MAPS OF HISTORY · IB HISTORY · PAPER 3 · AFRICA AND THE MIDDLE EAST
IB HISTORY · PAPER 3 · HIGHER LEVEL
Paper 3: Africa and the Middle East
Paper 3 is the Higher Level paper on one region of the world, studied in depth. This page gathers what our atlases hold for Africa and the Middle East: the Paper 1 case studies set in the region, with their evidence and essay plans, and the atlases filed under it for Higher Level. In all, four atlases cover the region.
Section numbers follow the provisional outline of the new course, which names each section by its number until the final guide is published; we will add the section titles then. Your teacher can tell you which sections your class studies.
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Sections
None of our IB notes is tagged for a section of Africa and the Middle East yet. Two kinds of chapter serve the region today: the Paper 1 case studies set here, whose IB notes carry evidence and essay plans, and the atlases filed under the region for Higher Level, whose chapters carry the full study layer while their IB notes are prepared.
Paper 1 case studies set in this region
These chapters were written for a Paper 1 Focused Study, so their notes are tagged for Paper 1 and Paper 2. They are set in the region, and their evidence serves a regional essay just as well.
Kenya · Paper 1 · Independence and Identity
- The White HighlandsTWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 7 · 1895–1939
- War, Land and the OathTWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 8 · 1939–1952
- The EmergencyTWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 9 · 1952–1960
- The Road to UhuruTWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 10 · 1960–1963
- Challenges after IndependenceTWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 11 · 1963–1978
From June 1954 villagisation moved over a million people, 1,050,899 by Caroline Elkins’s count, into some 800 guarded villages, cutting the forest fighters off from food and recruits.— Two Roads to Independence, chapter 9: The Emergency
Tunisia 2010–2015 · Paper 1 · Protest and Change
- Bourguiba’s TunisiaPROTEST AND CHANGE · CHAPTER 7 · 1956–1987
- Ben Ali: Stability and SilencePROTEST AND CHANGE · CHAPTER 8 · 1987–2010
- Twenty-Eight DaysPROTEST AND CHANGE · CHAPTER 9 · DECEMBER 2010 – JANUARY 2011
- Building a DemocracyPROTEST AND CHANGE · CHAPTER 10 · 2011–2014
- Terrorism and FragilityPROTEST AND CHANGE · CHAPTER 11 · 2012–2015
Between 8 and 10 January 2011 police killed at least 25 people in Kasserine, Thala and Regueb, according to Amnesty International, and the funerals turned a regional revolt into a national one.— Protest and Change, chapter 9: Twenty-Eight Days
Practice questions and essay plans
Until a section of this region is tagged, these questions come from the Paper 1 case studies set here; each asks for the regional depth a Paper 3 essay needs. Each comes with the outline of a model plan; the full plans are in the chapters’ IB notes in the atlas.
PAPER 2 · TWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 7
Examine the ways in which colonial rule in Kenya created the grievances that later fuelled nationalism, 1895–1939.
Colonial rule in Kenya created the grievances of later nationalism through three linked mechanisms: land taken for settlers along the railway, taxes and passes that forced Africans into wage labour, and a state that answered to settlers. Together they turned scattered communities into peoples with a common cause against the colonial order.
Land was taken by law for a settler economy.
Tax and the kipande created a controlled labour force.
The state served settlers, and protest met force.
The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 7 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: The White Highlands.
PAPER 2 · PROTEST AND CHANGE · CHAPTER 7
To what extent did the reforms of Habib Bourguiba (1956–1987) improve the position of women in Tunisia?
Bourguiba’s reforms transformed Tunisian women’s legal position more than any comparable reforms in the Arab world, but because they were imposed by a one-party state they gave women rights without the freedom to organise, and their benefits reached urban, coastal women faster than the rural interior.
Family law changed fundamentally.
Political and reproductive rights followed.
Authoritarian rule limited women’s agency.
The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 7 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: Bourguiba’s Tunisia.
PAPER 2 · TWO ROADS TO INDEPENDENCE · CHAPTER 11
To what extent did Jomo Kenyatta maintain power between 1963 and 1978 through methods inherited from colonial rule?
Kenyatta maintained power largely through institutions inherited from colonial rule, especially the provincial administration and detention laws, but he combined them with new methods: patronage through land and office, ethnic alliances and a carefully managed single party. Kenyatta also benefited from Cold War support for his pro-Western course.
The colonial state’s machinery was kept and used.
Patronage through land bound supporters to the regime.
Ethnic politics and the party narrowed opposition.
The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 11 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: Challenges after Independence.
More atlases set in this region
These atlases are filed under Africa and the Middle East for Higher Level. Their IB notes are in preparation; meanwhile every chapter carries the study layer (why it happened, the turning point, what it changed and a discussion question), and each atlas has its own IB History page.
