QCAA Modern History flashcards

32 cards. Read the term and the definition here. The deck at the top of this page is optional.

Liberalism

A political ideology emphasising individual rights, constitutional government, rule of law, and limited state power; it shaped 19th-century European and American politics.

Marxism

A theory developed by Marx and Engels claiming class struggle drives historical change and that capitalism will be replaced by socialism and then communism.

Fascism

An authoritarian ideology combining extreme nationalism, one-party rule, leader cult, glorification of struggle, and rejection of liberal democracy; exemplified by Mussolini's Italy.

Self-determination

The principle that peoples should choose their own government and national status; applied in post-WWI Europe and later in decolonisation debates.

German unification 1871

The process led by Prussia and Bismarck that merged German states into a single empire after victories over Denmark, Austria, and France.

Partition of India 1947

The division of British India into India and Pakistan at independence, causing mass migration and communal violence along religious lines.

Zionism

A nationalist movement seeking a Jewish homeland in Palestine, emerging in late 19th-century Europe and central to Israeli–Palestinian conflict.

Scramble for Africa

The rapid European colonisation and partition of Africa between the 1880s and 1914, formalised by agreements such as the Berlin Conference.

Berlin Conference 1884

A meeting of European powers that set rules for claiming African territory, accelerating imperial partition without African representation.

Indirect rule

A colonial method using existing local rulers and institutions under imperial supervision, notably practised by Britain in parts of Africa.

Decolonisation

The process by which colonies gained political independence, accelerating after WWII due to weakened empires, nationalist movements, and international pressure.

MAIN causes WWI

Militarism, alliances, imperialism, and nationalism: the four long-term structural factors commonly used to explain the outbreak of World War I.

Treaty of Versailles

The 1919 settlement ending WWI with Germany, imposing territorial losses, disarmament, reparations, and the war-guilt clause Article 231.

Appeasement

A 1930s policy of conceding to aggressive demands to avoid war, associated with the Munich Agreement and widely seen as having failed.

Cuban Missile Crisis

The 1962 confrontation between the US and USSR over Soviet missiles in Cuba, the closest the Cold War came to nuclear war.

Mutually assured destruction

A Cold War deterrence doctrine holding that a full nuclear exchange would destroy both sides, discouraging first strikes.

United Nations

An international organisation founded in 1945 to maintain peace and security, with a Security Council of five permanent veto-holding members.

Suffrage

The right to vote in elections; women's suffrage was won in stages, such as New Zealand in 1893 and the UK in 1918 and 1928.

Apartheid

A system of racial segregation and white minority rule in South Africa from 1948 until the first democratic elections in 1994.

Civil Rights Act 1964

US legislation outlawing discrimination based on race, colour, religion, sex, or national origin, a landmark of the American civil rights movement.

Second-wave feminism

A movement from the 1960s and 1970s addressing workplace inequality, reproductive rights, and cultural sexism beyond formal voting rights.

Primary source

Evidence created during the period being studied, such as letters, photographs, speeches, or official records, reflecting contemporary perspectives.

Secondary source

An interpretation produced after the period, such as a history book or documentary, which analyses and selects evidence from primary sources.

OPVL

Origin, purpose, value, and limitation: a framework for evaluating sources by examining who made them, why, and their strengths and weaknesses.

Corroboration

The process of comparing independent sources to test whether a claim is consistent and reliable across different accounts.

Historiography

The study of how historical interpretations change over time, including different schools of thought and revisionist challenges to earlier accounts.

Bias

A systematic slant in a source caused by selective evidence, loaded language, omission, or the author's interests and perspective.

Continuity and change

A historical thinking concept requiring analysis of what stayed the same as well as what changed across a period.

Provenance

The origin and context of a source, including author, date, place, audience, and purpose, used to assess its reliability.

Total war

Warfare mobilising entire societies and economies, including civilians and industry, as seen in both World Wars.

Cold War

The prolonged geopolitical and ideological rivalry between the US and USSR and their allies from roughly 1947 to 1991, fought through proxy conflicts and arms races.

Nationalism

An ideology identifying a people as a nation with shared identity and claiming political sovereignty or self-rule for that nation.