Curriculum Year 9

Freedom and its enemies, 1900 to the present day

  1. What is freedom?
  2. In what ways did the period 1750 to 1900 see an improvement in the rights of working people in Britain? The reform movements, Chartists, parliamentary reform, protest including Peterloo and the Luddites and the growth of trade unions. Was Britain a democracy by 1900?
  3. What methods did women use to gain political equality during the early 20th century in Britain and how successful were they?
  4. In what ways did the British desire for an empire threaten people's freedom? An examination of the desire for an empire and a case study of India.
  5. Why did World War One break out?
  6. What was it like to be a soldier in World War One? Trench life, changes in technology and their effects on the soldiers' war.
  7. Why did the Germans lose the war and what was the effect of their surrender? The Treaty of Versailles.
  8. In what ways can communism be seen as a threat to freedom in the early twentieth century?
  9. In what ways do Britain and America between the wars represent a triumph for democracy? An examination of the problems they faced including the Depression and the governments' responses to this including the treatment of women and black people.
  10. Why did democracy fail in Germany after World War One and in what ways did the rise of the Nazis signify the end of democracy in Germany?
  11. Why did World War Two break out?
  12. Why were the Germans able to be so successful at the start of the war?
  13. What was it like to live in Britain during the War? The Manchester Blitz.
  14. Why did Germany lose the war?
  15. Were the Allies right to drop the Atomic Bomb on Japan?
  16. What was it like to be a Jew in occupied Europe?
  17. Why did Europeans give up their Empires?
  18. What problems faced black South Africans under Apartheid and why were they eventually able to overcome them?
  19. What threats did the Cold War bring to freedom? Origins of the Cold War including the Berlin Crisis, Cuba, the Korean War and the Vietnam War.
  20. Did the fall of communism bring real freedom to the people of Russia?

Web sites

Trenches on the Web
http://worldwar1.com/

20th century resources
www.schoolhistory.co.uk/year9.html
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwone/index.shtml
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/war/wwtwo/index.shtml

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