they supported Japan's claims to German territories it had won. By the end of the war, Japan's international prestige and power had increased, which had been its main aim rather than helping the Allied war effort.

The judgement Cambridge models

The Level 5 exemplar for the Japan question does something specific and worth copying exactly: it accepts the whole of the case against, and then denies that it settles the question.

1. Japan's motives were self-interested and imperial
2. but the fleet still escorted the transports and still took Tsingtao
3. so the motive and the contribution are separate questions
4. having selfish motives did not stop Japan from contributing to the war effort

That final clause is Cambridge's own sentence. It is a judgement because it states a position and gives the reason for coming down that way, and it does it in one line.

7. Focus point: how important was the Arab Revolt?

The Arab Revolt is a single bullet of specified content with no named case studies, and Cambridge has already asked two different things about it: why it broke out, and whether it was significant.

Why it broke out in 1916

This is a causes question and almost none of the answer is military.

• Arab nationalism, which had become strong because of the centralising developments in the Ottoman Empire that followed the Young Turk Revolution. The Young Turks wanted the Turks to be the dominating force in the Empire, which caused the Arabs to demand reforms.
• In 1913 the Arabs demanded greater autonomy at the First Arab Congress.
• The desire to break away from Ottoman control and create a unified Arab state.
• The leadership of Hussein bin Ali.
• An agreement between the British and the Arabs, the British believing a revolt would help bring the Ottoman Empire down.

Cambridge also calls the Revolt the first organised movement of Arab nationalism, which is a phrase worth keeping for a conclusion.

T E Lawrence

Cambridge set a whole part (b) on him, so he is examinable in his own right.

• His main importance was as a tactician, using guerrilla warfare very effectively with small bands of irregular forces, and disrupting Turkish communications and supply routes.
• He persuaded the British to supply the Arabs with guns and gold.
• He trained Arab fighters to use explosives and led raiding parties.
• He acted as advisor to Prince Faisal.
• He encouraged the idea of a United Arabia.
• He led the Arabs to take Damascus in 1918.

What the Revolt achieved

• The Arabs took control of the Hejaz region and helped the British take Jaffa.
• They helped capture Aqaba, an important gain for the British.
• They were important in winning the Red Sea ports.
• They contributed to Turkish defeats at Taif and Megiddo, after which the Turks were in full retreat.
• They helped the British capture Jerusalem.
• They forced the Turks to divert their resources and disrupted supply lines.
• They were important in the final offensives of 1918 which knocked the Ottoman Empire out of the war.
• Cambridge's Level 5 exemplar draws the consequence: the defeat of the Ottoman Empire allowed the British to send tens of thousands of troops back to fight in Europe.

1. the Arabs tie down and then break Ottoman resistance in the Middle East
2. the Ottoman Empire leaves the war
3. tens of thousands of British troops are freed for Europe
4. a revolt in the desert reaches the Western Front by subtraction

That is the strongest form of the "yes it was a world war" case, because it shows a non-European theatre feeding directly into the European one.

The case that it was of little significance

Cambridge set exactly this as a statement to agree or disagree with, so it must be arguable, and its own material supplies the argument.

• The Allies several times had to send reinforcements from places like India and Egypt to support the Arabs, who would not have been successful by themselves.
• The port of Jeddah only fell after British navy cruisers bombarded it.
• The British had to supply the Arabs with explosives, rifles and machine guns.
• The Arabs failed to win Medina.
• The British victory was attributable to Allenby's skill as a military leader.
• On that reading, the British would have defeated the Turks without the Arab Revolt.

And the counter-counter, which is the best sentence available on this focus point: if the Arabs had sided with the Turks, the British could have lost control of Egypt, the Suez Canal and the Red Sea. An ally whose defection would have cost you the Suez Canal is not insignificant, whatever its offensive record.

8. Answering "to what extent", which is the whole question

Everything above is raw material. This section is the argument.

Three different things "a world war" can mean

Almost every weak answer on this Key Question fails because it never notices that the phrase has more than one meaning. Separate them and the essay writes itself.

The top band answer says all three of those things and separates them. A judgement sentence that comes out of this table rather than out of thin air:

• "It was a world war in reach and in manpower, but a European war in outcome, because every theatre outside Europe was fought to release troops for the one that decided it."

That single sentence is the shape Cambridge rewards, and it is also the sentence that keeps you clear of Key Question 3's territory while borrowing its logic.

The case that it was genuinely a world war

Build it from four independent supports so that losing one does not cost you the argument.

Geography. Fighting in German East Africa, South West Africa, the Pacific, Chinese waters at Tsingtao, the Hejaz and Palestine. Two German African colonies were occupied. Germany's empire in the East was eliminated.

Manpower. The British Empire sent about 4 million troops. Over 250,000 South Africans served, more than a million Indians were sent overseas, over 400,000 Canadians fought on the Western Front alone.

