OCR A-Level History A sample questions and answers (H505)

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174 sample questions and answers

Taken from every unit of OCR A-Level History A, specification H505. The full guide has 6,240.

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Y101 to Y113

Y101: Alfred and the Making of England 871-1016

114 questions in the guide, across 10 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Edward the Elder 899–924: avoidance of dynastic feuds, campaigns of Edward and Aethelflaed

    What is meant by the Danelaw?

    Show the answer
    It was the area of eastern and northern England settled and governed by Scandinavians, where Danish law and custom prevailed rather than English law.

  2. Edward the Elder 899–924: ‘submission’ of the Welsh kings and extent of Edward’s power in 924

    State the year in which Raegnald submitted to Edward, and who he was.

    Show the answer
    Raegnald submitted in 920; he was a Norse leader from Ireland who had seized power at York.

  3. Athelstan 924–939: capture of York 927, relations with Scotland and continued problems with the Vikings

    Why was the capture of York in 927 a turning point in the making of England?

    Show the answer
    It removed the last independent Scandinavian kingdom in England and brought the whole country south of the Scots under one ruler for the first time.

Y101 to Y113

Y102: Anglo-Saxon England and the Norman Conquest 1035-1107

113 questions in the guide, across 11 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Anglo-Saxon England 1035–1066: England in 1035 and Edward’s upbringing

    What were the immediate consequences of Cnut's death in 1035?

    Show the answer
    His empire broke apart and England was disputed between his two sons, so the kingdom was divided in practice between Harold Harefoot in the north and Emma holding Wessex for the absent Harthacnut.

  2. Anglo-Saxon England 1035–1066: Edward’s policies, importance of the Godwin family and succession crisis

    Give two examples of Edward's Norman connections.

    Show the answer
    He promoted Norman clerics in the English Church, including making Robert of Jumièges Archbishop of Canterbury, and he installed Norman kinsmen and followers with lands and castles on the Welsh border.

  3. William of Normandy’s invasion and the Battle of Hastings 1066: preparations, Fulford Gate, Stamford Bridge and the Norman landing

    What was the outcome of the battle of Fulford Gate on 20 September 1066?

    Show the answer
    Harald Hardrada and Tostig defeated the northern earls Edwin and Morcar, and York submitted to the invaders.

Y101 to Y113

Y103: England 1199-1272

114 questions in the guide, across 11 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The minority and early years of the reign of Henry III 1216–1232: Henry’s succession

    Which two other men shared power in the minority government?

    Show the answer
    Hubert de Burgh as justiciar and Peter des Roches, Bishop of Winchester, as the king's guardian and tutor.

  2. The minority and early years of the reign of Henry III 1216–1232: rebellion in the 1220s

    What made the 1225 reissue of Magna Carta different from earlier versions?

    Show the answer
    It was granted by Henry of his own free will in return for a tax, so it was a bargain between king and realm and became the definitive text.

  3. Henry’s rule 1232–1258: Henry’s marriage and its impact, Henry’s piety, nature of Henry’s kingship

    What was the impact of Henry's marriage on English politics?

    Show the answer
    It brought the queen's Savoyard relatives to England, where they received offices, lands and marriages, including the archbishopric of Canterbury, adding a foreign group at the heart of the court.

Y101 to Y113

Y104: England 1377-1455

105 questions in the guide, across 10 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The reign of Henry IV: Bolingbroke’s claim, the Epiphany Rising and Glyndŵr’s revolt

    Explain why Henry IV had Richard II's body displayed publicly in London.

    Show the answer
    He needed to prove Richard was dead and to kill the rumours that he was alive and would return, since those rumours continued to feed plots against the new dynasty.

  2. The reign of Henry IV: the Percy rebellions, finance, the Lollards and Henry IV’s illness

    Where and when did the Percy rebellion finally end?

    Show the answer
    At the Battle of Bramham Moor in 1408, where the Earl of Northumberland was killed.

  3. The domestic rule of Henry V: restoration of order and royal authority, burning of John Badby

    Explain why the restoration of order at home mattered so much to Henry V.

    Show the answer
    He intended to renew the war in France, and he could not take an army abroad unless the shires were quiet and the nobility were reconciled behind him.

Y101 to Y113

Y105: England 1445-1509: Lancastrians, Yorkists and Henry VII

104 questions in the guide, across 10 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Edward IV’s first rule and the crisis of 1470–1471: Edward IV’s management of the government

    How did Edward IV treat defeated Lancastrians after 1461?

    Show the answer
    He attainted more than a hundred of them in his first parliament but reversed many attainders afterwards, preferring to buy loyalty with pardons and restored estates rather than create a permanent party of the dispossessed.

  2. Edward IV’s first rule and the crisis of 1470–1471: Warwick’s rebellion, the Readeption and Edward’s recovery

    How was Warwick driven into exile in 1470?

    Show the answer
    The Lincolnshire rising he had encouraged was crushed at Empingham and the captured rebels named him and Clarence as the instigators, so both fled to France.

  3. Edward IV and Richard III 1471–1485: Edward IV’s management of government and Richard III’s accession

    Give three sources of income that allowed Edward IV to die solvent.

    Show the answer
    The crown estates, hugely enlarged by forfeitures, the customs revenues, and the annual pension paid by France after 1475.

Y101 to Y113

Y106: England 1485-1558: the Early Tudors

99 questions in the guide, across 10 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The government of Henry VII and threats to his rule: Henry’s claim to the throne and Yorkist opposition

    What weakness lay in the Beaufort descent on which Henry's blood claim rested?

    Show the answer
    The Beauforts were the legitimated children of John of Gaunt's mistress and had been expressly barred from the succession by Henry IV, so Henry never rested his title on hereditary right alone.

  2. The government of Henry VII and threats to his rule: relations with the nobility and administration

    Why had Henry VII's methods of controlling the nobility become so hated by 1509?

    Show the answer
    The Council Learned in the Law, driven by Empson and Dudley, pursued bonds, debts and feudal dues so relentlessly and outside the ordinary courts that the new king arrested and executed both ministers to buy popularity.

  3. Henry VII’s foreign policy: England’s position in Europe in 1485 and marriage negotiations

    Why did Henry VII agree to the Treaty of Redon?

    Show the answer
    He judged that a French conquest of Brittany would put the far side of the Channel in French hands, so he undertook to send six thousand troops at Breton expense while stopping short of declaring war on France.

Y101 to Y113

Y107: England 1547-1603: the Later Tudors

100 questions in the guide, across 10 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Elizabeth and religion: religious situation and problems in 1558, Puritan challenge and aims

    Why was Elizabeth styled Supreme Governor rather than Supreme Head of the Church?

    Show the answer
    The lesser title was less offensive to Catholics, who reserved headship to the Pope, and to Protestants who objected on scriptural grounds to a woman heading the Church.

  2. Elizabeth and religion: attitude of Elizabeth’s archbishops and problems facing Catholics 1558–1589

    Why did the Catholic threat to Elizabeth increase after 1568?

    Show the answer
    Mary Queen of Scots fled to England that year and became a resident Catholic claimant, the revolt of the Netherlands soured relations with Spain, and the first seminary priests were soon arriving from Douai.

  3. The nature of the Elizabethan Monarchy, Government and Parliament: role of the court and role of gender

    Describe the career and importance of William Cecil.

    Show the answer
    Appointed Principal Secretary in 1558 and Lord Treasurer in 1572 as Lord Burghley, he served Elizabeth until his death in 1598, providing moderate advice, careful financial management and continuity at the centre of government.

Y101 to Y113

Y108: the Early Stuarts and the Origins of the Civil War 1603-1660

115 questions in the guide, across 10 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. James I and Parliament: James I and Divine Right, James I and his financial problems

    How did James's own conduct worsen the crown's finances?

    Show the answer
    He kept a far more lavish court than Elizabeth, gave generous grants, pensions and offices to Scottish favourites, and by 1608 had run the debt up to around £600,000.

