Key term
OCR GCSE History A J410
Castles: Form and Function c.1000–1750Historic environment
Topic overviewThe location of Kenilworth CastleThe appearance and layout of Kenilworth Castle at different times in its historyThe day-to-day functions of Kenilworth CastleThe evidence historians use for a castle’s changing functionLife in Kenilworth Castle at different times in its historyKey events associated with Kenilworth Castle at different times in its history
China 1950–1981: The People and the StateDepth study
Topic overviewEarly purges, the Hundred Flowers and social policy in the 1950sLand reform, collectivisation, the First Five Year Plan and the Great Leap ForwardCauses and impact of the Cultural Revolution, the Red Guards and TibetThe nature of Communist propaganda and its impactCommunism in China after the death of Mao 1976–1981The Communist state and the Chinese people
Germany 1925–1955: The People and the StateDepth study
Topic overviewThe Weimar Republic 1925–1928 and the impact of the DepressionRising support for Nazis 1929–1933The Nazi consolidation of power 1933–1934The Nazi terror state, propaganda and the people's communityNazi economic and social policy, and the lack of effective oppositionReaction to war, changing fortunes and the home front 1939–1945Racial persecution, the Holocaust and opposition during the warDefeat, occupation and the two Germanys 1945–1955The state and the German people, 1925–1955
International Relations: The Changing International Order 1918–1975
Topic overviewThe Versailles settlement, the League and the agreements of the 1920sThe Depression, the failure of the League and the road to warSoviet actions in Eastern Europe and the Western response, 1945–48NATO, the Warsaw Pact, the Berlin Wall and the Cuban Missile CrisisOrigins of US involvement in Vietnam and the tactics of the warUS withdrawal from Vietnam, opposition at home and the end of the warChanging interpretations of AppeasementChanging interpretations of the responsibility for the Cold WarThe big ideas behind the twentieth-century international order
Migration to Britain c.1000 to c.2010Thematic study
Topic overviewDiversity before 1066, and the impact of the Norman ConquestJews in medieval England: treatment, integration and expulsionResident aliens in later medieval EnglandAfricans in sixteenth-century England, the East India Company and Britain’s black communitiesThe readmission of Jews in 1656, and Protestant refugeesIndustrial-age migration: the Irish, Eastern European Jews, abolition and ChartismNaturalisation, port communities and immigration law 1870–1948Attitudes towards Jews in the 1930s and migrants in the two world warsThe impact of post-war migration on BritainImmigration as a political issue c.1990–c.2010The big questions about migration to Britain
Personal Rule to Restoration 1629–1660British depth
Topic overviewRelationship between Parliament and Charles I 1629–1642Attempts at settlement, the radical groups and the Army 1646–1649The execution of Charles I 1649The Rump, Cromwell and the Protectorate 1649–1658Attempts to reach a settlement September 1658 – April 1660The tensions that led to war, and the changes that followed
Power: Monarchy and Democracy in Britain c.1000 to 2014Thematic study
Topic overviewAnglo-Saxon kingship, 1066 and the Norman monarchyMagna Carta and the emergence of ParliamentRichard II’s deposition and the Wars of the RosesTudor government, personal rule and the Civil WarsThe Restoration, 1688 and the Bill of RightsThe rise of political parties and a parliamentary monarchyParliament and the people, c.1800–c.1918: reform and the unionsVotes for women, and the state in war and peaceChallenges to Parliament since 1980Claiming, keeping and losing power
South Africa 1960–1994: The People and the StateDepth study
Topic overviewConsolidating apartheid in the 1960s: the Bantustans, state control and SharpevilleReasons for, methods of and impact of different types of resistanceThe further development of resistanceThe Anti-Apartheid Movement and the regime's response in the 1970sGrowing pressure on the regimeThe State of Emergency and the failure of total strategy 1985–1990Negotiations between the government and the ANCThe state and the South African people, 1960–1994
The English Reformation c.1520–c.1550British depth
Topic overviewThe church in England c.1520 and its criticsPopular attitudes to reform, the annulment and the Reformation ParliamentCromwell, the Valor Ecclesiasticus and the dissolution of the monasteriesImmediate reactions to Dissolution including supportResistance and protestDevelopment and changes in religious policy under Henry VIII and Edward VIEnforcing the new religious policies and the Prayer Book Rebellion 1549The English Church before and after the Reformation
