Edexcel GCSE History key terms

A local law officer responsible for maintaining order in a town.

A person used in a town to watch for criminal activity.

Exclusive control over trade, allowing an authority to decide who may trade and under what conditions.

A workers’ organisation that represents its members over matters such as pay, conditions and employment rights.

Exclusive control over a trade or market, restricting competition from others.

The shared customs, beliefs, festivals and artistic practices passed down through generations.

Local militia units whose members received some military training but normally continued their civilian occupations.

The forced transportation of enslaved African people across the Atlantic to work in the Americas and Caribbean.

The forced transportation of enslaved Africans across the Atlantic Ocean for sale and exploitation in the Americas.

A railway crossing a continent. The First Transcontinental Railroad connected railway routes across the United States in 1869.

A historical belief that disease could be transferred from a sick person to something else, such as an animal.

An operation that transfers a donated organ or tissue into a patient to replace something damaged or failing.

Sending convicted offenders overseas to serve their punishment in a colony.

The belief that, when consecrated by a priest during Mass, the bread and wine become Christ’s body and blood while retaining their outward appearance.

An offence against the monarch or their authority, including rebellion, which could be punished by death.

An intervention intended to relieve or cure an illness or injury.

A formal agreement between political groups or governments, setting out rights and obligations.

The peace settlement of 1748 that ended King George’s War, returned Louisbourg to France and left North American territorial disputes unresolved.

A formal agreement signed on 3 March 1918 between Bolshevik Russia and the Central Powers, ending Russia's participation in the First World War.

An agreement made in August 1585 between Elizabeth I and the Dutch rebels, promising English military support against Spain.

The peace agreement of 1783 that ended the American War of Independence and recognised the independence of the United States.

The 1494 agreement between Spain and Portugal that divided their overseas claims using a north–south line through the Atlantic, with Spanish claims to the west and Portuguese claims to the east.

The Egyptian–Israeli peace treaty signed on 26 March 1979, following negotiations based on the Camp David Accords.

An illness spread by body lice, causing a high temperature, headaches and muscle pains.

An injury to the feet caused by prolonged exposure to cold, wet conditions, which could lead to swelling, numbness and tissue damage.

Fighting in which opposing armies operate from defensive networks of trenches, with attacks usually requiring troops to cross exposed ground.

A general direction of development over time, established by evidence from more than one moment.