AQA GCSE History key terms

The belief that people should support themselves through their own efforts rather than rely on government assistance.

The principle that power should be exercised according to law rather than personal whim, and that rulers as well as those they govern should obey the law.

Movement from the countryside to towns and cities.

Plans uncovered in 1683 involving an intended ambush of Charles II and James, Duke of York, alongside discussions of an uprising against the government.

The Sturmabteilung, the Nazi Party’s brown-shirted paramilitary organisation, which protected Nazi meetings, disrupted opponents’ meetings and used street violence and intimidation.

The government and system of power through which Saddam Hussein ruled Iraq.

A section of a battlefront that projects into enemy-held territory and can be attacked from its exposed sides.

The first Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, which produced the ABM Treaty and an interim agreement on strategic offensive arms, signed by Nixon and Brezhnev on 26 May 1972.

An arsenic-based chemical treatment for syphilis, identified as effective by Sahachiro Hata in 1909 during his work with Paul Ehrlich.

Restrictions imposed on a country, such as limits on trade and arms supplies, to pressure its government to change its behaviour.

Systems and practices that keep surroundings clean and safely remove sewage and other waste.

A country formally independent but heavily controlled by a more powerful country, particularly in its government and foreign policy.

A hostile nickname for white Southerners who supported the Republican Party and Reconstruction.

The extent of a change, including how many people, places or areas of medicine it affects.

A person made to bear blame for wrongdoing that also involved others. John D. Lee claimed that other Mormon leaders had made him a scapegoat for the massacre.

Germany’s strategy, developed by Alfred von Schlieffen in 1905, for defeating France quickly before concentrating its forces against Russia.

A medieval approach to learning that examined texts and questions through carefully structured arguments, objections and responses.

Destroying supplies, crops, buildings or transport facilities during a retreat to prevent an advancing enemy from using them.

A military policy of destroying resources and supplies so that an opponent cannot use them.

The accelerating competition between European powers to acquire territory and control in Africa during the late nineteenth century.

A payment that allowed a baron to provide money instead of military service to the king.

A country’s ability to use its navy to defend its interests, protect overseas trade and fight enemies at sea.

US missions intended to locate and kill Vietcong fighters and destroy their supplies and bases.

A person employed during a plague outbreak to examine bodies for signs of plague and identify the cause of death.

The Southeast Asia Treaty Organisation: an alliance formed in 1954 to resist communist expansion in the region.

The withdrawal of a state from a country or political union; in this context, southern states leaving the United States.

Industrial action taken against an employer who is not directly involved in the original dispute, in support of workers elsewhere.