The Impact of Empire on Britain 1688–c.1730British depth
Topic overviewThe Glorious Revolution, the Hanoverian succession and the British IslesDarien, the Act of Union, the 1715 rising and emigration to the AmericasEconomic impact of war and imperial expansionThe Treaty of Utrecht, the South Sea Bubble and the slave-based colonial economyConsumerism, the slave-trading ports and the coffee housesIdeas of racial hierarchy, and opposition and resistance to slaveryWhat empire did to Britain and the British Isles
The USA 1919–1948: The People and the StateDepth study
Topic overviewThe US economy and women in the ‘Roaring Twenties’Prohibition, the Red Scare and immigration restrictionsJim Crow, the Ku Klux Klan and attempts to combat prejudiceEconomic and social effects of the Great Depression and government responseThe Second New DealThe mobilisation of the US people for the war effortSocial impact of the warThe Detroit Race Riots 1943 and segregation in the armed forcesThe state and the American people, 1919–1948
The USA 1945–1974: The People and the StateDepth study
Topic overviewFears of Communism at home, the Red Scare and McCarthyismJim Crow and the development and achievements of the civil rights movementOpposition to civil rights and the role of the Supreme Court and EisenhowerThe roles of Kennedy and Johnson in civil rights campaignsBlack Power, radical leaders, and Native American and Chicano campaignsThe impact of feminismStonewall, anti-war protest and the Great SocietyThe state and the American people, 1945–1974
Urban Environments: Patterns of MigrationHistoric environment
Topic overviewWhen immigrant groups arrived, why and from whereSpitalfields: who came, when and whyWhere immigrants settled and how they were receivedSettling in Spitalfields, and how newcomers were receivedThe experiences of immigrantsWork, housing and faith in SpitalfieldsKey events in local migration historyAltab Ali, Brick Lane 1978 and other key events in SpitalfieldsThe impact of migration on the areaSpitalfields today: impact and the multicultural communityReading an urban site for its migration historyReading the buildings, maps and records of Spitalfields
War and British Society c.790 to c.2010Thematic study
Topic overviewViking raids and the Norman ConquestThe feudal system and feudal military serviceWar in medieval society, c.1290–c.1450Elizabeth I’s wars with Spain, and English privateersBorder warfare, the Civil Wars and the Jacobite risingsImperial wars of the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuriesThe Crimean War and the Boer WarsThe two world wars and the Cold WarThe IRA campaigns and conflict since 1945What war did to British people and their rulers
War and British Society c.790 to c.2010
Viking raids and the Norman Conquest
- 3 things to know
- Paper 2
Overview
Lindisfarne, why raiders chose monasteries, the Great Heathen Army, Alfred's burhs and the divided fyrd, Danegeld, the northern rising of 1069, Hereward, the Harrying of the North and how William held England down.
What you need to know
Answer each one before you reveal it.
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Key term
What changed about the Scandinavian threat when the Great Heathen Army landed in 865?
Key term
What were burhs, and how did they protect Wessex?
Questions from this subtopic
Each one with the model answer underneath.
- 1
Which island monastery was sacked in 793, in an attack remembered as the opening of the Viking age in England?
Model answer
Lindisfarne, off the Northumbrian coast, where the raiders killed and enslaved monks and carried away the church treasures.
- 2
Why did the early Scandinavian raiders single out monasteries and coastal settlements?
Model answer
They held silver, gold and stores of food, stood on undefended shores within easy reach of a longship, and were guarded only by monks.
- 3
What changed about the Scandinavian threat when the Great Heathen Army landed in 865?
Model answer
Seasonal plundering gave way to conquest and settlement, and Northumbria, East Anglia and Mercia fell, leaving Wessex alone by 878.
- 4
What were burhs, and how did they protect Wessex?
Model answer
Fortified towns garrisoned by Alfred’s men and spaced roughly a day’s march apart, so people and stock could shelter and raiders could be met before they got far inland.
- 5
How did Alfred reorganise the fyrd so that Wessex could keep an army in the field all year?
Model answer
He divided it in two so that one half served while the other worked the land, and then the halves changed places.
- 6
What was Danegeld?
Model answer
A land tax raised to buy off Danish armies with silver, paid repeatedly under Æthelred II from 991.
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