  2. James I and Parliament: foreign policy and quarrels with Parliament 1614–1624

    How did the Thirty Years War create difficulties for James?

    Show the answer
    His son-in-law Frederick accepted the crown of Bohemia in 1619, was defeated at the White Mountain and lost the Palatinate, so English Protestants demanded intervention while James still sought a negotiated restoration.

  3. James I and religion: the religious situation in 1603, Puritans and Arminianism

    State what Bancroft's Canons of 1604 required.

    Show the answer
    That every clergyman subscribe to the royal supremacy, the Prayer Book and the Thirty-Nine Articles; around eighty to ninety ministers refused and were deprived of their livings.

Y101 to Y113

Y109: the Making of Georgian Britain 1678-C.1760

100 questions in the guide, across 9 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The Revolutionary Settlement and politics 1689–1714: political and religious settlement 1689–1701

    What did the Toleration Act of 1689 allow, and what did it withhold?

    Show the answer
    It allowed Protestant dissenters who took the oaths of allegiance to worship in licensed meeting houses, but it left the Test and Corporation Acts in force so they were still barred from office, and it gave nothing to Catholics or anti-Trinitarians.

  2. The Revolutionary Settlement and politics 1689–1714: Queen Anne and Union with Scotland 1707

    Why did the Marlborough–Godolphin ministry fall in 1710?

    Show the answer
    War weariness and the land tax, the Queen's estrangement from Sarah Churchill in favour of Abigail Masham, and the popular fury over the impeachment of Dr Sacheverell for a High Church sermon, which produced riots and then a Tory landslide.

  3. Aspects of Politics 1714–1780: Tory eclipse, the Jacobite risings and Walpole’s rise

    Outline the course of the rising of 1745.

    Show the answer
    Charles Edward Stuart landed in the Hebrides with almost no support, raised the clans at Glenfinnan, took Edinburgh and routed Cope at Prestonpans, marched as far as Derby before his officers insisted on retreat, and was destroyed by Cumberland at Culloden in April 1746.

Y101 to Y113

Y110: from Pitt to Peel 1783-1853

107 questions in the guide, across 11 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Pitt the Younger: royal support, the 1784 election and early reforms

    What did the general election of 1784 do for Pitt?

    Show the answer
    It converted his minority into a comfortable majority, with about 160 of Fox's supporters losing their seats — the men mocked as 'Fox's Martyrs'.

  2. Pitt the Younger: reform of finance and administration, anti-radical legislation 1794–1801

    Which two writers framed the British argument over the French Revolution?

    Show the answer
    Edmund Burke condemned it in his Reflections on the Revolution in France of 1790, and Thomas Paine answered him in Rights of Man, which sold in huge numbers among artisans.

  3. Lord Liverpool and the Tories 1812–1830: Liverpool and the radical challenge 1812–1822

    How did Liverpool's government respond to the disturbances of 1817?

    Show the answer
    It suspended habeas corpus, passed the Gagging Acts against seditious meetings and publications, and relied on informers such as Oliver, whose encouragement of the Pentrich plotters was later exposed in the press.

Y101 to Y113

Y111: Liberals, Conservatives and the Rise of Labour 1846-1918

115 questions in the guide, across 10 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Whigs to Liberals: repeal of the Corn Laws and its impact, roles and influence of Palmerston

    What did the Radicals of the Manchester School stand for?

    Show the answer
    Free trade, low taxation and retrenchment, peace and non-intervention abroad, religious equality for Nonconformists, and hostility to aristocratic privilege in the church, the army and the land.

  2. Whigs to Liberals: impact of foreign affairs on Britain

    Why did Aberdeen's government fall in January 1855?

    Show the answer
    Reports of the army's suffering before Sevastopol destroyed public confidence, and the Commons carried Roebuck's motion for a committee of enquiry into the conduct of the war by a crushing majority, forcing Aberdeen out and bringing in Palmerston.

  3. Gladstonian Liberalism: ideas and policies of Gladstonian Liberalism, appeal to different social groups

    Why was Gladstone called the 'People's William'?

    Show the answer
    His cheap-food finance, his repeal of the paper duties, his speaking tours to working-class audiences and his declaration that every man not incapacitated was morally entitled to the franchise made him the first front-rank politician with a genuine popular following.

Y101 to Y113

Y112: Britain 1900-1951

112 questions in the guide, across 10 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. British politics 1918–1929: the coupon election, the coalition’s fall and the 1923 election

    Why did the coalition win so heavily in 1918?

    Show the answer
    Lloyd George was the man who had won the war and promised homes fit for heroes, the electorate had just been trebled and had no settled loyalties, feeling against Germany ran high, and the opposition was split between rival Liberals and an inexperienced Labour party.

  2. British politics 1918–1929: the first Labour government, Baldwin’s government and the 1929 election

    What was the Zinoviev Letter?

    Show the answer
    A letter published four days before the 1924 poll, purporting to come from the Communist International and urging British sympathisers to subversion; almost certainly a forgery, it reinforced the charge that Labour was soft on Bolshevism.

  3. British domestic politics 1929–1939: the second Labour government, the National Government and extremism

    Why did the Labour cabinet break up in August 1931?

    Show the answer
    Ministers accepted most of the economies but split roughly evenly on cutting unemployment benefit by ten per cent, which the TUC refused to countenance; unable to carry his cabinet, MacDonald went to the King to resign.

Y101 to Y113

Y113: Britain 1930-1997

100 questions in the guide, across 10 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Conservative domination 1951–1964: the 1951 victory, affluence, immigration and the economy

    Describe the tripartite school system and its effect on social mobility.

    Show the answer
    Children were allocated by the eleven-plus to grammar, secondary modern or technical schools; grammar schools allowed some able working-class children to reach university and the professions, but the great majority in secondary moderns were written off at eleven.

  2. Conservative domination 1951–1964: leaders from Churchill to Douglas-Home, scandals and Labour in opposition

    Why was Macmillan such a formidable party leader between 1957 and 1962?

    Show the answer
    He restored confidence after Suez, presided over rising prosperity and won the 1959 election with a majority of about a hundred, projecting the unflappable Supermac image that mocking cartoonists had intended as an insult.

  3. Labour and Conservative governments 1964–1979: Labour victory 1964 and Labour party divisions

    State what the Department of Economic Affairs was set up to do, and what became of it.

    Show the answer
    Created under George Brown as a counterweight to the Treasury, it produced the 1965 National Plan promising twenty-five per cent growth by 1970, but the plan was abandoned after the deflation of 1966 and the department was wound up in 1969.

Y201 to Y224

Y201: the Rise of Islam C.550-750

78 questions in the guide, across 6 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The Middle East c.550–620: structure of pre-Islamic Arabia and commercial importance of Mecca

    Describe the religious beliefs of most Arabs before Islam.

    Show the answer
    Most were polytheists who worshipped tribal gods and spirits housed in local shrines, recognising a distant high god, Allah, alongside goddesses such as al-Lat, al-Uzza and Manat.

  2. The Middle East c.550–620: structure of pre-Islamic Arabia and commercial importance of Mecca

    How did the sacred months help Meccan commerce?

    Show the answer
    Fighting was forbidden during them, so tribes who were otherwise enemies could travel safely to the pilgrimage and to the great trade fairs, allowing exchange to happen on a scale that constant feuding would have prevented.

  3. The Middle East c.550–620: the rival empires, Arab military strengths and Muhammad’s Meccan years

    How did the two empires' treatment of their Arab client kingdoms affect the frontier?

    Show the answer
    Both abandoned the buffer states that had policed the desert edge for them, so the frontier was left unguarded and the client tribes were left resentful and available to a new leader.

Y201 to Y224

Y202: Charlemagne 768-814

79 questions in the guide, across 8 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. War and conquest: Situation in the Frankish lands and wars against the Saxons

    Explain how Charlemagne's motives for war changed over the reign.

