Edexcel A-Level History
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Paper 1 and Paper 2 - Route A: Conquest, control and resistance in the medieval world
Required Paper 1 - 1A: The crusades, c1095-1204
1A Theme 1 - Reasons for the crusades, 1095-1192The crusades were not caused by one simple emotion or one papal speech. For Edexcel Paper 1, the strong answer is the one that can explain how religious conviction, papal politics, Byzantine emergency, knightly culture, disorder in Europe, and the defence of the crusader states worked together ac...
1A Theme 2 - Leadership of the crusades, 1095-1192This lesson treats leadership as a historical problem across the First, Second and Third Crusades. Their outcomes depended on authority, shared priorities, local knowledge and whether military success could become a stable political result, so leaders cannot simply be labelled good or bad. Compar...
1A Theme 3 - The crusader states of Outremer, 1100-92This lesson is about how the crusader states survived, adapted and weakened after the First Crusade. Edexcel is not asking for a simple story of battles. The topic is a breadth enquiry into the structures of Outremer: its geography and economy, its defensive system, and its government from Baldwi...
1A Theme 4 - The Muslim response to the crusades, 1095-1192This lesson is about a change in the balance of power. In 1097-99 the crusaders benefited from a Muslim Near East divided by dynasty, religion, local rivalry, and poor coordination. By 1187 Saladin could draw on Egypt, Syria, and northern Mesopotamian support to destroy the main Frankish army at...
1A Interpretations - What explains the Fourth Crusade's failure?This lesson is about a crusade that failed twice: it did not recover Jerusalem, and it ended by attacking Christian cities. To answer the Edexcel interpretations question well, you need the chronology, but you also need to decide which explanation best accounts for the collapse of the original cr...
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2A.1: Anglo-Saxon England and the Anglo-Norman Kingdom, c1053-1106
2A.1 KT1 - Late Anglo-Saxon England, c1053-66Late Anglo-Saxon England was not a weak kingdom waiting to be conquered. It had a powerful monarchy, a sophisticated local administration, an unusually reliable coinage and tax system, and a political elite used to governing through shires, earldoms and assemblies. The problem was different: the...
2A.1 KT2 - Norman conquest: England, Wales and Scotland, 1066-93This lesson is about the difference between winning a battle and securing a kingdom. William of Normandy's victory at Hastings made him king of England, but it did not by itself make England obedient, Wales controllable, or Scotland harmless. Between 1066 and 1093, Norman control had to be built...
2A.1 KT3 - State, church and society, 1066-1106This lesson is about the machinery of conquest after the battlefield. By 1106, the Normans had not simply replaced one king with another. They had turned England's unusually strong late Anglo-Saxon government into a Norman royal state, destroyed most of the old English aristocracy, reshaped lords...
2A.1 KT4 - Normandy, 1066-1106This lesson is about the making, breaking, and restoration of the Anglo-Norman kingdom. Normandy was not just William's launch pad for the conquest of England. It remained the dynastic homeland, a frontier duchy surrounded by rivals, and the place where the Conqueror's sons fought over what his v...
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2A.2: England and the Angevin Empire in the reign of Henry II, 1154-89
2A.2 KT1 - Restoring and extending royal authority, 1154-72Henry II became king in December 1154 with a rare combination of problems and advantages. England had been damaged by the civil war between Stephen and Matilda, but Henry also ruled or claimed a huge collection of lands in western France. The key issue is not simply that Henry was powerful. It is...
2A.2 KT2 - Reforms in England, 1154-89Henry II did not invent royal government from nothing. His achievement was to make older royal institutions work harder, more regularly, and more profitably after the disorder of Stephen's reign. The key question is how far his reforms turned the king's personal authority into a system that could...
2A.2 KT3 - Henry II and the English church, 1154-74This lesson is about a problem Henry II could not solve simply by being a strong king. In the 1150s and 1160s the English Church was not just a religious institution. It ran courts, held land, controlled moral discipline, sent appeals to Rome, crowned kings, punished offenders through penance and...
2A.2 KT4 - Crises of the Angevin Empire, 1170-89Henry II's last two decades were shaped by a contradiction at the heart of Angevin power. He wanted his sons to inherit a vast collection of lands, but he did not want to surrender real authority while he lived. That made family politics dangerous. The king's sons had titles, expectations and for...
Paper 1 and Paper 2 - Route B: Religion and the state in early modern Europe
Required Paper 1 - 1B: England, 1509-1603: authority, nation and religion
1B Theme 1 - Monarchy and government, 1509-88This lesson is about the political machinery of Tudor England: monarchs, Parliament, ministers, councils, and the question of who could safely rule. The core argument is that Tudor monarchy remained personally dominant, but the ways in which royal power worked changed sharply between 1509 and 1588.
1B Theme 2 - Religious changes, 1509-88This lesson is about the direction, pace, and limits of religious change under the Tudors. The key argument is not simply that England "became Protestant". Between 1509 and 1588 the English Church moved from papal Catholicism, through royal supremacy, Edwardian Protestantism, Marian Catholic rest...
1B Theme 3 - State control and popular resistance, 1509-88This lesson explores how Tudor monarchs tried to make royal policy effective across a kingdom still governed through local people and institutions. You will weigh the reach of regional councils, nobles, justices and poor-relief law against episodes of tax resistance and rebellion, asking why larg...
1B Theme 4 - Economic, social and cultural change, 1509-88This topic is about how Tudor England was reshaped beneath the level of parliaments, rebellions, and royal policy. The argument is not that England became modern overnight. It is that the years 1509-88 saw older patterns of cloth-based trade, parish religion, rural landholding, and court culture...
1B Interpretations - A crisis of government, 1589-1603?This Paper 1 interpretations topic is about a historical argument, not just a late-Tudor timeline. The question is whether the last years of Elizabeth I's reign produced a general crisis of government: a linked crisis across security, finance, court politics, parliament, succession, and social or...
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2B.1: Luther and the German Reformation, c1515-55
2B.1 KT1 - Conditions in early sixteenth-century GermanyThis lesson explains the conditions that made the German lands a difficult place to govern and a fertile place for religious criticism before Luther's challenge gathered force. The key is not to treat politics, economy, church and papacy as four separate lists. In early sixteenth-century Germany...
2B.1 KT2 - Luther's early challenge to the Church, 1517-20Luther's early challenge began as a dispute about indulgence preaching, but it became much more dangerous because it exposed deeper questions about salvation, papal authority, Scripture, and who had the right to reform the Church. By 1520 Luther was no longer only asking whether Johann Tetzel had...
2B.1 KT3 - The development of Lutheranism, 1521-46Between 1521 and 1546 Lutheranism changed from a condemned professor's protest into a recognisable religious and political movement. That development was not smooth. Luther's message gained force because it offered a clear route to salvation, but it also had to survive imperial condemnation, radi...
2B.1 KT4 - The spread and survival of Lutheranism, 1521-55Lutheranism survived between 1521 and 1555 because a religious movement became embedded in the political structure of the Holy Roman Empire. This did not mean that the German Reformation was inevitable, or that Charles V and the papacy were powerless. It means that Lutheranism gained time, territ...
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2B.2: The Dutch Revolt, c1563-1609
2B.2 KT1 - Origins of the Dutch Revolt, c1563-67The Dutch Revolt did not begin as a simple nationalist war against Spain. In the mid-1560s the Habsburg Netherlands was a composite monarchy: Philip II ruled seventeen provinces that had their own laws, privileges, estates, towns and noble families. The crisis came because Philip tried to defend...
2B.2 KT2 - Alva and Orange, 1567-73In 1567 Philip II sent the Duke of Alva to the Netherlands to restore obedience after the Iconoclastic Fury and the noble opposition of 1566. By the end of 1573 Alva had been recalled, and William of Orange had a working rebel base in Holland and Zeeland. That change was not simple or inevitable....
2B.2 KT3 - Spain and the reconquest, 1573-84This lesson covers the exact Pearson Edexcel 9HI0 topic Spain and the reconquest, 1573-84. The main story is not simply that Spain "won back" the Netherlands. It is sharper than that: Spanish authority collapsed under Requesens, was rebuilt by Parma in the Catholic south, and at the same time bec...
2B.2 KT4 - Securing the United Provinces, 1584-1609This lesson is about how a revolt that looked fragile in the mid-1580s became a defensible republic by 1609. The United Provinces did not win independence by one heroic battle, and Spain did not simply collapse. Independence was secured through the interaction of military recovery under Maurice o...
Paper 1 and Paper 2 - Route C: Revolutions in early modern and modern Europe
Required Paper 1 - 1C: Britain, 1625-1701: conflict, revolution and settlement
1C Theme 1 - The quest for political stability, 1625-88This lesson is about the repeated search for a workable political settlement in Stuart Britain. The core argument is that stability broke down whenever rulers could not secure trust over four connected issues: money, religion, Parliament, and control of armed force. The period did not move in a s...
