Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) History Specification Vocabulary

A set of vocabulary flashcards covering specification administrative codes, paper structures, mark schemes, and key historical terms referenced across the Pearson Edexcel GCSE (9-1) History modules.

Paper 1: Thematic study and historic environment

An externally examined paper lasting 1 hour and 20 minutes, worth 52 marks (30% of the qualification), comprising a thematic study and a linked historic environment.

Paper 2: Period study and British depth study

An externally examined paper lasting 1 hour and 50 minutes, worth 64 marks (40% of the qualification), comprising one British depth study option (32 marks) and one period study option (32 marks).

Paper 3: Modern depth study

An externally examined paper lasting 1 hour and 30 minutes, worth 52 marks (30% of the qualification), focusing on a modern non-British depth study.

Total Qualification Mark

168 marks total across all three papers, including 8 marks awarded for spelling, punctuation, grammar, and use of specialist terminology (SPaG).

Qualification Number (QN)

601/8092/4, the unique Ofqual Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) code for the Pearson Edexcel Level 1/Level 2 GCSE (9-1) in History.

Wergild

A Saxon system of compensation fine paid to victims of crime or their families, which ended in later medieval England.

Peabody Estate

A housing complex in Whitechapel constructed as an attempt to improve living conditions and housing overcrowding for the poor in the late nineteenth century.

Broad Street Pump

A specific water pump identified by Dr John Snow during the 1854 Cholera epidemic in London to demonstrate the waterborne transmission of the disease.

RAMC

Royal Army Medical Corps; the military organisation responsible for medical care and managing the chain of evacuation on the Western Front during the First World War.

Schiltrons

Tight circular or rectangular infantry formations of pikemen used in medieval warfare, notably at the Battle of Falkirk (1298).

Eltham Ordinances

A set of administrative reforms introduced by Cardinal Wolsey to reduce expenditure and reform the organisation of Henry VIII's royal household.

Amicable Grant

A heavy tax imposed by Cardinal Wolsey in 1525 without parliamentary approval to fund Henry VIII's military campaign in France, provoking widespread public resistance.

Act of Supremacy (1534)

English parliamentary legislation that declared King Henry VIII to be the Supreme Head of the Church of England, formalising the break with Rome.

Treaty of Tordesillas (1494)

An agreement between Spain and Portugal that divided newly discovered lands outside Europe along a specified meridian.

Stono Rebellion (1739)

A major slave uprising in South Carolina encouraged in part by Spain's policy of offering freedom to escaped enslaved people in Florida.

Dawes Act (1887)

US federal legislation aimed at assimilating Indigenous peoples by breaking up reservation land into individual private land allotments.

Cominform (1947)

The Communist Information Bureau, set up by the Soviet Union to coordinate political actions and maintain control over communist parties across Europe.

Comecon (1949)

The Council for Mutual Economic Assistance, established by the USSR to coordinate economic development and trade among Eastern Bloc satellite states.

Prague Spring

A 1968 period of political liberalisation and reform in Czechoslovakia under Alexander Dubček, which was suppressed by a Warsaw Pact invasion.

Kornilov Revolt

A failed August 1917 military coup attempt by General Lavr Kornilov against the Russian Provisional Government.

Dawes Plan (1924)

An international economic agreement that restructured Weimar Germany's war reparations payments and provided American loans to stabilize the German economy.

Lysenkoism

Agricultural theories promoted by Trofim Lysenko and adopted by the CCP during Mao's Great Leap Forward, contributing to widespread crop failure and the Great Famine.

Kerner Report (1968)

A US presidential commission report that investigated the causes of the 1965–67 urban race riots, identifying racial discrimination and poverty as central factors.