OCR A-Level History A H505
Y101: Alfred and the Making of England 871–1016Unit group 1
Y102: Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest 1035–1107Unit group 1
Y103: England 1199–1272Unit group 1
Y104: England 1377–1455Unit group 1
Y105: England 1445–1509: Lancastrians, Yorkists and Henry VIIUnit group 1
Y106: England 1485–1558: The Early TudorsUnit group 1
Y107: England 1547–1603: The Later TudorsUnit group 1
Y108: The Early Stuarts and the Origins of the Civil War 1603–1660Unit group 1
Y109: The Making of Georgian Britain 1678–c.1760Unit group 1
Y110: From Pitt to Peel 1783–1853Unit group 1
Y111: Liberals, Conservatives and the Rise of Labour 1846–1918Unit group 1
Y112: Britain 1900–1951Unit group 1
Y113: Britain 1930–1997Unit group 1
Y201: The Rise of Islam c.550–750Unit group 2
Y202: Charlemagne 768–814Unit group 2
Y203: The Crusades and the Crusader States 1095–1192Unit group 2
Y204: Genghis Khan and the Explosion From the Steppes c.1167–1405Unit group 2
Y205: Exploration, Encounters and Empire 1445–1570Unit group 2
Y206: Spain 1469–1556Unit group 2
Y207: The German Reformation and the Rule of Charles v 1500–1559Unit group 2
Y208: Philip II 1556–1598Unit group 2
Y209: African Kingdoms c.1400–c.1800: Four Case StudiesUnit group 2
Y210: Russia 1645–1741Unit group 2
Y211: The Rise and Decline of the Mughal Empire in India 1526–1739Unit group 2
Y212: The American Revolution 1740–1796Unit group 2
Y213: The French Revolution and the Rule of Napoleon 1774–1815Unit group 2
Y214: France 1814–1870Unit group 2
Y215: Italy and Unification 1789–1896Unit group 2
Y216: The USA in the 19th Century: Westward Expansion and Civil War 1803–c.1890Unit group 2
Y217: Japan 1853–1937Unit group 2
Y218: International Relations 1890–1941Unit group 2
Y219: Russia 1894–1941Unit group 2
Y220: Italy 1896–1943Unit group 2
Y221: Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919–1963Unit group 2
Y222: The Cold War in Asia 1945–1993Unit group 2
Y223: The Cold War in Europe 1941–1995Unit group 2
Y224: Apartheid and Reconciliation: South African Politics 1948–1999Unit group 2
Y301: The Early Anglo-Saxons c.400–800Unit group 3
Y302: The Viking Age c.790–1066Unit group 3
Y303: English Government and the Church 1066–1216Unit group 3
Y304: The Church and Medieval Heresy c.1100–1437Unit group 3
Y305: The Renaissance c.1400–c.1600Unit group 3
Y306: Rebellion and Disorder Under the Tudors 1485–1603Unit group 3
Y307: Tudor Foreign Policy 1485–1603Unit group 3
Y308: The Catholic Reformation 1492–1610Unit group 3
Y309: The Ascendancy of the Ottoman Empire 1453–1606Unit group 3
Y310: The Development of the Nation State: France 1498–1610Unit group 3
Y311: The Origins and Growth of the British Empire 1558–1783Unit group 3
Y312: Popular Culture and the Witchcraze of the 16th and 17th CenturiesUnit group 3
Y313: The Ascendancy of France 1610–1715Unit group 3
Y314: The Challenge of German Nationalism 1789–1919Unit group 3
Y315: The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945Unit group 3
Y316: Britain and Ireland 1791–1921Unit group 3
Y317: China and Its Rulers 1839–1989Unit group 3
Y318: Russia and Its Rulers 1855–1964Unit group 3
Y319: Civil Rights in the USA 1865–1992Unit group 3
Y320: From Colonialism to Independence: The British Empire 1857–1965Unit group 3
Y321: The Middle East 1908–2011: Ottomans to Arab SpringUnit group 3
Y315: The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945
- 13 subtopics
- 37 things to know
- Unit group 3
- Thematic study and interpretations, one unit of twenty-one
What Y315: The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945 covers
The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945 is unit Y315 of OCR History A, one of the twenty-one options in unit group 3, the thematic study and historical interpretations; a student sits one of them. Its four key topics and three depth studies are the impact of factors directly related to the conduct of war, the impact of technological change, planning and preparation, the relationship between relevant domestic factors and warfare, the French Revolutionary Wars 1792–1802, the American Civil War 1861–1865, the Western Front and the First World War 1914–1918. 374 recall questions across 13 subtopics.
