2025 RI H2 History Prelims (Paper 1)

© Raffles Institution 2025 1 RAFFLES INSTITUTION PRELIMINARY EXAMINATION 2025 General Certificate of Education Advanced Level Higher 2 HISTORY 9174/01 Paper 1 The Changing International Order (1945-2000) 16 September 2025 3 hours READ THESE INSTRUCTIONS FIRST Write your full name, class and index number on the answer booklet(s). Write in dark blue or black pen. Do not use staples, paper clips, glue or correction fluid/tape. Section A Answer Question 1. Section B Answer two questions. Use only the answer booklet provided and use both sides of the paper. This document consists of 5 printed pages.

© Raffles Institution 2025 2 Section A You must answer Question 1. REVOLUTION IN POLAND IN THE 1980s 1 Read the sources and answer the questions which follow. Source A Solidarity was not only a trade union, but a mass opposition movement against communist totalitarianism, formed by anti- socialist circles to deepen the crisis in Poland and to undermine the basis of socialism in the country. It was a weakening of the (Soviet) leadership of the Party and the violation of its ties with the masses. The Solidarity movement was the full revelry of the counter-revolution caused by the subversive activities of imperialism and mistakes in domestic policy rather than by the shortcomings of the socialist system . It was a violation of the laws of socialist construction and a distortion of the principles of socialist democracy . This negative experience showed how it was important to strengthen the unity of the brother parties, to give a decisive rebuff to the anti-socialist forces, and to overcome imperialistic attacks, the machinations of American imperialism and the CIA. After the Soviet invasion in Afghanistan and international reaction to it, the situation in Poland must be treated as an internal Polish affair. We do not intend to send troops into Poland, even if Poland falls under the control of Solidarity. Soviet communist views of the Solidarity movement, 1989. Source B The Solidarity movement was an example of the effective struggle for freedom against communist power, inspired the traditional opposition movement to move away from its cultural and literary methods toward a more popular and active trend – creating independent trade-unions. (It was) proof of the possibility of mass revolution that could overthrow the communist regime. They had supported and defended Solidarity. The hostile activity of Solidarity was a powerful motion, a large force of the struggle for human rights, freedom and democracy against totalitarian power but for national liberation as well. There was no other nation in the totalitarian world as the Polish people who were so faithfully defending their human and national rights. Poland gives an example for Ukraine. The magic influence of Solidarity gave us a hope that it would weaken the links that connected countries of the socialist camp. When the movement was founded, no one believed that the Soviet Union and the government of Poland would give up in front of the people’s peaceful movement. From an analysis by an anti-Soviet Polish group, 1990.

© Raffles Institution 2025 3 Source C We Poles feel that the reason for existence of the State is the sovereignty of society, of the nation, of the motherland. The painful and essentially negative experience has become as it were a new form of Polish patriotism. Peace and the drawing together of the peoples can be achieved only on the principle of respect for the rights of the nation, such as the right to existenc e, to freedom. Therefore, while all forms of colonialism remain in contradiction to the exigencies of the international order, it is necessary to esteem all the pacts which are based on reciprocal respect You are the future of the nation. Remember this well, you who are justly longing for changes bringing a better and more just society, you who rightly oppose every kind of discrimination, of violence inflicted on human beings. It must lead to full actualization of human rights. Address of his Holiness John Paul II to civil authorities and University students in Warsaw, June 1979. Source D Pan-European process is a reality and continues to evolve. The respect for the sovereign right of each people to choose their social system is the most important prerequisite for a normal European process. The idea of European unification (means that) any interference in internal affairs to limit the sovereignty of states are inadmissible. Thanks to perestroika which called for new relations, the Soviet Union will be in a position to take full part in such an honest, equal and constructive competition. The Soviet Union and the United States are a natural part of the European political structure. It is up to all the participants in the European process, to make the use of the groundwork laid down through our common efforts. Our idea of a common European home serves the same purpose. I just wish to tell you to put the European common values in the forefront and to replace the traditional balance of forces with a balance of interests. From a speech made by Gorbachev to the Council of Europe in Strasbourg in July 1989.

© Raffles Institution 2025 4 Source E A cartoon published in an American newspaper, November 1989. Source F On February 6, 1989, negotiations between the Polish government and the underground labour union, Solidarity opened officially in Warsaw. The organisation survived due to support from Western labour organisations and Polish émigré* groups. The results of the ‘Round Table Talks’ on April 4, included free elections and the recognition of Solidarity as a political party. On June 4, as Chinese tanks crushed student-led protests in Beijing, Solidarity delivered a crushing electoral victory. By August 24, ten years after Solidarity emerged on the scene, Mazowiecki became the first non -communist Prime Minister in Eastern Europe. The Reagan’s administrations strong rhetoric in support of the political aspirations of Eastern European was met, following 1985, with a new type of leader in the Soviet Union, Gorbachev (who) made more public that the Soviet Union abandoned the policy of military intervention in support of communist regimes. *Émigré refers to people who have left their own country in order to settle in another, typically for political reasons. Adapted from a US source, Office of the Historian, 1991.

© Raffles Institution 2025 5 Now answer the following questions: (a) Compare and contrast the evidence in Sources A and B regarding the views on Poland’s Solidarity Movement in the 1980s. [10] (b) How far do Sources A to F support the argument that Gorbachev was mainly responsible for the end of communist rule in Poland? [30] Section B You must answer two questions from this section. EITHER 2 To what extent do you agree that the challenges in the global economy in the 1970s and 1980s were mainly the result of the oil crisis of the 1970s? [30] OR 3 ‘Problems in the global economy in the 1970s was the most responsible for the transformation of Japan’s economy.’ How far do you agree with this view? [30] AND EITHER 4 How far do you agree that the USA was the key to the management of the Arab-Israeli conflict between 1948 and 1979? [30] OR 5 How important was Congolese domestic politics in causing the Congo Crisis of 1960-1965? [30]