Cambridge AS & A Level History 9489/42 is the May/June 2026 Paper 4 (Depth Study), variant 2. It lasts 1 hour 45 minutes, is worth 60 marks and is an A Level paper. You write two essays, both from one section: European history in the interwar years, the USA from 1944 to 1992, or international history from 1945 to 1992. Each essay is a single 30-mark question, and each is marked twice: half for analysis and judgement and half for supporting knowledge. This guide covers all 12 questions and what the official mark scheme suggested for each. The paper and its mark scheme are free on the Tutopiya Learning Portal.

For an overview of all four 9489 papers from this series, see A Level History 9489 May/June 2026 past papers: what came up and how it was marked.

9489/42 at a glance

Rubric: answer two questions from one section only.

Question	Section	Topic	Marks
1	A: European history in the interwar years, 1919–41	Was repression the main reason Mussolini kept control, 1925–41?	30
2	A	The effectiveness of Stalin’s Five-Year Plans	30
3	A	Were Hitler’s foreign policy objectives the main influence on Nazi economic policy?	30
4	A	The impact of new industries on the British economy, 1919–39	30
5	B: The USA, 1944–92	Why the Republicans failed to win the 1948 presidential election	30
6	B	The impact of Black Power in the 1960s and 1970s	30
7	B	The significance of US trade deficits in the 1980s and early 1990s	30
8	B	Was the Reagan Doctrine a success?	30
9	C: International history, 1945–92	How far détente improved US-Soviet relations, 1963–80	30
10	C	Was US support for Taiwan the main influence on Sino-US relations in the Cold War?	30
11	C	Was Senghor mainly responsible for Senegal’s independence?	30
12	C	The causes of the Iran-Iraq War	30
	Total answered (two questions)		60

Question-by-question walkthrough

How every essay is marked

Every question uses the same two grids, each out of 15, and the two marks are added.

AO2, analysis and judgement (15 marks):

• Level 1 (1–3): writes about the topic but not the question, with no real argument or judgement.
• Level 2 (4–6): some understanding, mostly descriptive; criteria for judging may be implicit; an assertion rather than a judgement.
• Level 3 (7–9): some analysis and attempts at criteria, but the argument lacks balance and the judgement is weakly supported.
• Level 4 (10–12): valid criteria, mostly analytical, an attempt at balance, and a supported judgement, though some evaluation is only partly backed up.
• Level 5 (13–15): valid, wide-ranging criteria, consistent analysis, a balanced argument with a sustained line of reasoning, and a clear, sustained judgement.

AO1, supporting knowledge (15 marks): five levels from limited, vague knowledge (1–3), through narrative not linked to the argument (4–6) and an adequate but narrow range (7–9), to a good range that is mostly precise (10–12) and a high level of carefully selected, wide-ranging, precise detail fully focused on the argument (13–15).

“Criteria” means the yardstick you use to judge the question, for example how you will measure “effectiveness” or “success”. The mark scheme repeatedly suggests setting these out at the start.

Section A: European history in the interwar years, 1919–41

Question 1: repression and Mussolini’s control, 1925–41 (30 marks) Weigh repression against propaganda and popular policies. Repression: the OVRA secret police and its informants, special tribunals that tried over 20,000 people, and around 10,000 held in internal exile (confino). Propaganda: press control from 1926, radio (about a million sets by 1938), posters, rallies, and sport, with World Cup wins and Primo Carnera’s boxing title presented as fascist victories. Popular policies: the Dopolavoro leisure organisation (3.8 million members by 1938), welfare, the invasion of Abyssinia, and the Lateran Treaties with the Church.

Question 2: the effectiveness of Stalin’s Five-Year Plans (30 marks) The mark scheme suggests using Stalin’s aims as your criteria: rapid industrialisation, heavy industry over consumer goods, military strength and less dependence on the West. The First Plan raised output in key heavy industries and built huge industrial centres, but targets were often unrealistic, and there were shortages, corruption, falsified figures, shoddy goods and lower living standards. The Second Plan continued growth, added transport, chemicals and metallurgy, and brought the “three good years” of 1934–36, though planning problems persisted. The Third Plan, cut short by war in 1941, focused on defence. For success, the USSR’s survival of the Nazi attack; against, planning failures, poor conditions and the link to scapegoating in the Purges.

Question 3: Hitler’s foreign policy and Nazi economic policy (30 marks) The debate is over which economic aim mattered most, and whether that changed. Early policy focused on unemployment (6 million in 1932): public works such as the autobahns, the RAD, Schacht’s deficit financing and Mefo bills, and pushing married women and Jews out of public sector jobs. Conscription in 1935 already pointed towards war. From 1936, the Four-Year Plan under Goering drove rearmament and autarky, raising the “guns or butter” debate. Some Nazis argued for rewarding the Mittelstand instead. The mark scheme suggests concluding that foreign policy only shaped economic policy from 1936.

