History key terms

A nickname for Francis Drake’s raid on Cadiz in April 1587, which damaged Spanish invasion preparations and humiliated Philip II.

Relations between China and the United States of America.

The breakdown of the alliance between communist China and the Soviet Union, arising from disagreements over leadership, communist policies and relations with the West.

A collective name for several related Native American peoples, including the Dakota and Lakota. They did not all follow the same leaders or take the same decisions.

A protest in which people occupy a place, such as a segregated lunch counter, and remain there peacefully.

Henry VIII’s religious legislation of 1539, which upheld important traditional Catholic teachings and practices.

A Jamaican musical style that combines a distinctive offbeat rhythm with instruments including horns and trumpets.

Moving healthy skin from one part of the body to cover a damaged area elsewhere.

An economy in which enslaved people’s forced labour is central to producing goods and generating wealth for those who control their labour.

A set of laws regulating enslaved people and slave owners, used by colonial authorities to maintain slavery.

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, deprived of freedom and forced to work for others.

People who were owned by others and lacked personal freedom.

A US state in which slavery was legally permitted.

The buying, selling and transportation of enslaved people.

The desire for Slavic peoples to gain independence from foreign rule or unite politically. In the Balkans, this challenged Austria-Hungary’s control over South Slavs.

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

A landlord who profits from letting poor-quality accommodation, often while neglecting repairs and exploiting tenants.

A weak alcoholic drink brewed from grain such as barley. Heating water during brewing could make the drink safer than polluted water.

A contagious disease that caused fever and pus-filled skin sores, often leaving survivors scarred or blind and killing many of those infected.

Polluted fog containing smoke and other harmful substances, which can cause serious breathing problems.

An area where smoke emissions are restricted, requiring households and businesses to use permitted fuels or heating methods.

Moving or trading goods illegally to evade restrictions or avoid paying duties.

The Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee, formed in April 1960 to help organise student civil rights activism.

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

A social grouping shaped by factors such as wealth, occupation and status. Class strongly affected women’s opportunities and living conditions in early twentieth-century Britain.

An illegal activity that many people in a community regard as acceptable and may help offenders to carry out.

An ideology that misapplied ideas about biological competition to human societies, claiming that some peoples were naturally superior to others.