    Show the answer
    Early campaigns were driven by plunder, tribute and the need to reward and occupy his aristocracy, but from the 770s conquest was increasingly justified as the defence and expansion of Christendom, with conversion becoming an aim in itself.

  2. War and conquest: later campaigns, methods of warfare and reasons for success

    What threat did the Danes pose in Charlemagne's later years?

    Show the answer
    King Godfred fortified his southern frontier, attacked Charlemagne's Slav allies and sent a fleet to raid Frisia, exposing the empire's inability to defend a long coastline; only after his death did his successor accept the Eider as the frontier in 811.

  3. Administration and internal affairs: Aims and methods of control and organisation, economic policies

    What was the role of a count?

    Show the answer
    A count administered a district for the king, presiding over its court, summoning its men to the army and collecting royal dues and fines.

Y201 to Y224

Y203: the Crusades and the Crusader States 1095-1192

80 questions in the guide, across 8 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The First Crusade: situation in Western Europe, Urban II’s aims and appeal at Clermont

    How did Christian thinking come to permit a holy war?

    Show the answer
    The idea of a just war fought at God's command was combined with the papacy's readiness to bless armies fighting for the Church, so warfare could be presented not merely as permissible but as an act of penance earning spiritual reward.

  2. The First Crusade: motives of Crusaders, capture of Edessa, Antioch and Jerusalem

    Why did the First Crusade suffer from divided leadership?

    Show the answer
    It had no single commander, only a council of princes of comparable rank such as Raymond of Toulouse, Bohemond and Godfrey of Bouillon, so every major decision required agreement among rivals who distrusted one another.

  3. The Crusader States in the 12th Century: Establishment, problems of succession and internal rivalries

    Why was the capture of the coastal ports so important to the survival of the states?

    Show the answer
    The ports were reduced one by one with the help of Italian fleets, and they gave Outremer the harbours through which reinforcements, pilgrims, supplies and money arrived from the West, while their customs revenues became the crown's main income.

Y201 to Y224

Y204: Genghis Khan and the Explosion from the Steppes C.1167-1405

80 questions in the guide, across 7 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Genghis Khan and the Creation of the Mongol Empire c.1167–1264: steppe society, the rise of Genghis Khan and the Mongol conquests

    Describe four characteristic Mongol battlefield tactics.

    Show the answer
    They used massed horse archery to break up an enemy before contact, the feigned retreat to draw pursuers out of formation, wide encircling movements borrowed from the hunt, and disciplined manoeuvre directed by signals rather than by shouted orders.

  2. Genghis Khan and the Creation of the Mongol Empire c.1167–1264: steppe society, the rise of Genghis Khan and the Mongol conquests

    Where did Mongol expansion in the Levant reach its limit?

    Show the answer
    Hulegu took Aleppo and Damascus in 1260, but after he withdrew most of his army the force he left behind was defeated by the Mamluks of Egypt at Ain Jalut, and the Mongols never held Syria.

  3. The Reign of Khubilai Khan 1264–1294: Consolidation of rule and control of China

    Describe the political structure Khubilai used to govern China.

    Show the answer
    He kept the Chinese framework of a central secretariat for civil affairs, a bureau of military affairs and a censorate to police officials, but reserved the senior posts for Mongols and other non-Chinese.

Y201 to Y224

Y205: Exploration, Encounters and Empire 1445-1570

80 questions in the guide, across 8 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Exploration: Reasons why this was an age of exploration and motives for patronage

    Why was the spice trade such a powerful motive for seeking a sea route to the East?

    Show the answer
    Pepper, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon reached Europe only after passing through Muslim and Venetian middlemen who multiplied the price, so a crown that could buy at source stood to make enormous profits.

  2. Exploration: explorers, their routes and the difficulties they faced

    What did Columbus believe he had reached, and why was he mistaken?

    Show the answer
    He believed he had reached the islands off Asia, because he had badly underestimated the circumference of the earth and overestimated the eastward extent of Asia, and he clung to that belief through all four voyages.

  3. Encounters and conquest: Treaty of Tordesillas and Portuguese conquest

    What was the most important long-term consequence of the Tordesillas line?

    Show the answer
    It placed the eastern bulge of South America on the Portuguese side, giving Portugal a legal title to Brazil, and it excluded other Christian powers, a claim the French and English later refused to accept.

Y201 to Y224

Y206: Spain 1469-1556

80 questions in the guide, across 8 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Isabella and Ferdinand: government — situation in Spain in 1469, control of the nobility and towns

    Who challenged Isabella's claim to Castile, and with whose support?

    Show the answer
    Juana, Henry IV's daughter, whose legitimacy was widely doubted; she was backed by a section of the Castilian nobility and by Afonso V of Portugal, who married her and invaded.

  2. Isabella and Ferdinand: government — law and order, finance, the union of the crowns and Spain in 1516

    How did royal policy affect trade and the economy?

    Show the answer
    Wool exports were promoted through the privileged sheep-owners' guild, the Mesta, and merchant courts such as the Burgos consulado of 1494 organised the trade with Flanders, while internal customs barriers between the kingdoms were left standing.

  3. Isabella and Ferdinand: religion — religious aims and the conquest of Granada

    Explain what is meant by la convivencia.

    Show the answer
    It describes the long medieval coexistence in Spain of Christian, Jewish and Muslim communities, tolerated under their own law and paying for protection, which had already been eroded by the pogroms and forced conversions of the previous century.

Y201 to Y224

Y207: the German Reformation and the Rule of Charles V 1500-1559

79 questions in the guide, across 6 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The German Reformation 1517–1529: Charles V’s inheritance, the Church and Luther’s challenge

    What was an indulgence?

    Show the answer
    A remission granted by the Church of the temporal punishment due for sins already forgiven, which by 1500 could be bought for money and applied to souls in purgatory.

  2. The German Reformation 1517–1529: Charles V’s inheritance, the Church and Luther’s challenge

    Why did a set of academic propositions spread so quickly?

    Show the answer
    They were printed, translated into German and reissued across the Empire within weeks, and they voiced a general resentment at German money flowing to Rome, so the printing press turned a university dispute into a public cause.

  3. The German Reformation 1517–1529: Papal excommunication and situation in 1529

    How did Luther's relations with radicals and humanists develop?

    Show the answer
    He had to disown reformers who went further than he would, returning from the Wartburg in 1522 to check Karlstadt and the Zwickau prophets at Wittenberg and denouncing Müntzer; and he broke with Erasmus, who defended free will in salvation, replying in 1525 that the will was in bondage and all depended on grace.

Y201 to Y224

Y208: Philip II 1556-1598

80 questions in the guide, across 8 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Political authority: Legacy of Charles I and condition of Spain

    How far is it accurate to call Philip's rule absolutism?

    Show the answer
    He acknowledged no earthly superior and made every important decision himself, but he was bound by the fueros of Aragon, Catalonia, Valencia and later Portugal, depended on the Castilian Cortes for taxes, and was limited by distance and by his own officials, so his authority was greater in theory than in practice.

  2. Political authority: faction, justice, revolts and finance

    How did Philip understand his responsibility for justice?

    Show the answer
    He saw the dispensing of justice as the first duty of a king, refused to be hurried, insisted that cases go through the courts and audiencias, and made himself available through written petitions, which earned him a reputation for fairness even among critics.

  3. Religion: Philip II’s inheritance and relations with the Papacy

    How did Philip see his own role in defending the Church?

    Show the answer
    He believed God had entrusted him with the defence of Catholicism, so the interests of the faith and of the monarchy were the same thing; he told his ministers he would rather lose his lands than rule over heretics.

Y201 to Y224

Y209: African Kingdoms C.1400-c.1800: Four Case Studies

80 questions in the guide, across 7 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The Songhay Empire c.1450–1591: the Sahel c.1450, Sonni Ali and Askia Muhammad

    Why was cavalry so important to Songhay's military success?

