| Date | November 2021 | Marks available | 4 | Reference code | 21N.1.BP.TZ0.2 |
| Level | Both SL and HL | Paper | Paper 1 - first exams 2017 | Time zone | TZ0 |
| Command term | Analyse | Question number | 2 | Adapted from | N/A |
Question
Source C Marco Polo, an Italian merchant and explorer, recounting his travels to Asia between 1271–1295 in the 13th-century work The Description of the World.
In the year 1187, the Mongols made a king called Chinggis Khan. He was a man of great bravery, great intelligence, and great ability. This Chinggis Khan held the lordship nobly and well. Such a multitude of Mongols came to him; and when Chinggis Khan saw that he had so many people, he equipped them with bows and armor and went conquering through those other lands. They conquered eight provinces but did them no harm, nor did he strip them of their things. But he took them with him to conquer other peoples. In this way, he conquered this great multitude of peoples, as you have heard. When these peoples saw this lord’s good lordship and great nobility, they went with him quite willingly. When Chinggis Khan had amassed such a great multitude of people, he said that he wanted to conquer a great part of the world.
[Source: Polo, M., 2016. The Description of the World. Translated by S. Kinoshita. Indianapolis and Cambridge:
Hackett, p. 52. Adapted.]
With reference to its origin, purpose and content, analyse the value and limitations of Source C for an historian studying the leadership of Genghis Khan.
Markscheme
Value:
- It provides a 13th-century perspective from an explorer who travelled to Asia.
- As it intends to offer a description of Asia, information on Genghis Khan’s leadership and the Mongol Empire is expected.
- It provides information about Genghis Khan’s leadership qualities and the expansion of his empire.
Limitations:
- As it was written in the late 13th century, the author had no direct experience with Genghis Khan and his empire.
- The author’s description of the leadership of Genghis Khan lacks balance, it is a very positive account.
- Because of the broad nature of the book, the treatment of Genghis Khan could be limited.
The focus of the question is on the value and limitations of the source. If only value or limitations are discussed, award a maximum of [2]. Origin, purpose and content should be used as supporting evidence to make relevant comments on the value and limitations. For [4] there must be at least one reference to each of them in either the value or the limitations.
Examiners report
As highlighted above, and in previous reports, candidates demonstrated an understanding of how to identify the origin, purpose and content of a source and most were able to offer some sound analysis of value and limitation derived from these. However, there remains a tendency for lengthy descriptions of the origin, purpose and content of the source, at the expense of actual evaluation or analysis. Related to this, some candidates, for example, offered an identification of the purpose of the source without going on to explain how this was a value and/or limitation. Candidates should also be cautioned against a note-form response as these tend to lack clarity in terms of explanation of value and limitation. In addition, it was disappointing to find that a small number of candidates had analysed the wrong source, which reinforces the recommendation that questions should be read carefully.
