Putting the Story Back in History: How to Master Cause, Consequence, and Narrative in GCSE History
One of the biggest misconceptions about GCSE History is that it’s just about memorising key dates. While it is important to know what happened and when, history is much more concerned with the why. Why did events in history unfold the way they did? Through asking the why question, we as historians can explore the interconnected nature of events and construct a meaningful narrative of the past.
In your GCSE History exam, you may be asked to explain one consequence of a historical event, to write a narrative account of an event, or to explain the importance of an event. All of these questions come from Paper 2 of the Edexcel GCSE History specification, but you’ll find very similar questions across all major exam boards, including AQA, OCR, and WJEC.
Each of these questions deals with the concept of cause and effect, but in subtly different ways. To help you see how this works in practice, we’re going to explore the same historical event for each question (in the exam, you would normally have three different ones).
The event we’ll focus on is the Cuban Missile Crisis — one of the defining moments of the Cold War and a turning point in global security. If you’re not studying the Cold War, don’t worry. We’ll recap the key background to the crisis, and the analytical skills we’ll cover are applicable to any historical topic you study.
So, strap in — as an expert History tutor and PhD researcher, I’ll guide you through the importance of narratives and causal chains in history, showing you how to sharpen your understanding of second-order concepts to boost your exam performance.
Key Terms
Cause: A cause is something that makes something else happen. Causes can be either short-term or long-term. For example, a short-term cause of the Second World War was the invasion of Poland by Nazi Germany on 1st September 1939, which directly triggered Britain and France to declare war. A long-term cause was the Wall Street Crash of October 1929, which created a global economic crisis. This instability helped fuel the rise of extremist politics in Europe, paving the way for the Nazi takeover in Germany and their drive to restore national power and prestige.
Consequence: You can think of a consequence as the opposite of a cause. For example, one of the causes of the Second World War was Germany’s invasion of Poland, while a consequence of that invasion was the outbreak of the Second World War itself. A key thing to remember about a consequence is that it must happen after the event. This is why knowing your chronology—and therefore your key dates—is still an essential part of studying history. I’ve seen exam answers that claim a consequence of the Berlin Wall (1961) was the Berlin Blockade (1948). Mistakes like this immediately show the examiner that the student doesn’t have a secure grasp of the topic and will earn zero marks for the question. So, make sure your timeline is solid: understanding what came before and after is the foundation of all good historical explanations.
Narrative: A narrative is essentially a story — a sequence of connected events. It explains how and why things happened in a particular order. While we’ll explore this in more detail in the example below, a strong historical narrative links key events together to show how one moment led to another, creating a clear picture of how a larger event unfolded over time.
Importance: An event can be viewed as being very historically important if it changes the course of history. This is the most subjective of the terms, meaning that it is up to you to determine how important an event is. A good way to think about this is to imagine what would have happened if that event hadn’t taken place. For example, the invasion of Poland in 1939 is an extremely important event as it triggered the Second World War. Had that invasion not taken place, the war would not have broken out when it did and the global history of the 20th century might have been very different. What Hitler had for breakfast on the day of the invasion is not an important event, as it had no impact on the course of world history.
Having got to grips with these key terms, we’ll now turn our attention to today’s case study: the Cuban Missile Crisis.
The Cuban Missile Crisis, 1962
The Cuban Missile Crisis was one of the key moments of the Cold War between the United States of America and their superpower rival, the USSR or the Soviet Union. Following a successful revolution in 1959, the Caribbean island nation of Cuba, led by Fidel Castro, began to ally itself more with the communist USSR, drifting away from the USA. This presented a problem, as Cuba is only 90 miles away from mainland USA, meaning an ally of their sworn ideological enemy was now on their doorstep. In 1961, President Kennedy launched an invasion of the island, known as the Bay of Pigs Invasion, in an attempt to remove Castro from power. It was, in short, a total catastrophe, succeeding only in pushing Cuba closer to the USSR.
A group of Cuban soldiers during the failed Bay of Pigs invasion, c. 1961
The big fear for Kennedy now was that Nikita Khrushchev, leader of the USSR, would put nuclear missiles on Cuba, meaning that the USA could easily be attacked. On 14th October 1962, an American U-2 spy plane flew over Cuba and spotted missile launch pads on the island. On 22nd October, following advice from ExComm, his group of special advisors, Kennedy announced the naval blockade of Cuba, meaning that all Soviet ships approaching the island would be intercepted and inspected by US naval ships to make sure they weren’t delivering any more missiles or supplies. Khrushchev called this a violation of international freedom and declared that all Soviet ships would force their way through regardless. Despite this, however, 20 Soviet ships approaching the blockade turned back on 24th October, helping to de-escalate the situation.
Things really came to a head on 26th and 27th of October. Both sides are engaged in diplomatic talks but also preparing for war. The world teeters on the brink of nuclear destruction. Khrushchev sends Kennedy two letters saying that, if the USA promised not to invade Cuba and agreed to remove their missiles from Italy and Turkey, the USSR would remove their missiles from Cuba. In the middle of these intense diplomatic negotiations, a U-2 spy plane is shot down over Cuba, killing the American pilot, an action that dramatically increased the tension and the likelihood of a nuclear war. However, Kennedy and Khrushchev did not respond with military action. Instead, they kept pushing for a diplomatic resolution, which came a day later on 28th October when Khrushchev agreed to remove the weapons from Cuba.