    Show the answer
    Horsemen could cross the open savannah quickly to raid, pursue and overawe rival states, and a costly armoured cavalry arm gave the ruler a permanent striking force that towns and villages could not resist.

  2. The Songhay Empire c.1450–1591: the Sahel c.1450, Sonni Ali and Askia Muhammad

    Why did Askia Muhammad's pilgrimage to Mecca matter politically?

    Show the answer
    His lavish pilgrimage of 1496 to 1498 advertised Songhay's wealth abroad and won him recognition as caliph of the Sudan, which gave a usurper unassailable religious prestige at home.

  3. The Songhay Empire c.1450–1591: importance of Timbuktu and reasons for decline

    How did Islam and traditional religion coexist in the empire?

    Show the answer
    Islam was the religion of the court, the merchants and the towns and gave the state its law and prestige, while most rural subjects kept traditional beliefs, and rulers drew on both to hold a diverse empire together.

Y201 to Y224

Y210: Russia 1645-1741

80 questions in the guide, across 8 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Russia 1645–1698: Russia in 1645, personality and rule of Alexis

    State what the Law Code of 1649 did to the Russian peasantry.

    Show the answer
    The Ulozhenie abolished the time limit on recovering runaways, so peasants and their descendants were tied permanently to their landlord's estate; serfdom became hereditary and legally complete.

  2. Russia 1645–1698: Feodor, Sophia’s regency and Peter’s early reign

    What part did the Streltsi play in 1682?

    Show the answer
    The Moscow musketeers, angry over pay and their officers and stirred up by the Miloslavskys, stormed the Kremlin and murdered leading Naryshkins, forcing the compromise by which Peter and Ivan were proclaimed joint tsars with Sophia as regent.

  3. The reforms of Peter the Great 1698–1725: consolidation of power, social change and government reform

    What changes did Peter make to the calendar?

    Show the answer
    From 1700 Russia counted years from the birth of Christ rather than from the supposed creation of the world and began the year on 1 January instead of 1 September, bringing dating into line with European practice.

Y201 to Y224

Y211: the Rise and Decline of the Mughal Empire in India 1526-1739

79 questions in the guide, across 7 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The foundation of the Mughal Empire and its rulers 1526–1556: Babur’s conquest of India

    What happened at Panipat in 1526?

    Show the answer
    Babur defeated and killed Ibrahim Lodi, the sultan of Delhi, on 21 April 1526, opening Delhi and Agra to him and founding Mughal rule in India.

  2. The foundation of the Mughal Empire and its rulers 1526–1556: Babur’s conquest of India

    Why was the battle of Khanwa in 1527 important?

    Show the answer
    Babur's victory over Rana Sanga of Mewar broke the Rajput confederacy that had hoped to take Delhi for itself and confirmed that the Mughals, not the Rajputs, would inherit the Lodi empire.

  3. The foundation of the Mughal Empire and its rulers 1526–1556: wars and instability under Humayun

    What is meant by the Afghan interlude?

    Show the answer
    It is the period from 1540 to 1555 when the Mughals were expelled from India and the Afghan Suri dynasty ruled the north from Delhi.

Y201 to Y224

Y212: the American Revolution 1740-1796

79 questions in the guide, across 7 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The development of British hegemony in America: the colonies in 1740, their economies, government and Native relations

    Compare the economies of the different British colonial regions.

    Show the answer
    New England lived by fishing, timber, shipbuilding and carrying trade, the middle colonies exported grain and flour, and the southern colonies grew tobacco in the Chesapeake and rice and indigo further south using large numbers of enslaved Africans.

  2. The development of British hegemony in America: the colonies in 1740, their economies, government and Native relations

    Explain what is meant by salutary neglect.

    Show the answer
    It describes the long period before 1763 in which Parliament rarely legislated for the colonies and trade laws such as the Molasses Act of 1733 were loosely enforced, allowing the colonies to develop habits of self-government and widespread smuggling.

  3. The development of British hegemony in America: territorial expansion to 1765

    Explain what the Albany Congress was.

    Show the answer
    A meeting of colonial delegates with the Iroquois in 1754 to secure Native support and coordinate defence, at which Benjamin Franklin's plan for a permanent union of the colonies was adopted by the delegates but rejected by every colonial assembly and by London.

Y201 to Y224

Y213: the French Revolution and the Rule of Napoleon 1774-1815

79 questions in the guide, across 8 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The causes of the French Revolution from 1774 and the events of 1789: the Ancien Régime, Louis XVI and the financial crisis

    Describe the qualities Louis XVI brought to the throne in 1774.

    Show the answer
    He was conscientious, pious and well meaning but indecisive, easily swayed by court factions and his wife, and reluctant to sustain a minister through unpopularity.

  2. The causes of the French Revolution from 1774 and the events of 1789: the Enlightenment, social grievances and the revolution of 1789

    Describe the economic crisis of 1787–89.

    Show the answer
    The 1786 Eden Treaty exposed French textiles to cheap British competition and caused urban unemployment, while the hail-ruined harvest of 1788 and a hard winter pushed bread to its highest price of the century by July 1789.

  3. The Revolution from October 1789 to the Directory 1795: attempts to establish a constitutional monarchy

    State what the Civil Constitution of the Clergy did.

    Show the answer
    It made bishops and priests salaried elected officials, redrew dioceses to match the departments, and ended papal confirmation of new bishops.

Y201 to Y224

Y214: France 1814-1870

80 questions in the guide, across 8 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X 1814–1830: the legacy of 1789, the Charter and Louis XVIII’s reign

    State who could vote under the Charter.

    Show the answer
    Only men aged thirty or over paying three hundred francs a year in direct taxes, roughly ninety thousand people in a nation of some twenty-nine million.

  2. The reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X 1814–1830: domestic and foreign policies of Charles X

    What economic and social difficulties faced France in the later 1820s?

    Show the answer
    A commercial downturn from 1826, bad harvests and high bread prices from 1827, and rural distress and urban unemployment left the regime with no reservoir of goodwill by 1830.

  3. The reign of Louis Philippe and the 1848 Revolution: Personality of Louis Philippe and foreign policy

    What internal challenges did the July Monarchy face in its first years?

    Show the answer
    Legitimist conspiracy in the Vendée, republican insurrections in Paris and the silk workers' risings in Lyon in 1831 and 1834 all had to be put down by force.

Y201 to Y224

Y215: Italy and Unification 1789-1896

80 questions in the guide, across 8 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Italy 1789–1847: Italy in 1789, Napoleonic rule and the Vienna Settlement

    What was the immediate impact of the French Revolution on Italy?

    Show the answer
    French armies from 1796 swept away the old states and set up satellite republics such as the Cisalpine, the Roman and the short-lived Parthenopean Republic of 1799, giving a minority of educated Italians their first taste of constitutional government.

  2. Italy 1789–1847: Carbonari, revolutions of 1820–1821 and 1831, extent of support for nationalism

    Describe the revolutions of 1831.

    Show the answer
    Risings inspired by the July Revolution in France seized Modena, Parma and the Papal Legations and set up provisional governments, but Austrian troops crushed them within weeks and Menotti was executed.

  3. The Revolutions of 1848–1849 and their aftermath: the revolutions of 1848 and the war with Austria

    What happened in Venice in 1848?

    Show the answer
    Manin was freed from prison, led a rising that expelled the Austrians, and proclaimed the Republic of St Mark, which held out longer than any other revolutionary government.

Y201 to Y224

Y216: the USA in the 19Th Century: Westward Expansion and Civil War 1803-C.1890

80 questions in the guide, across 7 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Westward expansion; causes and impacts: territorial growth, settlement and the development of the West

    Why was the Gadsden Purchase made?

    Show the answer
    In 1853 the United States paid Mexico ten million dollars for a strip of desert south of the Gila in order to secure a practicable southern route for a transcontinental railway.

