Plain-English definitions of skill words and widely used ideas in GCSE History. They are deliberately general: your own topics will give each one a specific meaning.
A
- Alliance
- A formal agreement between states or groups to support one another, often militarily or politically. See also: Treaty, Diplomacy.
- Anachronism
- Something placed in the wrong period, such as judging a past event by ideas that only developed later. See also: Context, Chronology.
- Appeal to emotion
- A technique, common in propaganda, that aims to move an audience through feeling rather than argument. See also: Propaganda, Bias.
B
- Bias
- A leaning towards one side that shapes how something is presented. Bias does not make a source useless; it tells you how to read it. See also: Provenance, Reliability.
C
- Capitalism
- An economic system in which businesses and property are mostly privately owned and run for profit. See also: Ideology, Trade union.
- Causation
- Study of why something happened, including the links between causes. See also: Consequence, Trigger.
- Censorship
- Controlling or removing information, art or opinion that those in power do not want people to see or hear. See also: Propaganda, Totalitarianism.
- Chronology
- Order in which events happened, and the skill of placing them in sequence. See also: Anachronism, Continuity.
- Civil rights
- Rights of people to equal treatment and participation in society, such as voting or equal access to services. See also: Democracy, Reform.
- Colonialism
- A policy in which one state takes control of another territory and its people, often settling it and using its resources. See also: Empire, Imperialism.
- Consequence
- A result of an event or decision, which may be immediate, long-term, intended or unintended. See also: Causation, Significance.
- Contemporary
- Belonging to the same period as the thing being studied, not to the present day. See also: Primary source, Secondary source.
- Context
- Surrounding circumstances of a person, event or source: what was going on around it. See also: Provenance, Anachronism.
- Continuity
- Something that stays largely the same over a period, studied alongside change. See also: Turning point, Chronology.
- Corroboration
- Using one source or piece of evidence to support another. See also: Evidence, Reliability.
D
- Democracy
- A system of government in which citizens choose their leaders, directly or through elected representatives. See also: Referendum, Dictatorship.
- Dictatorship
- A system in which one person or a small group holds power with few or no limits. See also: Democracy, Totalitarianism.
E
- Empire
- A group of territories or peoples controlled by a single ruler or state. See also: Colonialism, Imperialism.
F
H
- Hierarchy
- A ranking of people or groups from most to least powerful or important. See also: Feudalism, Monarchy.
- Historic environment
- A site or place from the past, such as a building or settlement, studied as evidence in its own historical setting. See also: Context, Evidence.
- Historiography
- Study of how historians have written about a subject and how views have changed. See also: Interpretation, Revisionism.
I
- Ideology
- A set of ideas and beliefs about how society should be organised. See also: Capitalism, Nationalism.
- Imperialism
- A policy of extending a state’s power over other territories, by conquest or influence. See also: Empire, Colonialism.
- Interpretation
- A later account or view of the past, built from selected evidence and shaped by the author’s questions. See also: Historiography, Revisionism.
J
- Judgement
- A reasoned conclusion that weighs different factors and explains which matters most. See also: Significance, Causation.
L
- Legislation
- Laws made by a government or parliament. See also: Parliament, Reform.
M
- Migration
- Movement of people from one place to another to live, for reasons such as work, safety or opportunity. See also: Urbanisation, Consequence.
- Monarchy
- A system of government headed by a king or queen, usually holding the position by inheritance. See also: Parliament, Republic.
N
- Nationalism
- Strong loyalty to a nation, often involving the wish for its independence or the belief that its interests come first. See also: Ideology, Sovereignty.
O
- Oral history
- Evidence gathered from spoken memories of people who lived through events. See also: Primary source, Reliability.
P
- Parliament
- An elected or representative body that makes laws and holds a government to account. See also: Legislation, Democracy.
- Primary source
- Material created at the time being studied, such as a letter, photograph or official record. See also: Secondary source, Contemporary.
- Propaganda
- Information, often selective or exaggerated, spread to influence opinion for a cause. See also: Bias, Censorship.
- Provenance
- Origin of a source: who made it, when, where and for what purpose. See also: Context, Reliability.
R
- Reform
- A deliberate change intended to improve a law, system or institution. See also: Revolution, Legislation.
- Reliability
- How far a source can be trusted to give an accurate picture. A source can be reliable on one point and not another. See also: Provenance, Utility.
- Reparations
- Payments or other compensation demanded from a state for harm caused, usually after a war. See also: Treaty, Sanctions.
- Republic
- A state without a monarch, where the head of state is usually elected. See also: Monarchy, Democracy.
- Revisionism
- A reassessment of an accepted view of the past in light of new evidence or questions. See also: Historiography, Interpretation.
- Revolution
- A rapid, fundamental change, often the overthrow of a government or system. See also: Reform, Turning point.
S
- Sanctions
- Penalties, usually economic, imposed by one or more states to pressure another. See also: Diplomacy, Reparations.
- Secondary source
- Material produced later by someone who was not there, such as a textbook or documentary. See also: Primary source, Interpretation.
- Significance
- How much an event, person or change mattered, judged by its impact, its reach and how long it lasted. See also: Consequence, Judgement.
- Source
- Anything that gives information about the past. See also: Evidence, Provenance.
- Sovereignty
- Authority of a state to govern itself without outside control. See also: Nationalism, Empire.
T
- Totalitarianism
- A system in which the state seeks control over almost every part of public and private life. See also: Dictatorship, Censorship.
- Trade union
- An organisation of workers who join together to protect and improve their pay and conditions. See also: Capitalism, Reform.
- Trigger
- An event that sets off something already made likely by deeper causes. See also: Causation, Consequence.
- Turning point
- A moment after which the direction of events changes noticeably. See also: Continuity, Significance.
U
- Urbanisation
- Growth of towns and cities and the movement of people into them. See also: Migration, Consequence.
- Utility
- How useful a source is for a particular question; this is not the same as how reliable it is. See also: Reliability, Provenance.
For technique, see the GCSE History revision guide and test yourself with the GCSE History quiz.
Part of the GCSE History revision set: the revision guide and self-marking quiz.