1C Theme 2 - Religion: conflict and dissent, 1625-88Between 1625 and 1688, arguments about worship repeatedly became arguments about who held political power. Charles I and Laud used bishops, prayer books and church courts to impose order; civil war opened space for Presbyterians, Independents and radical sects; and the Restoration rebuilt Anglica...
1C Theme 3 - Social and intellectual challenge, 1625-88Between 1625 and 1688, Britain changed below the level of kings and Parliaments. Population growth strained land, wages, towns and poor relief, while gentry, merchants and professionals gained influence and civil war, print, religious division and experimental science made inherited authority eas...
1C Theme 4 - Economy, trade and empire, 1625-88This lesson covers the exact Pearson Edexcel 9HI0 topic Economy, trade and empire, 1625-88. The topic is about three connected developments: agricultural change inside England, changing domestic trade patterns, and the impact of imperial expansion. The central judgement is not simply that England...
1C Interpretations - The Glorious Revolution: how revolutionary?How revolutionary was the Glorious Revolution once its settlement had developed by 1701? This lesson tests change in the working constitution, religious order, parliamentary system and financial state, rather than just the drama of William's landing in 1688. The settlement made monarchy condition...
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2C.1: France in revolution, 1774-99
2C.1 KT1 - The origins and onset of revolution, 1774-89The French Revolution did not begin because one bad harvest, one weak king, or one angry crowd suddenly destroyed the old order. It began because several pressures converged. The monarchy needed money; the tax system made serious reform politically explosive; privileged bodies used the language o...
2C.1 KT2 - Revolution and failed constitutional monarchy, 1789-93Between 1789 and 1793 the French Revolution moved from an attempt to limit monarchy to the destruction of monarchy itself. That movement was not a straight line. In 1789 many revolutionaries still believed that a king, a constitution, a representative assembly and a declaration of rights could si...
2C.1 KT3 - The Convention, the Jacobins and the Terror, 1793-94The Terror was not a single law, a single massacre, or the private project of one man. It was a system of emergency government created by the National Convention in a republic fighting foreign war, civil war, economic crisis and factional collapse. The Jacobins and Montagnards did not invent thos...
2C.1 KT4 - From the Directory to Brumaire, 1795-99This lesson covers the exact Pearson Edexcel 9HI0 topic From the Directory to Brumaire, 1795-99. The central argument is that the Directory was not simply four years of failure before Napoleon. It was an attempt to build a moderate, property-owning republic after the Terror, during war, bankruptc...
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2C.2: Russia in revolution, 1894-1924
2C.2 KT1 - The rule of Nicholas II, 1894-1905This lesson examines why an autocracy supported by bureaucracy, church, army and police could be shaken so deeply in 1905 yet still survive. You will connect Nicholas II's political choices to national, social and economic pressures, and distinguish the causes of revolutionary crisis from the con...
2C.2 KT2 - The end of Romanov rule, 1906-17Romanov rule did not collapse simply because Russia went to war in 1914. The deeper problem was that Nicholas II kept the heart of autocracy after 1905 while allowing enough public politics to create expectations he would not satisfy. Between 1906 and 1914 the regime restored order, limited the d...
2C.2 KT3 - The Provisional Government and its opponents, 1917This lesson covers the exact Pearson Edexcel 9HI0 topic The Provisional government and its opponents, February- October 1917. It teaches the nature of dual power, opposition to the Provisional Government, the second Provisional Government from July to October, and the October Revolution. The aim...
2C.2 KT4 - Defending the Bolshevik revolution, October 1917-24The Bolsheviks did not "win" the revolution in October 1917 and then simply rule Russia. They had seized the centre of government in Petrograd, but they still had to defeat elected rivals, anti-Bolshevik socialists, White armies, peasant revolt, economic collapse and foreign intervention. The cen...
Paper 1 and Paper 2 - Route D: Challenges to the authority of the state in the late eighteenth and nineteenth centuries
Required Paper 1 - 1D: Britain, c1785-c1870: democracy, protest and reform
1D Theme 1 - The growth of parliamentary democracy, c1785-c1870Between c1785 and 1870 Britain did not move smoothly from aristocratic rule to modern democracy. The better argument is more exact: Parliament became harder to defend as an unreformed institution, pressure from outside Westminster became harder to ignore, and the political nation was gradually wi...
1D Theme 2 - Industrialisation and protest, c1785-c1870This lesson is about the social and political consequences of Britain's industrial transformation. The specification does not ask you to retell every invention of the Industrial Revolution. It asks you to explain how industrialisation changed wealth, work, towns, protest and reform between c1785...
1D Theme 3 - Unionism and cooperation, c1785-c1870This lesson covers the exact Pearson Edexcel 9HI0 topic Unionism and cooperation, c1785-c1870. It teaches three connected developments: early trade societies and their opponents, the more durable "new model" unions of the mid-Victorian period, and the growth of cooperative and friendly-society se...
1D Theme 4 - Poverty and pauperism, c1785-c1870This lesson is about the changing relationship between poverty, poor relief and the state in Britain from the late eighteenth century to 1870. Poverty meant material hardship: low wages, unemployment, old age, sickness, orphanhood, debt or hunger. Pauperism meant dependence on the Poor Law. That...
1D Interpretations - What explains the slave trade's abolition?This lesson is about why Parliament abolished Britain's participation in the Atlantic slave trade in 1807. It is not about the abolition of slavery itself, which remained legal in most British colonies until the 1830s. The precise issue is why a trade defended for decades as profitable, imperial...
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2D.1: The unification of Italy, c1830-70
2D.1 KT1 - Restored order and failed revolution, c1830-49This lesson teaches Pearson Edexcel 9HI0 Paper 2 Option 2D.1: The unification of Italy, c1830-70. The specification is about the period before unification had a successful strategy. Between 1830 and 1849, Italian nationalism became more visible, better organised and more emotionally powerful, but...
2D.1 KT2 - The rise of Piedmont, 1849-56After defeat at Novara in 1849, Sardinia-Piedmont seemed unlikely to lead Italian change, yet by 1856 it had become the main focus for many liberals and nationalists. This lesson explains how Victor Emmanuel II's preservation of the Statuto, Cavour's parliamentary and anticlerical reforms, and ec...
2D.1 KT3 - The creation of the Kingdom of Italy, 1856-61Between 1856 and 1861, Piedmontese diplomacy, war with Austria, nationalist mobilisation and Garibaldi's southern campaign combined to create a new Kingdom of Italy. This lesson traces how French intervention opened northern expansion, how central and southern territories were annexed, and how Vi...
2D.1 KT4 - Consolidating the Kingdom of Italy, 1861-70In 1861 the Kingdom of Italy existed, but Venetia and Rome remained outside it and many people experienced the new state as a Piedmontese takeover. This lesson examines how the monarchy imposed common institutions, confronted internal resistance and pursued the remaining territorial aims. It comp...
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2D.2: The unification of Germany, c1840-71
2D.2 KT1 - Popular pressure and causes of revolution, 1840-48Revolution broke out across the German states in 1848 when long-term political frustration met a severe social and economic crisis. This lesson examines how the German Confederation, Austrian and Prussian conservatism, nationalism, liberalism, economic integration and hardship created pressure be...
2D.2 KT2 - Failure of revolution, 1848-51This lesson explains why the German revolutions moved from dramatic promise in 1848 to defeat, reaction and renewed Austro-Prussian rivalry by 1851. The key is to avoid a simple story of "liberals failed because they talked too much". The Frankfurt Parliament did produce serious constitutional wo...
2D.2 KT3 - Austro-Prussian rivalry, 1852-66Between 1852 and 1866, the balance of power in Germany shifted from Austrian diplomatic leadership to Prussian military and political dominance. This lesson compares Austria's inherited influence and weaknesses with Prussia's Zollverein, industrial, financial and railway development. It then foll...
2D.2 KT4 - Prussia and the Kleindeutschland solution, 1866-71This lesson is about how Prussia turned victory over Austria into a German Empire that excluded Austria. Kleindeutschland means a "lesser Germany": not a small Germany in power, but a Germany built around Prussia rather than the Austrian Habsburg monarchy. The crucial point is that unification wa...
Paper 1 and Paper 2 - Route E: Communist states in the twentieth century
Required Paper 1 - 1E: Russia, 1917-91: from Lenin to Yeltsin
1E Theme 1 - Communist government in the USSR, 1917-85This lesson is about how communist government worked in the USSR from the Bolshevik seizure of power to the eve of Gorbachev. The central argument is that the Communist Party's monopoly of power was the great continuity, but the way that monopoly operated changed sharply: Lenin built a one-party...