Where it is assessed
Unit group 3
Thematic study and historical interpretations, one unit of twenty-one.
Check the OCR specification ↗The 13 subtopics
Each one has its own page.
- The impact of factors directly related to the conduct of war: Generalship and its impactRecall questions on Generalship and its impact, the development of strategy, the aims of campaigns and their determination, the development of tactics, shock tactics, cult of the offensive.Open →
- The impact of factors directly related to the conduct of war: concept of ‘Total War’Recall questions on the concept of Total War, the involvement of civilians, casualties.Open →
- The impact of technological change: Industrialisation and technologyRecall questions on industrialisation and technology, developments in communication and transport including telegraph.Open →
- The impact of technological change: development of weaponryRecall questions on development of weaponry including the rifle, artillery developments, machine gun, tanks, aeroplane.Open →
- Planning and preparation: general staffs, army organisation and war plansRecall questions on the Prussian General Staff and staff training, mission command, the corps and divisional systems, the Schlieffen Plan and its failure, Plan XVII and railway mobilisation in 1914.Open →
- Planning and preparation: alliances, staff work and the limits of planningRecall questions on coalitions against France, the Crimean allies, Entente coordination in 1918, the Central Powers, staff work for mass armies, command and control, the Prussian short-service system, logistics and why plans failed.Open →
- The relationship between relevant domestic factors and warfare: organisation of the state for warRecall questions on the organisation of the state for war, public opinion, morale, patriotism and the impact of mass literacy, franchise and the popular press, censorship, conscription, economics and the cost of war, the mobilisation of the economy, mass production, manpower and resources.Open →
- Depth study: The French Revolutionary Wars 1792–1802 — Generalship and developments in weaponryRecall questions on Generalship, the quality of the soldiers, the development of tactics and strategy, developments in weaponry.Open →
- Depth study: The French Revolutionary Wars 1792–1802 — coalitions, conscription and interpretationsRecall questions on rapid signalling from 1794, the break-up of the First Coalition, Bonaparte in Italy, the Loi Jourdan, resistance to conscription, the peace settlements and debates over a new army and total war.Open →
- Depth study: The American Civil War 1861–1865 — resources, weapons, railways and manpowerRecall questions on Union population and industry, Confederate improvisation, the main infantry weapon, the soldiers, railways and the telegraph, Confederate diplomacy, conscription and the twenty-slave law.Open →
- Depth study: The American Civil War 1861–1865 — Grant, Atlanta and interpretationsRecall questions on black soldiers, Grant’s command, the fall of Atlanta, the death toll, whether this was the first modern or a total war, the rifled musket debate, Confederate defeat and Lee’s reputation.Open →
- Depth study: The Western Front and the First World War 1914–1918 — trench deadlock, offensives and tactical changeRecall questions on trench deadlock, Verdun, recruitment and public support, the first day of the Somme, the Nivelle offensive, British tactical change, stormtroop tactics and Amiens in August 1918.Open →
- Depth study: The Western Front and the First World War 1914–1918 — total war, alliances and interpretationsRecall questions on artillery casualties, total war states, the growth of the BEF, unity of command, the alliance balance, logistics, the advocate of massed tanks, lions led by donkeys, Terraine, the learning curve and its critics.Open →
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
Why did railways not restore mobility to the battlefield itself?
What military advantages did steam power at sea and on rivers bring?
Explain what radar was and the difference it made in 1940.
Outline the essentials of the Schlieffen Plan.
Explain how mass production changed the relationship between industry and victory.
Name the main infantry weapon of the war and describe its capabilities.
How did the balance between the alliances change in 1917 and 1918?
Define Total War.
Describe the corps system and explain why it was an advance in organisation.
What weakened the allied conduct of the Crimean War?
How did the British system deal with those who refused to fight on grounds of conscience?
How have historians questioned the idea that patriotism alone kept French soldiers fighting?
On what grounds has it been argued that these wars were the first total war?
How did the telegraph affect the direction of the Union war effort?
Was the American Civil War a total war?
Why have interpretations of the Western Front changed so much since 1918?
Distinguish between strategy and tactics.
How did Jomini's approach to war differ from Clausewitz's?
What effect did the magazine rifle and smokeless powder have by the 1890s?
