Modern History
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Glossary for Modern History stage 6 syllabus
©Board of Studies NSW (2004), Stage 6 syllabus Modern History.
View the general glossary of assessment terms that apply to all HSC subjects.
- anarchism
- an ideology that argues a society can be run without
rules or a government and that the abolition of these
things will lead to freedom, equality and justice
- anti-ecumenism
- opposed to the doctrines and practice of the ecumenical
movement and hence to the unity of the Christian churches
- anti-Semitism
- hostility or hatred towards peoples of Semitic origins
but is used to mean anti-Jewish
- apartheid
- a policy of racial segregation, exploitation and
oppression developed by white minority South African
governments
- appeasement
- a policy attributed to European governments in the
1930s that met the expansionist policies of Nazi Germany by
offering concessions
- autocracy
- absolute rule or government by one person
- Bolshevism
- an ideology advocating the seizure of power by a
revolutionary elite in the name of the proletariat
- capitalism
- an economic system that encourages individuals to make
profits through investments and the private ownership of
goods, property and the means of production, distribution
and exchange
- case studies
- case studies are inquiry-based investigations into key features, issues, individuals, groups, events or concepts in modern history. They are oriented towards the problems and issues of investigating the past. Case studies in the Preliminary course are intended to provide students with opportunities to:
- study the various ways in which historians perceive, investigate, record and construct the past, the types of questions they ask, the explanations they give and the issues they raise
- understand, question, analyse and interpret sources.
- collectivisation
- the socialist policy of joining together small farms
and other enterprises under group or state ownership
- communism
- a theory or system of social organisation promoting
shared ownership of property and the means of production by
the community as a whole or the state
- communalism
- a theory that a nation should be organised around
different regional communities and that a nation is merely
a federation of such states. In India these communities are
mostly religious.
- conservatism
- opposition to radical change with a tendency to support
existing institutions
- consumerism
- an aspect of capitalism that encourages the consumption
of goods and services
- containment
- a specific US Cold War foreign policy aimed at limiting
the spread of communism
- decolonisation
- the process of colonies being freed from imperial rule
through their own initiatives or the granting of
self-government
- democracy
- society based on the idea of equality where the
government is run by the people or their freely elected
representatives
- détente
- easing the strained relations between the super powers
during the Cold War
- evidence
- the information that tends to prove or disprove a
conclusion. It can be used to establish a fact or to
support an argument
- feminism
- a doctrine or movement advocating equal rights for
women in social and political life
- fundamentalism
- any religious movement that stresses rigid adherence to
literal interpretations of its religious texts
- globalisation
- the process of bringing together all of the world's
economies for the purposes of trade and a common culture
- government intervention
- where a government involves itself directly and
actively in the regulation of economic and business
activities
- Guomindang
- nationalist political party in China that became the
government from 1927 to 1949
- historiography
- the study of how history is constructed. It involves
the critical analysis and evaluation of the reliability of
evidence, as well as the way history has been written in
the past
- ideology
- a framework of beliefs that guides actions
- imperialism
- where one country possesses, governs or controls other
countries beyond its own borders
- industrialisation
- the process of moving towards large-scale mechanised
industry, usually accompanied by urbanisation, rather than
agriculture, crafts and trading
- internationalism
- the promotion of the belief in global cooperation
rather than national rivalry
- interpretation
- a way of understanding and explaining what has happened
in the past. The discipline of history acknowledges that
there is often more than one view of what has happened in
the past
- Intifada
- an uprising conducted by the Palestinian people in the
Occupied Territories against the state of Israel
- isolationism
- a view in American foreign policy that argues that the
best interests of the United States lay in avoiding
international entanglements
- Konfrontasi
- foreign policy conducted by the Indonesian government
during the 1960s towards Malaysia and Singapore
- liberal democracy
- a form of democracy where majority rule is underpinned
by liberal rights such as freedom of speech, assembly and
religious beliefs, and the right to private property,
privacy and due legal process
- liberalism
- commitment to individual freedoms such as freedom of
trade, speech, press, association and religion
- Maoism
- an ideology expounded by Mao Zedong in China that
emphasised the revolutionary role of the peasants in
achieving communism
- Marxism
- a political and economic theory developed by Karl Marx
and Frederick Engles that called for the abolition of
private property and emphasised the role of the state in
providing work and benefits for all leading eventually to a
socialist order and a classless society
- militarism
- the belief that strong armed forces, discipline and
obedience will solve political and social problems
- modernisation
- the process of becoming modern, accepting change and
modern values
- multiculturalism
- a policy of valuing and maintaining the distinctive
identities of all cultural groups within a society
- nationalism
- the promotion of the interests of one's own nation
above all others
- national sovereignty
- supreme and independent power or authority that is
claimed by a state or cultural or ethnic group
- New Order
- term used to describe the policies of the Suharto
government in promoting the values of national unity,
modernisation and capitalism in Indonesia
- Pancasila
- the five values that formed the basis of the Indonesian
state after independence: faith in one god, humanism,
nationalism, representative government and social justice
- pan-nationalism
- nationalism that crosses national borders
- perspective
- a point of view or standpoint from which historical
events, problems and issues can be analysed, eg a gender
perspective (either masculine or feminine) on the past
- Prohibition
- a policy developed by American governments during the
1920s that made the sale of alcohol illegal
- proletariat
- the working or unpropertied class who rely on the sale
of their labour for an income
- racism
- the belief in the superiority of one race of people
over others
- regionalism
- a movement that developed in Indonesia's provinces
emphasising the need for each region to maintain its own
identity and independence
- revolution
- sudden and radical change in society; a complete
overthrow of an established government or political system
- Satyagraha
- 'truth force' or 'holding on to the
truth' - a non-violent method of resistance developed
in India by Mahatma Gandhi to ensure political or social
change
- sectarianism
- the reinforcement of divisions between religious groups
- self-determination
- the right of each group of people to decide their own
identity, culture and political and social systems without
reference to the wishes of any other nation
- socialism
- a system where wealth, land and property are owned and
controlled by the community as a whole rather than being
privately owned
- source
- any written or non-written material that can be used to
investigate the past. A source becomes 'evidence'
(see above) when it is used to support or refute a position
- Stalinism
- a system of government originating in the Soviet Union
under Joseph Stalin
- terrorism
- the use and threat of violence for political purposes
- Third World
- term used during the Cold War that referred to
developing nations that did not identify themselves with
either the USA or Soviet blocs
- totalitarianism
- system of government where the state seeks to gain
complete control over its citizens and does not recognise
or tolerate parties of differing opinion
- urbanisation
- a process, usually accompanied by industrialisation,
where people move from traditional life in the countryside
to towns and cities
- warlordism
- a system where power is controlled by regional military
leaders and the central government has broken down,
especially in China 1916-1928
- zaibatsu
- huge economic and industrial organisations formed by a
few Japanese families after the Meiji Restoration
- Zionism
- a movement formerly for re-establishing, now for
advancing, the Jewish national state of Israel
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