OCR GCSE History B key terms

Producing goods in large quantities using organised, repeated tasks, often with each worker specialising in one stage.

A large, imposing building containing a tomb, often built to commemorate an important person.

Landless agricultural workers attached to large estates who paid part of their produce to their overlords.

A check of a person’s income or resources to decide whether they qualify for financial support and how much they receive.

A doctor appointed to oversee public health in a local area.

A soldier paid to serve a ruler or army.

A trader who buys and sells goods to make a profit, sometimes organising their transport between countries.

Trading ships and their crews that transport goods and passengers, rather than warships belonging to a navy.

Ships used to transport goods for trade rather than for naval warfare.

A person of mixed European and Indigenous American ancestry; in New Spain, usually mixed Spanish and Indigenous ancestry. The plural is mestizos.

The professional police force established for London in 1829 through legislation introduced by Home Secretary Sir Robert Peel.

The people who ruled from Tenochtitlan at the centre of the empire commonly called the Aztec Empire.

Bad or polluted air that people believed could cause disease.

The belief that disease was caused by poisonous or foul-smelling air.

A heap or area used for dumping household rubbish, animal dung and used floor coverings.

People whose position in society was associated with professional, business, managerial or clerical work, with considerable differences in income within the group.

People between the wealthy elite and the poor, including prosperous farmers, craftsmen and small business owners.

A person who moves from one place to another to live, often seeking work, land, safety or religious freedom.

The movement of people from one country or region to another to live or work.

Confrontational campaigning intended to force change, including disruption, window-smashing and, increasingly in the suffragette campaign, attacks on property.

Workers prepared to use determined industrial action, especially strikes, to press their demands rather than relying only on negotiation or parliamentary reform.

A body that heard applications for exemption from compulsory military service and decided whether to grant them.

A military force drawn from local men, which could be assembled to defend the country or respond to unrest.

The lowest rate of pay permitted under a law or agreement.

The Nazi government department established in 1933 and headed by Joseph Goebbels, responsible for communicating Nazi messages through media and culture.

A person who travels to spread a religion and persuade others to accept it.

Small independent traders, craftsmen and other members of the lower middle class.