  2. Westward expansion; causes and impacts: territorial growth, settlement and the development of the West

    What effect did the discovery of gold have on the West?

    Show the answer
    The strike at Sutter's Mill in 1848 brought a rush of prospectors that took California to statehood within two years, and later finds such as the Comstock Lode drew mining camps and towns deep into the mountain territories.

  3. Native Americans: Native American society, Tecumseh and Indian Removal

    State what Tecumseh set out to achieve.

    Show the answer
    With his brother the Prophet he tried to unite the peoples of the Ohio and Mississippi valleys in a confederacy that would hold land in common and refuse all further cessions to the United States.

Y201 to Y224

Y217: Japan 1853-1937

80 questions in the guide, across 8 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The impact of foreign intrusion on Tokugawa Japan 1853–1868: Tokugawa society, Perry and the unequal treaties

    Give two causes of peasant unrest in the last Tokugawa decades.

    Show the answer
    Heavy rice taxes combined with poor harvests and famine, and sharp price inflation that made food unaffordable, both provoked repeated village protests and urban rice riots.

  2. The impact of foreign intrusion on Tokugawa Japan 1853–1868: resistance to the Shogunate and civil war

    What did the bombardments of Kagoshima in 1863 and Shimonoseki in 1864 teach the domains that suffered them?

    Show the answer
    Satsuma and Chōshū learned that expelling the foreigners by force was impossible, so both switched to adopting Western weapons and methods in order to overthrow the shogunate instead.

  3. Westernisation and nationalism in Meiji Japan 1868–1912: the end of samurai power and early Meiji reforms

    Who led the Satsuma Rebellion of 1877 and what did its defeat prove?

    Show the answer
    Saigō Takamori led it, and the destruction of his samurai army by the conscript force proved that peasant soldiers with modern weapons had made the samurai militarily obsolete.

Y201 to Y224

Y218: International Relations 1890-1941

84 questions in the guide, across 8 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The causes and nature of the First World War: long-term causes, pre-war crises and the July Crisis

    Outline the Schlieffen Plan and the assumption on which it rested.

    Show the answer
    Germany would send the bulk of its army through Belgium to defeat France within weeks, then switch by rail to the east; it assumed Russia would mobilise too slowly to matter, and because such plans depended on rigid timetables they left statesmen very little room to pause once a crisis began.

  2. The causes and nature of the First World War: the nature of the fighting and reasons for the outcome

    Assess the criticism that the generals were incompetent butchers.

    Show the answer
    Commanders were slow to abandon costly frontal attacks and were remote from the front, but they were also managing mass citizen armies with communications that broke down beyond the parapet, and by 1918 they had developed the combined artillery, tank, aircraft and infantry tactics that won the war.

  3. The Paris Peace Conference, the League of Nations, and international diplomacy 1919–1935: the peace treaties of 1919–1920

    How did Germans characterise the treaty, and what political damage did that do?

    Show the answer
    They called it a Diktat imposed without negotiation and rejected the war guilt clause on which reparations rested, and the belief that the army had been stabbed in the back by the politicians who signed poisoned the Weimar Republic from the start.

Y201 to Y224

Y219: Russia 1894-1941

80 questions in the guide, across 8 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The rule of Tsar Nicholas II: Nicholas II, Russia in 1894 and the opposition

    What were Russia's main economic problems in 1894?

    Show the answer
    Industry was young and concentrated in a few centres, agriculture was backward and low-yielding, the country depended on foreign loans and investment, and government revenue rested heavily on taxing a poor peasantry.

  2. The rule of Tsar Nicholas II: Witte, the 1905 Revolution, the Dumas and Stolypin

    Describe the extent and nature of the disturbances of 1905.

    Show the answer
    There were mass strikes culminating in a general strike in October, peasant seizures of land, mutinies in the armed forces including on a Black Sea battleship, nationalist risings in the borderlands and the formation of workers' councils in the cities.

  3. The 1917 Revolutions: impact of the First World War 1914–1917 and events of March 1917

    What damage did Rasputin do to the monarchy, and did his murder repair it?

    Show the answer
    Rumours about his conduct and his hold over the German-born empress made the dynasty look corrupt and even treasonous; his murder by aristocrats in December 1916 removed him but showed the regime had lost even its own supporters.

Y201 to Y224

Y220: Italy 1896-1943

80 questions in the guide, across 8 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Italy 1896–1915: Italy in 1896, industrial growth and its consequences

    Explain the divide between northern and southern Italy.

    Show the answer
    The north was increasingly industrial, literate and prosperous, while much of the south remained a countryside of great estates, landless labourers, illiteracy, malaria and mass emigration, and southerners saw unification as a northern conquest.

  2. Italy 1896–1915: Giolitti’s ministries, foreign policy and the growing demand for war

    On what grounds was Giolitti criticised?

    Show the answer
    Critics said he governed by corruption, buying deputies and rigging southern elections through local bosses, and that his reforms bought off opponents without solving Italy's structural problems.

  3. Italy 1915–1925: Early neutrality and subsequent entry into war, weaknesses of the post-war governments

    What happened at Caporetto in 1917?

    Show the answer
    A combined Austro-German attack using new infiltration tactics broke the Italian line, and the army fell back some seventy miles to the Piave with hundreds of thousands taken prisoner and huge quantities of equipment lost.

Y201 to Y224

Y221: Democracy and Dictatorships in Germany 1919-1963

88 questions in the guide, across 8 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The establishment and development of the Weimar Republic: 1919–Jan 1933 — early crises, hyperinflation and recovery

    Explain why the Kapp Putsch of March 1920 collapsed.

    Show the answer
    Although Wolfgang Kapp's Freikorps took Berlin and the army refused to fire on them, a general strike by Berlin workers paralysed the capital and the putsch fell apart within days.

  2. The establishment and development of the Weimar Republic: 1919–Jan 1933 — the Stresemann years, the Depression and Hitler’s appointment

    Why was the prosperity of 1924–1929 more fragile than it looked?

    Show the answer
    It depended on short-term American loans that could be recalled at any moment, agriculture stayed depressed, and unemployment never fell below about 1.3 million.

  3. The establishment of the Nazi Dictatorship and its domestic policies Feb 1933–1939 — seizing and holding power

    Define Gleichschaltung and give one example of it in practice.

    Show the answer
    It was the co-ordination of German institutions under Nazi control, seen in the April 1933 civil service law that removed Jewish and politically unreliable officials.

Y201 to Y224

Y222: the Cold War in Asia 1945-1993

80 questions in the guide, across 7 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Western Policies in Post War Asia 1945–1979: Yalta, Potsdam, Japan, China, Taiwan and Malaya

    Describe the settlement between the United States and the Philippines in 1946.

    Show the answer
    The Philippines became independent on 4 July 1946 under President Roxas, but trade and currency were tied to the United States and the Americans kept major military bases.

  2. Western Policies in Post War Asia 1945–1979: Yalta, Potsdam, Japan, China, Taiwan and Malaya

    What happened to American relations with Taiwan in 1979?

    Show the answer
    The United States established full diplomatic relations with the People's Republic, ended recognition of the Nationalist government and terminated the defence treaty, while continuing unofficial ties and arms sales.

  3. The Korean War 1950–1953 and its impact to 1977: Causes and outbreak of the Korean War

    How was the United Nations able to authorise military action in June 1950?

    Show the answer
    The Soviet delegate was boycotting the Security Council over the exclusion of Communist China, so no veto was cast and the Council could call on members to repel the attack.

Y201 to Y224

Y223: the Cold War in Europe 1941-1995

79 questions in the guide, across 7 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The origins of the Cold War to 1945: situation in 1941 and wartime tensions in the Grand Alliance

    Explain why the western powers distrusted the Soviet Union before 1941.

    Show the answer
    They remembered the Bolshevik repudiation of debts, allied intervention in the Russian Civil War, the Comintern's calls for world revolution, the purges, and above all the Nazi-Soviet Pact of 1939.

