Eduqas GCSE History key terms

The name Europeans used for the Americas after recognising that these lands were separate from Asia. The Americas were already inhabited.

The National Health Service, established in 1948 to provide healthcare according to need rather than ability to pay.

The murderous purge beginning on 30 June 1934 in which Hitler removed leading SA figures and other rivals.

An organisation of watchmen who patrolled a town during the night.

The Soviet internal-affairs organisation that included the secret police and carried out surveillance, arrests and repression under Stalin.

A hereditary upper social rank whose members held titles and usually owned substantial landed estates.

The Spanish name, meaning ‘Sad Night’, for the disastrous Spanish retreat from Tenochtitlan on the night of 30 June 1520.

The ground between opposing armies' front-line trenches.

A Protestant Christian belonging to a church outside the established Church of England.

A benefit for which recipients do not have to make prior payments into an insurance or pension fund.

The contrast between relatively prosperous areas of southern England and struggling industrial areas in northern England and other parts of Britain.

The argument that possessing nuclear weapons discourages an enemy from attacking because it fears devastating retaliation.

A family consisting of two parents and their children.

A weapon that releases energy from changes within atomic nuclei, producing far greater destructive power than conventional explosives.

Laws announced in September 1935 that excluded Jews from Reich citizenship and prohibited marriage and sexual relations between Jews and people classified as having German or related blood.

The National Union of Women’s Suffrage Societies, formed in 1897 and led by Millicent Fawcett.

An area placed under the control of a foreign power after military defeat. Germany was divided into American, British, French and Soviet occupation zones in 1945.

The name given to dishonest friends and associates whom President Warren G. Harding brought into his administration.

A regular payment to an eligible elderly person. The 1908 Old Age Pensions Act introduced state-funded pensions for qualifying people aged 70 and over.

The language spoken and written in Anglo-Saxon England before the Norman Conquest.

A political system in which only one political party is legally permitted to operate.

An approach that broadly welcomed and encouraged immigration to the USA, before increasingly restrictive laws were introduced.

A lower-security prison for prisoners considered unlikely to escape, using education and work to help prepare them for release.

The German invasion of the Soviet Union, launched on 22 June 1941.

The military campaign against Iraq beginning with an air offensive in January 1991, followed by the ground campaign that liberated Kuwait.

A story passed from person to person through speaking or performance rather than through writing.

An organised group of musicians playing instruments together, including sections such as strings and wind instruments.