GCSE History topics
Every Year 10 and Year 11 History topic on the GCSE map: 203 topics, each with the part of the specification it was written from and what it builds on. Written against AQA GCSE History (8145); AQA has not reviewed or approved it.
Year 10 106 topics
How and why interpretations differ
Given two later accounts of the same event, say exactly where they disagree, and explain why: who wrote each, when, for whom, and what they had access to.
Written against: AQA 8145 4.4
Builds on: Comparing two interpretations — “The Year 9 skill of comparing two interpretations, now to exam standard.” · Sources & provenance
Weimar democracy under attack, 1919–1923
The new republic and the attempts to overthrow it from the left and the right: the Spartacists, the Kapp Putsch and Hitler’s Munich Putsch.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AB, Part one
Option: Period study: Germany 1890–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Treaty of Versailles · Hitler’s rise to power · Defeat in 1918 and the end of the monarchy — “The republic was born out of the defeat and blamed for it.”
Judging how useful a source is
Judging how useful a source from the time is for a stated enquiry, using what it says, who made it and why, and your own knowledge together.
Written against: AQA 8145 4.4
Builds on: Reliable or useful? — “The Year 8 idea that a biased source can still be useful.” · Propaganda as evidence · Sources & provenance — “Provenance: who made this, when and why.” · Cross-referencing sources
Sustained argument in an essay
Holding one line of argument through a whole essay, weighing the other side, and ending with a judgement you have justified.
Written against: AQA 8145 4.4
Builds on: Causation essays — “Year 9 causation essays are the first full-length version.” · Writing a supported judgement — “The supported judgement from Year 8 is the building block.” · Comparing two interpretations
The Great Plains and Manifest Destiny
What the land west of the Mississippi was like, why Americans first wrote it off as a desert, and the belief that the United States was meant to spread from coast to coast.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AA, Part one
Option: Period study: America 1840–1895. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Chronology & period sense
The Mormons go west
Why the Mormons were driven out of Missouri and Illinois, and how Brigham Young led them across the Plains and made a settlement work at Salt Lake.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AA, Part one
Option: Period study: America 1840–1895. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Great Plains and Manifest Destiny
Pioneer farmers and gold miners
Why families took the wagon trails to Oregon and California, what the journey cost them, and how the discovery of gold sent miners west in a rush.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AA, Part one
Option: Period study: America 1840–1895. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Great Plains and Manifest Destiny — “Manifest Destiny is one of the reasons these settlers gave for going.”
The Plains Indians' way of life
How the peoples of the Plains lived: the buffalo and the horse, moving camp, their beliefs about land and nature, and how their bands were led.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AA, Part one
Option: Period study: America 1840–1895. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Avoiding anachronism · The Great Plains and Manifest Destiny — “Their whole way of life was shaped by the Plains you have just studied.”
Early government policy and the Permanent Indian Frontier
How the American government first dealt with the Plains Indians by drawing a line and promising the land beyond it, and why that promise began to break.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AA, Part one
Option: Period study: America 1840–1895. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Plains Indians' way of life — “You judge a policy towards a people only once you know how they lived.” · Pioneer farmers and gold miners
Fort Laramie and the Indian Wars, 1851–1867
The 1851 treaty and the plan to keep each nation in its own area, why it failed, and the fighting that followed, including Sand Creek and Fetterman’s Trap.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AA, Part two
Option: Period study: America 1840–1895. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Early government policy and the Permanent Indian Frontier — “The treaty replaced the frontier policy that had already failed.” · Pioneer farmers and gold miners
The road to the American Civil War and its impact
How North and South grew apart over slavery and over whether new western states would allow it, the parts played by John Brown, Lincoln and Jefferson Davis, and what the war did to ordinary people.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AA, Part two
Option: Period study: America 1840–1895. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The transatlantic slave trade · Abolishing the slave trade · The Great Plains and Manifest Destiny
The Mormons and the Mountain Meadows Massacre
How fear between the Mormons and the government led to the killing of a wagon train in 1857, and how the two sides came to terms afterwards.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AA, Part two
Option: Period study: America 1840–1895. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Mormons go west — “This is the next chapter for the Mormon settlement at Salt Lake.”
Reconstruction after the Civil War
What freedom meant in law after 1865: the 13th Amendment, the Civil Rights Act, the rebuilding of the South to 1877, the northerners called carpetbaggers, and the tug between federal and state power.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AA, Part three
Option: Period study: America 1840–1895. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The road to the American Civil War and its impact — “Reconstruction is the attempt to settle what the war had been fought over.”
Homesteaders and the settlement of the Plains
Why farmers moved onto the Plains after the war, how government land laws and the railroads helped them, and how they solved the problems of farming dry, treeless land.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AA, Part three
Option: Period study: America 1840–1895. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Railways transform Britain · Pioneer farmers and gold miners — “The first pioneers crossed the Plains; the homesteaders stayed on them.” · The Great Plains and Manifest Destiny
Reservations and the Battle of the Little Bighorn
The policy of moving the Plains nations onto small reservations, how Americans thought about them, and the defeat of Custer in 1876.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AA, Part three
Option: Period study: America 1840–1895. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Fort Laramie and the Indian Wars, 1851–1867 — “The small reservations followed the wars and broken treaties of the 1860s.”
The Dawes Act, Wounded Knee and the closing of the frontier
How the reservations were broken into family plots, the killing at Wounded Knee in 1890, and what the end of the open frontier meant for Native Americans.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AA, Part three
Option: Period study: America 1840–1895. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Reservations and the Battle of the Little Bighorn — “The government’s answer to Little Bighorn was to break the nations up.” · Homesteaders and the settlement of the Plains
Kaiser Wilhelm II's Germany
How Germany was run before 1914: an emperor with real power, an elected parliament with less, a proud army, fast-growing industry, a rising socialist movement and the social reforms passed for workers, and a navy built for prestige.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AB, Part one
Option: Period study: Germany 1890–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Causes of the First World War
Defeat in 1918 and the end of the monarchy
How four years of war wore Germany down, with shortages at home and defeat at the front, until the Kaiser gave up his throne.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AB, Part one
Option: Period study: Germany 1890–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Trench warfare on the Western Front · Kaiser Wilhelm II's Germany — “You need to know the Kaiser’s system to see what collapsed.”
Reparations, the Ruhr and hyperinflation
The bill Germany was handed for the war, the French and Belgian occupation of the Ruhr when payments stopped, and the collapse of the currency in 1923.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AB, Part one
Option: Period study: Germany 1890–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Treaty of Versailles — “Reparations were a term of the treaty you already know.” · Defeat in 1918 and the end of the monarchy — “The new republic inherited the defeat and its costs.”
The Stresemann years and Weimar culture, 1924–1929
How far Germany recovered: a new currency, American loans under the Dawes Plan, a smaller reparations bill spread over more years under the Young Plan, agreements with other countries, and a burst of new art, film and design.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AB, Part one
Option: Period study: Germany 1890–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Reparations, the Ruhr and hyperinflation — “Stresemann’s first job was to end the hyperinflation.” · Weimar democracy under attack, 1919–1923
The Depression and the rise of the Nazis
How mass unemployment after 1929 pushed voters towards the Nazis and other extreme parties, the part played by the SA, and what made Hitler appealing.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AB, Part two
Option: Period study: Germany 1890–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Hitler’s rise to power — “You know the outline of Hitler’s rise; now you explain the votes.” · The Stresemann years and Weimar culture, 1924–1929 — “The recovery rested on American loans, so it ended when they did.”
How Hitler became Chancellor
The election results of 1930 to 1932, the failure of governments to command a majority, and the deal-making by Papen and Hindenburg that put Hitler in office in January 1933.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AB, Part two
Option: Period study: Germany 1890–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Hitler’s rise to power — “This is the "legally at almost every step" part of the story, in detail.” · The Depression and the rise of the Nazis — “The Nazis’ votes are what made Hitler worth doing a deal with.”
From Chancellor to Führer, 1933–1934
How Hitler turned a shared government into a dictatorship in under two years: the Reichstag Fire, the Enabling Act, the ban on other parties and trade unions, the Night of the Long Knives, and Hindenburg’s death.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AB, Part two
Option: Period study: Germany 1890–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Hitler’s rise to power — “The Year 9 topic ends in 1934; this is each step by name.” · How Hitler became Chancellor — “Each step starts from the office Hitler was handed in January 1933.”