Question 4: new industries and the British economy, 1919–39 (30 marks) New industries include motor vehicles, chemicals, electrical goods and canned food. Positive impacts: motor output trebled, electricity consumers rose from 730,000 to nine million with the 1926 Act and the National Grid, around a million service jobs in the 1920s, and more work for women. Negative or limiting impacts: an unbalanced economy, with growth in the Midlands and south-east while the staple-industry regions stayed depressed; weaker trade unions; coal remained the largest single sector; and unemployment stayed high, especially in the early 1930s.

Section B: The USA, 1944–92

Question 5: why the Republicans failed to win in 1948 (30 marks) Assess Republican weaknesses (Dewey as a lacklustre, overconfident candidate who failed to exploit Democratic splits) against Truman’s strengths (an energetic national tour, plain speaking, his record on the world stage and containment, and New Deal social and economic policies). Key voter groups were decisive: Truman won about two-thirds of the black vote with his civil rights programme and desegregation of the armed forces, farmers rewarded price supports and rural schemes, labour backed his attacks on the Republicans’ anti-union record, and urban machines delivered the cities. The Republicans’ success in 1952 with a very different candidate suggests personality may have been key.

Question 6: the impact of Black Power in the 1960s and 1970s (30 marks) Black Power stressed self-defence and black institutions rather than non-violence and integration, gathering pace from 1965 under leaders such as Stokely Carmichael, and with the Black Panther Party linking civil rights to class struggle. Positive impacts: community self-help, interest in African American history and culture, voter registration, the National Black Political Convention of 1972, influence on other movements and pressure for affirmative action, bussing and better education. Negative impacts: division with King and mainstream civil rights, association with riots and violence, and damage to the alliance with liberal white opinion. Decide whether you are judging political gains or cultural change.

Question 7: the significance of US trade deficits in the 1980s and early 1990s (30 marks) Pessimistic view: deficits destroyed millions of manufacturing jobs (2.4 million between 1979 and 1994), pushed workers into lower-paid service jobs, depressed wages, accounted for 15% to 25% of the rise in income inequality, and closed plants in industries such as steel and semiconductors for good. Counter view: deficits had limited effect if the economy was sound; between 1980 and 1987, as the current account deficit peaked at 3.6% of GDP, industrial production rose 17% and manufacturing output 23%.

Question 8: was the Reagan Doctrine a success? (30 marks) Success: the Soviet withdrawal from Afghanistan in 1989, the Sandinistas’ election defeat in Nicaragua in 1990, the end of the Soviet and Vietnamese occupation of Cambodia, no US troops or casualties, lower cost than direct intervention, a check to Soviet expansion under the Brezhnev Doctrine, and the US positioned as a decisive global power. Against: the Iran-Contra affair, arming militants with poor human rights records who later turned against the USA (the mark scheme links this to al-Qaeda and the Taliban), and allies such as Pakistan following their own interests.

Section C: International history, 1945–92

Question 9: how far détente improved US-Soviet relations, 1963–80 (30 marks) Improvement: the hotline of 1963, arms limitation talks, the Non-Proliferation Treaty of 1968, SALT agreements in 1972 and 1979, and the Helsinki Accords of 1975, helped by pragmatic leaders (Nixon and Brezhnev) and the cost of the arms race. Limits: the Soviets saw détente as managing competition rather than ending it; the Yom Kippur War of 1973 seriously damaged relations; Carter criticised Soviet human rights; SALT II was never ratified; SS-20s and Cruise missiles restarted the arms race; and the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan in December 1979 led to the Olympic boycott and the Carter Doctrine.

Question 10: US support for Taiwan and Sino-US relations (30 marks) Taiwan: the Taiwan Strait crises of 1954 and 1958, the Mutual Defense Treaty and the Formosa Resolution of 1955, and, after normalisation in 1979, the Taiwan Relations Act and continued arms sales, which caused tension after the 1982 communiqué. Other factors: opposing sides in the Korean War, China’s nuclear test of 1964, Chinese support for North Vietnam, the Sino-Soviet split, ping-pong diplomacy, Kissinger’s secret visit of 1971, the PRC’s UN seat, Nixon’s visit and the Shanghai Communiqué of 1972, the 1989 student protests, and the end of the USSR removing the need for Chinese help.

Question 11: Senghor and Senegal’s independence (30 marks) Against Senghor being mainly responsible: assimilation created an educated elite, forced labour and exploitation fed opposition, cultural movements and newspapers spread nationalism, and Senghor himself put civil rights and a Franco-African federation before independence, refused de Gaulle’s offer of immediate independence in 1958 and persuaded the Senegalese to vote against it. For: with Mamadou Dia he built the BDS, which won both Senegalese seats in the French National Assembly in 1951 and most seats in the Territorial Assembly in 1952, then the UPS, which won all 80 seats in 1959; he backed the Mali Federation, and when it failed Senegal declared independence in April 1960 with Senghor as president.