1E Theme 2 - Industrial and agricultural change, 1917-85This lesson is about how Soviet rulers tried to turn a poor, war-damaged, mainly agrarian empire into a modern industrial superpower. The central argument is not simply that the USSR moved from capitalism to communism. It is that each leadership faced the same problem in a different form: how cou...
1E Theme 3 - Control of the people, 1917-85Across Lenin, Stalin, Khrushchev and Brezhnev, Soviet control changed in intensity but not in its central purpose: protecting the Communist Party's monopoly of power. You will compare terror, censorship, propaganda, religious policy, cultural controls and surveillance, then judge which methods re...
1E Theme 4 - Social developments, 1917-85This topic is about the social promises of Soviet communism and the uneven reality behind them. Soviet leaders claimed that socialism could give ordinary people security, education, equality, and a more modern family life. Across 1917-85, there were real gains: mass literacy, wider schooling, fem...
1E Interpretations - What explains the fall of the USSR?This Paper 1 interpretations topic is about the collapse of a state, not just the end of one leader's career. The USSR fell because economic weakness, failed reform, party-state breakdown, nationalist resurgence, and the rivalry between Gorbachev and Yeltsin interacted between 1985 and 1991. A st...
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2E.1: Mao's China, 1949-76
2E.1 KT1 - Establishing communist ruleThis lesson examines how the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) turned military victory in 1949 into durable rule over a vast, war-damaged and politically divided country. It covers China's condition after civil war, the new party-state, the defeat of opponents, territorial integration, the Hundred Fl...
2E.1 KT2 - Agriculture and industry, 1949-65Between 1949 and 1965, the Chinese Communist Party tried to turn revolutionary victory into socialist economic transformation. Agriculture and industry were never separate problems. Industry needed grain, labour and investment from the countryside; agriculture was expected to feed the cities, pro...
2E.1 KT3 - The Cultural Revolution and its aftermath, 1966-76The Cultural Revolution was Mao Zedong's last great attempt to reshape China. It was not only a campaign against art, books, temples or teachers. It was a struggle over who controlled the Chinese Communist Party, what counted as socialist purity, whether "red" revolutionary commitment should defe...
2E.1 KT4 - Social and cultural changes, 1949-76This lesson is about Maoist social revolution beyond the headline campaigns of land reform, collectivisation, the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. The central argument is not simply that the Chinese Communist Party modernised China, nor that Maoism destroyed traditional society. Be...
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2E.2: The German Democratic Republic, 1949-90
2E.2 KT1 - Establishing and consolidating communism, c1949-61This lesson explains how communist rule was created in the German Democratic Republic and why it survived its first major crises. The GDR did not emerge simply because East German communists were strong. It emerged from occupation, Cold War division and Soviet power. Nor did the SED consolidate r...
2E.2 KT2 - The development of the East German state, 1961-85This lesson is about a paradox. Between 1961 and 1985 the German Democratic Republic became more secure, more prosperous by Eastern Bloc standards, and far more internationally recognised than it had been in the crisis years before the Berlin Wall. Yet many of those gains rested on things that li...
2E.2 KT3 - Life in East Germany, 1949-85This lesson asks how East Germans actually lived under the Socialist Unity Party, the SED, between the creation of the German Democratic Republic in 1949 and the mid-1980s. The answer is not a simple choice between "terror state" and "socialist welfare state". The GDR was both a dictatorship and...
2E.2 KT4 - Growing crises and communist collapse, 1985-90This lesson covers the exact Pearson Edexcel 9HI0 topic Growing crises and the collapse of communist rule in the GDR. It explains why the East German dictatorship, which had looked one of the most stable regimes in the Soviet bloc, collapsed in 1989-90. The core argument is that the SED was not o...
Paper 1 and Paper 2 - Route F: Searching for rights and freedoms in the twentieth century
Required Paper 1 - 1F: In search of the American Dream: the USA, c1917-96
1F Theme 1 - The changing political environment, 1917-80This lesson teaches the Pearson Edexcel 9HI0 Paper 1 theme topic The changing political environment, 1917-80. The topic is about how the United States moved from post-war Republican "normalcy" to New Deal liberalism, Cold War superpower politics, Vietnam-era distrust and a conservative reaction b...
1F Theme 2 - The quest for civil rights, 1917-80This lesson covers the exact Pearson Edexcel 9HI0 topic The quest for civil rights, 1917-80. The central argument is that civil rights advanced when campaigners turned local injustice into a national political, legal or moral crisis. The gains were real: legal segregation was weakened, federal po...
1F Theme 3 - Society and culture in change, 1917-80This lesson covers the Pearson Edexcel 9HI0 Paper 1 Theme topic Society and culture in change, 1917-80 for option 1F, In search of the American Dream: the USA, c1917-96. It teaches three linked strands: the changing position of women, the impact of immigration, and the influence of popular cultur...
1F Theme 4 - The changing quality of life, 1917-80This lesson is about how far the United States delivered a better everyday life between the First World War era and the crisis years of the late 1970s. The answer is not a simple rise from poverty to affluence. The period saw real gains in income, housing, consumer goods, leisure, travel and secu...
1F Interpretations - The impact of the Reagan presidency, 1981-96Ronald Reagan did not simply govern for eight years and then disappear from American politics. This lesson is about the impact of his presidency across the longer period 1981-96: what changed during the Reagan years, what survived after he left office, and what looked different by the time Bill C...
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2F.1: India, c1914-48: the road to independence
2F.1 KT1 - The First World War and British India, 1914-20The First World War forced a new question into Indian politics: could a colony asked to sacrifice as an imperial partner still be governed as a subordinate possession? You will trace how wartime service, economic strain, promised reform, the Rowlatt Acts and Amritsar changed expectations and trus...
2F.1 KT2 - Changing political relationships, 1920-30Between 1920 and 1930, Indian politics moved from post-war anger to mass civil disobedience as Gandhi helped turn Congress into a permanent mass organisation. You will trace how Congress's changing methods, Muslim demands for constitutional safeguards and Britain's mixture of repression and limit...
2F.1 KT3 - Consultation and confrontation, 1930-42Between 1930 and 1942, British consultation produced conferences, constitutional reform and provincial elections, yet no stable agreement about who should govern India. You will trace how disputes over representation, continued British control, party rivalry and the Second World War turned consul...
2F.1 KT4 - The road to independence, 1942-48Between 1942 and 1948, wartime crisis gave way to British withdrawal, independence and partition. You will distinguish why Britain left from why power was transferred to two states, following the interaction of war, Indian nationalism, Congress-League rivalry, failed negotiations and British exha...
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2F.2: South Africa, 1948-94: from apartheid state to 'rainbow nation'
2F.2 KT1 - The response to apartheid, c1948-59Between c1948 and 1959, the National Party turned older segregation into a more systematic apartheid state while African resistance revived and diversified. You will examine why the National Party won, how its laws controlled classification, movement, education and political activity, and how the...
2F.2 KT2 - Radical resistance and National Party power, 1960-68Between 1960 and 1968, resistance to apartheid became more radical even as the National Party tightened its control. You will trace how Sharpeville, banning, armed struggle, Rivonia, exile and imprisonment changed the ANC and PAC, while the republic, separate development, economic recovery and an...
2F.2 KT3 - Redefining resistance and challenges, 1968-83Between 1968 and 1983, apartheid remained powerful, but resistance recovered in new forms and the cost of defending National Party rule rose. You will trace how Black Consciousness and Soweto revived internal mobilisation, how the ANC rebuilt in exile, and how labour, township, homeland, economic...
2F.2 KT4 - The end of apartheid and the 'rainbow nation', 1984-94Between 1984 and 1994, township revolt, economic weakness and international isolation made apartheid harder to sustain, while negotiation and violence shaped what replaced it. You will trace how Botha's strategy failed, why de Klerk and Mandela entered talks, and how constitutional compromise led...
Paper 1 and Paper 2 - Route G: Nationalism, dictatorship and democracy in twentieth-century Europe
Required Paper 1 - 1G: Germany and West Germany, 1918-89
1G Theme 1 - Political and governmental change, 1918-89This lesson is about how Germany moved through three very different political orders between 1918 and 1989: Weimar democracy, Nazi dictatorship and the democratic Federal Republic of Germany. The central argument is not simply that Germany "failed" and then "recovered". It is that each settlement...
1G Theme 2 - Opposition, control and consent, 1918-89This lesson teaches the Pearson Edexcel 9HI0 Paper 1 theme topic Opposition, control and consent, 1918-89. Keep three questions together throughout: who opposed the government, how did the state control or limit that opposition, and why did ordinary people give, withhold or withdraw consent?
1G Theme 3 - Economic development and policies, 1918-89This lesson is about how German governments tried to manage economic danger across three very different systems: Weimar democracy, Nazi dictatorship, and the Federal Republic of West Germany. The central pattern is not a simple move from failure to success. Weimar governments restored stability a...