The Nazi economy, 1933–1939
How the Nazis cut unemployment through public works and rearmament, the drive to make Germany self-sufficient, and who gained and who lost.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AB, Part three
Option: Period study: Germany 1890–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: From Chancellor to Führer, 1933–1934 — “Only a dictatorship could run the economy this way.” · The Depression and the rise of the Nazis
Germans at war, 1939–1945
What the Second World War did to life inside Germany: bombing, rationing, labour shortages and refugees.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AB, Part three
Option: Period study: Germany 1890–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Home Front and the Blitz · The Second World War’s turning points · The Nazi economy, 1933–1939 — “The war economy grew out of the rearmament of the 1930s.”
Women, young people, schools and the churches
What the Nazis wanted from women and from the young, how schools and youth groups were used to get it, and how the regime tried to control the churches.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AB, Part three
Option: Period study: Germany 1890–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: From Chancellor to Führer, 1933–1934 — “These policies were imposed once no one could vote them out.”
Racial policy, persecution and the Final Solution
The Nazi idea of an Aryan master race, how persecution of Jewish people and others tightened step by step, and how it ended in mass murder.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AB, Part three
Option: Period study: Germany 1890–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Holocaust — “This builds directly on your study of the Holocaust.” · From Chancellor to Führer, 1933–1934 — “Persecution became law once Hitler held all power.” · Women, young people, schools and the churches
Propaganda, censorship and the police state
How Goebbels shaped what Germans read, heard and saw, and how Himmler’s SS and the Gestapo dealt with those who were not persuaded.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AB, Part three
Option: Period study: Germany 1890–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Propaganda as evidence — “You have read propaganda as evidence; now you study the machine that made it.” · From Chancellor to Führer, 1933–1934 — “Control of the press and the police came with the dictatorship.”
Opposition and resistance
Who stood against the Nazis and how: the White Rose students, the Swing Youth, the Edelweiss Pirates, and the army officers’ bomb plot of July 1944.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AB, Part three
Option: Period study: Germany 1890–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Propaganda, censorship and the police state — “Resistance only makes sense once you know what resisters risked.” · Women, young people, schools and the churches
Russia's economy and society around 1900
A vast, mostly peasant country that industrialised late and fast, and what life was like in its villages and its new factory cities.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AC, Part one
Option: Period study: Russia 1894–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Life in industrial cities · Steam power and factories
Nicholas II, opposition and the 1905 Revolution
A Tsar who ruled alone, the groups that wanted him gone, the revolution of 1905, and the October Manifesto that promised a parliament.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AC, Part one
Option: Period study: Russia 1894–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Russia's economy and society around 1900 — “The anger of 1905 came from the conditions you have just studied.”
The Dumas and Stolypin, 1906–1914
Whether Russia really reformed after 1905: elected Dumas the Tsar dissolved twice and then weakened by changing who could vote, and a prime minister who mixed land reform with harsh repression.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AC, Part one
Option: Period study: Russia 1894–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Nicholas II, opposition and the 1905 Revolution — “The Dumas exist only because of the promises made in 1905.”
The First World War and the fall of the Tsar
How defeats at the front, shortages at home, and the scandal of Rasputin destroyed trust in the Romanovs until Nicholas gave up the throne in 1917.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AC, Part one
Option: Period study: Russia 1894–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Causes of the First World War · The Dumas and Stolypin, 1906–1914 — “The war broke a system that reform had not fixed.”
The Provisional Government
The temporary government that replaced the Tsar, and why it could not solve the problems of land, food and a war it chose to keep fighting.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AC, Part two
Option: Period study: Russia 1894–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The First World War and the fall of the Tsar — “It took power the week the Tsar fell and inherited his war.”
Lenin, Trotsky and the October Revolution
How the Bolsheviks grew from a small party into an organised force, and how they seized power in the autumn of 1917.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AC, Part two
Option: Period study: Russia 1894–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Provisional Government — “The Bolsheviks won by promising what the Provisional Government could not deliver.” · Nicholas II, opposition and the 1905 Revolution
Lenin's dictatorship and the Civil War
How the Bolsheviks kept power: peace with Germany, the Cheka secret police, Trotsky’s Red Army, propaganda, and victory in a three-year civil war.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AC, Part two
Option: Period study: Russia 1894–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Lenin, Trotsky and the October Revolution — “Seizing power was quick; holding it took a civil war.”
War Communism, Kronstadt and the New Economic Policy
The harsh wartime economy that took grain by force, the sailors’ rising that shocked Lenin, his step back to allow some private trade, and what Lenin and Trotsky had achieved by Lenin’s death in 1924.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AC, Part two
Option: Period study: Russia 1894–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Lenin's dictatorship and the Civil War — “War Communism was how the Bolsheviks fed the Red Army.”
How Stalin won the struggle for power
Why it was Stalin, not Trotsky, who took over after Lenin died, and how the Communist Party came to control the whole government.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AC, Part three
Option: Period study: Russia 1894–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: War Communism, Kronstadt and the New Economic Policy — “The rivals fought over what Lenin had left unfinished.”
The Terror: purges, camps and the cult of Stalin
How Stalin ruled by fear and by image: purges of the party and the army, the secret police and labour camps, censorship, and propaganda that made him a hero.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AC, Part three
Option: Period study: Russia 1894–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Propaganda as evidence · How Stalin won the struggle for power — “The Terror was aimed first at the rivals Stalin had beaten.”
Collectivisation
How peasant farms were merged by force into large state-run ones, what happened to the better-off peasants called kulaks, and the famine that followed.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AC, Part three
Option: Period study: Russia 1894–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: How Stalin won the struggle for power — “Only an unchallenged leader could force this on the countryside.” · War Communism, Kronstadt and the New Economic Policy — “Collectivisation ended the private farming Lenin had allowed.”
The Five Year Plans
Stalin’s targets for coal, steel and power, what they achieved, and what they cost city dwellers, women and workers.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AC, Part three
Option: Period study: Russia 1894–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: How Stalin won the struggle for power — “The Plans were Stalin’s answer to the question the rivals had argued over.” · Collectivisation
The Great Patriotic War, 1941–1945
How Stalin led the USSR through the German invasion, and the political, economic and human damage the war had done by 1945.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AC, Part three
Option: Period study: Russia 1894–1945. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Second World War’s turning points · The Five Year Plans — “The industry built by the Plans is what made the weapons.” · The Terror: purges, camps and the cult of Stalin
The economic boom of the 1920s
Why America grew rich so fast: mass production led by Ford, advertising, buying on credit, rising share prices and governments that left business alone. And who was left out.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AD, Part one
Option: Period study: America 1920–1973. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Steam power and factories
The Roaring Twenties: cinema, jazz and changing lives for women
New ways to spend free time, and how far life really changed for women, including the young women called flappers.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AD, Part one
Option: Period study: America 1920–1973. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The economic boom of the 1920s — “The boom paid for the cinemas, radios and free time.”
Prohibition and organised crime
The ban on alcohol, why it was so widely broken, and how it made gangsters rich and powerful.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AD, Part one
Option: Period study: America 1920–1973. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Roaring Twenties: cinema, jazz and changing lives for women
Immigration, racism, the Ku Klux Klan and the Red Scare
Why many Americans turned against immigrants and Black Americans in the 1920s, the revival of the Klan, the panic about communists, and what the Sacco and Vanzetti case showed.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AD, Part one
Option: Period study: America 1920–1973. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The transatlantic slave trade · The economic boom of the 1920s
The Depression, Hoover and the election of Roosevelt
What the slump of the 1930s did to the unemployed, farmers and businessmen, why President Hoover was blamed, and why Roosevelt won in 1932.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AD, Part two
Option: Period study: America 1920–1973. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The economic boom of the 1920s — “The Depression is the collapse of the boom, so you need to know how the boom worked.”
The New Deal: successes, limits and opponents
What Roosevelt’s programmes did for different groups, where they fell short, and who fought them: the Supreme Court, Republicans and radical politicians.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AD, Part two
Option: Period study: America 1920–1973. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Depression, Hoover and the election of Roosevelt — “The New Deal was Roosevelt’s answer to the Depression.”