Non-European agency. Japan fought as a great power with its own aims, not as anybody's auxiliary. The Arab Revolt was the first organised movement of Arab nationalism and it fought its own war against the Ottomans.

Structural dependence. The British army was not large enough to meet all its commitments. Empire troops in Africa and the Middle East freed British troops for France. South African gold, two-thirds of the Empire's production, bought munitions from the USA. Remove the imperial contribution and the European war changes shape.

The case that it was substantially a European war

Build it from four supports too, and note that Cambridge itself supplies every one.

The decisive front was in France. The Western Front was the most important front of the war and most of the fighting there was done by British and French troops.

The decisive intervention was American, not imperial. Cambridge's own exemplar says the arrival of American troops was what allowed the Allies to make their breakthrough.

The extra-European theatres did not decide anything. The fighting in Africa took place in a theatre not as crucial to the outcome as the struggle on the Western Front. East Africa was still being fought when the Armistice was signed in November 1918. The Arabs failed at Medina and needed British ships, British guns and Indian and Egyptian reinforcements.

The proportions were small. Just over 400,000 Canadians against over 5 million Allied soldiers on the Western Front. 140,000 Indians on the same front. Empire forces were a supplement to European armies rather than a substitute for them.

The trap in the middle

There is a fifth argument that sounds impressive and is not: that because the combatants were empires, any war between them is automatically a world war. Avoid it. It is a definition, not evidence, and it earns nothing above Level 2 because nothing is being explained. Cambridge marks explanation, and a definition explains nothing.

Judgement sentences that reach Level 5

Each of these states a position and attaches a reason, which is what the tenth mark asks for. None of them is a summary of the essay.

• "It was a world war in reach and in manpower, but a European war in outcome, because every theatre outside Europe was fought to release troops for the one that decided it."
• "The Empire's contribution was decisive not where it fought but in what it made possible, because the British army was too small for its commitments and imperial troops were what closed that gap."
• "Japan's self-interest is beside the point, because the transports it escorted arrived whatever its motive."
• "The Arab Revolt mattered more for what it prevented than for what it captured, because Arab hostility would have cost Britain Egypt and the Suez Canal."
• "Africa shows the limit of the phrase, because a campaign that was still being fought when the Armistice was signed cannot have decided the war it belonged to."

9. Where Cambridge's own documents disagree

This happens more on this Key Question than on most, because the content is new and the figures come from several mark schemes written by different hands. Where they conflict, surface the conflict and do not try to reconcile it. An examiner marking a figure you took from a Cambridge mark scheme will credit it. An examiner marking an averaged figure you invented to make two documents agree will not, because it is in neither.

Indian troops on the Western Front: 140,000 or 150,000? A Paper 1 mark scheme says 140,000 Indian troops fought on the Western Front. A Paper 4 mark scheme from the same year says Indian Expeditionary Force A had about 150,000 troops. They may be counting different things, the front and the force, but nothing in either document says so. Quote one, name what it counts, and move on.

Canadians on the Western Front: 400,000 or 425,000? One Paper 1 mark scheme says 425,000 men fought and 234,700 were killed or injured. Another says over 400,000 and, in its exemplar, "just over 400 000". Both are Cambridge's. Either will be credited.

Indian dead: over 9,000 or over 60,000? These are not in conflict, but they are easy to misuse. The Paper 4 mark scheme says over 9,000 Indian troops were killed on the Western Front. The Paper 1 mark scheme says over 60,000 Indian troops were killed in action, across all theatres. Always name the scope when you use either.

Was East Africa a success or a disaster? One 2024 mark scheme calls the contribution of African and Indian troops in Africa one that "led to important victories". Another 2024 mark scheme calls the same theatre "the disastrous East African campaign" in its top band exemplar. That is not sloppiness, it is the two sides of a part (c), and it is direct evidence that both readings are creditable. Use it as licence, not as a problem.

Tsingtao or Qingdao? Both appear in 2024 documents. Follow the question paper in front of you.

One printed oddity, so that you do not copy it. The mark scheme exemplar on T E Lawrence reads that he "tied down large numbers of Arab troops through the use of small bands of irregular forces and stopped them fighting the British forces". Read in context, the troops being tied down are Ottoman, not Arab. Write Turkish or Ottoman when you make this point. Reproducing the sentence as printed would look like a factual error even though Cambridge printed it.

10. What goes wrong on this content

The faults that apply to any question on this paper, overwriting part (a), listing instead of explaining, one-sided part (c) answers, finishing without a judgement, are in the How Cambridge marks History 0470 Paper 1 notes. Because no examiner report in the 2018 to 2024 run comments on any of these five questions, the list below is drawn from what the mark schemes themselves place in Level 1 and Level 2, which is Cambridge showing you what a weak answer looks like.

