When studying history, it is important to understand cause and effect and its importance. In this lesson, you will learn to define these two terms and analyze some events by considering the cause and effect of those events.

One action or event can lead to a resulting action or event. The cause is the reason that something happens, and the effect is the result. Put another way, the cause is the WHY and the effect is the WHAT. OF course, the cause comes before the effect. However, when reading a historical text, the cause is not always written first. When reading about history, we should look for certain words as clues which help us to find the cause and effect of certain events. The words are: because, since, so, if, before, and after.

It is very important to understand cause and effect because this allows us to follow changes over time. We can take that understanding and apply it the world we live in today. It is not enough to know that a certain event which occurred in the past was bad. We need to analyze the event more deeply by explaining why it was bad and determining what the cause of that event was. Once we do this, we can make a strong effort to avoid the behaviors which led to that even, assuring that a similar event does not happen again.