Certificate of Secondary Education (CSE) History Flashcards

24 sample cards from the History deck

Sampled from the end of the deck, so these are different cards from the ones shown on the syllabus page.

1. What was trench warfare and 'no man's land'?

   Soldiers fought from long defensive ditches (trenches) protected by barbed wire and machine guns. 'No man's land' was the dangerous open ground between opposing trenches.

2. Name two major battles of the First World War and a key fact about each.

   The Somme (1916): about 60,000 British casualties on the first day. Verdun (1916): a long, costly French-German battle of attrition. (Passchendaele, 1917, was known for mud.)

3. How and when did the First World War end?

   An armistice came into effect at 11 a.m. on 11 November 1918, after Germany's failed 1918 offensive, the arrival of US troops and naval blockade forced it to seek peace.

4. What were the main terms of the Treaty of Versailles (1919)?

   Germany accepted war guilt (Article 231), paid reparations, lost colonies and land (e.g. Alsace-Lorraine), and had its army limited to 100,000 men with no air force and a demilitarised Rhineland.

5. Why did the Great Depression of the 1930s cause hardship in Britain?

   The Wall Street Crash (1929) collapsed world trade; British exports fell, factories and mines closed, and mass unemployment hit industrial areas hardest, causing poverty and events like the Jarrow March (1936).

6. How did Hitler and the Nazis come to power in Germany?

   Resentment at Versailles, the Depression and unemployment boosted Nazi support; Hitler became Chancellor in January 1933 and then established a dictatorship by removing democratic rights.

7. What was the policy of appeasement in the 1930s?

   Britain and France's policy of giving in to some of Hitler's demands to avoid war, seen in the Munich Agreement (1938) which let Germany take the Sudetenland.

8. What event began the Second World War in Europe?

   Germany's invasion of Poland on 1 September 1939, after which Britain and France declared war on Germany on 3 September 1939.

9. What was the Dunkirk evacuation (1940)?

   Operation Dynamo, the rescue of around 338,000 trapped Allied troops from the beaches of Dunkirk by naval and civilian 'little ships' after the German advance through France.

10. What was the Battle of Britain (1940)?

    The air battle in which the RAF defended Britain against the German Luftwaffe, preventing a planned invasion. Radar and Spitfire/Hurricane fighters were key to the British victory.

11. What was the Blitz and how did it affect British civilians?

    The sustained German bombing of British cities (1940-41). It killed thousands, destroyed homes, and led to blackouts, air-raid shelters, rationing and the evacuation of children to the countryside.

12. What was D-Day (6 June 1944)?

    The Allied invasion of Nazi-occupied France, landing troops on the Normandy beaches (Operation Overlord). It opened a Western Front and began the liberation of Western Europe.

13. How did the Second World War end in Europe and in the Pacific?

    In Europe with Germany's surrender on VE Day, 8 May 1945. In the Pacific with Japan's surrender (VJ Day, August 1945) after atomic bombs were dropped on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

14. What was the Cold War?

    The period of tension and rivalry (c.1945-1991) between the capitalist West, led by the USA, and the communist East, led by the USSR, fought through propaganda, an arms race and proxy wars rather than direct fighting.

15. What was the 'Iron Curtain'?

    A phrase popularised by Winston Churchill (1946) describing the political and physical divide separating communist Eastern Europe from the democratic West.

16. What was the Welfare State set up in post-war Britain?

    A system of government support 'from cradle to grave' based on the Beveridge Report (1942), including the National Health Service (1948), National Insurance, council housing and free secondary education.

17. How did everyday life change for ordinary people from the 1700s to today (give examples)?

    Changes in housing (from cottages to mass housing), work (farm to factory to service jobs), travel (foot/horse to car and rail), health (high to low death rates) and leisure, education and diet.

18. In a local study, what is a 'fieldwork' investigation?

    First-hand investigation of a place or site by going there in person to observe, record, sketch, photograph and measure features, gathering primary evidence about how it has changed.

19. List three sources you could use to study how your local area has changed over time.

    Old maps and photographs, census and parish records, local newspapers, street names and building styles, oral history interviews with older residents, and museum or archive records.

20. Define a primary source in history.

    A source created at the time of the event by someone present or directly involved, e.g. a diary, letter, photograph, official document, artefact or eyewitness account.

21. Define a secondary source in history.

    A source produced later by someone who was not present, which interprets or analyses past events, e.g. a textbook, biography, documentary or historian's article.

22. When evaluating a source, what does considering its reliability and bias involve?

    Asking who made it, when, why and for whom (provenance), whether the author had a reason to exaggerate or hide facts, and checking it against other evidence to judge how trustworthy it is.

23. What is the difference between the 'utility' and the 'reliability' of a source?

    Reliability is how trustworthy/accurate a source is. Utility is how useful it is for a particular enquiry; a biased or unreliable source can still be useful as evidence of opinions or attitudes.

24. How should a historian reach a sound conclusion from evidence?

    By cross-referencing several sources, weighing reliable evidence on each side, distinguishing fact from opinion, and forming a balanced judgement supported by the evidence rather than assumptions.

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