Rationale:

History provides valuable knowledge about the background of the modern world and the way we live, and is suitable for students with a wide range of future plans. History fosters the ability to ask searching questions, to engage in independent research and to construct arguments about the past based on evidence from historical sources. It allows us to look at the past through a critical and inquisitive lens, which helps us understand events of the present. History helps us to fully understand and appreciate the social, political and economic conflicts fought by our ancestors for the benefits and challenges that we inherit today.

Units 1 & 2:  Modern History

Unit 1:  Change and Conflict

• Ideology and Conflict

• Social and Cultural Change

The 20th Century began with the common theme of international conflict and revolution. This area of study looks at the events of the interwar years from two different perspectives. Area of Study One explores the major events, key figures, ideologies and movements of the interwar period. Students will investigate the consequences of WW1 and how these events led to instability in Europe and made way for the rise of dictators like Stalin, Hitler and Mussolini, eventually causing the outbreak of WW2. Area of Study Two examines the same period of history but with a greater interest in the social and cultural changes taking place in Germany, Russia and the United States. From flappers and prohibition to German cabaret and Nazi propaganda, this AOS explores how ordinary people experienced life during the interwar years and how that was reflected in art and other forms of cultural expression. Students are taught to identify patterns of history that have lead to conflict and oppression while developing skills in source analysis, historiography and effective research.

Unit 2:  The Changing World Order

• Causes, course and consequences of the Cold War

• Challenge and Change

1945 saw the dropping of the first atomic bomb on Hiroshima. An unlikely alliance between the West and the Soviet Union saw Germany and later the European continent split in half along the Iron Curtain. The Cold War would be an intense battle of ideologies between East and West that would be fought for decades through proxy wars, including the erection of the Berlin Wall and the Vietnam War. In Area of Study One, students examine the lengths to which the superpowers will go to to promote and defend their ideologies. In Area of Study Two, students will examine how active citizens can change the social makeup of society and discuss the issues emerging at the end of this, the greatest century of social and political change as they study the emergence of people power in the years following WW2 and beyond. 

Unit 3 & 4:  Revolutions

Revolutions are tumultuous history-making events. They are short historical periods in which nations abandon their old ideas and create new ones. Societies are rebuilt in an attempt to implement new ideas and beliefs. Generally historical change occurs gradually, however, revolutions can involve upheaval, disruption, disorder, displacement, counter-revolution, famine, violence, terror and war. These events leave an indelible mark on the nation’s history.

Unit 3:  The French Revolution (1774 - 1795)

• Causes of Revolution

• Consequences of Revolution

Was the French Revolution really all about cutting off the heads of the bourgeois? What factors combined to make the situation in France so intolerable that whole classes of people were moved to act? What was it about the structure of the Ancient Regime that led people to cry ‘Enough!?’ Who was the key revolutionary - Danton? Bailly? Lafayette? Marat? Robespierre? And why did the New Society see so much bloodshed if ultimately the key slogans were Liberty, Equality and Fraternity? Did the revolutionary society embrace liberal ideals or chaos and violence? Once a revolution starts, who has control and how does life ever get back to some semblance of normal?

Unit 4:  The Russian Revolution (1896-1927)

• Causes of Revolution

• Consequences of Revolution

It is hard to look back on the Russian Revolution without being overshadowed by figures such as Lenin and Rasputin. Did the leaders drive the Revolution or were they just in the right place at the right time? What inequalities and hardships were evident in Russian society that enabled not one but three different revolutions to take place between 1905 and Nov 1917? How far did the Bolsheviks go in order to create their New Society, and did it live up to the expectations of the groups who shaped it or the leaders who inspired it? Is it possible for a New Society to be created that does not replace violence with violence, and oppression with greater social and economic controls? Was Marxist-Leninism a naïve and hopeful political theory or wilfully neglectful atrocity?

ASSESSMENT:

Four SACS (two for each unit) 50% of Study Score

(Historical Inquiry, Visual or Document Analysis, Essay and Historical Viewpoints Exercise)

Examination:  50% of Study Score

Contact Time:

Lessons per week: 5 periods

Subject duration: Year Long

Further information:

Head of Humanities: Tess Lynch