OCR GCSE History A key terms

An economic approach in which governments sought to increase national wealth and power by controlling trade and using colonies to supply valuable goods.

A soldier who fights for payment rather than because of a feudal obligation.

The ships and crews engaged in commercial trade rather than naval warfare; during wartime they also transport essential supplies.

A lake; at Kenilworth, a large artificial lake that formed part of the castle’s defences.

The forced Atlantic crossing of enslaved Africans to the Americas.

A farmworker who moves between places to find agricultural employment.

The movement of people from one place to another to live, either within a country or across national borders.

The belief that a country should maintain strong armed forces and give military power a central role in national policy.

Military personnel sent to help train and advise another country’s armed forces.

An agreement under which a captain recruited and led troops to serve the Crown for payment, also called an indenture.

A government controlled by a group of military leaders.

A locally organised military force, rather than a permanent professional army.

Parliament’s measure of March 1642 claiming control over militia commanders, enforced despite Charles I withholding royal assent.

A group living within a society whose ethnic, religious or cultural identity differs from that of the majority.

Umkhonto we Sizwe, meaning ‘Spear of the Nation’: the armed wing of the ANC, formed in 1961.

The organisation of people, industry, money and resources for war.

Edward I’s Parliament of 1295, which included clergy, nobles and representatives of counties, cities and boroughs. Its composition provided a model for later parliaments.

A system of government in which a king or queen is head of state, usually inheriting the position.

An exclusive right to conduct a particular trade, legally excluding competing traders.

The organisation formed on 5 December 1955 to coordinate the Montgomery Bus Boycott, with Martin Luther King as its president.

Attempts to change behaviour according to religious standards, including action against drunkenness, swearing and certain popular entertainments.

An artificial earth mound supporting a castle’s main tower.

A castle layout combining a tower on an artificial mound with an adjoining defended courtyard.

A community in which people with different cultural backgrounds live alongside one another.

A society in which people with different cultural backgrounds, traditions and identities live alongside one another.

The September 1938 agreement between Germany, Britain, France and Italy that allowed Germany to take the Sudetenland. Czechoslovakia was excluded from the negotiations.

Weapons, ammunition and other military equipment.