America and the Second World War
How war production ended the Depression, how America supplied its allies through Lend-Lease, and what the war changed for African Americans and for women.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AD, Part two
Option: Period study: America 1920–1973. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Second World War’s turning points · The New Deal: successes, limits and opponents — “You compare what the war achieved with what the New Deal had not.”
Post-war prosperity, McCarthyism and popular culture
The comfortable consumer society of the 1950s and the idea of the American Dream, the hunt for communists led by Senator McCarthy, and the arrival of television and rock and roll.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AD, Part three
Option: Period study: America 1920–1973. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Cold War divides Europe · America and the Second World War — “Post-war prosperity grew out of the wartime recovery.” · Immigration, racism, the Ku Klux Klan and the Red Scare
Segregation and the peaceful civil rights campaign
The laws that kept Black and white Americans apart, and the campaign of peaceful protest led by Martin Luther King.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AD, Part three
Option: Period study: America 1920–1973. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Immigration, racism, the Ku Klux Klan and the Red Scare — “The racism of the 1920s had never gone away.” · America and the Second World War
Malcolm X, Black Power and the Civil Rights Acts
Why some campaigners rejected peaceful protest, what the Black Power movement wanted, and what the two Civil Rights Acts (1964 and 1968) changed.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AD, Part three
Option: Period study: America 1920–1973. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Segregation and the peaceful civil rights campaign — “Black Power was an argument with King’s methods, so you need those first.”
Kennedy, Johnson and the 'Great Society'
What two presidents did about poverty, schools and health care in the 1960s.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AD, Part three
Option: Period study: America 1920–1973. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Post-war prosperity, McCarthyism and popular culture — “The Great Society was aimed at those the 1950s prosperity had missed.” · The New Deal: successes, limits and opponents
The women's movement, 1960s to 1973
The campaign for equal pay and equal rights, the National Organisation for Women, the Supreme Court’s rulings including Roe v Wade, and those who opposed the Equal Rights Amendment.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.1 AD, Part three
Option: Period study: America 1920–1973. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Votes for women · The Roaring Twenties: cinema, jazz and changing lives for women · America and the Second World War
The alliance system and the crises in Morocco and the Balkans
How Europe’s great powers split into two armed camps, and how quarrels over Morocco and the Balkans raised the tension between them.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BA, Part one
Option: Wider world depth study: First World War. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Causes of the First World War — “You know the alliances in outline; now you learn each one and each crisis.”
Anglo-German rivalry and the naval race
Why Britain gave up standing alone, what the Kaiser wanted for Germany in the world, and the race to build battleships.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BA, Part one
Option: Wider world depth study: First World War. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Causes of the First World War — “The arms race is one of the causes you have already weighed.” · The alliance system and the crises in Morocco and the Balkans
Sarajevo, the July Crisis and the outbreak of war
From Serbia’s quarrel with Austria-Hungary and the shooting in Sarajevo, through the weeks of threats, to Germany’s march into Belgium.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BA, Part one
Option: Wider world depth study: First World War. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Causes of the First World War — “You know one shot started it; now you follow the five weeks that followed.” · The alliance system and the crises in Morocco and the Balkans — “The alliances are what turned a local quarrel into a European war.” · Anglo-German rivalry and the naval race
The Schlieffen Plan and why it failed
Germany’s plan to beat France quickly before Russia was ready, why it went wrong, and how the Battle of the Marne led to stalemate.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BA, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: First World War. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Trench warfare on the Western Front · Sarajevo, the July Crisis and the outbreak of war — “The plan is the reason Germany invaded Belgium in 1914.”
Trench warfare, tactics and technology on the Western Front
How the fighting worked: trenches, artillery, machine guns, gas and tanks, and the idea of wearing the enemy down.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BA, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: First World War. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Trench warfare on the Western Front — “The Year 9 topic, now with the tactics and the thinking behind them.” · The Schlieffen Plan and why it failed — “Trench warfare began when the war of movement failed.”
Verdun, the Somme and Passchendaele
Three great battles: why each was fought, what happened, and what each one changed.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BA, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: First World War. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Trench warfare on the Western Front — “You know why the line barely moved; these are the attempts to move it.” · Trench warfare, tactics and technology on the Western Front — “You judge a battle only once you understand the weapons and tactics.”
Gallipoli and the other fronts
The war beyond France and Belgium, and the failed Allied landing at Gallipoli in 1915.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BA, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: First World War. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Trench warfare, tactics and technology on the Western Front · The alliance system and the crises in Morocco and the Balkans
The war at sea: Jutland, U-boats and convoys
The one great battle between the fleets, Germany’s submarine campaign against supply ships, and how convoys beat it.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BA, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: First World War. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Anglo-German rivalry and the naval race — “These are the fleets that the naval race built.”
Russia leaves the war and the USA joins
How the Bolshevik Revolution took Russia out of the war and freed German troops, and why the United States came in and what difference it made.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BA, Part three
Option: Wider world depth study: First World War. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The war at sea: Jutland, U-boats and convoys — “Germany’s submarine campaign is a main reason America joined.” · Trench warfare, tactics and technology on the Western Front
The Spring Offensive and the Hundred Days, 1918
Ludendorff’s last great attack, why it ran out of strength, and the Allied advance that followed with new tactics and weapons.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BA, Part three
Option: Wider world depth study: First World War. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Russia leaves the war and the USA joins — “Germany attacked in spring 1918 to win before the Americans arrived in strength.” · Trench warfare, tactics and technology on the Western Front — “You need the old tactics to see what was new in 1918.”
Germany's surrender and the armistice
Why Germany asked for peace: hunger caused by the naval blockade, the Kaiser’s fall, and defeat in the field, with the parts played by Haig and Foch.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BA, Part three
Option: Wider world depth study: First World War. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Spring Offensive and the Hundred Days, 1918 — “The armistice followed the Allied advance of the Hundred Days.” · The war at sea: Jutland, U-boats and convoys
The peacemakers and their aims
What Wilson, Clemenceau and Lloyd George each wanted from the peace, including Wilson’s Fourteen Points, and how far each got it.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BB, Part one
Option: Wider world depth study: Inter-war years. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Treaty of Versailles — “You know the treaty; now you study the three men who made it.” · Trench warfare on the Western Front
The terms of the Treaty of Versailles
What Germany had to accept without negotiation: lost land, a small army, blame for the war, and reparations.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BB, Part one
Option: Wider world depth study: Inter-war years. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Treaty of Versailles — “The Year 9 topic, now with the terms in detail.” · The peacemakers and their aims — “Each term is a compromise between the three leaders’ aims.”
Reactions to the peace settlement
What the Allies and the Germans thought of the treaty, the strengths and weaknesses of the whole settlement, and the problems of the new countries it created.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BB, Part one
Option: Wider world depth study: Inter-war years. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Treaty of Versailles — “You have asked whether the treaty was justice, revenge or a mistake.” · The terms of the Treaty of Versailles — “You judge the settlement only once you know its terms.”
The League of Nations: aims, structure and powers
What the League was for, how it was organised, who joined and who did not, and what it could do to a country that broke the rules.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BB, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: Inter-war years. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The peacemakers and their aims — “The League was the last of Wilson’s Fourteen Points.”
The League in the 1920s
The work of the League’s agencies, and how it handled disputes over Vilna, Corfu, Upper Silesia, the Aaland Islands and Bulgaria.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BB, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: Inter-war years. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The League of Nations: aims, structure and powers — “You judge the League’s record against the powers it was given.”
Locarno and the Kellogg-Briand Pact
Agreements made outside the League in the 1920s, and whether they made peace safer.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BB, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: Inter-war years. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The terms of the Treaty of Versailles — “At Locarno Germany accepted the western borders set at Versailles.” · The League of Nations: aims, structure and powers
The Depression and the Manchurian crisis
How the world slump made countries selfish and aggressive, and how the League failed to stop Japan taking Manchuria.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BB, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: Inter-war years. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The League of Nations: aims, structure and powers — “Manchuria tested the powers the League had on paper.” · The League in the 1920s
The Abyssinian crisis and the collapse of the League
How Italy’s invasion of Abyssinia finished the League as a force, and why it could do nothing to prevent war in 1939.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BB, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: Inter-war years. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Depression and the Manchurian crisis — “Abyssinia repeated the failure over Manchuria, closer to home.”