Question 12: the causes of the Iran-Iraq War (30 marks) Saddam’s ambition: to lead the Arab world after Egypt’s peace with Israel left a gap, annex Khuzestan and its Arab population, enlarge Iraq’s oil reserves, and reverse the 1975 Algiers Agreement on the Shatt al-Arab. Fear of the Iranian Revolution: Khomeini called on Iraqis to overthrow the Ba’athist government and rejected Saddam’s offer of non-interference, a threat to a secular Ba’athist government that discriminated against Iraq’s Shia movement. Opportunity: Iran’s internal troubles and diplomatic isolation suggested a pre-emptive strike in September 1980 could topple Khomeini first.

Where the marks are on 9489/42

Assessment objective	Per essay	Across your two essays
AO2: analysis, argument and judgement	15	30
AO1: relevant, accurate supporting knowledge	15	30
Total	30	60

• Half the marks are for argument. A detailed narrative may score well for AO1 but stays low for AO2 without criteria, balance and a judgement.
• Criteria are the step into Level 4 and 5 for AO2. State how you will judge “main reason”, “success” or “impact” before you start.
• Change over time can be your judgement. The mark scheme’s suggested conclusion for Question 3 turns on a date (1936), and Question 9 traces détente from 1963 to its collapse by 1980.
• Relevance beats quantity for AO1. The top level wants detail that is carefully selected and fully focused on the argument.

How to self-mark 9489/42 with the mark scheme

1. Mark AO2 and AO1 separately. Read the AO2 grid with your argument in mind, then the AO1 grid with your evidence in mind. Don’t let one mark drag the other.
2. Find your criteria. Underline where you said how you would judge the question. If there are none, AO2 is unlikely to pass Level 3.
3. Check balance. Label each paragraph as supporting or challenging the view. One-sided essays sit in Level 3 for AO2.
4. Trace your judgement. Is it clear in the introduction, carried through each paragraph and confirmed at the end? A judgement that appears only in the last line is not “sustained”.
5. Audit your knowledge. Highlight dates, names and figures. Are they precise, and does each one support a point in your argument? Accurate detail that isn’t used to argue drops AO1 towards Level 2.
6. Compare with the indicative content. Note major factors you missed, but remember the mark scheme content is a guide; other relevant, accurate material earns credit.

Sit 9489/42 as a timed mock

You have 105 minutes for two 30-mark essays: about 50 minutes each, with time to choose.

Block	Marks	Time
Read your section and choose two questions	–	5 minutes
First essay: plan criteria and judgement (8 min), write (42 min)	30	50 minutes
Second essay: plan criteria and judgement (8 min), write (42 min)	30	50 minutes

Make your plan a short list: criteria, two or three points each way with evidence, and a one-line verdict. Then write the verdict into your opening paragraph.

Other May/June 2026 9489 papers

• 9489 Paper 12 (Document Question)
• 9489 Paper 22 (Outline Study)
• 9489 Paper 32 (Interpretations Question)

Practise and download

• Download 9489/42 and its mark scheme on the Learning Portal →
• All 9489 May/June 2026 papers: overview and marking patterns
• Try a free A Level History quiz

Need help with a 9489 topic? Book a free trial lesson with an A Level History tutor →

Frequently asked questions

How many questions do you answer on 9489 Paper 42 May/June 2026? +

Two out of 12, both from one section: Section A European history in the interwar years (Questions 1 to 4), Section B the USA, 1944–92 (Questions 5 to 8) or Section C international history, 1945–92 (Questions 9 to 12). Each essay is worth 30 marks, so the paper is out of 60 and lasts 1 hour 45 minutes.

How is each 9489/42 essay marked? +

Twice. Up to 15 marks are for AO2, the quality of your analysis and judgement, and up to 15 for AO1, the knowledge you use to support it. Each grid has five levels: 1 to 3, 4 to 6, 7 to 9, 10 to 12 and 13 to 15.

What does the top level for AO2 need on 9489/42? +

Level 5 (13 to 15) needs valid, wide-ranging criteria for judging the question, consistent analysis, a focused and balanced argument with a sustained line of reasoning, and a clear, sustained judgement.

What came up in the USA section of 9489/42 in 2026? +

Question 5 asked why the Republicans failed to win the 1948 presidential election, Question 6 asked about the impact of Black Power in the 1960s and 1970s, Question 7 asked about the significance of US trade deficits in the 1980s and early 1990s, and Question 8 asked whether the Reagan Doctrine was a success.

What conclusion did the mark scheme suggest for the Nazi economic policy question? +

For Question 3, the mark scheme suggests a conclusion that foreign policy goals only drove economic policy from 1936, with the Four-Year Plan, after the early focus on tackling unemployment.

Where can I download 9489/42 May/June 2026 and its mark scheme? +

Both are free to download and print on the Tutopiya Learning Portal, on the Cambridge AS & A Level History 9489 past papers page.

Ready to Excel in Your Studies?

Get personalised help from Tutopiya's expert tutors. Whether it's IGCSE, IB, A-Levels, or any other curriculum — we match you with the perfect tutor and your first session is free.

Book Your Free Trial