Example Exam Questions
Now that we’ve covered the background and key events of the crisis, let’s go through how to answer GCSE History questions about it, focusing on those key issues of causes, consequences, and importance.
Explain one consequence of the Cuban Missile Crisis. (4 marks)
Remember that a consequence is something that happens as a result of a historical event. You gain marks in this question for your historical knowledge, and also your understanding of how the event led to the consequence.
The other key word in the question is one. For any major historical event, there will be a wide range of short- and long-term consequences. For this question, choose a single consequence that you are confident in discussing. So, if you know that a consequence of the Cuban Missile Crisis was that a hotline was set up between Washington and Moscow to enable instant communication, but that’s the extent of your knowledge, it probably won’t get you all 4 marks. If, on the other hand, you know that Khrushchev’s reputation was damaged in the USSR, and you can explain that this is because the decision to withdraw missiles from Cuba was seen as submitting to the demands of the USA, then you will get full marks for this question.
Write a narrative account analysing the key events of the Cuban Missile Crisis (1962). (8 marks)
This type of question is a really great exercise to check your knowledge and understanding of how historical events unfolded. To get full marks in this question, you need:
3 events that are a) in the right order and b) within the timeframe of the question
To demonstrate how these events are linked together and form a sequence.
Importance of events, and the extent to which they alter history.
Understanding the sequence of events is crucial. If you include 3 events but put them in the wrong order, you are getting a maximum of 2 marks out of a possible 8 for this question. Similarly, you must stick within the boundaries of the question. Although it undoubtedly played a role in the build up to the Cuban Missile Crisis, the Bay of Pigs Invasion took place in 1961 and was not itself a direct part of the crisis. Therefore it is not a valid example for this question.
Think about what makes a good story, which is effectively what a narrative is. They have a clear beginning, middle, and end. This can be a useful way of thinking about the narrative question in the exam. So, in this case, the event that started the Cuban Missile Crisis was the spy plane that spotted the missile launch sites. An event in the middle could be Kennedy’s TV address declaring the blockade around Cuba. The ending could be Khrushchev’s agreement to withdraw the missiles from Cuba. The mark scheme lists 6 events that could be included in the narrative, but also says that all relevant material must be given credit.
The key is to demonstrate why you have chosen the events you’ve picked and how they link together. For example, following the discovery of the missile launch sites, Kennedy created ExComm to advise him on how to respond. As a result of this, on 22nd October Kennedy announced a quarantine around Cuba to prevent Soviet ships reaching the island. This created a stand-off between the USA and the USSR. Consequently, following a period of intense negotiation, Khrushchev agreed to remove the missiles from Cuba in exchange for the USA removing missiles from Italy and Turkey, and guaranteeing that they wouldn’t invade Cuba. In the exam, you need to write a full paragraph for each event. This is just a demonstration of how to link the events together.
Remember: there is no single right answer to this question. As long as you have 3 events that took place in the time period you are given, you put them in the right order, and you demonstrate clearly that you understand each event and how they link together, you will get full marks.
Explain the importance of Soviet relations with Cuba for the tension between East and West in the 1960s. (8 marks)
This is one of those questions where you need a highlighter to pull out the important words and make sure you are actually answering the question. It will ask you to explain the importance of a specific event for a specific theme within a specific time period. Highlighting those key pieces of information in the question will help to keep you on track.
For this question, we need two paragraphs, each with a distinct point. 4 marks are given for your knowledge, and 4 for the explanation of how they contribute to the question. Remember, something can be considered important if it contributed to changing the course of events. The relationship between the USSR and Cuba clearly was important for increasing tension because it enabled Khrushchev to position missile launch sites on the island, precipitating the Cuban Missile Crisis, one of the high points of tension between East and West in the 1960s.
However, you can also zoom out from Cuba and consider the wider global picture. Following the disastrous Bay of Pigs Invasion in 1961, Cuba allied itself more with the USSR, creating a more confrontational relationship between the USA and the USSR. As a result, tension between Kennedy and Khrushchev at the Vienna Summit meant they failed to resolve the Berlin Crisis, leading to the construction of the Berlin Wall. This is a fantastic point to demonstrate how events in history are interconnected, and also that you understand this connection. The Soviet relations with Cuba did not cause the construction of the Berlin Wall, but they contributed to tensions that led to it.
The key thing to remember for this question is to make sure you have two distinct points that you can write about in sufficient detail, and that clearly link back to the specifics mentioned in the question.
Conclusion
It is no coincidence that history contains the word “story”. Both words come from the same ancient Greek origin, and many languages use the same word for the two concepts. “Geschichte” is the German word for history, story, and narrative, for example. It is important, therefore, to think about history as a story, an unfolding sequence of events that are all connected.
So yes, learning key dates in history is important; we can’t escape that. But it is equally important to think about:
Causes of events, short- and long-term, and how they all build up to the event
Consequences, and how they link to other events in the story of history
Importance of events, and the extent to which they alter history.
Thinking about events in history within this framework, regardless of whether you’re doing this exam board or not, will help give you a greater understanding and appreciation of the past, and make it easier to answer questions in your history papers.