Hitler's aims and the first challenges, 1933–1935
What Hitler wanted, and his first moves: the failed grab at Austria, the Saar vote, rearmament and conscription, and how Britain, France and Italy responded.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BB, Part three
Option: Wider world depth study: Inter-war years. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Hitler’s rise to power · The terms of the Treaty of Versailles — “Almost every aim was to undo a term of Versailles.”
The Rhineland, the Axis and the Anschluss
German troops return to the Rhineland, Hitler finds allies in Italy and Japan, and Austria is joined to Germany.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BB, Part three
Option: Wider world depth study: Inter-war years. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Hitler's aims and the first challenges, 1933–1935 — “Each step was bolder because the last one went unpunished.” · The Abyssinian crisis and the collapse of the League
Appeasement, the Sudeten crisis and Munich
The case for and against giving Hitler what he demanded, the crisis over Czechoslovakia in 1938, and when and why appeasement ended.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BB, Part three
Option: Wider world depth study: Inter-war years. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Rhineland, the Axis and the Anschluss — “Munich was the response to a pattern set by the Rhineland and Austria.”
The Nazi-Soviet Pact, Poland and who was to blame
The takeover of the rest of Czechoslovakia, Stalin’s deal with Hitler, the invasion of Poland, and how far Hitler, Stalin and Chamberlain were each responsible for war.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BB, Part three
Option: Wider world depth study: Inter-war years. A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Second World War’s turning points · Appeasement, the Sudeten crisis and Munich — “War came when appeasement was abandoned.”
Yalta, Potsdam and the end of the wartime alliance
What the Allied leaders agreed and disagreed about in 1945, how their beliefs clashed, how Germany was divided, and what the atom bomb did to trust.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BC, Part one
Option: Wider world depth study: East and West (Cold War). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Cold War divides Europe — “You know the allies fell out; now you see it happen meeting by meeting.” · The Second World War’s turning points
Soviet control of Eastern Europe and the Iron Curtain
How Stalin brought the countries of Eastern Europe under communist governments and tied them together, and the one that broke away, Yugoslavia.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BC, Part one
Option: Wider world depth study: East and West (Cold War). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Cold War divides Europe — “The Iron Curtain you know, now country by country.” · Yalta, Potsdam and the end of the wartime alliance — “Stalin was holding the lands his army occupied in 1945.”
The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan
America’s promise to resist the spread of communism and its offer of money to rebuild Europe, what each was for, and how Stalin reacted.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BC, Part one
Option: Wider world depth study: East and West (Cold War). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Cold War divides Europe · Soviet control of Eastern Europe and the Iron Curtain — “Both policies were answers to Soviet control of Eastern Europe.”
The Berlin Blockade and Airlift
Stalin’s attempt to force the western powers out of Berlin by cutting the roads and railways, and the airlift that defeated it.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BC, Part one
Option: Wider world depth study: East and West (Cold War). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Cold War divides Europe — “Berlin is the one crisis the Year 9 topic covers; now in detail.” · The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan — “The blockade was Stalin’s reply to western plans for Germany.”
Communism in Asia: China, Korea and Vietnam
Why the communist victory in China and the wars in Korea and Vietnam mattered to relations between the USA and the USSR.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BC, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: East and West (Cold War). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Truman Doctrine and the Marshall Plan — “America read events in Asia through the promise it had made in Europe.”
The arms race, NATO and the Warsaw Pact
Who joined NATO and the Warsaw Pact and what each alliance was for, and the competition to build more powerful nuclear weapons.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BC, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: East and West (Cold War). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Berlin Blockade and Airlift — “NATO was formed during the Berlin Blockade.” · Yalta, Potsdam and the end of the wartime alliance
The space race
From Sputnik to the Moon landings: why rockets mattered to both sides, and how the rockets that reached space were close relatives of the missiles built to carry nuclear warheads.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BC, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: East and West (Cold War). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The arms race, NATO and the Warsaw Pact — “A rocket that can lift a satellite can carry a warhead.”
The Hungarian Uprising, 1956
Why Hungarians rose against Soviet control, what Nagy tried to change, why the USSR sent tanks, and what it showed the West would not do.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BC, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: East and West (Cold War). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Soviet control of Eastern Europe and the Iron Curtain — “Hungary was one of the countries Stalin had brought under control.” · The arms race, NATO and the Warsaw Pact
The U-2 crisis and the Paris summit
The American spy plane shot down over the USSR in 1960, and how it wrecked a meeting meant to ease tension.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BC, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: East and West (Cold War). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The arms race, NATO and the Warsaw Pact — “The plane was spying on the missiles of the arms race.”
The Berlin Wall
Why East Germany sealed the border in 1961, and how President Kennedy responded.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BC, Part three
Option: Wider world depth study: East and West (Cold War). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Berlin Blockade and Airlift — “The Wall was the second crisis over the divided city.” · The U-2 crisis and the Paris summit
The Cuban Missile Crisis
Castro’s revolution, the failed Bay of Pigs landing, Soviet missiles on Cuba, the thirteen days when war was close, and what changed afterwards.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BC, Part three
Option: Wider world depth study: East and West (Cold War). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The arms race, NATO and the Warsaw Pact — “The crisis was about where nuclear missiles could be placed.” · The Berlin Wall
The Prague Spring and the Brezhnev Doctrine
Dubček’s reforms in Czechoslovakia in 1968, the invasion that ended them, and the rule the USSR announced afterwards.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BC, Part three
Option: Wider world depth study: East and West (Cold War). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Hungarian Uprising, 1956 — “Prague 1968 is best understood beside Hungary 1956.”
Détente and SALT 1
Why both sides wanted to lower the tension by the early 1970s, what still divided them, including the Soviet record on human rights, and SALT 1, the first agreement to limit the number of their nuclear missiles, signed by Brezhnev and Nixon.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BC, Part three
Option: Wider world depth study: East and West (Cold War). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Cuban Missile Crisis — “Cuba had shown both sides how close war could come.” · The Prague Spring and the Brezhnev Doctrine
Why war broke out in Korea
A country divided in 1945, two rival leaders, and why the North attacked in June 1950, with the response of the USA and of the United Nations, where the USSR was staying away and so could not block it.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BD, Part one
Option: Wider world depth study: Asia (Korea and Vietnam). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Cold War divides Europe — “Korea was divided by the same rivalry that divided Europe.”
The Korean War, 1950–1951: Inchon, China and MacArthur
The UN’s fightback from the landing at Inchon, the advance into the North, China’s entry into the war, and the sacking of General MacArthur.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BD, Part one
Option: Wider world depth study: Asia (Korea and Vietnam). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Why war broke out in Korea — “You follow the campaign only once you know why it began.”
Stalemate, armistice and the results of the Korean War
Two years of deadlock near the old border, the ceasefire of 1953, and what the war meant for Korea, the UN and relations between America and China.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BD, Part one
Option: Wider world depth study: Asia (Korea and Vietnam). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Korean War, 1950–1951: Inchon, China and MacArthur — “The stalemate followed China’s entry into the war.”
The French defeat and the Geneva Agreement
How France lost its colony in Vietnam at Dien Bien Phu, and the 1954 agreement that split the country in two.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BD, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: Asia (Korea and Vietnam). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The end of empire · Why war broke out in Korea
Diem's South Vietnam and the Vietcong
Why the government of South Vietnam was unpopular, and the aims, leaders, support and guerrilla methods of the Vietcong and Ho Chi Minh.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BD, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: Asia (Korea and Vietnam). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The French defeat and the Geneva Agreement — “The civil war grew out of the division made at Geneva.”
Why the USA became involved in Vietnam
The fear that countries would fall to communism one after another, the help sent by Eisenhower and Kennedy, and the failed plan to move villagers into guarded settlements.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BD, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: Asia (Korea and Vietnam). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Diem's South Vietnam and the Vietcong — “America stepped in because Diem’s government was failing.” · Stalemate, armistice and the results of the Korean War
Johnson's war: the Gulf of Tonkin and American tactics
How an incident at sea in 1964 opened the way to full-scale war, and how America fought it: mass bombing and Search and Destroy.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BD, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: Asia (Korea and Vietnam). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Why the USA became involved in Vietnam — “Johnson built on the commitments of the two presidents before him.” · Diem's South Vietnam and the Vietcong — “American tactics were designed to beat the Vietcong’s guerrilla methods.”