• Answering "how important" with a description of what happened. The Level 1 exemplars on this content are all narrative: "Troops from all parts of the Empire fought against Germany", "The Japanese involvement in the First World War was because the British government asked it to be involved", "India supplied troops, horses and ships". Every one is accurate and every one earns 1 mark, because none addresses a scale.
• Treating the two African campaigns as one campaign. South West Africa was quick, cheap and total. East Africa was long, expensive and unfinished until November 1918. A candidate who blurs them loses the contrast that makes the argument work.
• Naming Lawrence instead of explaining the Revolt. The Level 1 exemplar is exactly this: "The Arab Revolt involved Lawrence of Arabia who led a lot of the fighting." Lawrence is a person, not a reason.
• Writing the Empire's contribution as a list of countries. "There were troops from Australia, New Zealand, India, Africa and the West Indies" is a Level 1 sentence in Cambridge's own scheme. Attach every country to a battle or a figure.
• Confusing this Key Question with Key Question 3. Answering a question about the reach of the war with material on Jutland, the U-boats, Gallipoli or the Eastern Front. Those belong to the neighbouring file.
• Answering a "why" question with a "what". Asked why war broke out in South West Africa, describing how it was won. Asked why the Arab Revolt broke out, describing the raids. The causes of both are political and they are in sections 5 and 7 above.
• Giving Japan's motives as a substitute for Japan's contribution. The mark scheme treats motive and contribution as separate questions, and rewards a candidate who says so.
• Using material Cambridge credits but the syllabus does not name. Australian troops capturing Gaza and Jerusalem, and the West Indies contingents, appear in the mark schemes and are creditable. But the specified content names only Indian and Canadian troops as case studies. Use the others as supporting breadth, never as your main body of evidence.

11. Quick revision

• Key Question: To what extent was it a world war? Four focus points: British Empire troops on the Western Front, Indian and South African troops in Africa, Japan, the Arab Revolt.
• Where it sits: Paper 1 Section B. Depth study A is always Questions 9 and 10. Section B ran to Question 22 up to 2023 with seven depth studies; it runs Question 9 to Question 18 from 2024 with five.
• How often: 5 of 48 papers from 2018 to 2024, and all five in 2024, the first year the content was examinable. Four at Question 9, one at Question 10.
• Scale: British Empire about 4 million troops. Over 5 million Allied men on the Western Front. 140,000 Indians and just over 400,000 Canadians there. Over 250,000 South Africans in the war overall.
• India: Force A Western Front, B East Africa, D Mesopotamia and largest, G Gallipoli. Led the assault at Neuve Chapelle, March 1915, about half the Allied troops there. Somme 1916, Cambrai 1918. More than a million sent overseas by 1918. Over 60,000 killed in action; over 9,000 of those on the Western Front.
• Canada: Second Ypres spring 1915, first large-scale gas attack. Somme. Vimy Ridge 9 to 12 April 1917, four divisions, largest Allied territorial advance to that point, more than 10,600 killed and wounded, tunnels and mines and air operations, German collapse in the Arras sector. Passchendaele 1917. Spearheaded the Hundred Days Offensive 1918.
• South West Africa: ports and radio transmitters; the Maritz rebellion, about 12,000 Boers still resentful of 1902; Lukin, then Botha and Smuts from February 1915; four columns, sea landing at Swakopmund, mounted units; Gibeon 1915; German surrender at Khorab; 60,000 South African volunteers; casualties about 500 to over 1,000; ruled afterwards as a mandate.
• German East Africa: Tanga 1914, British and Indian amphibious attack with 8,000 Indian reserves from Force B, defeated; Lettow-Vorbeck's guerrilla campaign ties down far more Allied troops; Smuts 1916 with South African troops, attacks from Kenya, takes the Dar es Salaam to Morogoro railway; Salaita Hill and Nyangao; Smuts replaces Europeans with African troops who cope with the climate; Lettow-Vorbeck crosses into Mozambique; German surrender November 1918.
• South Africa beyond the fighting: 19,000 casualties, 3,000 to the Royal Flying Corps, over 100 to the Royal Navy, eight Victoria Crosses, ports used for the Asian campaign, and two-thirds of the Empire's gold production to buy American munitions.
• Japan: Tsingtao (also printed Qingdao), German and Austro-Hungarian naval base built from a village, its fall ends Germany's eastern empire; fleet at Malta; escorted more than 700 transports carrying over 500,000 troops and sailors; secured the Suez to Marseilles route and the Pacific and Indian Ocean sea lanes; destroyed the German navy in Chinese waters. Against: acting for itself in China and the South Pacific, worried about the Philippines, bargained in 1916 for support for its claims, and left the war with greater prestige.
• Arab Revolt: caused by Arab nationalism after the Young Turk Revolution, the First Arab Congress of 1913, and an Anglo-Arab agreement; led by Hussein bin Ali with Faisal and Lawrence; guerrilla war on Turkish supply lines; Aqaba, the Hejaz, the Red Sea ports, Taif, Megiddo, Jaffa, Jerusalem, Damascus 1918; freed tens of thousands of British troops for Europe. Against: needed British ships, guns and Indian and Egyptian reinforcements, Jeddah fell to naval bombardment, Medina never fell, and Allenby won the campaign.
• The judgement: separate fought across the world, fought by the world and decided by the world. The first two are strong, the third is weak, and saying so is a Level 5 conclusion.
• The boundary: yours is reach. How important were other fronts? is about outcome. Jutland, the U-boats, Gallipoli, the Eastern Front and civilians belong there. The Western Front stalemate belongs to Key Question 1.