  2. The origins of the Cold War to 1945: situation in 1941 and wartime tensions in the Grand Alliance

    How did the atomic bomb and Lend-Lease add to wartime suspicion?

    Show the answer
    The Americans supplied huge quantities of Lend-Lease aid but kept the atomic project secret from their Soviet ally, who learned of it through espionage rather than from Truman.

  3. The origins of the Cold War to 1945: the wartime conferences and the breakdown of the alliance

    Define the Declaration on Liberated Europe.

    Show the answer
    It was the Yalta pledge that the peoples freed from Nazi rule would be able to create democratic institutions of their own choosing through free elections.

Y201 to Y224

Y224: Apartheid and Reconciliation: South African Politics 1948-1999

80 questions in the guide, across 8 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Establishing Apartheid: South Africa before 1948, the 1948 election and racial classification

    What did the Fagan report of 1948 and the Sauer report of 1947 recommend?

    Show the answer
    The Fagan report concluded that black urbanisation was permanent and should be managed, while the Sauer report for the Nationalists argued for reversing it through total separation.

  2. Establishing Apartheid: the apartheid laws and early opposition

    What role were the reserves meant to play in apartheid?

    Show the answer
    They were to be the only places where Africans held land and political rights, so that black workers in white cities could be treated as temporary migrants rather than citizens.

  3. The development of Apartheid and growing resistance: Verwoerd, Vorster, the homelands and apartheid’s effects

    State what the Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 established.

    Show the answer
    It set up self-governing homelands for separate African ethnic groups, presenting them as future nations, and abolished the remaining white parliamentary representatives of Africans.

Y301 to Y321

Y301: the Early Anglo-Saxons C.400-800

138 questions in the guide, across 11 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The development of Kingship and kingdoms in Britain and Ireland: the first Saxons, early kingdoms and overkingship

    Give two reasons Germanic peoples crossed to Britain in the fifth century.

    Show the answer
    They were recruited and paid as federate soldiers by British rulers, and the collapse of Roman authority opened up land and plunder at a time when rising sea levels were spoiling coastal settlement in their North Sea homelands.

  2. The development of Kingship and kingdoms in Britain and Ireland: the heptarchy, royal government and the rise of Northumbria and Mercia

    Explain what the Tribal Hidage shows about early Anglo-Saxon administration.

    Show the answer
    It is a list assessing more than thirty peoples in hides, probably for tribute, and it shows that kings could rank and tax subordinate groups systematically rather than merely raid them.

  3. Religion and the Christian Church in Britain and Ireland: paganism, the Gregorian mission and Irish Christianity

    Who sent the mission of 597, and who led it?

    Show the answer
    Pope Gregory the Great sent it, and it was led by Augustine, prior of Gregory's own monastery in Rome.

Y301 to Y321

Y302: the Viking Age C.790-1066

140 questions in the guide, across 14 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Viking society, administration and livelihood: Viking identity and Scandinavian administration

    Describe the legal and practical position of free women in Scandinavian society.

    Show the answer
    They could own and inherit property, run the farm and its stores while the men were away, initiate divorce and commission memorial stones, though they were excluded from public office and formal legal action.

  2. Viking society, administration and livelihood: royal power and Scandinavian livelihood

    How did the adoption of the sail change Scandinavian seafaring?

    Show the answer
    A single square sail on a keeled hull gave long-range voyaging without exhausting crews at the oars, which made open-sea crossings, distant raiding and bulk cargo trade practical for the first time.

  3. Warfare and raids: Athelstan, the second Viking age and expansion abroad

    Explain why paying Danegeld proved counter-productive.

    Show the answer
    It advertised England's wealth and its rulers' weakness, so each payment attracted further and larger fleets, while the taxation needed to raise it exhausted the country and discredited the king.

Y301 to Y321

Y303: English Government and the Church 1066-1216

140 questions in the guide, across 12 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Main features of central government: the household, Exchequer, chancery and justiciar

    How often did the Exchequer sit, and what happened at each session?

    Show the answer
    It sat twice a year: at Easter the sheriff paid a preliminary instalment and received a tally, and at Michaelmas he presented his full account, which was audited and enrolled.

  2. Main features of central government: role and power of the Crown, reasons for rebellion and its impact

    How did the continental possessions affect the taxation of England?

    Show the answer
    Defending and recovering lands in France required repeated scutages, tallages and general levies on movables, which made heavy Angevin taxation a standing grievance among the English baronage.

  3. The government of the Church in England: the primacy dispute and the Church courts

    Why did the Crown generally take Canterbury's side in the primacy dispute?

    Show the answer
    A single obedient primate made the whole English Church easier to manage through one man, and it discouraged a northern archbishop from becoming a focus for separatist or Scottish influence.

Y301 to Y321

Y304: the Church and Medieval Heresy C.1100-1437

140 questions in the guide, across 13 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The causes and nature of the heretical movements: condition of the medieval Church

    How did the geo-political structure of medieval Europe encourage heresy in some regions?

    Show the answer
    Heresy took root where central authority was weak or divided, above all in Languedoc under counts who could not or would not coerce their vassals, and in the self-governing city communes of Lombardy, whose literate artisans, trade routes and weak parish provision made them ideal ground for preachers and texts.

  2. The causes and nature of the heretical movements: strategy and organisation of the movements

    Who were the Fraticelli?

    Show the answer
    They were rigorist Franciscans in Italy who refused to abandon the doctrine of the absolute poverty of Christ and the apostles after the papacy condemned it, and who were declared heretics for that refusal.

  3. Support for heretical movements: leadership, contrasting aims and reasons for failure

    What is the fundamental difference between the Cathars and the Waldensians?

    Show the answer
    The Cathars were dualists who rejected the material creation and the whole Catholic sacramental system, while the Waldensians were orthodox in doctrine and dissented over preaching, scripture and the moral authority of the clergy.

Y301 to Y321

Y305: the Renaissance C.1400-c.1600

135 questions in the guide, across 14 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Artistic and cultural development: cultural conditions in western Europe c.1400

    What was linear perspective and who first demonstrated it?

    Show the answer
    Linear perspective was a mathematical method of showing depth on a flat surface using a single vanishing point, demonstrated by Brunelleschi in Florence around 1413 and set out in writing by Alberti.

  2. Artistic and cultural development: High Renaissance and continuity with the Middle Ages

    How did printing change the spread of Renaissance ideas?

    Show the answer
    Printing with movable type, established in Italy from the 1460s and above all in Venice, made classical and humanist texts cheap, plentiful and textually standardised, so ideas reached far beyond a small scholarly elite.

  3. The role of the individual: humanist writers and artists from Brunelleschi to Dürer

    Why is Alberti a characteristic Renaissance figure?

    Show the answer
    He was an architect, mathematician, athlete and theorist who wrote On Painting and On the Art of Building, gave perspective and classical proportion a written theory, and personified the ideal of the universal man.

Y301 to Y321

Y306: Rebellion and Disorder Under the Tudors 1485-1603

139 questions in the guide, across 14 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The main causes of rebellion and disorder: Political factions, succession and taxation

    Who was Lambert Simnel and what did his rising involve?

    Show the answer
    Simnel was a boy impersonating the Earl of Warwick who was crowned in Dublin in 1487 and invaded England with Yorkist nobles and German mercenaries funded by Margaret of Burgundy, before defeat at Stoke Field.

  2. The main causes of rebellion and disorder: famine and motives of the rebels

    Distinguish long-term from short-term causes of Tudor unrest.

    Show the answer
    Long-term causes were the underlying pressures of inflation, population growth, enclosure and religious change, while short-term causes were the immediate triggers such as the arrival of a commission, a new tax demand or a new prayer book.

  3. The frequency and nature of disturbances: support, leadership, tactics and reasons for failure

    What role did the clergy play in rebellion?

    Show the answer
    Parish priests and dispossessed monks helped stir and organise the religious risings, carrying banners and preaching, and in the Western Rebellion priests such as Robert Welsh were among the leaders.