1G Theme 4 - Aspects of life in Germany and West Germany, 1918-89This lesson is about how ordinary life, social status and cultural authority changed across three German systems: Weimar democracy, Nazi dictatorship and the Federal Republic of West Germany. The specification has three strands: attitudes towards women, education and cultural developments, and th...
1G Interpretations - How far was Hitler responsible for the war?This Paper 1 interpretations topic is about responsibility, not just chronology. Hitler's foreign policy was the most direct cause of the outbreak of war in Europe in September 1939: he chose rearmament, expansion, treaty-breaking, intimidation, racial empire, the Nazi-Soviet Pact, and finally th...
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2G.1: The rise and fall of fascism in Italy, c1911-46
2G.1 KT1 - The liberal state, c1911-18This lesson investigates how Italy's liberal state combined real adaptability with growing fragility before and during the First World War. You will examine Giolitti's reforms and political bargains alongside nationalism, socialism, Catholic mobilisation, expanded suffrage and wartime pressures,...
2G.1 KT2 - Mussolini's rise and the fascist dictatorship, 1919-26Mussolini's appointment in 1922 and the creation of dictatorship by 1926 were connected, but they were not the same event. You will trace how fascist violence, liberal weakness, elite support, royal choice, electoral manipulation and legal repression interacted, judging why institutions that coul...
2G.1 KT3 - The fascist state, 1925-40This lesson examines how Mussolini tried to make dictatorship work between 1925 and 1940 through consent, coercion, economic direction and compromise with powerful institutions. You will compare attempts to fascistise education, leisure and public culture with repression, corporatism, autarky and...
2G.1 KT4 - Challenges to and fall of the fascist state, c1935-46In 1935 Mussolini still appeared to be an influential European statesman; by 1946 Fascism and the monarchy had fallen and Italians were choosing a republic. You will trace how imperial overreach, alignment with Germany, military defeat and home-front crisis destroyed the regime, then how depositi...
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2G.2: Spain, 1930-78: republicanism, Francoism and the re-establishment of democracy
2G.2 KT1 - The Second Republic: creation and crisis, 1930-36Spain's Second Republic attempted democratic, secular, military, regional and agrarian reform while facing groups that disagreed profoundly about both the pace and purpose of change. You will examine why reform alarmed conservatives without satisfying much of the left, and how elections, repressi...
2G.2 KT2 - The Spanish Civil War, 1936-39The Spanish Civil War began as a military rising against the elected Second Republic, but it became a three-year conflict shaped by ideology, geography, social division and foreign intervention. You will trace how the Republic survived the failed coup and defended Madrid, then why Franco's Nation...
2G.2 KT3 - Establishing Franco's dictatorship, 1938-56This lesson explains how Franco turned Civil War victory into a durable dictatorship between 1938 and 1956. You will examine how repression, Catholic legitimacy, Falangist institutions, censorship, social control and corporatist and autarkic policy worked alongside Franco's management of rival re...
2G.2 KT4 - Francoism remodelled; transition to democracy, 1956-78This lesson examines how Franco's dictatorship was remodelled between 1956 and 1975 and how Spain became a democracy by 1978. You will connect technocratic economic reform and rapid social change to controlled political adaptation, growing opposition and Franco's planned monarchical succession. A...
Paper 1 and Paper 2 - Route H: Democracies in change: Britain and the USA in the twentieth century
Required Paper 1 - 1H: Britain transformed, 1918-97
1H Theme 1 - Changing political and economic environment, 1918-79This lesson teaches the Pearson Edexcel 9HI0 Paper 1 theme topic A changing political and economic environment, 1918-79. It is about how Britain moved from post-First World War mass democracy and economic dislocation to wartime planning, post-war consensus, and then the political and industrial b...
1H Theme 2 - Creating a welfare state, 1918-79This lesson is about how Britain moved from a patchwork of social services after the First World War to a much larger welfare state by 1979. The story is not just "before 1945 bad, after 1945 good". Interwar governments had already expanded insurance, pensions, local health services and education...
1H Theme 3 - Society in transition, 1918-79This lesson covers the Pearson Edexcel 9HI0 Paper 1 Theme topic Society in transition, 1918-79 for option 1H, Britain transformed, 1918-97. It teaches three linked strands: class and social values, the changing role and status of women, and race and immigration.
1H Theme 4 - The changing quality of life, 1918-79This lesson is about how far Britain became a more comfortable, consumer-rich and mobile society between the end of the First World War and the election of 1979. The answer is not a smooth story of rising living standards. Some people gained better housing, higher real wages, more secure work, pa...
1H Interpretations - Thatcher's impact on Britain, 1979-97Margaret Thatcher left office in November 1990, but this enquiry runs to 1997 because Edexcel is asking about the longer impact of Thatcherism: what changed during her governments, what survived under John Major, and what still shaped British politics when Tony Blair won the 1997 general election.
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2H.1: The USA, c1920-55: boom, bust and recovery
2H.1 KT1 - Boom and crash, 1920-29This lesson examines why the American economy boomed in the 1920s, why prosperity remained uneven, and why the Wall Street Crash exposed deeper weaknesses rather than ending a uniformly successful decade. You will connect mass production, automobiles, credit and pro-business government to farm di...
2H.1 KT2 - Depression and New Deal, 1929-38This lesson explains how economic collapse spread through American society, how Hoover responded, and how Roosevelt's First and Second New Deals changed the federal government's role. The key question is not simply whether Hoover failed and Roosevelt succeeded, but how the Depression changed what...
2H.1 KT3 - The New Deal, the Second World War and the USA to 1945This lesson asks how far the New Deal and the Second World War transformed the USA by 1945. The New Deal expanded federal responsibility, reduced hardship and built lasting infrastructure, but it did not restore full employment or equal citizenship. Wartime spending and mobilisation then complete...
2H.1 KT4 - The transformation of the USA, 1945-55This lesson explains how prosperity, Cold War fear, mass culture and civil rights transformed the USA between 1945 and 1955. Post-war employment, mortgages, cars, suburbs and consumer goods changed daily life, while anti-communism and nuclear anxiety encouraged conformity. Hollywood, television a...
Choose one Paper 2 option - 2H.2: The USA, 1955-92: conformity and challenge
2H.2 KT1 - Affluence and conformity, 1955-63This lesson explores why affluence and conformity grew together in the USA between 1955 and 1963, and why both came under pressure.
2H.2 KT2 - Protest and reaction, 1963-72This lesson explains why protest and reaction both reshaped the USA between 1963 and 1972. Federal liberal reform reached a high point in the mid-1960s, but legal victories did not remove everyday conflicts over race, poverty, war, gender, sexuality and authority. As protest widened, many America...
2H.2 KT3 - Social and political change, 1973-80This lesson explores social and political change in the USA from 1973 to 1980. The central argument is that the later 1970s did not simply continue the protest politics of the 1960s. Americans still argued over rights, culture and federal power, but those arguments now took place in a more anxiou...
2H.2 KT4 - Republican dominance and its opponents, 1981-92This lesson explores how far Republican dominance reshaped the USA between 1981 and 1992. Reagan and Bush held the presidency while lower taxes, weaker organised labour and the Religious Right moved national politics rightwards, but they did not create a quiet conservative consensus. Arguments ov...
Paper 3: Themes in breadth with aspects in depth
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 30: Lancastrians, Yorkists and Henry VII, 1399-1509
30 Theme 1 - Crown and nobility: 'over-mighty subjects'This lesson is about the changing relationship between English kings and great nobles from Henry IV's seizure of the crown in 1399 to Henry VII's more secure monarchy in 1509. The central argument is that the nobility were never simply enemies of the crown. They were the crown's main partners in...
30 Theme 2 - Changes in the sinews of powerThis lesson is about the money and foreign policy that made kingship workable between 1399 and 1509. The central argument is that English kings did not become powerful simply because they had a crown. They needed income, credit, parliamentary consent, administrative machinery, and a foreign polic...
30 KT1 - The crises of 1399-1405Henry IV won the crown quickly in 1399, but he did not win security with it. The central problem of this lesson is that Bolingbroke's seizure of the throne solved one crisis and created another. Richard II's rule had made powerful men willing to support Bolingbroke, especially after Richard confi...
30 KT2 - Henry V and the conquest of France, 1413-21Henry V's reign can look like a simple success story: Agincourt, Normandy and the Treaty of Troyes. This lesson explains how domestic control, finance, logistics, siege warfare, French division and the Burgundian alliance turned a battlefield victory into a wider conquest. You will also examine w...
30 KT3 - Renewed crises and challenges, c1449-61Between 1449 and 1461 England moved from political crisis to dynastic civil war. You will trace how defeat in France, distrust of royal favourites, Cade's rebellion, Henry VI's weak rule, Margaret of Anjou's defence of her son and York's growing ambitions reinforced one another. The lesson then e...