The Crusades 1095 – 1291
Why did half of Europe march east? What they built and burned there, and what two centuries of contact changed on every shore of the Mediterranean.
A QUESTION TO ARGUE · CHAPTER 7
Richard beat Saladin at Arsuf and Jaffa but never tried to hold Jerusalem. Was that failure or realism?
It was realism, and the mark of a general who understood the difference between a battle and a war. Richard could win field engagements, but a Jerusalem garrison would have been a besieged island in Muslim territory, cut off from the sea and impossible to supply while Egypt fed Saladin’s war. Storming the city for the symbolism and then losing it (as would happen to others) would have been the true failure. The 1192 treaty — pilgrim access without possession — extracted the most that force could deliver from an insoluble position, and Richard’s recognition that Egypt, not Jerusalem, was the strategic key was the crusade’s most clear-eyed conclusion. Judging him by the medieval yardstick (did he retake the Holy City?) misses that he read the map correctly and his contemporaries did not.
The chapter behind it: The Third Crusade.
The 12 chapters
- Three Civilizations, One SeaCHAPTER 1 · THE WORLD OF 1095
- The First CrusadeCHAPTER 2 · 1096–1099
- A Society on the EdgeCHAPTER 3 · OUTREMER
- Europe’s First Standing InstitutionsCHAPTER 4 · THE MILITARY ORDERS
- Zengi, Nur al-Din, and the Second CrusadeCHAPTER 5 · 1144–1149
- SaladinCHAPTER 6 · 1171–1187
- The Third CrusadeCHAPTER 7 · 1189–1192
- The Fourth Crusade — The Wrong EndingCHAPTER 8 · 1202–1204
- The Idea Turned LooseCHAPTER 9 · CRUSADING EVERYWHERE
- The Crusades of KingsCHAPTER 10 · 1218–1270
- Baibars and the EndCHAPTER 11 · 1244–1291
- What the Crusades MadeEPILOGUE · 1291 AND AFTER
The Decolonization of Africa 1945 – 1994
The half-century in which the most bordered continent on earth drew its own map — negotiated in some capitals, fought for in others.
A QUESTION TO ARGUE · CHAPTER 7
The OAU’s decision to keep colonial borders is defended as the guarantor of African peace and attacked as the freezing of colonial injustice. Weigh the case.
For the decision: inter-state and secessionist wars in Africa have been strikingly rare given the arbitrariness of the borders, and the two great secession attempts of the era (Katanga, Biafra) were catastrophic. Evidence that opening the question of borders risks continent-wide war. Freezing the lines gave fragile states a fixed frame in which to build and denied every ethnic grievance the explosive precedent of a successful breakaway. Against it: the borders were drawn for European convenience, splitting nations (the Somalis across five states) and forcing hostile peoples together, guaranteeing internal conflict, weak legitimacy and the “artificial state” problem that fuels much of Africa’s instability. The principle also protected dictators behind the shield of non-interference. The honest verdict is a genuine trade-off: the bargain probably did prevent a worse chaos of border wars, but it did so by locking in injustices whose costs were paid internally, in civil wars and failed states, rather than between nations. Stability and justice pulled in opposite directions, and Africa’s leaders chose stability. Reasonably, but not without a heavy price.
The chapter behind it: Building States from Colonies.
The 12 chapters
- How Thin the Empire Really WasCHAPTER 1 · THE COLONIAL MAP OF 1945
- The First DoorsCHAPTER 2 · 1951–1956
- Ghana — The ModelCHAPTER 3 · 1947–1957
- Algeria — The ExceptionCHAPTER 4 · 1954–1962
- The Year of AfricaCHAPTER 5 · 1960
- The Congo CrisisCHAPTER 6 · 1960–1965
- Building States from ColoniesCHAPTER 7 · 1963–1979
- The Portuguese Empire Falls LastCHAPTER 8 · 1961–1975
- The Settler RedoubtCHAPTER 9 · 1965–1990
- Apartheid’s Long FallCHAPTER 10 · 1948–1990
- The Four Years That Decided ItCHAPTER 11 · 1990–1994
- What Independence Achieved, and Could NotEPILOGUE · THE LEDGER OF FREEDOM
Revision tools
Test yourself on every atlas set in the region. Each atlas ends with a map quiz that asks you to find places and moments on the map itself; the quick quiz and the printable study guide are free pages on this site.
- Two Roads to Independence: Haiti and Kenya
MAP QUIZ · QUICK QUIZ · PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE - Protest and Change
MAP QUIZ · QUICK QUIZ · PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE - The Crusades
MAP QUIZ · QUICK QUIZ · PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE - The Decolonization of Africa
MAP QUIZ · QUICK QUIZ · PRINTABLE STUDY GUIDE
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.
THE DISPATCH
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