History key terms

The painful practice of tightly binding girls’ feet during childhood to restrict their growth, causing lasting deformity and limiting mobility.

A stock comic character excessively concerned with fashionable clothes and appearance, whose attempts at wit often fail.

Soldiers sent to collect food and other supplies for an army.

Searching for or collecting food and other supplies needed by an army.

Work imposed on people through coercion rather than freely chosen employment.

Money which people were compelled to lend to the Crown, rather than lending voluntarily.

Movement in which people are compelled to leave, for example because of persecution, war or expulsion.

The compulsory removal of people from their homes by the state, including the relocation of African communities to Bantustans under apartheid.

A medical procedure imposed without consent to prevent someone from having children.

The seizure of property by a lender when its owner cannot repay the loan secured against it.

A ruler’s aims beyond their own country, such as gaining territory, controlling trade or increasing international influence.

Money invested by people or businesses from other countries to finance economic activity.

Military involvement by other countries in a country's conflict.

A ruler’s or government’s approach to relations with other countries, including diplomacy, alliances and war.

The use of scientific methods to examine evidence connected with a crime, such as fingerprints, blood or DNA.

Special royal laws protecting hunting animals and their habitat within designated areas, restricting how local people could use the land.

Laws protecting royal hunting grounds and restricting activities such as hunting, farming and building there.

The loss of land or rights as a penalty, for example for disloyalty or failure to fulfil obligations.

A defended military base where soldiers were stationed, often to protect a strategically important area.

A structure or defensive work built to make a place harder to attack, such as a wall, bank or ditch.

A defended site used as a base for activities such as military operations, trade and administration.

A fortified royal residence combining military defences with accommodation and the display of royal status.

Rome’s central public area, used for commerce and civic activities.

A Roman road whose alignment broadly corresponded with the extent of early Roman control in Britain; its possible use as an early frontier is debated.

A settlement established or reorganised by a ruler to serve purposes such as military control, administration or trade.

A traditional story explaining the origins of a community, often linking its beginnings to heroes, gods and important institutions.

A design dividing a garden into four sections. The reconstructed garden at Pasargadae may be an early example.

A programme to improve agriculture, industry, defence, and science and technology, originally announced by Zhou Enlai in 1964 and pursued under Deng Xiaoping.

Old ideas, old culture, old customs and old habits: the targets of a destructive campaign during the Cultural Revolution.

President Woodrow Wilson’s programme for peace, announced on 8 January 1918, combining changes to international relations with territorial proposals and a proposed association of nations.