Cambridge Pre-U History (Principal Subject) Syllabus

History (Principal Subject) syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for History (Principal Subject) in Cambridge Pre-U, not a summary of it.

1. 1

   British History Outlines

   4 topics

   • Late Medieval and Early Modern Britain
     • Crown, nobility and governance
     • Religious change and the Reformation
   • The Seventeenth-Century Crisis
     • Civil War and the Interregnum
     • Restoration and the Glorious Revolution
   • Industrial and Reforming Britain
     • Industrial Revolution and social change
     • Parliamentary reform and Chartism
   • Modern Britain
     • The growth of democracy and the welfare state
     • Britain and the wider world
2. 2

   European History Outlines

   4 topics

   • Renaissance and Reformation Europe
     • Humanism and cultural change
     • The Protestant and Catholic Reformations
   • Revolution and Empire
     • The French Revolution
     • Napoleonic Europe
   • Nationalism and Unification
     • Unification of Italy and Germany
     • The decline of empires
   • Europe in the Age of Total War
     • Origins and impact of the World Wars
     • Dictatorship and ideology
3. 3

   Themes and the Wider World

   3 topics

   • International Relations
     • The Cold War and superpower rivalry
     • Decolonisation
   • United States History
     • Civil War and Reconstruction
     • Civil rights and social movements
   • Thematic Long-Run Studies
     • Change and continuity over centuries
     • Causation and significance across periods
4. 4

   Historical Investigation and Source Skills

   3 topics

   • Working with Sources
     • Evaluating provenance, reliability and utility
     • Cross-referencing primary evidence
   • Historical Interpretation
     • Debating competing historiographical views
     • Assessing historians' arguments
   • The Personal Investigation
     • Devising a research question
     • Independent enquiry and referencing
     • Constructing a sustained argument

History (Principal Subject) flashcards for Cambridge Pre-U

23 of 50 cards from the History (Principal Subject) deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What were the Wars of the Roses (1455-1487), and which two royal houses fought them?

   A series of dynastic civil wars for the English throne between the House of Lancaster (red rose) and the House of York (white rose), ended when Henry Tudor (Lancastrian) defeated Richard III at Bosworth (1485) and married Elizabeth of York.

2. What was the significance of the Battle of Bosworth Field (1485) in late medieval Britain?

   Henry Tudor's victory killed Richard III, ended the Plantagenet dynasty, began the Tudor dynasty, and is often used to mark the transition from the medieval to the early modern period in England.

3. What was the English Reformation under Henry VIII, and what Act made him head of the Church?

   The break with Rome (1530s) that established royal supremacy over the Church in England; the Act of Supremacy (1534) declared Henry VIII Supreme Head of the Church of England, enabling his divorce from Catherine of Aragon and the Dissolution of the Monasteries.

4. Define the Elizabethan Religious Settlement (1559).

   Elizabeth I's compromise establishing a moderate Protestant national church via the Act of Supremacy (Queen as Supreme Governor) and the Act of Uniformity (Book of Common Prayer), creating a 'via media' between Catholicism and radical Protestantism.

5. What were the main causes of the English Civil War (1642-1651)?

   Disputes over royal absolutism vs. parliamentary rights, taxation without consent (Ship Money), religious tension (Charles I's Laudian reforms), the Petition of Right (1628), and the crisis triggered by the Irish Rebellion and the Grand Remonstrance.

6. Who were the Roundheads and Cavaliers in the English Civil War?

   Roundheads were the Parliamentarians (supporters of Parliament, often Puritan); Cavaliers were the Royalists (supporters of Charles I).

7. What happened in 1649 during the Seventeenth-Century Crisis in England?

   Charles I was tried and executed for treason (30 January 1649), the monarchy and House of Lords were abolished, and England was declared a Commonwealth (republic).