Y301 to Y321

Y307: Tudor Foreign Policy 1485-1603

132 questions in the guide, across 13 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The aims and methods of Tudor foreign policy: aims, methods and constraints

    Give two dynastic marriages arranged for foreign policy purposes before 1509.

    Show the answer
    Arthur's marriage to Catherine of Aragon, agreed at Medina del Campo, and Margaret Tudor's marriage to James IV of Scotland in 1503.

  2. Scotland and France: Étaples, Ayton, Flodden and the rough wooing

    Describe Henry VIII's aims in his invasions of France.

    Show the answer
    He wanted territory, prestige and the revival of the English claim to the French crown, taking Thérouanne and Tournai in 1513 and Boulogne in 1544.

  3. Burgundy, the Netherlands and Spain: Henry VII and Medina del Campo, impact of the divorce

    Why was the Intercursus Malus of 1506 of little practical value?

    Show the answer
    Although extorted from Philip of Burgundy while he was stranded in England, its one-sided terms were never implemented by the Netherlands.

Y301 to Y321

Y308: the Catholic Reformation 1492-1610

138 questions in the guide, across 12 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The nature of the Catholic Reformation: condition of the Catholic Church in the 1490s

    Which pope best symbolised the worldliness of the Renaissance papacy in the 1490s?

    Show the answer
    Alexander VI, whose nepotism, wealth and dynastic ambitions for his children were notorious.

  2. The nature of the Catholic Reformation: early reform and the Catholic or Counter Reformation debate

    List the main methods used to revive Catholicism.

    Show the answer
    Clear doctrinal definition, better training and discipline of the clergy, preaching, catechism and schooling, episcopal visitation, new religious orders, censorship, the Inquisition, and the emotional appeal of art and liturgy.

  3. Institutional reforms: Society of Jesus, new and traditional orders, Ursulines and Theatines

    Who founded the Capuchins, and what was their purpose?

    Show the answer
    Matteo da Bascio led a breakaway from the Franciscans in the 1520s, seeking a return to strict poverty and preaching to the rural and urban poor.

Y301 to Y321

Y309: the Ascendancy of the Ottoman Empire 1453-1606

140 questions in the guide, across 14 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Sultans and the organisation of the State: Sultans and their accessions, army

    Explain the law of fratricide and the reasoning behind it.

    Show the answer
    Mehmed II's law code permitted a new sultan to have his brothers put to death, on the argument that the peace of the world was worth more than the lives of rival claimants; Mehmed III had nineteen brothers killed in 1595.

  2. Sultans and the organisation of the State: central political system, finances and the economy

    What was the Şeyhülislam responsible for?

    Show the answer
    He headed the religious establishment and issued rulings on whether the sultan's policies conformed to sacred law, which gave imperial decisions religious cover.

  3. Imperial expansion: expansion in the Mediterranean, lack of resistance and weaknesses

    Which campaigns brought the Levant under Ottoman rule, and when?

    Show the answer
    Selim I beat the Safavids at Chaldiran in 1514, then destroyed the Mamluk sultanate at Marj Dabiq in 1516 and outside Cairo in 1517, adding Syria, Egypt and the Hejaz.

Y301 to Y321

Y310: the Development of the Nation State: France 1498-1610

139 questions in the guide, across 13 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The Monarchy and central government: royal authority, central institutions and the crisis of the crown

    How was the king's council organised, and how did that help centralisation?

    Show the answer
    A large formal council handled routine business while a small inner group of trusted men decided policy with the king, keeping real decision-making in very few hands.

  2. Law, provincial government and society: development of language, taxation and privileges

    State the three main royal taxes and who bore them.

    Show the answer
    The taille, a direct tax on the non-noble; the gabelle on salt; and the aides, indirect duties on goods; the nobility and clergy were exempt from the taille.

  3. Religion and the Church: the Concordat of Bologna, Gallicanism and early reform

    Why did the Parlement of Paris resist registering the Concordat?

    Show the answer
    It saw the surrender of elections and the return of papal dues as a betrayal of the liberties of the French Church, and only gave way under royal pressure.

Y301 to Y321

Y311: the Origins and Growth of the British Empire 1558-1783

139 questions in the guide, across 12 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Drivers of imperial expansion: the Crown, the adventurers and the search for trade

    How did Walter Raleigh attempt to turn Elizabethan enthusiasm into permanent settlement?

    Show the answer
    He organised the Roanoke colonies of 1585 and 1587 in the territory he named Virginia, both of which failed for lack of supply and support.

  2. Drivers of imperial expansion: contribution of domestic developments to empire, successes and failures

    Give one clear success and one clear failure in achieving British imperial aims across the period.

    Show the answer
    The Treaty of Paris of 1763, which brought Canada, Florida and dominance in India, was the outstanding success; the loss of the thirteen American colonies in 1783 was the outstanding failure.

  3. The impact of Empire on Britain and its emerging colonies: For Britain

    What was the South Sea Bubble, and what did it reveal?

    Show the answer
    It was the speculative collapse of 1720 in the shares of a company built on trade rights with Spanish America, and it showed how far imperial expectation had outrun imperial reality.

Y301 to Y321

Y312: Popular Culture and the Witchcraze of the 16Th and 17Th Centuries

140 questions in the guide, across 14 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Popular culture: popular and elite culture, their definitions

    Explain what is meant by the withdrawal of the elite.

    Show the answer
    It is the argument that before about 1500 the elite shared in the festivals, tales and games of everyone else, and that by about 1800 they had abandoned them as vulgar and superstitious, leaving popular culture to the poor.

  2. Popular culture: public humiliation, role of magic in society and social control

    What connection did contemporaries make between the alehouse and disorder?

    Show the answer
    Magistrates saw alehouses as breeding idleness, drunkenness, illicit sex and sedition among the poor, and licensing was used repeatedly to suppress or control them.

  3. The main reasons for the growth and decline in the persecution of witches: war, plague, scepticism and decline

    Was persecution driven from above or from below?

    Show the answer
    Both, and the distinction matters: villagers usually supplied the original accusations of harm, while learned judges and rulers supplied the demonological framework and the torture that turned single cases into mass panics.

Y301 to Y321

Y313: the Ascendancy of France 1610-1715

140 questions in the guide, across 13 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The development of absolute monarchy and the role of ministers: absolutist theory, regencies and chief ministers

    Who governed France in the years immediately after Henry IV's assassination in 1610?

    Show the answer
    His widow Marie de' Medici ruled as regent for the boy Louis XIII, leaning heavily on the Italian favourite Concino Concini.

  2. The development of absolute monarchy and the role of ministers: ministers, intendants, taxation and privilege

    Which was the main direct tax in France, and who escaped it?

    Show the answer
    The taille, which fell overwhelmingly on the peasantry, because the nobility, the clergy, many officeholders and certain towns and provinces were exempt.

  3. Religious developments: relations with the Huguenots, significance of Jansenism and royal reactions

    Why did Richelieu leave Huguenot worship untouched after 1629?

    Show the answer
    His purpose was political rather than confessional: once their armed independence was destroyed they were loyal subjects, and persecution would have divided France while he was preparing to fight the Catholic Habsburgs.

Y301 to Y321

Y314: the Challenge of German Nationalism 1789-1919

136 questions in the guide, across 13 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Social and intellectual forces: origins and growth of German nationalism

    Summarise what Fichte urged in his Addresses to the German Nation.

    Show the answer
    Speaking in French-occupied Berlin in 1807–08, he called on Germans to regenerate themselves through a national education, claiming that theirs was an original people whose language made them uniquely capable of moral renewal.

  2. Social and intellectual forces: repression, rival visions of unity and nationalism after 1871

    Why did the Kulturkampf damage national unity?

    Show the answer
    It defined a third of Germans as enemies of the Reich, provoked passive resistance by bishops and priests, and drove Catholics into the Centre Party, which grew into one of the strongest forces in the Reichstag before Bismarck abandoned the campaign.

