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MAPS OF HISTORY · IB HISTORY · PAPER 3 · THE AMERICAS

IB HISTORY · PAPER 3 · HIGHER LEVEL

Paper 3: The Americas

Paper 3 is the Higher Level paper on one region of the world, studied in depth. This page gathers what our atlases hold for the Americas: the sections our IB notes are tagged for, the chapters behind each, evidence to use and model essay plans, followed by the other atlases set in the region. In all, seven 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.

Map from Protest and Change: Second-Wave Feminism and Tunisia, 1945–2015
PROTEST AND CHANGE: SECOND-WAVE FEMINISM AND TUNISIA, 1945–2015 · CHAPTER 9
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Section 11.4

One chapter in The Industrial Revolution carries IB notes for this section.

Section 11.11

Five chapters in Protest and Change carry IB notes for this section.

Practice questions and essay plans

Paper 3 asks for depth, so these questions come from chapters tagged for the sections above. Each comes with the outline of a model plan; the full plans are in the chapters’ IB notes in the atlas.

PAPER 2 · THE INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION · CHAPTER 9

Evaluate the impact of industrialisation on workers in the United States between 1865 and 1914.

THESIS

Industrialisation brought American workers higher wages than Europe’s and new mass-produced goods, but also dangerous work, insecurity and violent repression of unions. Its impact varied sharply by group, with immigrants, Chinese workers and Black southerners bearing the heaviest costs. Industrial wealth and industrial conflict grew together.

THE THREE POINTS

  1. Wages and opportunities drew millions of workers.

  2. Work was dangerous and unions were broken by force.

  3. Race and origin decided who could share the gains.

The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 9 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: America Industrialises.

PAPER 2 · PROTEST AND CHANGE · CHAPTER 1

To what extent was the emergence of second-wave feminism in the United States caused by changes in women’s economic position after 1945?

THESIS

Economic change was the deepest cause of second-wave feminism, because the rising number of married women in paid work, on unequal pay, created a daily grievance. It became a movement only when writers and officials named and measured that grievance, so economic change made the movement possible while ideas and institutions made it happen.

THE THREE POINTS

  1. Women’s growing but unequal place in the labour market created the grievance.

  2. Legal second-class citizenship gave the grievance a political target.

  3. Ideas and institutions converted discontent into organisation.

The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 1 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: The Problem That Has No Name.

PAPER 2 · PROTEST AND CHANGE · CHAPTER 5

To what extent was the failure of the Equal Rights Amendment the result of the campaign led by Phyllis Schlafly?

THESIS

Schlafly’s STOP ERA campaign turned the ERA from a consensus measure into a controversy, and the timing of the collapse in ratifications points to its impact. Its success, however, depended on the Constitution’s supermajority rules, which let a determined minority in thirteen states block a change that most Americans supported.

THE THREE POINTS

  1. STOP ERA changed the meaning of the amendment.

  2. The rules for amendment amplified a minority.

  3. Wider political changes strengthened the opposition.

The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 5 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: The ERA and the Backlash.

PAPER 2 · PROTEST AND CHANGE · CHAPTER 2

Evaluate the effectiveness of the methods used by women’s organisations to achieve equal treatment at work in the United States and Britain, 1963–1970.

THESIS

Litigation and lobbying were the most effective methods in the United States, because Title VII gave women a legal weapon that courts would enforce, while in Britain industrial action was decisive. Spectacular direct action won publicity but few concrete gains, so effectiveness depended on whether a method could force an institution to act.

THE THREE POINTS

  1. Lobbying and lawsuits turned a neglected clause into enforceable rights.

  2. Strikes by women workers forced equal pay onto the British agenda.

  3. Direct action shaped opinion more than law.

The evidence for each point, the counter-argument and the judgement are in the IB notes of chapter 2 in the atlas. Read the chapter first: Organising for Equality.

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.

