GCE A/L History study guide
GCE A/L History · Work through your exam, one topic at a time.
The GCE Advanced Level History examination is a school-leaving and university-entrance subject in the Sri Lankan A/L system. It is written for candidates who have completed the Advanced Level history syllabus and who intend to use the subject for university admission, for teacher training, or for further study in the humanities. The GCE A/L History study guide has 8 sections and about 2,196 words.
01Historical Method, Source Criticism and Historiography
This domain tests whether you can explain how historical knowledge is produced, not merely recall what happened. Questions ask you to classify sources, test reliability, compare interpretations and recognise how historians' questions shape their accounts.
305 words, about 2 min02Prehistory and Early Historic Sri Lanka
This domain covers Sri Lanka from the Palaeolithic to the early historic period: hunter-gatherer evidence, the transition to iron and megalithic burial, the growth of Anuradhapura, and the earliest written traditions about kingship and Buddhism. Balangoda Man is represented by skeletal and cultural material from caves such as Fa Hien Lena, dated to c.
290 words, about 1 min03Ancient and Medieval Sri Lankan Kingdoms and Society
This domain examines political centres, irrigation, religion, land tenure and social organisation from Anuraphapura through Polonnaruwa to the regional kingdoms of Dambadeniya, Gampola, Kotte, Jaffna and Kandy. Rajarata irrigation depended on tanks, canals and the bisokotuwa (valve pit).
274 words, about 1 min04Colonial Rule in Sri Lanka: Portuguese, Dutch and British
This domain tests comparative colonial rule: Portuguese conversion and coastal control, Dutch commercial monopoly and Roman-Dutch law, and British plantation capitalism and administrative reform. The Portuguese arrived in 1505 and established influence over Kotte; they controlled coastal trade and promoted Catholicism, but never conquered the Kandyan interior.
296 words, about 1 min05Sri Lankan Nationalism, Independence and Post-Independence Politics
This domain traces nationalism from elite constitutional agitation to mass politics, independence in 1948 and the conflicts and reforms that followed. The Ceylon National Congress (1919) demanded representative government; the Donoughmore Constitution (1931) introduced universal adult suffrage.
264 words, about 1 min06Ancient and Medieval World Civilizations
This domain compares early states and empires, their economies, belief systems and networks of exchange, from river-valley civilizations to the Mongol and Islamic worlds. Mesopotamia : city-states, cuneiform, Hammurabi's laws (c.
244 words, about 1 min07Modern World History: Revolutions, Industrialization and World Wars
This domain examines transformative ruptures: the American and French revolutions, industrial capitalism, the Russian Revolution and the two world wars. The American Revolution (1776) and French Revolution (1789) challenged absolutism and noble privilege, but produced different settlements: a federal republic and a turbulent sequence of republic, terror and empire.
260 words, about 1 min08Twentieth-Century World Affairs and Decolonization
This domain covers the post-1945 order: the Cold War, decolonisation, non-alignment and the crises that reshaped global politics to 1991. The United Nations (1945) promised collective security, though Security Council vetoes limited enforcement.
263 words, about 1 min