AQA GCSE History key terms

Fighting in which armies defend and attack from networks of trenches dug into the ground.

Making a hole in the skull, historically used to treat conditions such as severe headaches or epilepsy.

A test whose outcome was believed to reveal God's judgement of an accused person's guilt or innocence.

A group sworn to decide whether an accused person was guilty or innocent. Medieval criminal trial jurors were drawn from the locality and could use their own knowledge of people and events.

A trading pattern linking Europe, Africa and the Americas. Hawkins carried goods to West Africa, transported enslaved Africans to the Caribbean and returned to England with valuable goods and money.

The immediate event that sets off a wider development whose underlying causes have already built up.

Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy’s defensive alliance, formed in 1882.

The relationship linking Britain, France and Russia by 1907 through separate agreements, rather than a single three-country military treaty.

The three foundational subjects of medieval education: grammar, rhetoric and logic.

The increase in US troop numbers in Iraq announced by President George W. Bush in January 2007 to improve security.

President Truman’s 1947 commitment to support countries threatened by communist takeover, which became a foundation of containment.

The Trades Union Congress: an organisation bringing together trade unions to represent their shared interests and coordinate action.

A conflict in which a country fights enemy forces in two separate geographical areas at the same time.

The British policy, established in 1889, that the Royal Navy should be at least as strong as the next two largest navies combined.

A German submarine used to attack enemy shipping.

Foreign settlers in the Transvaal, many attracted by its gold mines. Restrictions on their political rights became a dispute between Britain and the Transvaal government.

The organised settlement of people from England and Scotland on land in Ulster, a province in northern Ireland, during the early seventeenth century.

A final demand with a deadline and a threatened consequence if it is rejected.

Agreement by every member entitled to take part in a decision.

Contrary to the Constitution, the fundamental rules establishing how a country is governed and what powers its institutions possess.

A landowner granted land in the Ulster plantation in return for undertaking to settle families from England or Scotland on it.

Someone holding land from a tenant-in-chief rather than directly from the king.

The United States as a single nation, which Lincoln sought to preserve against southern secession.

The international organisation whose forces intervened in the Korean War to support South Korea. General Douglas MacArthur commanded the UN campaign.

An institution of higher learning where scholars study and teach advanced subjects.

The United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission: the body responsible for investigating Iraq’s chemical and biological weapons programmes and prohibited missiles.

Attacking shipping in a declared war zone without warning, including neutral ships.