Državna Matura History cheat sheet

Historical Skills and Methods (source analysis, chronology, interpretation)

• Source typology: primary sources originate in the period studied (documents, artifacts, eyewitness accounts); secondary sources interpret primary material.

• Source criticism: establish provenance, authorship, date, purpose, audience, and bias; compare independent sources before drawing conclusions.

• Chronology tools: BCE/CE notation, decades, centuries, and periodization; convert dates carefully (e.g., 1453 is the 15th century, not the 14th).

• Interpretation: distinguish fact from opinion; evaluate the historian's argument, evidence, and perspective; recognize that interpretations change with new evidence.

• Working with statistics and maps: check units, scales, and legend; note that historical maps use period borders, not modern ones.

• Causality analysis: distinguish long-term causes, short-term triggers, and consequences; avoid single-cause explanations for complex events.

• Historiography: schools such as Annales (Braudel, long duration), Marxist, and social history offer different explanatory frameworks.

• Writing answers: use a clear thesis, supporting evidence with dates and names, and explicit evaluation of source reliability.