30 KT4 - The Yorkists divided, 1478-85Between 1478 and 1485 Yorkist rule collapsed from an apparently secure dynasty to defeat at Bosworth. You will trace how family division, Edward IV's sudden death, Richard III's seizure of the throne, the princes' disappearance and Buckingham's rebellion weakened trust. The lesson then examines h...
30 KT5 - Henry VII: seizing and keeping the throne, 1485-97Henry VII's first twelve years tested whether a weak hereditary claim and victory at Bosworth could become accepted monarchy. You will examine how coronation, marriage, heirs, intelligence and financial controls strengthened his position without removing Yorkist alternatives. Simnel and Warbeck s...
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 31: Rebellion and disorder under the Tudors, 1485-1603
31 Theme 1 - Changes in governance at the centreThis lesson is about how Tudor central government changed between 1485 and 1603. The central argument is that the Tudor monarchy did not stop being personal monarchy, but it learned to govern through stronger instruments: statute, the Privy Council, secretarial paperwork, household access, and co...
31 Theme 2 - Gaining the cooperation of the localitiesThis lesson is about how the Tudor Crown made government work beyond Westminster. The core argument is that Tudor rule became more effective because the Crown drew local elites, boroughs, parishes, and office-holders into national government. Yet this was cooperation, not simple command. The mona...
31 KT1 - Challenging the succession, 1485-1499Henry VII won the throne at Bosworth with a weak hereditary claim and a mixed coalition, so victory did not settle the succession. This lesson compares Lambert Simnel's short military challenge with Perkin Warbeck's longer diplomatic threat. You will examine how Yorkist loyalties and support from...
31 KT2 - Challenging religious changes, 1533-37This lesson is about the most serious challenge Henry VIII faced after the break with Rome. Between 1533 and 1537 royal supremacy turned religious obedience into political obedience. The Lincolnshire Rising and the Pilgrimage of Grace were not simply "Catholic rebellions", but they were impossibl...
31 KT3 - Agrarian discontent: Kett's rebellion, 1549Kett's rebellion began with agrarian grievances but developed into an organised regional challenge that occupied Norwich and defeated a royal force. You will investigate how enclosure, common rights, local government and Somerset's reforming language raised expectations, then assess how leadershi...
31 KT4 - The revolt of the northern earls, 1569-70This lesson explains why the revolt of the northern earls posed a severe armed challenge to Elizabeth I. You will examine how Mary, Queen of Scots, connected succession anxiety, court faction, northern noble frustration and Catholic resistance, then trace the rebels' actions at Durham and Barnard...
31 KT5 - Troublesome Ireland: Tyrone's rebellion, 1594-1603This lesson explains why Tyrone's rebellion developed into the most dangerous challenge Elizabeth I faced in Ireland. You will trace how Tudor expansion collided with local lordship, religion and political autonomy, why Hugh O'Neill and Hugh Roe O'Donnell gained uneven Irish and Spanish support,...
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 32: The Golden Age of Spain, 1474-1598
32 Theme 1 - Changing geographical reach of Spanish powerBetween 1474 and 1598, Spanish power grew from a dynastic union of Castile and Aragon into a composite monarchy spanning Europe, the Mediterranean and the Americas. This lesson compares the different routes to that expansion, including inheritance, conquest, alliance and colonial government. You...
32 Theme 2 - Changing military and financial powerThis lesson is about how Spain became the leading military power of sixteenth-century Europe, and why that power was never as secure as it looked. The central argument is that Spanish power grew because armies, fleets, credit and American silver could be combined on an extraordinary scale. The we...
32 KT1 - The Inquisition and the persecution of the Jews, 1478-92This lesson explains how the royal Inquisition and the 1492 expulsion reshaped the position of Jews and conversos in Castile and Aragon. You will distinguish Jews from baptised conversos, examine why Ferdinand and Isabella founded the Inquisition and used its methods, then trace why unconverted J...
32 KT2 - Charles's accession and the Comuneros revolt, 1516-29This lesson explains why Charles's accession in 1516 unsettled Castile and how that crisis developed into the Comunero revolt. You will trace the effects of his foreign upbringing, imperial ambitions, taxation and absence, then examine how Joanna, the Santa Junta, the great nobles and Villalar sh...
32 KT3 - The price revolution and its impact, c1500-c1570This lesson explains why prices rose persistently in Spain between c1500 and c1570 and why contemporaries struggled to explain the change. You will examine how American bullion, population growth, urban demand and fiscal pressures interacted, including how Azpilcueta and Mercado interpreted money...
32 KT4 - The campaign for orthodoxy, 1558-70This lesson examines how Philip II's government turned religious unity into a programme of political security between 1558 and 1570. You will compare the rapid repression of small Protestant circles and suspect Catholic reformers with the attempt to impose cultural and religious conformity on Gra...
32 KT5 - The crisis in Aragon, 1590-93This lesson examines how Antonio Perez's flight to Aragon turned a court scandal into a major constitutional crisis of Philip II's later reign. You will see how Aragon's fueros and institutions, unrest in Zaragoza and divisions among the king's opponents shaped the confrontation. The outcome matt...
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 33: The witch craze in Britain, Europe and North America, c1580-c1750
33 Theme 1 - Changing attitudes to witchcraft in BritainAttitudes to witchcraft in Britain did not move in a neat line from "superstition" to "science". This lesson traces how doubtful cases, sceptical publications and increasingly cautious judges weakened prosecutions from c1580 to c1750. It distinguishes disbelief in supernatural power from narrower...
33 Theme 2 - Intellectual context: the age of science and reasonBetween c1580 and c1750, Europeans did not suddenly abandon witchcraft because a few famous scientists made discoveries. This lesson traces how Kepler, Galileo and Newton changed accounts of the cosmos, how Bacon, Gresham College and the Royal Society changed inquiry, and how Hobbes and Locke cha...
33 KT1 - The North Berwick witches, 1590-97The North Berwick witch-hunt began with local suspicion but became a royal, judicial and political crisis when accusations were linked to storms threatening James VI and Anne of Denmark. This lesson traces how coerced confession, torture and factional politics widened the case, then how Scottish...
33 KT2 - The Lancashire witches of 1604-13The Lancashire case shows how a local quarrel around Pendle became one of England's most famous pre-Civil War witch trials. You will trace how poverty, reputation, religious tension and the 1604 statute shaped Roger Nowell's investigation, the Malkin Tower allegations and the 1612 assizes. Thomas...
33 KT3 - The Great Witch Hunt, in Bamberg, Germany, 1623-32The Bamberg witch hunt was one of the most destructive persecutions in early modern Europe because accusation became organised, bureaucratic and self-feeding. This lesson examines how war, economic hardship and Catholic reform created pressure, then how princely leadership, torture and confiscati...
33 KT4 - Matthew Hopkins and the East Anglian craze, 1645-47The East Anglian witch craze of 1645-47 was an exceptional concentration of accusations and executions during the English Civil War. This lesson examines how disrupted authority, economic and religious pressure, and East Anglia's local networks created an opening for Matthew Hopkins and John Stea...
33 KT5 - Cotton Mather and the Salem witch hunt, 1692-93The Salem witch hunt was the last major eruption of witch-hunting in New England. This lesson explains how unstable government, frontier war, economic pressure, village divisions and Puritan beliefs made Salem vulnerable, then traces how afflictions in Samuel Parris's household became capital tri...
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 34.1: Industrialisation and social change in Britain, 1759-1928: forging a new society
34.1 Theme 1 - Adult work and working conditionsThis lesson is about how adult work in Britain changed from 1759 to 1928. The central argument is that the workplace became larger, more powered, more regulated and more unionised, but not evenly or automatically. Technology pulled work into factories and towns; legislation slowly limited the wor...
34.1 Theme 2 - The world of childhoodThis lesson examines how children's lives and the meaning of childhood changed in Britain between 1759 and 1928. Children did not suddenly stop working and become protected; instead, government action, education, philanthropy and culture gradually challenged the expectation that they should contr...
34.1 KT1 - Josiah Wedgwood: china and canals, 1759-87Josiah Wedgwood connects industrial experiment, consumer fashion, transport improvement and political campaigning within one career. This lesson explains how repeated ceramic trials and Sarah Wedgwood's capital supported reliable production, while eastern porcelain taste and Queen Charlotte's pat...
34.1 KT2 - Samuel Greg: cotton and cottages, 1784-1816Quarry Bank Mill shows why early industrialisation depended on more than machines. This lesson explains how Styal combined River Bollin water power with Manchester and Liverpool networks, and how Samuel Greg, managers and engineers kept the business growing through the French wars. It also examin...
34.1 KT3 - Isambard Kingdom Brunel: railways and ships, 1833-59Brunel was an engineer of systems, not only a maker of famous objects. This lesson follows the Great Western Railway, the battle of the gauges, and his work on bridges, stations, steamships and the pre-fabricated Renkioi hospital. It examines how these designs changed passenger and goods transpor...
