History key terms

Competition between states to expand their armed forces and develop more powerful weapons.

Air Raid Precautions: measures intended to protect civilians from air attacks, including warnings, blackout enforcement and arrangements for shelter.

Money owed because payments have fallen behind; army pay arrears were wages soldiers had earned but not received.

Young girls serving Athena on the Athenian Acropolis. Pausanias describes two ‘Carriers’ who exchanged concealed objects during a secret night-time ritual.

Deliberately setting fire to property.

A provision of the Weimar Constitution allowing the President to take emergency measures without prior parliamentary agreement.

Heavy guns used to fire shells, often to bombard enemy positions before an infantry attack.

A skilled worker who makes things by hand, such as a stone-cutter.

An evidence-based attempt to show how a place, structure or activity may have looked in the past, usually through a drawing, model or digital image.

The Army of the Republic of Vietnam: the armed forces of South Vietnam.

A label the Nazis used for their supposed superior racial group. Their classification was racist and had no scientific validity.

The Nazi policy of transferring Jewish-owned businesses into non-Jewish ownership, including through confiscation.

Surgery using methods designed to prevent microorganisms from reaching the wound, including sterilised instruments and protective clothing.

The peninsula forming much of modern-day Turkey, which the crusaders crossed on their journey towards Antioch.

Employment contracts used for lascar crews which provided lower pay and different conditions from the European Articles used for European sailors.

A licence or contract granting the right to supply enslaved Africans to Spain’s American colonies.

The name given to a venomous snake traditionally associated with Cleopatra’s death; the exact method of her suicide remains uncertain.

The deliberate murder of an important public figure, usually connected with political power.

The gathering of Athenian male citizens which debated and voted on public decisions. Women were excluded from participation.

A manufacturing system in which a product moves between workers or machines, each completing a particular task.

The process of making a group adopt the culture and way of life of another society. US assimilation policies sought to replace Native American languages, beliefs and communal traditions with white American practices.

Courts in which travelling royal judges heard cases in local areas.

An instrument used to measure the angle of the Sun or stars above the horizon, helping sailors estimate their latitude.

The belief that the positions and movements of stars and planets influence human affairs, including health.

A Babylonian record combining observations of astronomical phenomena with information about events on earth.

Protection offered by a country to someone who has fled danger or persecution elsewhere.

Someone who has applied for protection in another country and is awaiting a decision on their claim.

The belief that no god or gods exist.

An Anglo-Saxon title meaning prince, used for a man of royal birth considered eligible for kingship.

Pheidias’ gold-and-ivory statue of Athena the Virgin, housed inside the Parthenon.