Oxford Cambridge and RSA - 2025
Friday 23 May 2025 – Morning
A Level History A
Y321/01 The Middle East 1908–2011: Ottomans to Arab Spring
Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
(Verified Question Paper With Mark Scheme
Combined June 2025)
, INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink.
• Write your answer to each question in the Answer Booklet. The question
numbers must be clearly shown.
• Fill in the boxes on the front of the Answer Booklet.
• Answer the question in Section A and any two questions in Section B.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 80.
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets [ ].
• Quality of extended response will be assessed in questions marked with an asterisk
(*).
• This document has 4 pages.
ADVICE
• Read each question carefully before you start your answer.
© OCR 2025
OCR is an exempt
[H/506/4308] DC (CE)
Charity Turn over
355149/1
, 2
Section A
Read the two passages and answer Question 1.
1 Evaluate the interpretations in both of the two passages.
Explain which you think is more convincing as an explanation of British policy
towards Palestine at the end of the First World War. [30]
Passage A
© Eugene Rogan, The Arabs: A History, p247, 261 and 265, Penguin, 2009. From first line "At the end of the First World War, Britain’s mastery over the Middle East was unrivalled." to last line "a failure that would condemn the whole of the region to conflict and violence."
Item removed due to third party copyri
Passage B
Britain had recalculated its own strategic interests in the future status of Palestine. It was
the site of important military operations, and government officials concluded that its
value as a buffer to the Suez Canal had become too important to allow for an ill-defined
international presence there after the war. These new interests developed in tandem
with the efforts of the leading members of Britain’s Jewish community who, in pursuit of
the strategies of political Zionism, sought to persuade the government that Zionist
interests complemented British interests. In addition, a complex combination of motives
led to the final decision to issue the Balfour Declaration. Contemporary explanations
tended to stress an interest in the restoration of the Jewish nation in Palestine based on
their understanding of the Bible and also their sympathy for the plight of Jews in Eastern
Europe. Officials came to see Zionism as an ally. British officials searched out Zionist
support in pursuit of their own interests in Palestine.
Their main aim was to keep the French out. Within a year of the Sykes-Picot Agreement,
which called for the international administration of Palestine, Britain came round to
fearing any foreign presence so close to the Suez Canal. Prejudices belied British
support for Zionism. British officials drew upon a reserve of mistaken, even anti-Semitic,
ideas and of a common Jewish nation, all of which tended to greatly exaggerate the
power and influence of world Jewry.
M. Bunton, The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, published in 2013.
© OCR Y321/01
2025 Jun25
Friday 23 May 2025 – Morning
A Level History A
Y321/01 The Middle East 1908–2011: Ottomans to Arab Spring
Time allowed: 2 hours 30 minutes
(Verified Question Paper With Mark Scheme
Combined June 2025)
, INSTRUCTIONS
• Use black ink.
• Write your answer to each question in the Answer Booklet. The question
numbers must be clearly shown.
• Fill in the boxes on the front of the Answer Booklet.
• Answer the question in Section A and any two questions in Section B.
INFORMATION
• The total mark for this paper is 80.
• The marks for each question are shown in brackets [ ].
• Quality of extended response will be assessed in questions marked with an asterisk
(*).
• This document has 4 pages.
ADVICE
• Read each question carefully before you start your answer.
© OCR 2025
OCR is an exempt
[H/506/4308] DC (CE)
Charity Turn over
355149/1
, 2
Section A
Read the two passages and answer Question 1.
1 Evaluate the interpretations in both of the two passages.
Explain which you think is more convincing as an explanation of British policy
towards Palestine at the end of the First World War. [30]
Passage A
© Eugene Rogan, The Arabs: A History, p247, 261 and 265, Penguin, 2009. From first line "At the end of the First World War, Britain’s mastery over the Middle East was unrivalled." to last line "a failure that would condemn the whole of the region to conflict and violence."
Item removed due to third party copyri
Passage B
Britain had recalculated its own strategic interests in the future status of Palestine. It was
the site of important military operations, and government officials concluded that its
value as a buffer to the Suez Canal had become too important to allow for an ill-defined
international presence there after the war. These new interests developed in tandem
with the efforts of the leading members of Britain’s Jewish community who, in pursuit of
the strategies of political Zionism, sought to persuade the government that Zionist
interests complemented British interests. In addition, a complex combination of motives
led to the final decision to issue the Balfour Declaration. Contemporary explanations
tended to stress an interest in the restoration of the Jewish nation in Palestine based on
their understanding of the Bible and also their sympathy for the plight of Jews in Eastern
Europe. Officials came to see Zionism as an ally. British officials searched out Zionist
support in pursuit of their own interests in Palestine.
Their main aim was to keep the French out. Within a year of the Sykes-Picot Agreement,
which called for the international administration of Palestine, Britain came round to
fearing any foreign presence so close to the Suez Canal. Prejudices belied British
support for Zionism. British officials drew upon a reserve of mistaken, even anti-Semitic,
ideas and of a common Jewish nation, all of which tended to greatly exaggerate the
power and influence of world Jewry.
M. Bunton, The Palestinian-Israeli Conflict, published in 2013.
© OCR Y321/01
2025 Jun25
