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Modern History

Home > Modern History > Introduction > The Modern History Syllabus: Constructs, Concepts and Issues

The Modern History Syllabus:

Constructs, Concepts and Issues

Leonora Ritter
Charles Sturt University

The Modern History syllabus (Preliminary and HSC) is designed to develop knowledge and understanding of general constructs using studies of particular core studies, national studies and international studies. It is also designed to enable you the student, to acquire skills of critical analysis and synthesis. It is important to understand the various aspects of the syllabus and then to understand how to combine them; how to use the particular people, events and issues of your studies to explore general understanding about:

• how individuals shape and experience history
• how identifiable groups shape and experience history
• the nature of change and continuity over time
• key historical concepts
• significant historiographical issues.

Let's look more closely at each of these general constructs.

• Individuals
• Groups
• Change and continuity over time
• Key Historical Concepts
• Significant historiographical issues

Individuals

Individuals both make history happen and experience history as it happens. These two things interact in as much as what we experience affects what we choose to do. We will choose to accept and perpetuate some aspects of our society and to challenge or change others.

Some individuals seem to play a key role in making history. They have the power to influence many other lives. How? In some cases the answer is that they have institutional power, i.e. power comes with their position. Examples of this include J. Edgar Hoover, who had power as the Director of the FBI, and Kofi Annan, who has power as Secretary-General of the United Nations. In other cases, individuals have so much charisma and confidence that they develop personal power. Examples of this include William Randolph Hearst and Leni Riefenstahl. Sometimes the exercise of personal power leads to acquiring institutional power, as in the case of Sun Yixian, who rose from obscurity to lead his country in a position that he created.

Questions to ask about the individuals you study include:

• How did they gain power?
• What sort of power did they have?
• How did they exercise that power?
• What circumstances allowed them to influence other people?
• What group or groups followed and supported them?
• What did they use their power for?
• What did they want to achieve?
• Were they were successful in achieving their goals?
• How can you measure this?
• Was it long or short-term success?
• If they were unsuccessful, what obstructed them?
• Were their goals realistic?

Groups

Groups are identified through the shared experience or characteristics of all the members of the group.

• They may share a set of beliefs, such as the liberal democrats in Japan
• They may share a role in the state, such as the army in Germany
• They may share a socio-economic position, such as the Chinese peasantry
• They may share a label, such as the Communist Party of the Soviet Union.

They probably share a number of these. For the groups you choose to study, identify the things that are common, that bind the members together:

• Do they have a common leader?
• A common cause? A common goal?
• A shared ideology?

In the unfolding story of a country's history, groups can play one or more of several roles. They can support the state and try to keep things as they are, as in the case of the British Raj in India; they can oppose the state and try to change things, as in the case of Australian protesters; they can be persecutors, as in the case of the Japanese armed forces in occupied territory; they can be rescuers, as in the case of United Nations Peacekeeping Forces; they can be victims, as in the case of Palestinian refugees. Look at the role(s) played by the groups you choose to study.

Change and continuity over time

Change and continuity over time are central to the idea of history. Change needs to be understood in terms of its causes, process and outcomes. Continuity can be found in structures, ideas and processes. Continuity may be looked at as resistance to change, but change can also be looked at as disruption of continuity.

Timelines are one way of plotting key moments when changes take place. They also can show you periods of time linked by continuity, e.g. the same leadership or system of government or ongoing event (such as world war). For your chosen studies, you should look at the framework of events to try to identify moments of change and phases of continuity. For the changes, try to identify the causes, the key events and the outcomes. For the continuity, try to identify why change did not take place. Why was the status quo effective, popular, powerful, etc.? Were there movements for change? If not, why not? If so, why were they ineffective?

Key Historical Concepts

Key historical concepts have a general meaning, but this syllabus asks you to use particular situations to illustrate your understanding of the general meaning. In other words you are being asked to apply the concepts to the countries and situations that you are studying. The following brief definitions may help.