Where these facts come from

History notes are only as good as their sourcing, so this section is deliberately explicit.

From the Cambridge IGCSE History 0470 syllabus for 2027 and 2028: the Key Question and all four focus points; the whole Depth study A specified content list; the definitions of key questions, focus points and specified content; the five depth studies; the Paper 1 structure and the Section A and Section B instruction; the assessment objective weightings; and the fact that the depth studies are also assessed by Component 3 and Paper 4.

From the Paper 1 mark schemes for the 2024 series, which are the only papers that have examined this Key Question: every figure and every name in sections 4 to 8. Specifically, from the March 2024 paper, the Canadian record and the 425,000 and 234,700 figures, the Tsingtao material, and the whole of the Arab Revolt significance material including Taif, Megiddo, Jaffa, Jeddah, Medina, Aqaba, the Hejaz, Allenby and the Egypt and Suez counterfactual. From the June 2024 papers, Japan's contribution and the 700 transports and 500,000 men, the Malta fleet, the Suez to Marseilles route, the 1916 bargain, the causes of the Arab Revolt including the Young Turk Revolution and the First Arab Congress of 1913 and Hussein bin Ali, the Lawrence material including Faisal and Damascus, the British Empire's 4 million and the 140,000 Indians and the over 5 million on the Western Front and the Australian and West Indian references, the German East Africa narrative including Tanga, Lettow-Vorbeck, Smuts, the Dar es Salaam to Morogoro railway, Mozambique and the November 1918 surrender, the South African material on Smuts and van Deventer, Salaita Hill, Nyangao, Botha, Swakopmund, Gibeon and the 60,000 volunteers, and the Canadian material on Second Ypres, Vimy, Passchendaele and the Hundred Days. From the November 2024 paper, the Vimy Ridge dates and the 10,600 casualties and the "largest territorial advance" claim, the Maritz rebellion and the 12,000 Boers and the radio transmitters and the 1902 reference, and the Indian Expeditionary Force lettering with Neuve Chapelle, the million sent overseas and the over 60,000 killed.

From the Paper 4 mark schemes for the 2024 series: the Indian Expeditionary Force A figure of about 150,000, the Ypres Salient deployment, the climate and training difficulties, the Somme cavalry and the Cambrai advance, the over 9,000 Indian dead on the Western Front, the two cavalry and two infantry divisions and the four Canadian divisions, the Victoria Cross references, the tunnels and mines and air operations at Vimy and the Arras collapse, and the whole South African summary including 250,000 troops, 19,000 casualties, 3,000 to the Royal Flying Corps, over 100 to the Royal Navy, eight Victoria Crosses, General Lukin, the January and February 1915 dates, the four columns, Khorab, the roughly 500 and over 1,000 casualties, the mandate, the ports, and the two-thirds of Empire gold production.

From the Principal Examiner reports, 2018 to 2024: the finding that there is no commentary on any of these five questions, and that the March 2024 report records too few responses to Questions 9 and 10 for meaningful comment.

Established by reading all 48 Paper 1 question papers and mark schemes from 2018 to 2024, because Cambridge publishes it nowhere: that Section B begins at Question 9 in every series; that Depth study A is Questions 9 and 10 in every series; that Section B ran to Question 22 with seven depth studies up to 2023 and to Question 18 with five from 2024; and that exactly five papers, all from 2024, set a question on this Key Question, four at Question 9 and one at Question 10.

Deliberately left out, because no Cambridge document read for these notes states it: total casualty figures for any of the African campaigns beyond South West Africa; the size of the German force in East Africa; the total number of Japanese sailors or ships engaged; the number of Arab fighters in the Revolt; the number of West Indian, Australian or New Zealand troops; the date the Arab Revolt began beyond the year 1916; and the strength of any British Empire contingent not listed above. Casualty and troop figures on this content are exactly where an invented number would look plausible, so if you want any of these, take them from your own textbook and attribute them there rather than assuming they came from a mark scheme.

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