My Lai, the Tet Offensive and protest at home
The massacre at My Lai and its effect on the public, the surprise attacks of 1968, and the growing demands in America for peace.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BD, Part two
Option: Wider world depth study: Asia (Korea and Vietnam). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Johnson's war: the Gulf of Tonkin and American tactics — “My Lai happened on a Search and Destroy mission.”
Nixon's war: Vietnamisation and the wider war
Handing the fighting to South Vietnam’s army while bombing harder, the use of chemicals, fighting that spilled over into Cambodia and Laos, and Nixon’s approach to China.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BD, Part three
Option: Wider world depth study: Asia (Korea and Vietnam). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: My Lai, the Tet Offensive and protest at home — “After Tet, America’s aim changed from winning to getting out.”
Opposition to the war: Kent State, television and Watergate
The shooting of student protesters in 1970, how television coverage shaped opinion, and how the Watergate scandal weakened the president.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BD, Part three
Option: Wider world depth study: Asia (Korea and Vietnam). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: My Lai, the Tet Offensive and protest at home — “The protests of the Johnson years grew under Nixon.” · Nixon's war: Vietnamisation and the wider war
The Paris peace talks and the fall of Saigon
How Kissinger negotiated America’s exit, the withdrawal, the communist victory in 1975, and what the war had cost Vietnam.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.2.2 BD, Part three
Option: Wider world depth study: Asia (Korea and Vietnam). A school teaches 1 of the 5 AQA offers; 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Nixon's war: Vietnamisation and the wider war — “The talks went alongside Vietnamisation and the bombing.” · Opposition to the war: Kent State, television and Watergate
Judging how convincing an interpretation is
Test a later account against what you know: which of its claims the facts support, which they do not, and so how far to accept it.
Written against: AQA 8145 4.4
Builds on: Comparing two interpretations — “You can already spot how two accounts differ.” · Writing a supported judgement · How and why interpretations differ — “You say why accounts differ before you judge which holds up.”
Explaining change, consequence and importance
The eight-mark "explain" answer: how a group or situation was changed by an event, or why something mattered, in developed points with precise knowledge.
Written against: AQA 8145 4.4
Builds on: Change and continuity — “You can already spot change and continuity side by side.” · Short and long-term consequences — “You can already separate short and long-term consequences.” · Writing a supported judgement
Writing a narrative account
Telling how one event led to the next, so that the order explains the outcome, not just lists it.
Written against: AQA 8145 4.4
Builds on: Causation essays — “A narrative account is causation written as a connected story.” · Short and long-term consequences · Chronology & period sense
Describing two key features
The four-mark "Describe two…" answer in the period study: two separate features of the period, each named and backed with one precise detail. It tests knowledge only, so no explanation or judgement is needed.
Written against: AQA 8145 4.4
Builds on: Chronology & period sense · Writing a supported judgement
Spelling, punctuation, grammar and specialist terms
Four extra marks on one essay in each paper: the last question of the wider world depth study and the factor essay of the thematic study. They reward accurate spelling and punctuation, grammar that keeps the meaning clear, and the right specialist terms for the period.
Written against: AQA 8145 4.4
Builds on: Avoiding anachronism · Sustained argument in an essay — “The marks are given on an essay, so the essay comes first.”
Year 11 97 topics
Medieval medicine and belief
How medieval people explained illness, through God, the stars, bad air and the four humours of Hippocrates and Galen, how doctors were trained, and what treatments followed.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part one
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Becket and church versus crown · The Black Death
Elizabeth I and her court
The queen’s background and character, how the court worked, how she used favours to keep nobles loyal, and her chief ministers.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BC, Part one
Option: British depth study: Elizabethan England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Elizabeth’s Religious Settlement · Reformation & the Tudors
The Church, hospitals and Islamic medicine
How Christianity both helped and held back medicine, what medieval hospitals were for, and what doctors in the Islamic world knew and passed on.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part one
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: 1066 & medieval power · Medieval medicine and belief — “The Church protected the ideas of Galen that you have just learned.”
Medieval surgery
What surgeons could and could not do, and the ideas and techniques they used for pain, bleeding and infection.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part one
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Medieval medicine and belief — “Surgeons worked inside the same beliefs about the body.”
Public health in medieval towns and monasteries
Why public health was usually worse in towns than in monasteries: water, waste and who was responsible.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part one
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Church, hospitals and Islamic medicine · Medieval medicine and belief
The Black Death in Britain
What people in 1348 believed caused the plague, and how they tried to treat it and stop it.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part one
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Black Death — “The Year 7 topic, now used as a test of medieval medicine.” · Medieval medicine and belief — “Every explanation people gave came from medieval beliefs about illness.” · Public health in medieval towns and monasteries
The Renaissance: Vesalius, Paré and Harvey
Three men who checked the old books against what they saw: in anatomy, in surgery and in how blood moves round the body. And why many doctors resisted them.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part two
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Medieval medicine and belief — “They were challenging Galen, so you need to know what Galen taught.” · Medieval surgery
Treating disease, 1500–1700: remedies, quacks and the Great Plague
What an ill person could actually get: old remedies and new ones, sellers of fake cures, and how the plague of 1665 was handled.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part two
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Black Death in Britain — “You compare 1665 with 1348 to see how little had changed.” · The Renaissance: Vesalius, Paré and Harvey
Hospitals, training and John Hunter
How hospitals grew in number, how the training and standing of surgeons and physicians changed, and the work of the surgeon John Hunter.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part two
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Renaissance: Vesalius, Paré and Harvey — “Hunter carried on the habit of looking for yourself.” · The Church, hospitals and Islamic medicine
Inoculation, Jenner and vaccination
Preventing smallpox: the older method of inoculation, Edward Jenner’s use of cowpox, and why many people opposed him.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part two
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Treating disease, 1500–1700: remedies, quacks and the Great Plague
Germ theory: Pasteur, Koch and Ehrlich
The discovery that tiny living things cause disease, the hunt for the germ behind each illness, new vaccines, the first chemical cures, and what ordinary people still took.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part three
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Inoculation, Jenner and vaccination — “Pasteur explained why Jenner’s vaccine worked and made more.” · Medieval medicine and belief
Anaesthetics, antiseptics and aseptic surgery
How surgery lost its three killers one by one: Simpson and chloroform for pain, Lister and carbolic acid for infection, and then the germ-free operating theatre.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part three
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Germ theory: Pasteur, Koch and Ehrlich — “Lister’s method depends on knowing that germs cause infection.” · Hospitals, training and John Hunter
Public health in industrial Britain
Filthy, crowded cities and cholera, the reformers who pressed for change, and how local and national government were pushed to act, including the Public Health Acts of 1848 and 1875.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part three
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Life in industrial cities — “The city conditions you studied are the problem the Acts tried to fix.” · Germ theory: Pasteur, Koch and Ehrlich
Penicillin, the drug industry and antibiotic resistance
Fleming’s discovery and the work that turned it into a medicine, the growth of drug companies, new diseases, bacteria that no longer respond, and alternative treatments.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part four
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Germ theory: Pasteur, Koch and Ehrlich — “Penicillin continues the search for a chemical that kills germs.”
War, technology and modern surgery
What two world wars did for plastic surgery, blood transfusion and X-rays, and the later arrival of transplants, lasers, radiation therapy and keyhole surgery.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part four
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Trench warfare on the Western Front · Anaesthetics, antiseptics and aseptic surgery — “With pain and infection solved, surgeons could attempt far more.”
Booth, Rowntree and the Liberal social reforms
How surveys of poverty and the poor health of Boer War recruits pushed the government to act, and what the reforms of 1906 onwards provided.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part four
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Public health in industrial Britain — “The reforms went a step beyond clean water: the state now helped individuals.”
