What was the most significant cause of the Cold War?

First, the student should approach this question by organising it chronologically in terms of events. For example, they could start with the earliest popularly acknowledged cause, that being the Bolshevik Revolution. Within the students' explanation of the impact of the causes, they should explain whether it had long term or short term consequences to demonstrate extensive knowledge of the subject. The consequences of an event is a good way of assessing significance, as the student can trace whether it remained an issue throughout the Cold War. In addition, the student should reference historiography, which can be split into revisionist, orthodox and post-revisionist schools of thought to support their argument, and also to make it into the higher mark brackets. The students' writing style should be concise and straight to the point, following a strict point, evidence, explanation, and link format in order to achieve higher marks. The students' conclusion should state which factor they consider to be the most significant in light of other factors, with them also refraining from adding any new points to the conclusion.