8. What was the Interregnum and the Protectorate (1649-1660)?

   The republican period after Charles I's execution; from 1653 Oliver Cromwell ruled as Lord Protector under the Instrument of Government, a written constitution, until the monarchy was restored under Charles II in 1660.

9. What was the Glorious Revolution of 1688?

   The overthrow of Catholic James II by William of Orange and Mary, largely bloodless; it established Protestant succession and parliamentary supremacy, confirmed by the Bill of Rights (1689).

10. What did the Bill of Rights (1689) establish?

    It limited royal power: no suspending laws or taxation without Parliament's consent, no standing army in peacetime without consent, free parliamentary elections and free speech in Parliament, and barred Catholics from the throne, cementing constitutional monarchy.

11. What were the key features and dates of the British Industrial Revolution?

    Roughly 1760-1840, a transformation from agrarian, hand-production economy to machine manufacturing, marked by steam power, the factory system, mechanized textiles, coal and iron, urbanization, and railways.

12. What did the Great Reform Act of 1832 achieve?

    It redistributed parliamentary seats from 'rotten boroughs' to growing industrial towns and extended the franchise to more middle-class male property owners, raising the electorate but still excluding the working class and women.

13. What was Chartism (1838-1858)?

    A working-class movement demanding political reform via the People's Charter: universal male suffrage, secret ballot, no property qualification for MPs, payment of MPs, equal constituencies, and annual parliaments. Five of six demands were eventually achieved.

14. What were the Corn Laws and when were they repealed?

    Tariffs (from 1815) protecting British grain prices by restricting cheap imports; repealed in 1846 by Robert Peel, marking a shift toward free trade and splitting the Conservative Party.

15. What was the Representation of the People Act 1918 in Britain?

    It gave the vote to all men over 21 and to women over 30 who met a property qualification, tripling the electorate; women gained equal voting rights (age 21) in 1928.

16. What was the Beveridge Report (1942) and its impact on modern Britain?

    William Beveridge's report identifying 'five giants' (Want, Disease, Ignorance, Squalor, Idleness); it provided the blueprint for the post-1945 welfare state, including the National Health Service (1948) and National Insurance.

17. What were the key features of the Italian Renaissance?

    A cultural rebirth (c. 14th-16th centuries) centred on humanism, classical revival of Greek and Roman ideas, patronage (e.g. the Medici), and artistic innovation in perspective and naturalism (Leonardo, Michelangelo, Raphael).

18. What event launched the Protestant Reformation in 1517?

    Martin Luther's posting of his Ninety-Five Theses in Wittenberg, attacking the sale of indulgences and challenging papal authority and Church corruption.

19. Distinguish the core doctrines of Luther and Calvin in the Reformation.

    Luther emphasized justification by faith alone (sola fide) and scripture alone (sola scriptura); Calvin added predestination (the elect chosen by God) and a more austere, theocratic church order centred in Geneva.

20. What was the Counter-Reformation (Catholic Reformation)?

    The Catholic Church's response to Protestantism, including the Council of Trent (1545-1563) which reaffirmed doctrine and reformed abuses, the Jesuit order (Society of Jesus), the Roman Inquisition, and the Index of Prohibited Books.

21. What were the main causes of the French Revolution (1789)?

    Financial crisis and state bankruptcy, an unfair estates system with privileged clergy and nobility, Enlightenment ideas, food shortages, and the failure of Louis XVI's reforms, culminating in the Estates-General and the Storming of the Bastille.

22. What was the Declaration of the Rights of Man and of the Citizen (1789)?

    A foundational French Revolution document proclaiming liberty, equality before the law, popular sovereignty, and natural rights, influenced by Enlightenment thought and the American Declaration of Independence.

23. What were the main features of Napoleon Bonaparte's rule (1799-1815)?

    Seizure of power in the Coup of Brumaire (1799), self-coronation as Emperor (1804), the Napoleonic Code, centralized administration, the Continental System against Britain, and European conquests ended by defeat at Waterloo (1815).

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