OCR GCSE History A key terms

Colonial laws that regulated slavery, restricted enslaved people’s freedom and protected slaveholders’ control over them.

A port from which merchants organised and ships undertook voyages trading in enslaved people.

Actions by enslaved people to challenge their captivity or their enslavers’ control, including escape and organised revolt.

A system in which people are treated as property and compelled to work without freedom to leave.

The buying, selling and transportation of enslaved people.

The deliberate damaging of a fortification to prevent it being used for military defence.

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, a civil rights organisation involved in voter registration which became more militant under Stokely Carmichael’s leadership.

Changes affecting people’s everyday lives, opportunities, family relationships and position in society.

An effect on people’s relationships, living conditions or position within society.

An illegal drinking establishment operating during prohibition.

A designated area offering special conditions to attract foreign investment and encourage international trade.

Buying an asset in the hope that its price will rise, so that it can be sold for a profit.

The Nazi organisation led by Heinrich Himmler which developed from Hitler’s bodyguard into a powerful organisation controlling concentration camps and the police apparatus.

A permanent professional army maintained even when the country is not at war.

The institutions that govern a country, make and enforce laws, and organise public services.

A period in which a government claims exceptional powers, restricting normal legal protections and civil liberties.

A law changing arrangements for passing on landed property, resented by nobles and gentry because it increased their exposure to payments owed to the Crown.

A protest in which workers collectively stay away from work.

An official responsible for managing a lord’s household or estates.

The importance of a place’s position for objectives such as defence, control and access.

A German Labour Front programme offering organised leisure activities and subsidised holidays to encourage workers’ loyalty and reduce discontent.

A collective refusal to work, used to put pressure on an employer.

A political gathering at which an accused person was publicly denounced and pressured to confess, often involving humiliation and physical violence.

A public meeting in which an accused person was denounced, humiliated and pressured to confess supposed political offences, sometimes with physical violence.

The passing of the Crown from one monarch to the next.

A border region of Czechoslovakia containing around three million German-speaking people, transferred to Germany following the Munich Agreement in 1938.

The right to vote in elections, also called the franchise.