34.1 KT4 - J K Starley: cycles, clubs and emancipation, 1885-1901The Rover Safety Bicycle shows how a practical design can acquire consequences far beyond the workshop. This lesson explains how Starley's lower, chain-driven bicycle became a marketable product and strengthened Coventry's cycle industry. It then follows cycling into leisure, Clarion politics, wo...
34.1 KT5 - Herbert Austin and market forces, 1905-28Herbert Austin's Longbridge career shows how entrepreneurship interacted with changing markets in industrial Britain. This lesson traces a specialist pre-war car business, wartime expansion, the post-war large-car crisis and the Austin 7 response. It explains why the small car succeeded, how it r...
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 34.2: Poverty, public health and the state in Britain, c1780-1939
34.2 Theme 1 - The impetus for public health reformsThis lesson examines why public health reform gained momentum in Britain from c1780 to 1939. You will see how industrial urban conditions and epidemics created urgency, while reports, changing disease knowledge and sanitary engineering made intervention credible. Across the period, public health...
34.2 Theme 2 - Changes in public healthThis lesson traces how public health provision in Britain changed between c1780 and 1939, from fragmented local responses towards wider preventive systems. Vaccination, sanitary engineering, clean water, medical inspection, tuberculosis services, child welfare and birth control show how the meani...
34.2 KT1 - Paupers and pauperism, 1780-1832This lesson examines how the Old Poor Law relieved poverty between 1780 and 1832 and why reformers increasingly attacked pauperism, or dependence on parish relief. You will see how outdoor aid, workhouses and local adaptations made the parish system flexible but uneven. Rising costs and utilitari...
34.2 KT2 - Less eligibility: the Poor Law Amendment Act, 1832-47This lesson examines the attempt to make poverty policy more centralised, cheaper and more deterrent between 1832 and 1847. Less eligibility meant that relief should be less attractive than the condition of the poorest independent labourer, discouraging able-bodied claims. You will see how the 18...
34.2 KT3 - The government, self-help and charity, 1847-80This lesson examines how Britain responded to poverty between 1847 and 1880 through government, self-help and charity. You will see how Andover prompted more accountable administration, while friendly societies, unions, cooperatives and organised charity offered uneven alternatives to pauperism....
34.2 KT4 - Welfare reforms: pressure and action, 1880-1914This lesson examines why pressure for social reform grew between 1880 and 1914 and how Liberal governments responded. You will see how social investigation, Fabian ideas and national-efficiency fears recast poverty as a structural national problem, while the Poor Law Commission clarified competin...
34.2 KT5 - Depression and the dole: inter-war poverty, 1920-39This lesson examines why poverty and unemployment became so severe and regionally concentrated in Britain between 1920 and 1939. You will see how decline in staple industries began before the Wall Street Crash, how the global Depression deepened it, and how protest made its human cost visible. Na...
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 35.1: Britain: losing and gaining an empire, 1763-1914
35.1 Theme 1 - The changing nature and extent of tradeBetween 1763 and 1914 British trade changed from a protected Atlantic system, tied closely to slavery, plantation produce and mercantilist regulation, into a global industrial trading network linked by steamships, coal, treaty ports, financial services and naval power. The change was not a simple...
35.1 Theme 2 - The changing nature of the Royal NavyThis lesson explains how the Royal Navy changed between 1763 and 1914 while continuing to protect Britain's maritime communications. Wooden sailing battle fleets and frigates gave way to steam, iron, steel and dreadnoughts, which demanded new industrial and base support. Naval work also widened i...
35.1 KT1 - The loss of the American colonies, 1770-83This lesson explains how a dispute over customs and parliamentary authority became an independence war that Britain could no longer afford, coordinate or win. It follows the escalation from the tea crisis and Coercive Acts through armed resistance and the Declaration of Independence to Saratoga,...
35.1 KT2 - The birth of British Australia, 1788-1829This lesson explains how a penal settlement founded at Sydney Cove in 1788 developed into the beginnings of a wider British settler empire by 1829. It traces the role of convict labour, land policy, Macquarie's government, maritime enterprise, exploration and strategic outposts. British presence...
35.1 KT3 - Canada and the Durham Report, 1837-40This lesson explains why the failed rebellions of 1837-38 forced Britain to reconsider how Upper and Lower Canada were governed. Elected assemblies existed, but governors and appointed elites retained executive power, creating deadlock sharpened by local grievances and fear of the United States....
35.1 KT4 - Nearly losing an empire: the British in India, 1829-58This lesson explains why the East India Company's apparently powerful state nearly collapsed during the rebellion of 1857-58. Company rule depended on Bengal revenue, Indian soldiers and cooperation from rulers and landholders, while reform and annexation steadily damaged trust. The cartridge cri...
35.1 KT5 - The Nile valley, 1882-98This lesson explains how Britain's intervention in Egypt in 1882 developed into wider control of the Nile valley by 1898. It follows the chain from Arabi Pasha, European financial interests and victory at Tel el-Kebir to the veiled protectorate under Sir Evelyn Baring. The Mahdist revolt, Gordon'...
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 35.2: The British experience of warfare, c1790-1918
35.2 Theme 1 - Changes in organising the militaryBetween c1790 and 1918, Britain moved unevenly from wartime improvisation towards planned military mobilisation. This lesson traces how Crimean failures, Cardwell's reforms and Haldane's planning made the army more centralised, professional and reserve-based. It also follows the navy from post-18...
35.2 Theme 2 - Changes in weaponry and the role of the peopleBetween c1790 and 1918, British weapons became more dependent on science, precision engineering, industrial production and organised tactics. This lesson follows that change from carronades and Congreve rockets through Armstrong artillery to Vickers machine guns and tanks. It also shows how taxat...
35.2 KT1 - Britain and the French Wars, 1793-1815Britain fought Revolutionary and Napoleonic France from 1793 until Napoleon's first abdication in 1814, apart from the short Peace of Amiens, and again during the Hundred Days in 1815. This lesson explains how the French threat tested Britain at sea and on land, why Nelson and Wellington mattered...
35.2 KT2 - The Crimean War, 1854-56The Crimean War sent a British army and fleet to check Russian pressure on the Ottoman Empire, but the campaign exposed how poorly Britain organised a modern overseas war. This lesson follows the choice to attack Sebastopol, the mixed record of Alma and Balaclava, and Lord Raglan's role in a long...
35.2 KT3 - The second Boer War, 1899-1902Britain expected a short war against the two Boer republics, but mobile, well-armed commandos exposed weaknesses in its professional imperial army. This lesson follows the sieges and Black Week, then compares how Buller, Roberts and Kitchener responded as the conflict shifted from conventional fi...
35.2 KT4 - Trench warfare on the Western Front, 1914-18The Western Front changed from mobile campaigning in 1914 to entrenched attrition because modern firepower, dense armies and a closed front made attack harder than defence. This lesson explains how trench systems worked and why the British Army experimented with machine guns, gas, artillery techn...
35.2 KT5 - The war in the air, 1914-18Aircraft began the war as fragile reconnaissance machines but became essential to battlefield intelligence, artillery cooperation, air combat and ground support by 1918. This lesson explains how observation, photography and wireless made the Royal Flying Corps valuable, and why technology, traini...
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 36.1: Protest, agitation and parliamentary reform in Britain, c1780-1928
36.1 Theme 1 - Reform of parliamentThis lesson traces the long reform of Parliament in Britain from c1780 to 1928. You will follow the franchise from property-based male privilege to equal adult suffrage at 21, alongside changes that made voting more private, elections cleaner and constituencies fairer. The key pattern is controll...
36.1 Theme 2 - Changing influences in parliamentThis lesson examines how parliamentary reform changed the forces shaping the House of Commons between c1780 and 1928. You will trace the decline of Crown patronage and aristocratic borough control, the rise of organised parties and Labour, and legal changes that opened the Commons beyond men of p...
36.1 KT1 - Radical reformers, c1790-1819Between c1790 and 1819, radical reformers challenged a parliamentary system that excluded most men and left major industrial towns without direct representation. This lesson follows how Paine's rights language, the London Corresponding Society, Cobbett's cheap print, Cartwright's clubs and Hunt's...
36.1 KT2 - Chartism, c1838-c1850This lesson examines Pearson Edexcel 9HI0 Paper 3 Option 36.1, Protest, agitation and parliamentary reform in Britain, c1780-1928, through Chartism's aims, actions, support, leadership and failure by 1850. You will trace why the six-point Charter mobilised working people, how the movement's three...
36.1 KT3 - The Contagious Diseases Acts and repeal, 1862-86This lesson examines how public health, military efficiency, sexual morality, class power and women's civil liberties collided over the Contagious Diseases Acts. You will see why Parliament targeted women suspected of prostitution in selected garrison and naval towns, how the system also endanger...
