Northern Ireland · CCEASyllabus
History syllabus, dot point by dot point
Every dot point in the Northern Ireland Historysyllabus, with a focused answer for each one. Click any dot point for a worked explainer, past exam questions, and links to related dot points. Written by Claude Opus 4.8, Anthropic's latest AI.
Historical Skills: source, causation and interpretation technique
Module overview →- How do you analyse what changed and what stayed the same across a period?Change and continuity: analysing the extent and pace of change across a period, including turning points and what stayed the same (AO2).12 min answer →
- How do you explain why something happened and rank the causes?Explaining causation: giving developed, linked reasons why an event happened and ranking them (AO2).12 min answer →
- How do you explain the results of an event and judge their importance?Explaining consequence: identifying and ranking the results of an event, including intended and unintended consequences (AO2).12 min answer →
- How do you read a source closely and answer a comprehension question for full marks?Source comprehension: extracting information, making inferences and supporting them with detail from the source (AO3).12 min answer →
- How do you judge how useful or reliable a source is for a full-mark answer?Source utility and reliability: judging usefulness through origin, purpose and content (AO3), and why reliability is not the same as usefulness.13 min answer →
- How do you structure an extended essay and evaluate interpretations to reach a judgement?The extended essay and interpretations: structuring an analytical essay (AO1 and AO2) and evaluating why historians differ and which view is more convincing (AO4).14 min answer →
Unit 1 Section A: Life in Nazi Germany 1933 to 1945
Module overview →- How did Hitler turn the office of Chancellor into a one-party dictatorship by 1934?Consolidation of power: the Reichstag Fire, the Enabling Act of 1933, the end of other parties, the Night of the Long Knives and the death of Hindenburg in 1934.14 min answer →
- How did Nazi persecution of the Jews escalate into the Holocaust?Persecution and the Holocaust: Nazi racial ideology, the 1933 boycott, the Nuremberg Laws of 1935, Kristallnacht in 1938, the ghettos and the Final Solution.14 min answer →
- How did the Nazis use propaganda and control of culture to win and keep support?Propaganda and culture: Goebbels and the Ministry of Propaganda, radio, film, rallies and the press, the cult of the Fuhrer, and Nazi control of the arts and the Churches.13 min answer →
- How did the Nazis use terror and the law to control Germany?The police state and terror: the SS, the Gestapo, concentration camps, the Nazi control of the courts, and the role of informers in keeping Germans in line.13 min answer →
- How did the Nazis try to shape the lives of young people and women?Young people and women: the Hitler Youth and League of German Girls, the Nazi school curriculum, the three Ks for women and the reversal of policy during the war.13 min answer →
Unit 1 Section A: Russia 1914 to 1941
Module overview →- How did Stalin win the power struggle, and how did he transform the Soviet economy?Stalin's rise and the Soviet economy: the power struggle after Lenin, the defeat of Trotsky, the Five-Year Plans for industry and the collectivisation of agriculture.14 min answer →
- How did Stalin use terror, propaganda and the cult of personality to control Soviet society?Terror, propaganda and society under Stalin: the Great Purges and show trials, the secret police and Gulag, the cult of personality and the use of propaganda and censorship.13 min answer →
- How did the Bolsheviks hold on to power through the Civil War?The Civil War and Bolshevik consolidation: the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, the Reds against the Whites, War Communism and the Terror, and the move to the New Economic Policy.13 min answer →
- Why did Tsarism collapse in February 1917, and how did the Bolsheviks seize power in October?War and the revolutions of 1917: the impact of the First World War, the fall of the Tsar in February 1917, the Provisional Government, and the Bolshevik seizure of power in October 1917.14 min answer →
Unit 1 Section B: Changing Relations, Northern Ireland 1965 to 1998
Module overview →- How did civil rights marches escalate into violence and the deployment of British troops in 1969?Escalation 1968 to 1969: the Derry march of October 1968, the Burntollet ambush of January 1969, the Battle of the Bogside, and the deployment of British troops in August 1969.13 min answer →
- How did the 1981 hunger strikes and the 1985 Anglo-Irish Agreement change the conflict?The hunger strikes and the Anglo-Irish Agreement: the 1981 hunger strikes and the rise of Sinn Fein, and the Anglo-Irish Agreement of 1985 and unionist opposition to it.14 min answer →
- How did internment and Bloody Sunday deepen the conflict and lead to the end of Stormont?Internment, Bloody Sunday and direct rule: the introduction of internment in 1971, Bloody Sunday in January 1972, and the suspension of Stormont and introduction of direct rule in March 1972.14 min answer →
- Why did the civil rights movement emerge under O'Neill, and why did his reforms fail to satisfy either side?O'Neill and the civil rights movement: discrimination, Terence O'Neill's premiership and reforms, the founding of NICRA in 1967 and the campaign for civil rights.14 min answer →
- Why did the Sunningdale power-sharing experiment fail, and what did its collapse show?Sunningdale and the Ulster Workers' Council strike: the power-sharing Executive and Council of Ireland of 1973, and the loyalist strike of 1974 that brought them down.13 min answer →
- How did the peace process lead from the Downing Street Declaration to the Good Friday Agreement?The peace process 1993 to 1998: the Downing Street Declaration of 1993, the paramilitary ceasefires of 1994, and the Good Friday (Belfast) Agreement of 1998.14 min answer →
Unit 2: International Relations 1945 to 2003 (the Cold War)
Module overview →- How did the Cold War turn into hot war in Korea and to the brink of nuclear war over Cuba?Korea and the Cuban Missile Crisis: the Korean War of 1950 to 1953 as a Cold War conflict, and the Cuban Missile Crisis of October 1962 and its consequences.13 min answer →
- Why did the wartime alliance break down into the Cold War, and what did the Berlin Blockade reveal?Origins of the Cold War and the Berlin Blockade: the breakdown of the wartime alliance, the division of Germany, the Berlin Blockade and Airlift of 1948 to 1949, and the formation of NATO.14 min answer →
- Why did the Cold War end between 1985 and 1991?The end of the Cold War: Gorbachev's reforms, the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe, the fall of the Berlin Wall and the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991.13 min answer →
- Why did the USA fail in Vietnam, and how did detente ease Cold War tensions in the 1970s?Vietnam and detente: American involvement in the Vietnam War and why the USA failed, and the easing of tension in the 1970s through detente and arms control.13 min answer →
Unit 2: Peace, War and Neutrality 1939 to 1945
Module overview →- Why did Eire remain neutral in the Second World War, and how neutral was it in practice?Eire's neutrality and the Emergency: de Valera's policy of neutrality, the reasons for it, the Treaty Ports, and the limits of neutrality in practice.13 min answer →
- How did the Second World War affect Northern Ireland, from the Belfast Blitz to its strategic role?Northern Ireland in the Second World War: the Belfast Blitz of 1941, the strategic and economic role of Northern Ireland, and the arrival of American troops.13 min answer →
- How did the Second World War change Northern Ireland and the Republic, and what was its legacy?The impact and legacy of the war: the social and economic effects on Northern Ireland, the contrasting experiences of North and South, and the longer-term legacy of war and neutrality.13 min answer →