  3. Economic forces: economic and social effects of industrialisation

    How did the German socialist movement develop before 1875?

    Show the answer
    Lassalle founded the General German Workers' Association in 1863 to pursue reform through universal suffrage, while Bebel and Liebknecht founded a Marxist Social Democratic Workers' Party in 1869, and the two merged at Gotha in 1875.

Y301 to Y321

Y315: the Changing Nature of Warfare 1792-1945

138 questions in the guide, across 13 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The impact of factors directly related to the conduct of war: Generalship and its impact

    What did Clausewitz mean by friction?

    Show the answer
    He meant the accumulation of small difficulties, delays, mistakes and uncertainties that make even simple operations hard to carry out in war.

  2. The impact of factors directly related to the conduct of war: concept of ‘Total War’

    Give three reasons why casualties rose so sharply across the period.

    Show the answer
    Armies were far larger, firepower was vastly greater, and campaigns lasted longer because industrial economies could keep replacing men and munitions.

  3. The impact of technological change: development of weaponry

    Define indirect fire and explain why it changed artillery's role.

    Show the answer
    Indirect fire means shooting at a target the gunners cannot see, using map data and observers, which allowed batteries to stay hidden well behind the line and made artillery the greatest killer on the battlefield.

Y301 to Y321

Y316: Britain and Ireland 1791-1921

149 questions in the guide, across 12 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. Opposition to the Union: revolutionary, cultural and constitutional nationalism

    What was boycotting and where did the term come from?

    Show the answer
    It was the tactic of complete social and commercial ostracism of anyone who took an evicted tenant's farm, named after Captain Boycott, a land agent in County Mayo ostracised in 1880.

  2. Support for the Union: the decline of the Ascendancy and the rise of Unionism

    Explain what the Ulster Unionist Council was.

    Show the answer
    Established in 1905, it brought together constituency associations, Orange lodges and unionist clubs into a single disciplined body that could direct Ulster's resistance.

  3. The Union and reform: creation of the Act of Union, Home Rule and Partition

    What was distinctive about policing in Ireland?

    Show the answer
    From 1836 Ireland had a single centrally controlled, armed and barracked constabulary answerable to Dublin Castle, unlike the local unarmed forces of Britain.

Y301 to Y321

Y317: China and Its Rulers 1839-1989

139 questions in the guide, across 13 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The government and rulers of China 1839–1989: Manchu rule, the Taiping and late Qing reform

    How did the Qing eventually defeat the Taiping Rebellion?

    Show the answer
    By allowing Han provincial officials such as Zeng Guofan to raise their own regional armies, backed by limited Western help, which saved the dynasty but shifted military power into provincial hands.

  2. The government and rulers of China 1839–1989: the 1911 Revolution, the Republic, Mao and Deng

    Why did the Communists win the civil war by 1949?

    Show the answer
    Guomindang corruption, hyperinflation and military mismanagement destroyed its support after the Japanese war, while Communist discipline, land redistribution in the villages and skilful mobile warfare won the countryside and then the cities.

  3. The economy of China 1839–1989: Five Year Plans, the Great Leap Forward and reform after 1976

    Name two features of the Great Leap Forward.

    Show the answer
    Backyard steel furnaces and the people's communes with their communal kitchens and nurseries.

Y301 to Y321

Y318: Russia and Its Rulers 1855-1964

136 questions in the guide, across 11 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The nature of government: Autocracy, methods of repression and enforcement

    Describe central administration under the tsars.

    Show the answer
    Government was carried on by appointed ministers, the Committee of Ministers and the advisory State Council, with no prime minister co-ordinating policy until 1905 and no body the tsar could not bypass.

  2. The nature of government: extent and impact of reform, attitude of the Tsars, extent of political change

    How was local government organised after 1917?

    Show the answer
    Soviets became the formal local structures, but the Party's local committees and appointed secretaries took the real decisions and elections offered no choice between parties.

  3. The impact of dictatorial regimes on the economy and society of Russia and the USSR

    How did Witte drive industrial growth?

    Show the answer
    As finance minister from 1892 he attracted foreign loans and investment, imposed high tariffs, put the rouble on the gold standard and built state railways, above all the Trans-Siberian, paying for it by taxing the peasantry.

Y301 to Y321

Y319: Civil Rights in the USA 1865-1992

140 questions in the guide, across 12 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. African Americans: position in 1865 and Civil Rights Movement to 1992

    State what the Fourteenth Amendment of 1868 established.

    Show the answer
    It made everyone born in the United States a citizen, and forbade any state to deny due process of law or the equal protection of the laws, which became the constitutional foundation for almost all later civil rights litigation.

  2. Trade Union and Labour Rights: unions from 1865 to the 1890s

    What happened at Haymarket Square in 1886 and why did it damage the labour movement?

    Show the answer
    During a Chicago rally in support of the eight-hour day a bomb killed a policeman, and the trial and execution of anarchist organisers on almost no evidence allowed employers and the press to identify unionism with foreign terrorism, choking off recruitment for a generation.

  3. Trade Union and Labour Rights: the World Wars, the New Deal and the Reagan era

    What did organised labour gain from the Clayton Act of 1914, and why was the gain limited?

    Show the answer
    The Act declared that human labour is not an article of commerce and appeared to exempt unions from antitrust prosecution, which Gompers hailed as labour's charter, but the courts read the exemption narrowly and continued to grant injunctions against strikes and boycotts through the 1920s.

Y301 to Y321

Y320: from Colonialism to Independence: the British Empire 1857-1965

140 questions in the guide, across 12 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The governance and administration of the Empire: Empire in 1857 and economic explanations

    What did Gallagher and Robinson argue in their essay on the imperialism of free trade?

    Show the answer
    Writing in 1953, they denied that the mid-Victorian decades were anti-imperial and the late Victorian decades newly imperial, arguing instead that policy was consistently expansionist and simply chose the cheapest instrument available, taking trade with informal control where possible and formal rule only where necessary.

  2. Opposition to British Rule: Opposition movements, peaceful and violent, reasons for their development

    Describe the Mahdist opposition in the Sudan.

    Show the answer
    Muhammad Ahmad proclaimed himself the Mahdi in 1881 and led a religious and anti-Egyptian revolt that destroyed Hicks Pasha's army in 1883 and took Khartoum in January 1885, killing Gordon; his successor the Khalifa ruled an independent Sudanese state until Kitchener's mechanised reconquest culminated at Omdurman in 1898.

  3. The impact of imperial power on the periphery and Britain: jingoism and the impact of Empire on Britain

    Define jingoism.

    Show the answer
    The word came from a music hall song of 1878 during the Russo-Turkish crisis and described aggressive popular patriotism that demanded a warlike foreign policy; its most famous display was the hysterical street celebration of the relief of Mafeking in 1900, which added the verb mafficking to the language.

Y301 to Y321

Y321: the Middle East 1908-2011: Ottomans to Arab Spring

140 questions in the guide, across 14 subtopics. More from this unit

  1. The Role of the Great Powers in the Middle East: aims, mandates and the Cold War powers

    Name the mandates awarded to Britain and to France in the post-war settlement.

    Show the answer
    Britain received Palestine, Transjordan and Iraq, while France received Syria and Lebanon.

  2. The Role of the Great Powers in the Middle East: Great Power involvement in war, oil wars and strategy

    Which five states founded OPEC, and where?

    Show the answer
    Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela founded it at Baghdad in September 1960.

  3. Zionism, Israel and the Palestinian issue: occupation, the peace process and the Palestinians

    What was agreed at Oslo in 1993, and what was left unresolved?

    Show the answer
    Israel and the PLO recognised one another and agreed phased Palestinian self-rule; Jerusalem, refugees, borders and settlements were deferred to final-status talks that never reached agreement.

OCR A-Level History A Active Recall Guide

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