Types and causes of war: the framework
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Question
What is a civil war?
Answer
A war between organised groups inside the same country fighting for control of the state — e.g. the Spanish Civil War (1936–39).
Question
What is a guerrilla war?
Answer
A war in which small, mobile fighters use ambushes, sabotage and hit-and-run raids instead of open battle, usually against a stronger regular army.
Question
What is a limited war?
Answer
A war fought for restricted aims with restricted means, deliberately not using full power — e.g. the Korean War (1950–53).
Question
What is a total war?
Answer
A war in which a state mobilises its entire society — economy, industry, civilians, propaganda — and targets the enemy's whole population, as in WWII.
Question
Name the five categories of cause (E-I-P-T-R).
Answer
Economic, Ideological, Political, Territorial and Religious causes.
Question
Give an example of an economic cause of war.
Answer
The Great Depression, which fuelled aggression by Germany and Japan and drove the hunt for resources and markets in the 1930s.
Question
What is the difference between a long-term and a short-term cause?
Answer
Long-term (underlying) causes build over years and make war likely; short-term (immediate) causes are the final events that set it off.
Question
What is the difference between a cause and a catalyst?
Answer
A cause is a reason the war happened; a catalyst (trigger) is merely the spark that set it off — e.g. the 1939 invasion of Poland.
Question
Why is the invasion of Poland (1939) a trigger, not the main cause?
Answer
It sparked the declarations of war, but the real causes were the Treaty of Versailles, the Depression, Nazi ideology and failed appeasement.
Question
What does 'historians weigh causes' mean?
Answer
They judge the relative importance of causes — naming which mattered most and explaining why it outweighs the others, rather than just listing them.
Question
How should you structure a Paper 2 comparative causation essay?
Answer
Thematically: each paragraph takes one theme and discusses both wars together, so the essay genuinely compares — better than war-by-war.
Question
What two questions help you rank causes?
Answer
'Why then?' (the trigger explains timing) and 'why at all?' (the deep long-term causes explain the war itself).
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Causes of war
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