AQA GCSE History Revision List 2025

Exam Structure

  • Two exams, each worth 50% of the overall grade.
  • Paper 1 (Two-hour exam):
      - Topics:
        - Germany 1890-1945
        - Conflict and Tension 1918-1945
  • Paper 2 (Two-hour exam):
      - Topics:
        - Elizabethan England 1568-1603
        - Britain: Health and the People c1000 – present day

Paper 1: Germany 1890-1945

Part One: Germany and the Growth of Democracy

  • Kaiser Wilhelm and the Difficulties of Ruling Germany:
      - Growth of parliamentary government.
      - Influence of Prussian militarism.
      - Industrialization's impact.
      - Social reforms and the growth of socialism.
      - Domestic importance of the Navy Laws.
  • Impact of the First World War:
      - War weariness and economic problems.
      - Defeat leading to the end of the monarchy.
      - Post-war problems including:
        - Reparations
        - Occupation of the Ruhr
        - Hyperinflation.
  • Weimar Democracy:
      - Political change and unrest (1919–1923).
      - Key events: Spartacists, Kapp Putsch, and Munich Putsch.
      - Recovery during the Stresemann era (1924–1929):
        - Economic developments: New currency, Dawes Plan, Young Plan.
        - Impact of international agreements on recovery.
        - Contributions to Weimar culture.

Part Two: Germany and the Depression

  • Impact of the Depression:
      - Growth in support for the Nazis and other extremist parties (1928–1932).
      - Role of the SA in increasing Hitler's appeal.
  • Failure of Weimar Democracy:
      - Analysis of election results.
      - Role of Papen and Hindenburg.
      - Hitler's appointment as Chancellor.
  • Establishment of Hitler's Dictatorship:
      - Key events: Reichstag Fire, Enabling Act.
      - Elimination of political opposition, trade unions.
      - Rohm and the Night of the Long Knives.
      - Hitler becomes Führer.

Part Three: The Experiences of Germans Under the Nazis

  • Economic Changes:
      - Benefits and drawbacks of policies: employment and public works programs.
      - Focus on rearmament and self-sufficiency.
      - Impact of war on the economy: bombings, rationing, labor shortages, refugees.
  • Social Policy and Practice:
      - Reasons for policies affecting women, young people, and youth groups.
      - Control of education, churches, and religion.
      - Implementation of Aryan ideas, racial policy, persecution; the Final Solution.
  • Control measures:
      - Goebbels’ use of propaganda and censorship.
      - Establishment of Nazi culture and the police state.
      - Roles of Himmler, the SS, Gestapo.
      - Examples of opposition and resistance: White Rose group, Swing Youth, Edelweiss Pirates, July 1944 bomb plot.

Conflict and Tension 1918-1935

Part One: Peacemaking

  • The Armistice:
      - Aims of the peacemakers (Wilson, Clemenceau, Lloyd George).
      - Evaluation of the extent to which they achieved their aims.
  • The Versailles Settlement:
      - Diktat and its implications: territorial changes, military restrictions.
      - Discussion of war guilt and reparations.
  • Impact of the Treaty and Wider Settlement:
      - Reactions from Allies; German objections.
      - Strengths and weaknesses of the settlement, including issues faced by new states.

Part Two: The League of Nations and International Peace

  • Formation and Operations of the League of Nations:
      - Its covenant and organization.
      - Membership changes and powers.
      - Work of the League's agencies and contributions to peace in the 1920s.
  • Successes and Failures of the League:
      - Specific case studies: Aaland Islands, Upper Silesia, Vilna, Corfu, Bulgaria.
  • Diplomacy Outside the League:
      - Locarno treaties, Kellogg-Briand Pact.
  • Collapse of the League:
      - Effects of the Depression; Manchurian and Abyssinian crises.
      - Consequences of the League's failures leading to war in 1939.