The Beveridge Report, the NHS and health care today
How two world wars changed attitudes to poverty and housing, the plan for a welfare state, the founding and growth of the National Health Service, and the choices and costs it faces now.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AA, Part four
Option: Thematic study: Health and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The welfare state and the NHS — “The Year 9 topic, now placed at the end of a thousand-year story.” · Booth, Rowntree and the Liberal social reforms — “Beveridge built on what the Liberal reforms had begun.”
King John, the barons and Magna Carta
Why the barons turned on King John, what the charter of 1215 said, and what it changed at the time and in the long run.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AB, Part one
Option: Thematic study: Power and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: King John and Magna Carta — “The Year 7 topic, now with its terms and its long-term meaning.” · The feudal system
Henry III, Simon de Montfort and the first parliaments
The quarrel between Henry III and his barons, the reforms agreed at Oxford (the Provisions), and the 1265 Parliament, with their short and long-term results.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AB, Part one
Option: Thematic study: Power and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Simon de Montfort’s Parliament — “You know de Montfort’s Parliament; now you learn what led to it.” · King John, the barons and Magna Carta — “The barons were again holding a king to the promises of Magna Carta.”
The Peasants' Revolt
Why the rising of 1381 happened, what the rebels and the government did, and what difference it made.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AB, Part one
Option: Thematic study: Power and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Peasants’ Revolt of 1381 — “The Year 7 topic, now sorted into social, economic and political causes.” · The Black Death
The Pilgrimage of Grace
The great northern rising of 1536: its social, economic, religious and political causes, how Henry VIII dealt with it, and what it meant for royal power.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AB, Part two
Option: Thematic study: Power and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Dissolution of the monasteries — “The closing of the monasteries is what the rebels were protesting about.” · Henry VIII breaks with Rome — “The rising was a reaction to the break with Rome.”
Why the English Revolution happened
A king who believed God had chosen him against a Parliament that claimed a say: the causes of the Civil War.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AB, Part two
Option: Thematic study: Power and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Causes of the Civil War — “The Year 8 topic, now framed as a contest between two ideas of authority.”
Radical ideas, the execution of Charles I and the Commonwealth
The New Model Army and the new political ideas that grew up in it, the trial and execution of the king, Cromwell’s rule, and what all of it changed in the long run.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AB, Part two
Option: Thematic study: Power and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The execution of Charles I — “You have studied the execution; now you weigh its significance.” · Cromwell and the Interregnum — “Cromwell’s rule is the Year 8 topic, now judged for its lasting effect.” · Why the English Revolution happened — “You need the causes of the war before its results.”
The American Revolution
Why British colonists in America rejected rule from London, with the argument over tax and representation, and why it mattered for Britain.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AB, Part two
Option: Thematic study: Power and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Glorious Revolution · Radical ideas, the execution of Charles I and the Commonwealth
Radical protest and the Great Reform Act
The demand for the vote after 1815, why Parliament gave way in 1832, who gained and who did not, and the reforms that followed.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AB, Part three
Option: Thematic study: Power and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Peterloo and the Chartists — “Peterloo is the radical protest that came first.” · Widening the vote — “The Year 9 topic, now with the causes and limits of the 1832 Act.”
Chartism
Why working people were disappointed by 1832, what the Chartists demanded, how they campaigned, and whether they failed.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AB, Part three
Option: Thematic study: Power and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Peterloo and the Chartists — “The Year 9 topic, now with causes, methods and impact.” · Radical protest and the Great Reform Act — “Chartism began with those the Great Reform Act left out.”
The anti-slavery movement
How campaigners organised to end the slave trade and slavery, and which of their methods worked.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AB, Part three
Option: Thematic study: Power and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Abolishing the slave trade — “The Year 8 topic, now studied as a model of how to campaign.” · The transatlantic slave trade
The Anti-Corn Law League and the factory and social reformers
A campaign for cheaper bread, campaigns for shorter hours and safer work, and the individuals who pressed for better living conditions.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AB, Part three
Option: Thematic study: Power and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Children at work — “The Factory Acts you studied were won by these reformers.” · Life in industrial cities · Radical protest and the Great Reform Act
Trade unions: from Tolpuddle to the match girls and dockers
How workers learned to combine: the early general union and the Tolpuddle Martyrs, the skilled workers’ unions of the mid-century, and the strikes of unskilled workers in the 1880s.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AB, Part three
Option: Thematic study: Power and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Steam power and factories · The Anti-Corn Law League and the factory and social reformers
Votes for women and women's rights since
The campaign for the vote, its methods and the response, the Pankhursts, why the vote was won, and progress towards equality later in the century.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AB, Part four
Option: Thematic study: Power and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Votes for women — “The Year 9 topic, extended to the reasons for success and to later equality.” · Chartism
The General Strike and trade union reform
The nine days of 1926, what each side did and what came of it, and the laws that limited union power late in the century.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AB, Part four
Option: Thematic study: Power and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Trade unions: from Tolpuddle to the match girls and dockers — “The General Strike was the largest test of the union power built up since Tolpuddle.”
Minority rights, the Brixton riots and the Scarman Report
Britain as a multi-racial society since 1945: discrimination, protest and new laws, the riots of 1981 and the report that followed.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AB, Part four
Option: Thematic study: Power and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Windrush and post-war migration — “The communities whose rights are at issue arrived in the migration you studied.”
Viking invasions, the Danelaw and Alfred of Wessex
Why the Vikings came, how they came to rule a large part of England, and how Alfred held Wessex against them.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part one
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The succession crisis of 1066
Cnut’s North Sea Empire and Emma of Normandy
How a Danish king came to rule England as part of an empire around the North Sea, and the part played by his queen.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part one
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The succession crisis of 1066 · Viking invasions, the Danelaw and Alfred of Wessex — “Cnut’s conquest finished what the first Viking invasions began.”
The Normans and the Angevin Empire
How conquest tied England to France, Henry II’s lands on both sides of the Channel, his invasion of Ireland, and what King John lost.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part one
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: 1066 & medieval power — “The Norman Conquest you know, now seen as England joining a French-speaking empire.” · King John and Magna Carta · Cnut’s North Sea Empire and Emma of Normandy
The Hundred Years' War and English identity
The long war for the French crown, and how losing it helped England see itself as a separate nation.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part one
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Normans and the Angevin Empire — “The war was fought over what was left of the Angevin lands.”
Sugar, the Caribbean and the slave trade
Raiding Spanish ships, John Hawkins and the first English slave voyages, settlements in Barbados and the West Indies, and what the trade did to Britain’s economy and society.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part two
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The transatlantic slave trade — “The Year 8 topic, now traced back to how and why it began.”
English colonies in North America
Why the English settled in America and what followed: Raleigh’s attempts, Jamestown, the Pilgrim Fathers, dealings with the peoples already there, cash crops and servants bound by contract.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part two
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Elizabeth’s Religious Settlement · Sugar, the Caribbean and the slave trade
The War of Independence and the loss of the American colonies
Why the thirteen colonies broke away, and what losing them meant for Britain and its empire.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part two
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: English colonies in North America — “You need to know how the colonies were founded to see why they left.”
Huguenots, the Ulster plantations and the Highland Clearances
People on the move to, from and within Britain: French Protestant refugees, settlers planted in the north of Ireland, and Highlanders cleared from their land.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part two
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Act of Union 1707 · English colonies in North America
The East India Company and British control of India
How a trading company came to rule: its causes, and the parts played by Robert Clive and Warren Hastings.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part three
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Britain’s empire in India — “The Year 9 topic, now with the named individuals and the reasons.”
The Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the impact of empire
The rising of 1857, and what British rule changed, in society, politics, culture and wealth, for both India and Britain.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part three
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Britain’s empire in India — “You know the Crown took over; this is the rebellion that caused it.” · The East India Company and British control of India — “The rebellion was against Company rule, so you need to know how that rule was built.”
The Scramble for Africa
Why Britain took so much of Africa so fast: trade, missionaries, Egypt and the route to India, South Africa, and Cecil Rhodes.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part three
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Britain’s empire in India · The East India Company and British control of India
The Boer War and imperial propaganda
The war of 1899 to 1902 in South Africa, and how empire was sold to the British public.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part three
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Propaganda as evidence · The Scramble for Africa — “The war grew out of Britain’s push into southern Africa.”