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 (syllabus glossary)
• a theory that government is authoritarian and should be replaced by a society based on freedom and cooperation. It can become a justification for acts of violence against the state. It was very popular in Russia before the revolution when some revolutionaries saw the only way forward as the complete removal of government.

Autocracy

• absolute rule of goverment by one person (syllabus glossary)
• rule by one person with unrestricted power.

Anti-communism

• active opposition to communism. It has been a strong theme in the domestic politics of Australia and the USA and was a key factor in the Cold War from 1945 to 1989.

Anti-semitism

• hostility or hatred towards peoples of Semitic origins but is used to mean anti-Jewish (syllabus glossary)
• strong prejudice against Jews, leading to harassment and persecution. It is a particular form of racism usually associated with the Nazi holocaust, but still evident in many parts of the world today.

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 (syllabus glossary)
• an economic system in which all major resources are privately owned and the main purpose of all economic processes is to generate private profit. People who own no other profit-making resources sell their labour for wages. It is opposed to communism.

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 (syllabus glossary)
• an economic system in which all major resources are communally owned. In most countries it requires the overthrow of an existing capitalist system. In developing communism, the first necessary step away from capitalism is socialism.

Decolonisation

• the process of colonies being freed from the imperial rule through their own initiatives or the granting of self-government (syllabus glossary)
• the process whereby a country that was colonised as a result of imperialism ceases to be ruled by another power and develops its own independent political and economic structures and national identity.

Democracy

• society based on the idea of equality where the government is run by the people or their freely elected representatives (syllabus glossary)
• form of government that gives power to the people. It uses various systems designed to ensure that government is either directly by the people, or more commonly representative of the people. The classic models are the American (Washington) and the British (Westminster) systems.

Diplomacy

• the term for negotiation between representatives of more than one country on matters of common interest. The goal is to avoid conflict and to secure advantages for your own country through negotiated agreements.

Globalisation

• the process of bringing together all of the world's economies for the purpose of trade and a common culture (syllabus glossary)
• term for processes by which economic and cultural institutions cross national boundaries. It occurs in many forms, including multinational companies, world-wide distribution of popular television programs or collective responsibility for world peace through the United Nations.

Humanitarianism

• world-view that values human life regardless of nationality, race, caste or creed. It opposes torture, arbitrary imprisonment, capital punishment and slavery. It promotes aid to prevent famine and disease.

Imperialism

• where one country possesses, governs or controls other countries beyond its own borders (syllabus glossary)
• the imposition of one nation's government, culture and/or economic needs on another. It usually involves conquest, settlement, economic exploitation, administrative control and destruction of indigenous cultures.

Industrialisation

• the process of moving towards large-scale mechanised industry, usually accompanied by urbanisation, rather than agriculture, crafts and trading (syllabus glossary)
• the process of transition from a rural, agrarian economy and society to an urban, industrial one. It focuses on the introduction of machine technology and the growth of factories, but it has implications for working conditions and living conditions.

Internationalism

• the promotion of the belief in global cooperation rather than national rivalry (syllabus glossary)
• a way of looking at world issues that goes beyond national boundaries. It looks to nations sharing collective responsibility for finding mutually acceptable solutions to economic or political problems. It is a product of globalisation and humanitarianism.

Liberalism

• commitment to individual freedoms such as freedom of trade, speech, press, association and religion (syllabus glossary)
• a political theory that aims to limit governmental powers and protect the rights and freedoms of individuals. It also emphasises the responsibility of individuals to behave as responsible citizens. It is linked with democracy and capitalism as theories that favour individual choice and freedom.

Militarism

• the belief that strong armed forces, discipline and obedience will solve political and social problems (syllabus glossary)
• an aggressive political position focused on the role of the armed services in maintaining the security of the state and promoting its interests beyond its boundaries. It leads to the predominance of the military class in government and the elevation of the ideal of military efficiency in all aspects of public life.

Modernisation

• the process of becoming modern, accepting change and modern values (syllabus glossary)
• the process by which countries adopt to the work practices, economic structures and cultural practices of the advanced Western industrial economies. It is associated with industrialisation.