Explain the significance of the quick-firing field gun introduced in the 1890s.
Why were the coalitions against Revolutionary and Napoleonic France so often ineffective?
Why was Carnot called the Organiser of Victory?
Name the pre-revolutionary theorist whose writings shaped French tactics and organisation.
How many died in the war, and why is the figure disputed?
How did the British state sustain public support and find the men it needed?
How did the British army's tactics change between 1916 and 1918?
Which French officer's pre-war lectures did most to popularise the doctrine of the all-out offensive?
Explain what a strategy of attrition means and give one example of it.
Define indirect fire and explain why it changed artillery's role.
Where were Prussian staff officers trained?
What weakened the Central Powers' planning as an alliance?
Why was the British Ministry of Munitions created in 1915?
What technical innovation allowed news to travel rapidly from the northern frontier to Paris from 1794?
State the Union's advantage in population over the Confederacy.
How have historians disagreed about the impact of the rifled musket?
Name the arm that caused the majority of casualties on the Western Front.
Take Y315: The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945 further
The same content, four other ways.
Commonly confused
Pairs that lose marks when they are blurred together.
Amalgame vs Shock tactics
Amalgame: the merging of conscript battalions with regulars to steady the new armies. Shock tactics: the reliance on the massed assault in column to break an enemy line.
Cult of the offensive vs Total War
Cult of the offensive: the conviction before 1914 that attack and moral force would decide a war quickly. Total War: the mobilisation of a whole society, its economy and its civilians for the war effort.
Schlieffen Plan vs Plan XVII
Schlieffen Plan: the German design for a wheeling advance through Belgium to defeat France quickly. Plan XVII: the French design for an immediate offensive into the lost provinces.
Questions from this topic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Distinguish between strategy and tactics.
Model answer
Strategy is the overall plan for using armed force to achieve the war's political aims, while tactics are the methods used to win an individual engagement.
- 2
Name the qualities that made Napoleon's generalship so effective.
Model answer
He combined speed of march, the concentration of superior force at the decisive point, the use of self-contained corps that marched apart and fought together, and a personal authority that inspired his troops.
- 3
Who wrote On War, and what was his most famous claim about the nature of war?
Model answer
Carl von Clausewitz, a Prussian officer, argued that war is the continuation of policy by other means and can never be separated from its political purpose.
- 4
What did Clausewitz mean by friction?
Model answer
He meant the accumulation of small difficulties, delays, mistakes and uncertainties that make even simple operations hard to carry out in war.
- 5
How did Jomini's approach to war differ from Clausewitz's?
Model answer
Jomini treated war as governed by fixed geometrical principles such as interior lines and concentration on decisive points, whereas Clausewitz stressed uncertainty, chance and the primacy of politics.
- 6
Define shock tactics.
Model answer
Shock tactics are massed close-quarter assaults, such as the bayonet charge or the cavalry charge, intended to break the enemy's formation and will by physical and psychological impact.
What is inside Levo
Six ways to work the same material.
Y315: The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945 revision questions
- What does Y315: The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945 cover in OCR A-Level History A?
- 13 subtopics: the impact of factors directly related to the conduct of war: generalship and its impact, the impact of factors directly related to the conduct of war: concept of ‘total war’, the impact of technological change: industrialisation and technology, the impact of technological change: development of weaponry, planning and preparation: general staffs, army organisation and war plans, planning and preparation: alliances, staff work and the limits of planning, the relationship between relevant domestic factors and warfare: organisation of the state for war, depth study: the french revolutionary wars 1792–1802 — generalship and developments in weaponry, depth study: the french revolutionary wars 1792–1802 — coalitions, conscription and interpretations, depth study: the american civil war 1861–1865 — resources, weapons, railways and manpower, depth study: the american civil war 1861–1865 — grant, atlanta and interpretations, depth study: the western front and the first world war 1914–1918 — trench deadlock, offensives and tactical change and depth study: the western front and the first world war 1914–1918 — total war, alliances and interpretations. Each one has its own page with questions and model answers.
- How is Y315: The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945 organised?
- By the OCR H505 specification, subtopic by subtopic, so it matches the order you are taught it in.
Every question in Y315: The Changing Nature of Warfare 1792–1945, on a schedule.
Attempt a question from memory, write the correct version, then attempt it again. Levo records the jump between your first attempt and your last, and brings each question back on the day you are due to forget it.
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