Migration in the nineteenth century
Irish and Jewish migration to Britain, convicts transported overseas, movement around the empire including Asians to Africa, and the move from countryside to town.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part three
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Life in industrial cities — “The growing industrial cities are where most migrants went.” · Huguenots, the Ulster plantations and the Highland Clearances
The end of empire
How two world wars and the Suez crisis weakened Britain’s hold, and how India and African colonies won independence, with Gandhi, Nkrumah and Kenyatta.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part four
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The end of empire — “The Year 9 topic, now with Suez and the African leaders.” · The Indian Rebellion of 1857 and the impact of empire — “Indian independence is the end of the story that 1857 began.” · The Scramble for Africa
Windrush and migration from the Caribbean, Asia and Africa
Who came to Britain from the empire and Commonwealth after 1948 and why, the work of Claudia Jones, and the arrival of Asians expelled from Uganda by Idi Amin.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part four
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: Windrush and post-war migration — “The Year 9 topic, extended to later arrivals and named individuals.” · The end of empire — “Migration to Britain followed the paths the empire had made.”
The Commonwealth and the Falklands War
The Commonwealth that grew out of the empire, and the war Britain fought in 1982 over one of its remaining overseas territories.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part four
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The end of empire — “Both are about what was left once the empire had gone.”
Britain and Europe since 1945
How the Second World War and the end of the Cold War changed Britain’s ties with Europe, its membership of the European Community and then the European Union from 1973 to 2020, and migration from Europe and beyond.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.1 AC, Part four
Option: Thematic study: Migration, empires and the people. A school teaches 1 of the 3 AQA offers; all 3 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Cold War divides Europe · The end of empire
The succession crisis: why 1066 happened
The death of Edward the Confessor, who claimed the throne, and how strong each claim was.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BA, Part one
Option: British depth study: Norman England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The succession crisis of 1066 — “The Year 7 topic, now judged claim by claim.”
Stamford Bridge and Hastings
The two battles of autumn 1066, and how Anglo-Saxon and Norman ways of fighting differed.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BA, Part one
Option: British depth study: Norman England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Why William won at Hastings — “You have weighed why William won; now you add Stamford Bridge and the tactics.” · The succession crisis: why 1066 happened — “The battles were fought between the rival claimants.”
Castles, cavalry and Norman ways of war
What the Normans brought that was new: mounted knights, and castles thrown up quickly to hold down the land.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BA, Part one
Option: British depth study: Norman England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Castles and Norman control — “The Year 7 topic, now treated as a military innovation.” · Stamford Bridge and Hastings
Rebellion and the Harrying of the North
The revolts of 1067 to 1075 and how they were put down: the English risings, including the northern rising that ended in the laying waste of the North, and the revolt of three of William’s own earls in 1075.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BA, Part one
Option: British depth study: Norman England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Castles and Norman control · Stamford Bridge and Hastings — “Winning at Hastings did not yet mean holding England.”
William I's government and William II's inheritance
How William ran his kingdom, and how his lands were divided between his sons when he died.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BA, Part one
Option: British depth study: Norman England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Rebellion and the Harrying of the North — “Stable government was possible only once the revolts were over.”
The feudal system and who held the land
How William shared out England among his followers in return for soldiers and loyalty, and what happened to the old English nobles.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BA, Part two
Option: British depth study: Norman England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The feudal system — “The Year 7 topic, now with how the land actually changed hands.” · William I's government and William II's inheritance
Norman government and justice
What the Normans kept from Anglo-Saxon government and what they changed, with the courts, trial by ordeal, the murdrum fine and rules of inheritance.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BA, Part two
Option: British depth study: Norman England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The feudal system and who held the land — “Law and government ran through the lords who held the land.”
The Domesday Book
The great survey of 1086: what it recorded, why William wanted it, and what it tells us.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BA, Part two
Option: British depth study: Norman England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Domesday Book — “The Year 7 topic, now tied to tax, land and royal power.” · The feudal system and who held the land — “Domesday records who held what under the feudal system.”
Villages, towns and Forest law
Everyday life before and after the Conquest: work, food, buildings and the farming year, the growth of towns, and the hated laws that protected the king’s hunting.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BA, Part two
Option: British depth study: Norman England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The feudal system and who held the land — “A villager’s life was set by the lord whose land they worked.”
Lanfranc and the reform of the English Church
The Church the Normans found, and how Archbishop Lanfranc reorganised it, with new cathedrals, church courts and Norman bishops.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BA, Part three
Option: British depth study: Norman England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: 1066 & medieval power · William I's government and William II's inheritance
Kings, archbishops and popes
The Church’s wealth, William II’s quarrels with it, relations with the Pope, and the argument across Europe over who appoints bishops.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BA, Part three
Option: British depth study: Norman England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Becket and church versus crown · Lanfranc and the reform of the English Church — “You need to know how the Church was organised before asking who controlled it.”
Monasteries, learning and language
New abbeys and stricter monastic life, schools and learning, and how Latin took the place of English in the writing of government and the Church while Norman French became the language spoken by those who ruled.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BA, Part three
Option: British depth study: Norman England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Lanfranc and the reform of the English Church — “Monastic reform was part of Lanfranc’s wider reform of the Church.”
Henry III's legacy and Edward I's accession
What Edward learned from his father’s troubled reign, the problems waiting for him in 1272, how he handled his nobles, and what kind of king he was.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BB, Part one
Option: British depth study: Edward I. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Simon de Montfort’s Parliament — “De Montfort’s rebellion against Henry III is the crisis Edward grew up in.” · King John and Magna Carta
Edward's inquiries and statutes
How Edward found out who held what and by what right, and the laws that followed, with his chancellor Robert Burnell.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BB, Part one
Option: British depth study: Edward I. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The feudal system · Henry III's legacy and Edward I's accession — “The inquiries were Edward’s answer to the disorder he inherited.”
Parliaments and the Model Parliament of 1295
How and why Edward used parliaments, and who was called to the one in 1295.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BB, Part one
Option: British depth study: Edward I. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Simon de Montfort’s Parliament — “Edward built on the idea de Montfort had tried in 1265.” · Edward's inquiries and statutes
Farming, the wool trade and towns
How people made a living, why wool was England’s great export, and the law that helped merchants collect debts.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BB, Part two
Option: British depth study: Edward I. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The feudal system
Royal finance and the expulsion of the Jews in 1290
How Edward paid for his rule and his wars, through taxes on wool, loans from Italian bankers and new coins, and why he expelled England’s Jewish community.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BB, Part two
Option: British depth study: Edward I. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Farming, the wool trade and towns — “The wool trade is what the king taxed.” · Parliaments and the Model Parliament of 1295
The Church, universities and medieval learning
The place of the Church in learning, the new universities, and two thinkers of the age, Roger Bacon and Duns Scotus.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BB, Part two
Option: British depth study: Edward I. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Becket and church versus crown
Law, crime and punishment under Edward I
How the legal system developed: courts and trials, common crimes and their punishments, and the Statutes of Gloucester and Winchester.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BB, Part two
Option: British depth study: Edward I. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Edward's inquiries and statutes — “These statutes were part of Edward’s wider law-making.”
Medieval warfare: sieges, cavalry and infantry
How wars were fought in Edward’s time: taking castles, and the use of mounted knights, foot soldiers, weapons and armour.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BB, Part three
Option: British depth study: Edward I. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Castles and Norman control
The conquest of Wales and the castles
Edward’s two Welsh wars, the law that brought Wales under English rule, the ring of great castles, and what it all cost.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BB, Part three
Option: British depth study: Edward I. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Castles and Norman control — “Edward’s Welsh castles are the Norman idea at its most ambitious.” · Medieval warfare: sieges, cavalry and infantry — “The Welsh wars were won by siege and supply.”
Scotland: the Great Cause, Balliol and Bruce
The empty Scottish throne, the rival claimants, and how Edward used the dispute to claim power over Scotland.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BB, Part three
Option: British depth study: Edward I. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The conquest of Wales and the castles
William Wallace and the war with Scotland, 1297–1307
The Scottish rising, Edward’s campaigns to the end of his life, and whether he earned the name "Hammer of the Scots".
