The Introduction

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The purpose of the introduction is to explain why your topic is worth researching and to put it into context - not to give lots of descriptive background detail! You need to put your research question into historical context, explain the significance and relevance of the topic and justify why it is worthy of investigation. Try to follow these steps:

1. Historical Relevance - Outline why the topic/period you have chosen for study is so important to know about, and why your question within that topic is such an important one to answer.

2. Contemporary Relevance - Explain why the issues raised by your question still have contemporary relevance.

​3. Scope of Essay - Outline what factors/perspectives/themes/time periods you will examine​ in order to explore your question.

​4. Your Thesis - Finish by stating your overall argument or proposition that this essay will seek to forward.

Example 1 - To what extent was the Danish Resistance Movement successful in disrupting the Nazi occupation of Denmark?

Denmark was neutral throughout the first world war and supported the League of Nations in attempting to keep the peace between the European powers. However, the situation for the Danes in the Second World War would be very different. Despite having signed a non-aggression pact with Germany the year before, on 9 April 1940 German troops attacked neutral Denmark. The Danish military was small as it was only intended for a position of neutrality and 'to prevent unnecessary sacrifice of life in an obviously losing cause' (1). The King of Denmark, Christian X, called for cease fire (2) and with only 16 casualties (3) at the end of the day, Denmark became occupied by Hitler's Germany. As Denmark wasn't officially at war, life didn't change dramatically. Christian X and the Danish government agreed to 'cooperation' with the Nazis and in turn the Nazis wouldn't intervene in Danish domestic affairs. By following the 'cooperation policy' Denmark remained peaceful, being known as an 'exemplary protectorate' (4) in Berlin but as 'Hitler's Pet Canary' (5) by the Allies.

Nevertheless, 'beneath this impeccable veneer of calm acceptance were boiling feelings of defiance against the occupation' (6). Despite being slow in getting organised, starting with little acts of defiance, such as shunning all German salutes and giving them 'the cold shoulder', the resistance eventually became a national movement which involved the whole population. After 1943, the Danish resistance caused constant problems for their Nazi occupiers with bombings of factories, regular strikes, millions of resistance leaflets and newspapers such as Frit Denmark being published and the evacuation of their Jewish population to neutral Sweden. In the Germans' eyes 'Denmark causes us more difficulties than anything else' (7).

Example 2 - To what extent was World War Two the catalyst or cause of British Decolonisation?

This essay will aim to answer the question was World War Two the Catalyst or the Cause of British Decolonisation. Before the question can be answered, 'cause' and 'catalyst' need to be defined because in this instance 'catalyst' will be when something is inevitable and the war made this event happen sooner, while 'cause' is when the war was the factor that was largely responsible for the event happening. This investigation incorporates many primary sources such as original documentation and quotes from key individuals involved at the time (1), while also using many books on the subject of decolonisation (2) (3). The British Empire itself broke up in 64 countries and it was in these new nations that the Soviet Union, and the USA, competed for influence during the Cold War, which was born out of the ashes of the Second World War. Along with the Cold War, decolonisation was one of the defining features of the mid to late 20th Century and particularly shaped the continent of Africa, being regularly attributed to the political and economic instability experienced on the continent today. The legacy of the British Empire still lives on to this day with the British Prime Minister David Cameron saying "as with so many of the world's problems, [the British] are responsible for the issue in the first place' (4). But the fundamental question is not necessarily what the effects of decolonisation are, but rather why it happened in the first place.