History

The study of VCE History assists students to understand themselves, others, and the contemporary world, and broadens their perspective by examining events, ideas, individuals, groups and movements. Students of VCE History develop social, political, economic and cultural understandings of the conditions and features which have helped shape the present. They also explore continuity and change: the world is not as it has always been, and it will be subject to change in the future. In this sense, history is relevant to contemporary issues. It fosters an understanding of human agency and informs decision making in the present.

This study enables students to:

·        develop an understanding of the nature of history as a discipline and to engage in historical thinking and inquiry

·        ask and use questions about the past, evaluate historical sources and construct historical arguments based on their use of sources as 

          historical evidence

·        develop an understanding of and apply historical thinking concepts, including evidence, cause and consequence, continuity and 

          change, and significance,

·        explore a range of eras and periods, events, people, places, ideas and historical perspectives to develop a broad understanding of the 

          past

·        engage with historical interpretations and the contested debates between historians in an informed and critical manner

·        recognise how our understanding of the past informs decision-making in the present

·        appreciate that the world in which we live has not always been as it is now, and that it will continue to change in the future.

UNIT 1 & 2

This study is comprised of two options that will be determined based on student interest and teacher availability.
          Unit 1: To be determined based in student interest (Modern History, Empires or Ancient History)
          Unit 2:  To be determined based in student interest (Modern History, Empires or Ancient History)

UNIT 3 & 4

This study is comprised of three options that will be determined based on student interest and teacher availability.  Currently the offering is:

• Australian History

Units 1 & 2

This study is comprised of several options that will be determined by student interest and teacher availability.

Option 1:  Modern History

Unit 1: Change and Conflict: In this unit students investigate the nature of social, political, economic and cultural change in the later part of the 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Modern History provides students with an opportunity to explore the significant events, ideas, individuals and movements that shaped the social, political, economic and technological conditions and developments that have defined the modern world.

Unit 2: The Changing World Order: In this unit students investigate the nature and impact of the Cold War and challenges and changes to social, political and economic structures and systems of power in the second half of the twentieth century and the first decade of the twenty-first century.

Option 2: Empires

In Units 1 and 2 Empires, students investigate the foundations and features of empires and the significant global changes they brought to the wider world in the early modern period. Empires at their core were expansionist, dominating trade and political influence in their regional or global contexts. A range of key factors arising from the social, political, economic, cultural, religious, environmental and technological features of Empires played a role in the ambition and quest for power, prestige and influence over rival and competing states.   

Option 3: Ancient History

Unit 1: Ancient Mesopotamia: In this unit students investigate the emergence of early societies in Ancient Mesopotamia. The lands between the rivers Tigris and the Euphrates have been described as the ‘cradle of civilisation’. Although this view is now contested in ancient history and archaeology, the study of Ancient Mesopotamia provides important insights about the growth of cities and the development of civilisations. Students investigate the creation of city-states and empires. They examine the invention of writing – a pivotal development in human history. 

Unit 2: Ancient Egypt: In this unit students investigate features of the Old Kingdom Egypt and the representation of power in Middle Kingdom Egypt and the Second Intermediate Period. They analyse the conditions that gave rise to a civilisation that endured for approximately three thousand years. Unlike Mesopotamia, Egypt was not threatened by its neighbours for the greater part of its history. The Nile served as the lifeblood of urban settlements in Upper and Lower Egypt. Kingdoms rose, flourished and fell around the banks of this great river.