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BB, Part three
Option: British depth study: Edward I. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Scotland: the Great Cause, Balliol and Bruce — “The war grew out of Edward’s claim to be Scotland’s overlord.” · Medieval warfare: sieges, cavalry and infantry · Royal finance and the expulsion of the Jews in 1290
A woman on the throne: Parliament, marriage and the succession
The difficulties Elizabeth faced as a female ruler, how she dealt with Parliament, and the pressure to marry and name an heir.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BC, Part one
Option: British depth study: Elizabethan England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Edward, Mary and religious change · Elizabeth I and her court — “You need to know how she ruled before asking how she was challenged.”
Essex's rebellion and the queen's authority late in the reign
How strong Elizabeth still was in her last years, tested by the Earl of Essex’s rising in 1601.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BC, Part one
Option: British depth study: Elizabethan England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Elizabeth I and her court — “Essex was a court favourite who lost the queen’s favour.” · A woman on the throne: Parliament, marriage and the succession
Prosperity, fashions and the rise of the gentry
Why some Elizabethans grew richer, how they showed it in houses and dress, and the growing weight of landowners below the nobility.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BC, Part two
Option: British depth study: Elizabethan England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Dissolution of the monasteries · Elizabeth I and her court
The Elizabethan theatre
The first purpose-built playhouses, what was achieved on stage, and why some people wanted them closed.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BC, Part two
Option: British depth study: Elizabethan England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Prosperity, fashions and the rise of the gentry — “Theatre grew because more people had money and leisure.”
Poverty and the Poor Laws
Why the number of poor people grew, how they were viewed and treated, and how the government’s response grew, act by act, into the Poor Law of 1601.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BC, Part two
Option: British depth study: Elizabethan England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Dissolution of the monasteries — “The monasteries had cared for the poor, and they were gone.” · Prosperity, fashions and the rise of the gentry
Hawkins, Drake, Raleigh and the voyages
English sailors of the age: trading and raiding, Drake’s voyage round the world, and Raleigh’s part.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BC, Part two
Option: British depth study: Elizabethan England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The transatlantic slave trade · The Spanish Armada
The Catholic threat: rebellion, missionaries and plots
The rising of the northern earls, the Pope’s excommunication of Elizabeth, priests sent in secret, the Catholic plots against her, and how her government hit back.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BC, Part three
Option: British depth study: Elizabethan England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Elizabeth’s Religious Settlement — “These are the challenges to the settlement you studied.” · Edward, Mary and religious change
The Puritans
Protestants who thought the settlement had not gone far enough: what they believed, and how Elizabeth dealt with them.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BC, Part three
Option: British depth study: Elizabethan England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Elizabeth’s Religious Settlement — “The Puritans attacked the settlement from the other side.” · A woman on the throne: Parliament, marriage and the succession
Mary, Queen of Scots
Who she was, why she was a danger, how Elizabeth and Parliament treated her, the plots around her, and what her execution led to.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BC, Part three
Option: British depth study: Elizabethan England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Catholic threat: rebellion, missionaries and plots — “Mary was the Catholic the plotters wanted on the throne.” · A woman on the throne: Parliament, marriage and the succession
War with Spain and the Armada
Why England and Spain went to war, how the fighting at sea was done, and why the Armada of 1588 was defeated.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BC, Part three
Option: British depth study: Elizabethan England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Spanish Armada — “The Year 8 topic, now with the causes and the naval tactics.” · Mary, Queen of Scots — “Mary’s execution was the final trigger for the invasion.” · Hawkins, Drake, Raleigh and the voyages
The Restoration of 1660
What the Civil War and the years without a king had left behind, and how and why the monarchy was brought back.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BD, Part one
Option: British depth study: Restoration England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Cromwell and the Interregnum — “The Restoration is what ended the Interregnum you studied.” · The execution of Charles I
Charles II and Parliament
Their arguments over money, religion and who would be the next king, the group of ministers known as the Cabal, the first political parties, and the last years when Charles ruled without Parliament.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BD, Part one
Option: British depth study: Restoration England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Causes of the Civil War · The Restoration of 1660 — “The terms on which Charles returned shaped every later quarrel.”
The Popish Plot, the Exclusion crisis and the Rye House Plot
Fear of Catholics at its height: Titus Oates’s invented plot, the attempt to bar the king’s Catholic brother James from the throne, and a plan to kill them both.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BD, Part one
Option: British depth study: Restoration England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Gunpowder Plot · Charles II and Parliament — “The Exclusion crisis is the quarrel over the succession at its sharpest.”
Charles II's court
The king’s character, life and fashion at court, and what the court was for.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BD, Part one
Option: British depth study: Restoration England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Restoration of 1660 — “The court returned with the king in 1660.”
The Great Plague of 1665
What people thought caused the plague, what was done to fight it, how deaths were recorded, and what it left behind.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BD, Part two
Option: British depth study: Restoration England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Black Death
The Great Fire of London and the rebuilding
How the fire of 1666 started and spread, who people blamed, and how London was rebuilt.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BD, Part two
Option: British depth study: Restoration England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Great Plague of 1665
Theatres, coffee houses and the lives of women
The reopened playhouses and their comedies, the new coffee houses where men met to talk, and the place of women in Restoration society.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BD, Part two
Option: British depth study: Restoration England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Cromwell and the Interregnum · Charles II's court
Science and the arts: the Royal Society, Wren and Pepys
The king’s support for science and the arts, the founding of the Royal Society, the buildings of Christopher Wren, and the diary of Samuel Pepys.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BD, Part two
Option: British depth study: Restoration England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Charles II's court — “Royal support came through the king and his court.” · The Great Fire of London and the rebuilding
Overseas possessions: Bombay, Tangier, Hudson Bay and Jamaica
What England held abroad under Charles II, the powers given to the East India Company, and the privateer Henry Morgan.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BD, Part three
Option: British depth study: Restoration England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: Britain’s empire in India · Charles II and Parliament
Trade, the Navigation Acts and the slave trade
The belief that a country grows rich by controlling trade, the laws that kept colonial trade in English ships, and England’s growing part in the slave trade.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BD, Part three
Option: British depth study: Restoration England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The transatlantic slave trade — “The slave trade you studied grew fast in these years.” · Overseas possessions: Bombay, Tangier, Hudson Bay and Jamaica — “The overseas possessions are what the trade laws were written to exploit.”
The Dutch Wars and English sea power
Why England fought the Dutch twice in this reign, how wars at sea were fought, and relations with Spain and France.
Written against: AQA 8145 3.3.2 BD, Part three
Option: British depth study: Restoration England. A school teaches 1 of the 4 AQA offers; all 4 are mapped here.
Builds on: The Spanish Armada · Trade, the Navigation Acts and the slave trade — “The Navigation Acts were aimed at Dutch shipping, and led to war.”
Explaining significance
Showing why a person, event or development mattered, both to people at the time and in what it led to later.
Written against: AQA 8145 4.4
Builds on: Significant or just famous? — “The Year 7 criteria for significance, now applied at the time and over time.” · Short and long-term consequences
Comparing two events: similarity and difference
Setting two events, people or developments from different centuries side by side and explaining two ways they were alike or unlike.
Written against: AQA 8145 4.4
Builds on: Change and continuity · Avoiding anachronism
Weighing factors in a thematic essay
Arguing how much one factor, such as war, religion, government, chance, science or an individual, drove change over centuries, against the others.
Written against: AQA 8145 4.4
Builds on: Causation essays — “Weighing causes against each other is the causation essay over a longer span.” · Sustained argument in an essay — “The factor essay is a sustained argument with a fixed set of factors.” · Explaining significance
The historic environment: reading a site
How to study a named place: where it is, what it was for, how it was built, who used it, and what its design shows about the period and the events of the depth study.
Written against: AQA 8145 4.4
Builds on: Your local area as evidence — “Using a place as evidence began with your own local area.” · Change and continuity · Sustained argument in an essay
Drafted by AI agents from the published AQA specifications for GCSE Mathematics (8300), Combined Science: Trilogy (8464), English Language (8700), English Literature (8702), Geography (8035) and History (8145), then checked by script and by re-reading a sample against the specification. No teacher has reviewed it yet. AQA has not reviewed or approved this map and is not affiliated with aitutors.me. Year 10 and Year 11 are our placement, not a school timetable.