36.1 KT4 - The Women's Social and Political Union, 1903-14This lesson examines how the Women's Social and Political Union transformed the British women's suffrage campaign between 1903 and 1914. You will trace how its organisation and early tactics built attention, why militancy escalated after 1908, and how its leaders and activists differed over strat...
36.1 KT5 - Trades union militancy, 1915-27This lesson examines how labour militancy moved from local wartime action on Clydeside to national confrontation by 1926. You will compare the rent and 40-hour strikes, trace union growth and fragile solidarity through the Triple Alliance, Black Friday and new national unions, and explain the cho...
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 36.2: Ireland and the Union, c1774-1923
36.2 Theme 1 - Irish nationalism: from agitation to civil warFrom c1774 to 1923, Irish nationalism used constitutional agitation, mass politics and physical force to pursue changing forms of self-government. You will trace how these methods coexisted from the Volunteers and United Irishmen through O'Connell, Fenianism and Home Rule, before unionist resista...
36.2 Theme 2 - British reaction: from resistance to acceptanceFrom c1774 to 1922, British governments repeatedly combined coercion with concessions intended to preserve order and the Union. You will trace the change from Pitt's Act of Union through Catholic conciliation and Gladstonian Home Rule to Asquith's 1914 Act and Lloyd George's Irish Free State sett...
36.2 KT1 - Towards emancipation, 1774-1830This lesson traces how Irish Catholics moved from Penal Law subordination towards political admission between 1774 and 1830. You will see how cautious Relief Acts, the free trade campaign and early organisation created tools that O'Connell's Catholic Association could turn into mass pressure. The...
36.2 KT2 - Industrialisation in Ulster, 1825-55Ulster's industrialisation between 1825 and 1855 was not a miniature version of industrialisation in Lancashire, Glasgow or Birmingham. It was built around a particular regional pattern: mechanised linen, Belfast harbour improvement, shipbuilding, engineering, and a web of smaller trades that ser...
36.2 KT3 - The Irish Famine, 1843-51Potato blight triggered the Irish Famine, but it became a catastrophe because the poorest families were already trapped by insecure landholding, poverty and dependence on one crop. You will trace how Peel's and Russell's governments responded, why relief and food markets became politically charge...
36.2 KT4 - The Irish land issue, 1870-82Between 1870 and 1882, Ireland's land question moved from limited legal reform to mass confrontation over rent, tenure and eviction. You will see how the three Fs, the Long Depression, the Land League and Gladstone's Land Acts changed tenant politics, and why coercion culminated in negotiation at...
36.2 KT5 - Working conditions and union militancy, 1907-14Between 1907 and 1914, organisers tried to give Ireland's unskilled urban workers collective power amid casual employment, low pay and severe housing poverty. You will trace the NUDL campaign in Belfast, the rise of the ITGWU, and the roles of Jim Larkin, James Connolly and employer leader Willia...
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 37.1: The changing nature of warfare, 1859-1991: perception and reality
37.1 Theme 1 - Reporting and portraying warBetween 1859 and 1991, the telegraph, photography, film, radio, television and satellites made reports of war faster, more visual and more immediate. You will also examine how censorship, access, editing and commercial pressure continued to shape what audiences received. Ceremonies, books, comics...
37.1 Theme 2 - Attempts to influence the public response to warBetween 1859 and 1991, states used speeches, propaganda, censorship, radio, briefings and managed media access to shape how people understood and responded to war. You will compare these methods from the US Civil War to the First Gulf War, asking when they mobilised support and when conscription,...
37.1 KT1 - Increased firepower and steam power, 1859-70Between 1859 and 1870, steam transport and increased firepower expanded what armies could do, but they also created new problems of mobilisation, supply and command. You will compare the 1859 Italian campaign, Prussia under Moltke in 1866 and 1870, and Grant's use of rivers, railways and supply b...
37.1 KT2 - The technology of defence, c1900-16Between c1900 and 1916, smokeless propellants, machine guns and modern artillery made defended positions increasingly lethal even as armies planned rapid offensives. You will compare French and German war plans in 1914 and then examine how Falkenhayn and Petain used firepower, supply and enduranc...
37.1 KT3 - Radio, engines and mobile warfare, 1917-40Between 1917 and 1940, engines powered tanks, aircraft and motor transport while radio offered a way to control forces in motion. You will follow the lessons of Cambrai and Amiens into French and German interwar planning, then compare Gamelin, Guderian and Rommel during the 1940 campaign. The con...
37.1 KT4 - War at sea: submarines, air power and codes, 1917-45Between 1917 and 1945, submarines, aircraft and signals intelligence changed how navies attacked supply routes and found enemies across vast oceans. You will compare the U-boat crises of the two world wars with Pearl Harbor and Midway, asking why some attacks achieved surprise but failed strategi...
37.1 KT5 - Air power and nuclear weapons, 1943-91Between 1943 and 1991, air power could devastate cities, support invasions, sustain blockaded populations and carry nuclear weapons, yet it did not automatically secure political victory. You will compare terror bombing, D-Day, Cold War deterrence, Vietnam and the First Gulf War to see why its im...
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 37.2: Germany, 1871-1990: united, divided and reunited
37.2 Theme 1 - Social change in Germany and West GermanyThis lesson traces German social change from the foundation of the empire in 1871 to reunification in 1990. Rather than a simple story of modernisation, it follows how industrial, urban and salaried society displaced older rural and estate-based structures while war and dictatorship repeatedly di...
37.2 Theme 2 - Economic change in Germany and West GermanyThis lesson traces Germany's movement from a newly unified, partly agrarian empire through industrial growth, war, depression, dictatorship, destruction and West German recovery. You will follow why manufacturing remained an economic strength while agriculture steadily lost relative importance bu...
37.2 KT1 - Ruling the Second Reich, 1871-79After unification in 1871, Bismarck had to turn a Prussian-led empire with deep regional, religious, social and political divisions into a governable state. You will examine how the constitution, Reichstag parties, Liberal cooperation, the Kulturkampf, nationalism and the 1878-79 realignment help...
37.2 KT2 - The birth of democratic Germany, 1917-19Between 1917 and 1919, war strain, military defeat and revolution turned imperial Germany into a democratic republic. You will trace how parliamentary and socialist pressure, the October reforms, the choices of Ebert and Scheidemann, and the revolutionary challenge shaped that transition. The Wei...
37.2 KT3 - A new Reich, 1933-35Between 1933 and 1935, Hitler turned a coalition chancellorship into a one-party dictatorship through emergency law, coercion, institutional bargains and ideological exclusion. You will trace Gleichschaltung, the Night of the Long Knives, the personalisation of Führer power and the development of...
37.2 KT4 - Establishing and ruling the Federal Republic, 1949-60Created from the western occupation zones in 1949, the Federal Republic had to build democratic legitimacy amid defeat, division and the legacy of Nazism. You will examine how the Basic Law, Adenauer and the CDU, western integration, party change, prosperity and social policy produced stability b...
37.2 KT5 - Reunification: recreating a united Germany, 1989-90German reunification was not simply the happy ending to the fall of the Berlin Wall. In autumn 1989, many East Germans first demanded travel rights, free elections and the end of Socialist Unity Party rule, not necessarily immediate merger with the Federal Republic. By 3 October 1990, however, th...
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 38.1: The making of modern Russia, 1855-1991
38.1 Theme 1 - The changing status and condition of the peasantryThis lesson examines how Russian and Soviet governments changed the peasantry's legal status, material conditions and freedom to leave the land between 1855 and 1991. Emancipation in 1861 ended serfdom but left redemption payments, commune controls and land hunger; the revolutions of 1917 briefly...
38.1 Theme 2 - Agriculture and productivityThis lesson asks whether Russian and Soviet agriculture met the country's changing needs between 1861 and 1991. Tsarist output and exports grew before 1914, but low productivity, land hunger and famine exposed insecurity; Stalin then tightened grain control through collectivisation at catastrophi...
38.1 KT1 - The political reforms of Alexander II, 1855-70Alexander II's political reforms grew from the Crimean defeat, which exposed serious weaknesses in Russia's army and administration. You will examine how changes to the army, local government, courts, universities and press tried to make the state more effective.
38.1 KT2 - Revolution and reform, 1904-06The 1905 Revolution was not one uprising but overlapping crises of military defeat, worker and peasant protest, liberal organisation, mutiny and national unrest. You will trace how these pressures forced Nicholas II to promise civil liberties and a Duma.
38.1 KT3 - The end of the Romanovs and Bolshevik triumph, 1916-18This lesson explains how Russia moved from Romanov autocracy to Bolshevik rule in less than two years. You will see why the tsar's fall did not automatically produce Bolshevik victory, but instead created a period of dual power between the Provisional Government and the Petrograd Soviet.
