History key terms

A group of twelve priests of Mars Gradivus who processed through Rome carrying sacred shields, singing and dancing.

The oath sworn at Old Sarum on 1 August 1086 by important landholders, including some subtenants, promising loyalty to William I above other men.

Strategic Arms Limitation Talks: negotiations between the USA and Soviet Union intended to restrict strategic nuclear weapons systems.

The first Strategic Arms Limitation Talks, which produced the ABM Treaty and an interim agreement on strategic offensive arms, signed by Nixon and Brezhnev on 26 May 1972.

An arsenic-based chemical treatment for syphilis, identified as effective by Sahachiro Hata in 1909 during his work with Paul Ehrlich.

Glossy red Roman tableware, often decorated, which was imported into Britain from Gaul during the conquest period.

Restrictions imposed on a country, such as limits on trade and arms supplies, to pressure its government to change its behaviour.

Protection from arrest offered to someone taking refuge in a church or other recognised religious place.

Systems and practices that keep surroundings clean and safely remove sewage and other waste.

A stone coffin, often decorated or inscribed, used to hold a body.

A long Macedonian pike held with both hands, giving infantry greater reach than soldiers armed with shorter spears.

The South African Student Organisation, formed in 1968 to organise black students independently and promote Black Consciousness; Steve Biko became its first president in July 1969.

A state formally separate from a more powerful country but heavily influenced or controlled by it; in the Cold War, the term commonly describes Soviet-dominated Eastern European states.

The use of humour, ridicule or exaggeration to criticise people, institutions or social conditions.

A governor responsible for a province of the Persian Empire; Alexander retained this system of provincial government.

A province or administrative region of the Persian Empire governed by a satrap.

A hostile nickname for white Southerners who supported the Republican Party and Reconstruction.

The extent of a change, including how many people, places or areas of medicine it affects.

A region of northern Europe comprising modern Denmark, Norway and Sweden, which formed the main Viking homelands.

A person made to bear blame for wrongdoing that also involved others. John D. Lee claimed that other Mormon leaders had made him a scapegoat for the massacre.

Blaming a person or group for wider problems for which they are not responsible.

Workers employed to remove rubbish and other waste from streets.

A tightly packed defensive formation of infantry holding long spears outwards to resist attacks, especially by cavalry.

Germany’s strategy, developed by Alfred von Schlieffen in 1905, for defeating France quickly before concentrating its forces against Russia.

A medieval approach to learning that examined texts and questions through carefully structured arguments, objections and responses.

The investigation of the natural world through observation, evidence and experiments.

The widening gap in 1923 between high industrial prices and low agricultural prices, which made manufactured goods expensive for peasants relative to their earnings from farm produce.

The Southern Christian Leadership Conference, a civil rights organisation led by Martin Luther King which used non-violent campaigning.

A military policy of destroying resources, such as farms, crops and livestock, to prevent an enemy from using them.

Destroying supplies, crops, buildings or transport facilities during a retreat to prevent an advancing enemy from using them.