Aztec Empire · Paper 1 · Climate and Innovation

Lee Arco and Elliot Abrams estimate that building the southern chinampa system took about 25 million person-days over some forty years, after the Triple Alliance conquered Xochimilco around 1430 and Chalco around 1465.— Climate and Innovation, chapter 9: Chinampas: Feeding a City

Haiti · Paper 1 · Independence and Identity

Toussaint was seized near Gonaïves on 7 June 1802 after accepting an invitation from General Brunet, and died in the Fort de Joux in the Jura on 7 April 1803.— Two Roads to Independence, chapter 4: Napoleon’s Expedition

Second-wave feminism · Paper 1 · Protest and Change

The National Welfare Rights Organization, led by Johnnie Tillmon, claimed about 25,000 members by 1969 and demanded a guaranteed income, but received little support from the mainstream and went bankrupt in 1975.— Protest and Change, chapter 4: Who Was Left Out?

More atlases set in this region

These atlases are filed under the Americas 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 Age of Revolutions 1775 – 1848

Boston, the Bastille, and the barricades of 1848: the seventy years in which the modern political map — and the modern citizen — were invented.

A QUESTION TO ARGUE · CHAPTER 7

Why could Napoleon beat every army in Europe but not Spain?

HOW WE WOULD ARGUE IT

Napoleon’s system was designed to destroy a main army and dictate peace to a government. Spain denied that ending. Juntas survived occupation, guerrillas made dispersed control expensive and Wellington’s sea-supplied army prevented France from concentrating safely. Terrain and poor forage added cost, while Bayonne denied the regime legitimacy from the start. Napoleon kept winning battles, but no victory removed all three sources of resistance. His strength could seize capitals; it could not create consent or a final negotiating partner.

The chapter behind it: The Empire and Its Cracks.

The 12 chapters

The American Civil War 1840 – 1877 · HL (1840–1877)

How a war of conquest made slavery the question no compromise could settle — then four years that killed more Americans than every other war combined, emancipation, and what Reconstruction won and lost.

A QUESTION TO ARGUE · CHAPTER 7

The Proclamation freed no one in the loyal states and couldn’t be enforced where it applied. Defend the claim that it was still the war’s most important single document.

HOW WE WOULD ARGUE IT

Judge instruments by their mechanism, not their reach on day one. Legally it converted four million people from “property” into a war resource the Union was licensed to take. And then into 180,000 soldiers, whom Lincoln later called indispensable to victory. Strategically it fused Union victory to abolition, so every subsequent battlefield outcome carried constitutional consequences (the Thirteenth Amendment is its ratification in permanent form). Diplomatically it closed Europe. And note its limits honestly: it rested on war powers that peace would end, which is exactly why the Amendment had to follow. A document that redefines what a war is FOR. While its author holds the border states and the law together. Is statecraft of the highest order. The Proclamation’s narrowness is not its weakness but the signature of how it worked.

The chapter behind it: Antietam and Emancipation.

The 13 chapters

The Cold War 1945 – 1991

Blocs, walls and proxy wars: how forty-six years of armed peace nearly ended everything, several times — and then ended quietly, in a single autumn.

A QUESTION TO ARGUE · CHAPTER 7

Could the United States have won in Vietnam — and what would “winning” have had to mean?

HOW WE WOULD ARGUE IT

Separate the military from the political question. Militarily, more force earlier (mining Haiphong in 1965, unrestricted bombing) might have raised Hanoi’s costs. But the constraint was never capability, it was that escalation risked Chinese entry (Korea’s lesson, correctly feared: Beijing had 170,000 support troops in the North by 1967) and that no level of bombing manufactures a legitimate government in Saigon. “Winning” would have required what no external power possessed: the ability to make South Vietnam’s state worth dying for to its own citizens. Most historians therefore judge the war unwinnable at acceptable cost as defined. And note that the definition (“an independent non-communist South”) was itself the choice most worth interrogating. When you cannot state a victory condition an adversary can concede, you do not have a strategy. You have a posture.

The chapter behind it: Vietnam.

The 12 chapters

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.

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.

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