Edexcel GCSE History key terms

The National Socialist German Workers’ Party, usually called the Nazi Party, led by Adolf Hitler.

The spread of nuclear weapons to additional countries.

Nazi racial laws introduced in September 1935 which denied Jewish people full German citizenship and prohibited marriages and sexual relations between Jewish people and people classified as ‘of German or related blood’.

A solemn promise made before God. Under Henry VIII, oaths were used to require acceptance of changes to the succession and royal authority.

A formal promise of loyalty to a ruler.

A formal promise to remain faithful to a ruler.

A position allowing a non-member to attend and participate in an organisation’s proceedings without the full rights of membership.

Territories under the control of another state’s armed forces. In the First Intifada, the central territories were the Gaza Strip and West Bank, including East Jerusalem, occupied by Israel in 1967.

Land controlled by the armed forces of another state. Military occupation does not, by itself, transfer sovereignty over that land.

London’s major criminal court, where serious criminal cases were tried.

Long-standing Bolshevik Party members who had worked with Lenin before or during the 1917 Revolution.

Opponents of revivalism who defended established religious authority and more traditional worship.

A system in which one political party controls government and rival parties cannot compete freely for power.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries, a group of oil-producing states. Arab members imposed the 1973 oil embargo; it was not an embargo imposed by every OPEC member.

A system of farming in which large fields were divided into strips held by different cultivators, with farming organised cooperatively.

A prison with lower security and more relaxed conditions, intended for suitable prisoners who can be trusted with greater responsibility.

Unfenced land on which cattle grazed across large areas rather than being kept in enclosed pastures.

Raising cattle on large areas of unfenced land, much of it public land available for free grazing.

A sustained US bombing campaign against North Vietnam launched in 1965.

Disagreement with a government or its policies, which may be expressed privately or publicly.

An overland migration route of roughly 2,000 miles from Missouri to Oregon, used by covered wagons from 1836.

The immune system attacking a transplanted organ because it recognises it as foreign.

Keeping more animals on an area of land than its grazing can support.

An implanted electrical device that helps control an abnormal heart rhythm.

The Palestinian governing body established through the Oslo process to exercise limited self-government in parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip; also called the Palestinian Authority.

A strong wooden fence forming a defensive barrier.

A short publication used to present arguments or spread ideas to a wide audience.