Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) History Syllabus

History syllabus — full chapter and topic list

Expand any chapter to see its topics and sub-topics. This is the whole examinable outline for History in Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE), not a summary of it.

1. 1

   Britain 1750-1900: Industry and Society

   4 topics

   • The Agricultural and Industrial Revolutions
     • Enclosure and farming change
     • Inventions in textiles and iron
     • Steam power and the factory system
   • Transport revolution
     • Roads, canals and turnpikes
     • The coming of the railways
   • Living and working conditions
     • Growth of towns and public health
     • Factory and mine reform
   • Political and social reform
     • The Great Reform Act
     • Chartism and the trade unions
2. 2

   The Twentieth-Century World

   4 topics

   • Causes and course of the First World War
     • Long-term causes and alliances
     • Trench warfare on the Western Front
   • Between the wars
     • The Russian Revolution
     • The Depression and the rise of dictators
   • The Second World War
     • Causes and outbreak
     • Britain at war and the Home Front
   • The post-war world
     • The Cold War
     • The end of empire
3. 3

   Social and Local History

   3 topics

   • Everyday life in the past
     • Homes, work and leisure
     • Childhood and schooling
   • Local study and fieldwork
     • Investigating the local area
     • Using local records and buildings
   • Change over time in the community
     • How a town or village developed
4. 4

   Using Historical Evidence

   3 topics

   • Primary and secondary sources
     • Identifying types of source
   • Evaluating sources
     • Reliability and bias
     • Usefulness and purpose
   • Reaching conclusions from evidence
     • Comparing sources
     • Causation and consequence

History flashcards for Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE)

25 of 51 cards from the History deck — real questions with worked answers.

1. What was the Agricultural Revolution?

   The period (roughly 1700-1850) of major improvements in British farming methods and output, including new crops, machinery, enclosure and selective breeding, which increased food production and freed up labour for industry.

2. What was crop rotation (the Norfolk four-course system) and why was it important?

   A system rotating wheat, turnips, barley and clover over four years so that no field was left fallow. Turnips and clover restored soil fertility and provided winter animal fodder, raising yields year-round.

3. Who was Jethro Tull and what did he invent?

   An agricultural pioneer who invented the seed drill (around 1701), which planted seeds in straight rows at a controlled depth, reducing waste and improving germination compared with broadcasting by hand.

4. What was 'enclosure' in farming?

   The process of combining small open-field strips and common land into larger fenced/hedged private fields. It made farming more efficient but forced many poor commoners off the land.

5. What was the Industrial Revolution?

   The transformation of Britain (c.1750-1900) from an agricultural, hand-production economy to one based on machines, factories, steam power and mass production of goods such as textiles and iron.

6. Name three key inventions in the textile industry during the Industrial Revolution.

   The Spinning Jenny (Hargreaves), the Water Frame (Arkwright) and the Spinning Mule (Crompton); the Power Loom (Cartwright) also mechanised weaving.

7. Why was the steam engine so important to the Industrial Revolution?

   James Watt's improved steam engine (1769) provided reliable power that did not depend on rivers, allowing factories to be built anywhere and powering machinery, pumps, trains and ships.

8. Why did the iron and coal industries grow during the Industrial Revolution?

   Abraham Darby's use of coke to smelt iron and rising demand for machinery, railways and steam engines drove huge growth; coal powered the steam engines, so the two industries reinforced each other.

9. What was the 'domestic system' and how did the factory system differ from it?

   The domestic system was production by hand in workers' own homes. The factory system gathered workers and powered machines under one roof with fixed hours, discipline and division of labour.

10. What was the Transport Revolution?

    The dramatic improvement in moving goods and people (c.1750-1900) through better roads, canals and railways, which lowered costs, sped up trade and helped industry grow.

11. How did turnpike trusts improve roads?

    Turnpike trusts charged tolls to fund road maintenance; engineers like John McAdam and Thomas Telford built harder, well-drained, smoother surfaces that made faster, year-round travel possible.

12. Why were canals built and what was their main advantage?

    Canals (e.g. the Bridgewater Canal, 1761) let horses pull barges carrying heavy bulk goods like coal far more cheaply and in larger quantities than roads, cutting transport costs sharply.

13. What was significant about George Stephenson and the Rocket?

    George Stephenson built the Rocket locomotive, which won the Rainhill Trials (1829) and ran on the Liverpool and Manchester Railway (1830), launching the age of passenger and goods railways.

14. List three effects of the railways on Britain.

    Faster cheaper transport of goods and people; growth of towns and industry; creation of jobs; standardised national time; cheap mass travel and leisure trips for ordinary people.

15. What were typical living conditions for workers in early industrial towns?

    Overcrowded, poorly built back-to-back houses with no clean water, no proper sewers, shared privies and frequent disease outbreaks such as cholera and typhoid.

16. What were common working conditions in early factories and mines?

    Long hours (often 12-16 per day), low pay, dangerous unguarded machinery, harsh discipline, child labour and few safety measures, leading to injury, illness and exhaustion.

17. Why did cholera spread so easily in industrial towns, and what was the key discovery?

    Cholera spread through water contaminated with sewage. In 1854 Dr John Snow traced a Soho outbreak to the Broad Street water pump, showing cholera was waterborne, not airborne.

18. What was the 1833 Factory Act?

    A law that banned children under 9 from textile factories, limited 9-13 year-olds to 9 hours a day and 14-18 year-olds to 12 hours, and appointed factory inspectors to enforce the rules.

19. What did the 1842 Mines Act do?

    It banned women and children under 10 from working underground in coal mines, responding to the shocking findings of the 1842 Royal Commission report on mine conditions.

20. What was the Public Health Act of 1848?

    The first major government step on public health: it set up a Central Board of Health and allowed towns to create local boards to improve water supply, drainage and sanitation.

21. What was the 1832 Great Reform Act and what were its limits?

    It redistributed seats to growing industrial towns, removed many 'rotten boroughs' and gave the vote to more middle-class men. However, most working men and all women still could not vote.

22. Who were the Chartists and what did the People's Charter demand?

    A working-class movement (1838-1850s) demanding political reform. The six points were: votes for all men, secret ballot, no property qualification for MPs, payment of MPs, equal constituencies and annual parliaments.

23. What was the role of trade unions in social reform?

    Trade unions organised workers to bargain collectively for better pay, shorter hours and safer conditions, and pressured government for reforming laws; the 1871 Trade Union Act gave them legal recognition.

24. Who were the suffragettes and the suffragists, and how did they differ?

    Both campaigned for votes for women. The suffragists (Millicent Fawcett, NUWSS) used peaceful, lawful methods; the suffragettes (Emmeline Pankhurst, WSPU) used militant, direct action such as protests and hunger strikes.

25. List the four main long-term causes of the First World War (the MAIN factors).

    Militarism (arms race), Alliances (Triple Alliance vs Triple Entente), Imperialism (competition for colonies) and Nationalism (national rivalry and pride).

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