History

History is the study of change and development in society over time. The study of history enables us to understand how past human action affects the present and influences our future, and it allows us to evaluate these effects. So, history is about learning how to think about the past, which affects the present, in a disciplined way. History is a process of enquiry. Therefore, it is about asking questions of the past: What happened? When did it happen? Why did it happen then? What were the short-term and long-term results? It involves thinking critically about the stories people tell us about the past, as well as the stories that we tell ourselves.

The study of history also supports citizenship within a democracy by:

• Upholding the values of the South African Constitution and helping people to understand those values

• Reflecting the perspectives of a broad social spectrum so that race, class, gender and the voices of ordinary people are represented

• Encouraging civic responsibility and responsible leadership, including raising current social and environmental concerns

• Promoting human rights and peace by challenging prejudices that involve race, class, gender, ethnicity and xenophobia

• Preparing young people for local, regional, national, continental and global responsibility

Specific Aims:

1. An interest in and enjoyment of the study of the past

2. Knowledge, understanding and appreciation of the past and the forces that shaped it

3. The ability to undertake a process of historical enquiry based on skills

4. An understanding of historical concepts, including historical sources and evidence

Specific Skills:

1. Understand the range of sources of information available for studying the past

2. Extract and interpret information from a number of sources

3. Evaluate the usefulness of sources, including reliability, stereotyping and subjectivity

4. Recognise that there is often more than one perspective of a historical event

5. Explain why there are different interpretations of historical events and peoples’ actions

6. Participate in constructive and focused debate through the careful evaluation of historical evidence

7. Organise evidence to substantiate an argument, in order to create an original, coherent and balanced piece of historical writing

8. Engage critically with issues of heritage and public representations of the past, and conservation

Grade 10

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Term 1:

• The world around 1600

  • China

  • Songhai

  • India

  • European societies

• Expansion and conquest during the 15th -18th centuries

  • How did European expansion change the world?

Term 2:

• The French Revolution

  • France in 1789

  • The causes and course of the revolution

  • Napoleon, the reaction against democracy and the modernisation of France

  • Case study: the spread of revolutionary aspirations

  • Legacies

• Transformations in southern Africa after 1750

  • What was South Africa like in 1750

  • Political changes from 1750 to 1820

  • Political revolution between 1820 and 1835

  • Legacies

Term 3:

• Colonial Expansion after 1750

  • Britain takes control of the Cape

  • The Zulu kingdom and the colony of Natal

  • Co-operation and conflict on the Highveld

Term 4:

• The South African War and Union

  • Background to the South African War: mining capitalism

  • The South African War from 1899 to 1902

  • The Union of South Africa 1910 (a brief overview)

  • The Natives Land Act of 1913

Grade 11

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Term 1:

• Communism in Russia 1900 to 1940

• Capitalism and the USA 1900 to 1940

Term 2:

• Ideas of race in the late 19th and 20th centuries

  • Theories and practice

  • Case study: Australia and the indigenous Australians

  • Case study: Nazi Germany and the holocaust

Term 3:

• Nationalisms: South Africa, the Middle East and Africa

  • What is nationalism?

  • Case study: South Africa

  • Rise of African nationalism

  • Rise of Afrikaner nationalism

  • Case study: The Middle East

  • Case study: From ‘Gold Coast’ to Ghana

  • Review: The positive and negative features of nationalism

Term 4:

• Apartheid in South Africa 1940s to 1960s

Grade 12

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Term 1:

• The Cold War

  • The origins of the Cold War

  • Extension of the Cold War

  • Case study: China (examined each year as an option to Vietnam.)

  • How did China rise as a world power after 1949?

  • Case study: Vietnam (Examined each year as an option to China)

  • How was a small country like Vietnam able to win a war against the USA? (1954 to 1975)

  • Stages in the War

• Independent Africa

  • What were the ideas that influenced the independent states?

  • Comparative case studies (1960 to 1980): The Congo & Tanzania

  • The successes and challenges faced by independent Africa

  • What was the impact of the internal and external factors on Africa during the time?

  • Africa in the Cold War: USSR, USA, Cuba, China and South Africa

  • Case study: Angola

Term 2:

• Civil Society protests 1950s to 1990s

  • Introduction: Overview of civil society protests

  • Case Study: the US Civil Rights Movement

  • Case Study: the Black Power Movement

• Civil resistance 1970s to 1980s in South Africa

  • The challenge of Black Consciousness to the Apartheid state

  • The crisis of Apartheid in the 1980s

Term 3:

• The coming of democracy in South Africa, and coming to terms with the past

  • The negotiated settlement and Government of National Unity

  • How has South Africa chosen to remember the past?

  • The Truth and Reconciliation Commission

  • Remembering the past: memorials

• The end of the Cold War and a new global world order 1989 to present

  • The end of the Cold War: The events of 1989

  • A new world order

Term 4:

• Revision