Nationalism

• the promition of the interests of one's own nation above all others (syllabus glossary)
• belief in the priority, and often superiority, of the interests of a particular nation. It contributes to imperialism and is currently being challenged by globalisation, humanitarianism and internationalism.

Pan-nationalism

• nationalism that crosses national borders (syllabus glossary)
• a form of nationalism that overrides the boundaries of nation by looking at uniting those with common ethnic, geographic or religious characteristics. Most notable in the twentieth century have been Pan-Germanism, which attempts to unite all German-speaking peoples, and Panslavism, which attempts to unite all Slav peoples.

Racism

• the belief in the superiority of one race of people over others (syllabus glossary)
• the belief that any racial or ethnic group is either superior or inferior to others. It can be used to justify granting rights and privileges or denying rights and privileges on the basis of race or ethnicity. At its most extreme level it leads to genocide (also known as ethnic cleansing) which denies particular ethnic or racial groups the right to exist at all.

Revolution

• sudden and radical change in society; a complete overthrow of an established government or political system (syllabus glossary)
• the complete overthrow of one system by another. It usually refers to a political system but can also be used to refer to an economic or social upheaval.

Sectarianism

• the reinforcement of divisions between religious groups (syllabus glossary)
• the belief that any religion or denomination is either superior or inferior to others. It can be used to justify granting rights and privileges or denying rights and privileges on the basis of religion or denomination. It leads to a predominance of religious and denominational disputes in shaping government and public policy.

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 (syllabus glossary)
• the right of ex-colonial states to determine their own form of government as part of the process of decolonisation.

Socialism

• a system where wealth, land and property are owned and controlled by the community as a whole rather than being privately owned (syllabus glossary)
• a political system based on common ownership and control of resources and productive processes, which are vested in the government. The government then directs wealth to meeting social needs rather than accumulation of profit. The aim is to produce a sharing society in which everyone contributes what they can and receives what they need.

Terrorism

• the use and threat of violence for political purposes (syllabus glossary)
• the attempt to influence politics through violence and intimidation. It is usually the resort of groups who place themselves or are placed outside the political process.

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 (syllabus glossary)
• belief in rule by one person or one party, with no opposition allowed. It can also mean belief in total government control of all aspects of life including the arts, family morality, wages and working conditions, permission to travel, etc.

Trade unionism

• the belief that employees should organise collectively to maintain and improve wages and conditions. It expects legitimacy to be granted to such activities by government and employers so that trade union members are not persecuted for their union membership and unions are granted certain rights and a significant role in industrial relations.

Urbanisation

• a process, usually accompanied by industrialisaton, where people move from traditional life in the countryside to towns and cities (syllabus glossary)
• the trend towards living in large towns and cities. It is often associated with industrialisation. It has implications in such areas as health, housing, education and policing.

War

• state of armed conflict between two clearly identifiable groups. These are usually nations fighting about control of territory or resources, but there is also civil war. In the case of civil war, the groups are fighting about who will control the nation and are often determined according to racist or sectarian criteria.

Significant historiographical issues

Significant historiographical issues are all the ongoing questions about what sources are available and how historians use them to come to an understanding of what happened. For everything you learn in your chosen study, you need to be thinking: How do we know this? Why do I believe it to be true?

You will discover that historians use all sorts of different sources and that some are more reliable or useful than others. Some are easy to read, some are more difficult. Some are explicit - they tell you what you need to know, but others are implicit - you have to work out your answer from what they offer.

Different sources give different points of view. Think about who produced them and what they produced them for. You might also think about the intended audience. An account for public consumption is, for example, likely to be different from an account written for your mother or a friend.

Think about bias. People with different perspectives will interpret the same event in different ways. An obvious example is the difference between a German view and an English view of the outcome of the First World War.

Look out for issues that clearly have several different accounts or interpretations. They make interesting studies:

• Why are the accounts different?
• Which do you think is the most valid? Why?
• Whose interpretation do you agree with? Can both be right?