Historical skills: source analysis, interpretation, chronology, causation and historiography
What this domain tests
This domain tests historical method: source analysis, interpretation, chronology, causation and historiography. You must use evidence, explain provenance and evaluate competing accounts rather than simply retell events.
Core rules
- Source analysis: ask who made a source, when, for what purpose and for what audience. Its origin affects its value and limits. Bias does not make a source useless; it makes it evidence of a perspective.
- Corroboration: compare sources before accepting a claim. A missionary report, an oral history and a colonial report may describe the same event differently.
- Chronology: establish sequence before causation. Causes must precede events, but not everything earlier is a cause.
- Causation: distinguish long-term and short-term, necessary and sufficient, intended and unintended causes. Avoid confusing correlation with causation.
- Historiography: recognise colonial, nationalist, revisionist and social-history interpretations of Namibia. Each asks different questions and uses different evidence.
Worked example
Question: 'How useful are two sources about the Herero genocide?' Reasoning: identify each source's origin and purpose. A German military order shows extermination intent but not Herero experience; a later oral testimony shows suffering and memory but may be shaped by later politics. Use them together: the order establishes policy, testimony establishes impact. Conclude that value depends on the question asked.
Traps
Do not write 'the source is biased, so it is useless'. Do not read modern ideas back into the past (presentism). Do not quote a source without explaining what it shows. Avoid vague claims such as 'it was a turning point' without criteria.