38.1 KT4 - Khrushchev's attempts to reform the system, 1956-61Khrushchev tried to reform a one-party dictatorship, not abolish Soviet communism. You will examine how de-Stalinisation, prisoner releases, party revival, administrative decentralisation and a partial cultural Thaw challenged terror and bureaucratic inertia.
38.1 KT5 - Gorbachev and the fall of Soviet communism, 1985-91Gorbachev tried to rescue Soviet socialism from stagnation, corruption and bureaucratic inertia, not dismantle it. You will examine how glasnost, perestroika, political reform and changed treatment of dissidents weakened censorship, planning and the CPSU monopoly faster than they repaired the sys...
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 38.2: The making of modern China, 1860-1997
38.2 Theme 1 - The growth of industryThis lesson traces Chinese industrial growth from scattered late Qing enterprises in 1860 to a large, increasingly connected manufacturing system by 1997. Railways, steamships, telegraphs, roads, electricity, aviation and early digital networks helped move goods, information and technology, but t...
38.2 Theme 2 - Ideologies and individuals behind economic growthThis lesson traces how Chinese leaders tried to strengthen the economy between 1860 and 1997, and asks how far growth depended on ideologies, institutions or individual leadership. You will compare late Qing self-strengthening, May Fourth faith in science, Maoist planning and mass mobilisation, a...
38.2 KT1 - Opening up China to foreigners, 1860-70This lesson explores how military defeat opened China to a deeper foreign presence between 1860 and 1870. The Tianjin-Beijing settlement expanded foreign rights in diplomacy, law, trade, travel and religion, while Shanghai and the Yangtze became gateways for commerce. Qing officials and elites re...
38.2 KT2 - Defeat and humiliation, 1894-1901This lesson traces how defeat by Japan, the scramble for foreign concessions and the Boxer crisis deepened Qing China's humiliation between 1894 and 1901. You will see how Shimonoseki ended China's old claim over Korea and ceded Taiwan, how European powers and Britain then exploited Qing weakness...
38.2 KT3 - The Japanese threat, 1931-41This lesson follows the escalation of the Japanese threat to China from the Manchurian Crisis of 1931 to the global war created in December 1941. You will examine Jiang Jieshi's response to the loss of Manchuria, the causes and costs of all-out war from 1937, and the Nationalist retreat from the...
38.2 KT4 - The Sino-Soviet split, 1958-69This lesson explains why the alliance between the People's Republic of China and the Soviet Union collapsed between 1958 and 1969. Disputes over military cooperation, nuclear assistance and revolutionary strategy combined with Mao's and Khrushchev's personal hostility to turn private mistrust int...
38.2 KT5 - Reconciliation and the return of Hong Kong, 1978-97This lesson examines why China reconciled with former enemies and recovered Hong Kong peacefully between 1978 and 1997. Growing participation in the UN, IMF and World Bank supported status and modernisation, while pragmatic ties with Japan and the United States expanded trade, technology and dipl...
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 39.1: Civil rights and race relations in the USA, 1850-2009
39.1 Theme 1 - The changing geography of civil rights issuesThis lesson traces how the geography of Black civil rights changed across the United States between 1850 and 2009. You will follow the shift from slavery and Jim Crow in the South through the Great Migrations, northern and western urban segregation, postwar suburban exclusion, and later migration...
39.1 Theme 2 - Civil rights in fiction and filmThis lesson traces how American fiction, film and visual culture portrayed civil rights issues between 1850 and 2009. You will compare white-authored sympathy, racist Lost Cause mythology, mainstream civil rights liberalism, Black-centred memory and later structural accounts of inequality. The ke...
39.1 KT1 - 'Free at last', 1865-77This lesson examines the first attempt to turn emancipation into secure citizenship between 1865 and 1877. You will see how the Thirteenth Amendment ended slavery, how landlessness and sharecropping limited economic freedom, and how Johnson's settlement gave way to Congressional and military Reco...
39.1 KT2 - The triumph of 'Jim Crow', 1883-c1900This lesson explains how Jim Crow became a legal and political system between 1883 and c1900, rather than merely a collection of personal prejudices. You will trace how Supreme Court rulings weakened federal protection, how southern states imposed segregation and indirect voting barriers, and how...
39.1 KT3 - The New Deal and race relations, 1933-41This lesson examines how the New Deal affected African Americans between 1933 and 1941 without becoming a civil rights revolution. You will compare federal relief, jobs, welfare and Black access to government with the continuing power of Jim Crow, disfranchisement and racial violence. The key ten...
39.1 KT4 - 'I have a dream', 1954-68This lesson traces the civil rights movement from 1954 to 1968, from Brown v. Board of Education and Montgomery to landmark federal legislation and the movement's growing divisions. You will examine how courts, local organisers, SCLC, SNCC and CORE used law and direct action to force national cha...
39.1 KT5 - Obama's campaign for the presidency, 2004-09This lesson explains how Barack Obama moved from rising national figure in 2004 to the first African American president in 2009. You will trace how his career and rhetoric made him credible, how campaign strategy and policy helped him defeat Hillary Clinton, and how the 2008 crisis and Republican...
Choose one permitted Paper 3 option - 39.2: Mass media and social change in Britain, 1882-2004
39.2 Theme 1 - Women's lives in the family and at workThis lesson is about how women's private lives and working lives changed in Britain between 1882 and 2004. The central argument is that women gained much greater legal, reproductive, financial and occupational autonomy, but the change was uneven. Law often changed before habits did. Direct action...
39.2 Theme 2 - Changing patterns of family leisureBetween 1882 and 2004, family leisure became more regular, commercial, technologically mediated and geographically wide, but access remained unequal. You will compare changing entertainment in the home with excursions and holidays, from bicycles, cinema and radio to cars, television, package flig...
39.2 KT1 - The age of the press barons, 1914-36Between 1914 and 1936, Britain's mass newspapers did more than report events: powerful proprietors used ownership, campaigns and political access to shape debate. A press baron was a proprietor who could influence editors, fund campaigns and cultivate political networks across one or more newspap...
39.2 KT2 - Wireless and the war, 1939-45Between 1939 and 1945, wireless brought news, official advice, leadership, entertainment and propaganda into everyday British life. You will examine BBC reporting and censorship, Churchill's broadcasts, home-front morale, Lord Haw-Haw and Sefton Delmer's black propaganda. The key question is why...
39.2 KT3 - Media in the sixties: satire, image and social changeIn the 1960s, television, film, print and radio made authority easier to mock, social problems harder to ignore and youth culture easier to sell. You will explore satire, social realism, racism, sexism, homelessness, Mary Whitehouse's backlash and the "Swinging Sixties" image. The key question is...
39.2 KT4 - The Thatcher governments and the media, 1979-90Between 1979 and 1990, Thatcher's governments treated the media both as an industry to open to competition and as a political arena to manage. You will examine Channel 4, commercial radio and the Broadcasting Act 1990 alongside Bernard Ingham, national-security controls, the Falklands conflict an...
39.2 KT5 - Labour versus the media: the Iraq dossiers, 2002-04Between 2002 and 2004, the Iraq dossiers turned the use of secret intelligence into a crisis of public trust between the Labour government and the media. You will trace the September dossier's 45-minute claim, the copied material exposed after the February briefing, the government-BBC confrontati...
Coursework (required)
Independent enquiry support
9HI0/04 - Choosing and refining a historical enquiry questionPearson Edexcel A-Level History coursework is an independently researched historical enquiry, not a fourth exam topic: you form a critical view about a question, problem or issue that historians have debated. The question controls which historians are relevant, what evidence matters, where the ch...
9HI0/04 - Research planning, sources and the resource recordCoursework research is not a hunt for three quotations to fit an answer you have already decided; for Pearson Edexcel 9HI0, the research process is part of the assessed historical enquiry. Before drafting, you need to plan independent reading, build a wide longlist, keep a live Resource record an...
9HI0/04 - Using historians' interpretations and historiographyCoursework is not a fourth exam paper with a hidden topic list. For Pearson Edexcel 9HI0/04, you carry out an independently researched enquiry into a question, problem or issue that has generated disagreement among historians. The central task is to analyse and evaluate three historians' interpre...
9HI0/04 - Structuring the coursework argument and using evidenceThis lesson is about turning independent research into a sustained Pearson Edexcel A-Level History coursework argument. You must answer your approved enquiry by organising a coherent line of reasoning, integrating contextual knowledge, deploying reading selectively, evaluating historians' interpr...
9HI0/04 - Criteria, authentication, referencing and checksThis final coursework-support lesson is about making the finished Pearson Edexcel A-Level History 9HI0/04 enquiry assessable, authentic and concise. By this point, you should have an approved enquiry, three chosen historians' works, supplementary reading, a developing argument and a Resource reco...