Part Three: The Origins and Outbreak of the Second World War

  • Development of Tension:
      - Overview of Hitler's aims and Allied reactions; significant events such as Dollfuss Affair, Saar.
      - German rearmament, including conscription; Stresa Front; Anglo-German Naval Agreement.
  • Escalation of Tension:
      - Key events: Remilitarization of the Rhineland; Mussolini's actions; Axis and Anti-Comintern Pact;
        - Anschluss and Sudeten Crisis leading to Munich Agreement.
      - Considerations for and against the policy of appeasement.
  • Outbreak of War:
      - Occupation of Czechoslovakia; role of the USSR and Nazi-Soviet Pact.
      - Invasion of Poland as the catalyst for war, September 1939.
      - Key individuals' responsibilities: Hitler, Stalin, Chamberlain.

Paper 2: Elizabethan England 1568-1603

Part One: Elizabeth's Court and Parliament

  • Elizabeth I and Her Court:
      - Background and character of Elizabeth I; insights into court life.
      - Discuss the importance of patronage and key ministers.
  • Difficulties of a Female Ruler:
      - Relations with Parliament and challenges of marriage and succession.
      - Evaluation of Elizabeth’s authority towards the end of her reign; impact of Essex’s rebellion in 1601.

Part Two: Life in Elizabethan Times

  • A ‘Golden Age’:
      - Examination of living standards, fashions; rise of gentry and prosperity.
      - Analysis of the Elizabethan theatre and its cultural significance.
  • The Poor:
      - Factors leading to an increase in poverty.
      - Government attitudes and responses to poverty; seriousness of the issue leading to action.
  • English Sailors:
      - Contributions of Hawkins and Drake; circumnavigation from 1577–1580, significant voyages and trade.
      - Role of Raleigh in expansion.

Part Three: Troubles at Home and Abroad

  • Religious Matters:
      - The religious landscape: tensions between English Catholicism and Protestantism.
      - Key events: Northern Rebellion, Elizabeth's excommunication, and Catholic plots that threatened the Elizabethan settlement.
  • Mary Queen of Scots:
      - Historical background; treatment of Mary by Elizabeth and Parliament.
      - Significant challenges posed by Mary; key plots leading to her execution and subsequent impacts.
  • Conflict with Spain:
      - Reasons behind the conflict; major events including naval warfare and technological advancements.
      - Analysis of the defeat of the Spanish Armada.

Part Four: The Historic Environment of Elizabethan England

  • Historic Environment Question:
      - Focus on Hardwick Hall for the 16-mark question in exams.
      - Need for evidence about Hardwick Hall and contextual knowledge, including Bess of Hardwick, Countess of Shrewsbury.

Health and the People 1000-present

Part One: Medicine Stands Still

  • Medieval Medicine:
      - Explore approaches including natural and supernatural beliefs; fundamentals of Hippocratic and Galenic methods and treatments.
      - Role and training of the medieval doctor; common beliefs about causes of illness.
  • Medical Progress:
      - Contributions of Christianity to advancements in treatment; significance of hospitals, Islamic medicine, and surgical techniques in medieval times.
  • Public Health in the Middle Ages:
      - Role of towns and monasteries; analysis of the Black Death in Britain, associated beliefs about its causes, treatments, and prevention methods.

Part Two: The Beginnings of Change

  • Impact of the Renaissance on Britain:
      - Challenges to medical authority in anatomy, physiology, and surgery.
      - Key figures: Vesalius, Paré, William Harvey; recognition of opposition to change.
  • Dealing with Disease:
      - Overview of traditional vs. new treatment methods; emergence of quackery, growth of hospitals; changes in surgeon and physician training.
      - Contributions from John Hunter.
  • Prevention of Disease:
      - Development of inoculation; Edward Jenner's work on vaccination and challenges to acceptance.

Part Three: A Revolution in Medicine

  • Germ Theory Development:
      - Importance of Pasteur and Robert Koch; advancements in microbe hunting, vaccinations, and the role of Paul Ehrlich in developing 'magic bullets'.
      - Overview of everyday medical treatments and remedies.
  • Revolution in Surgery:
      - Innovations in anaesthetics, particularly Simpson and chloroform; introduction of antiseptics, led by Lister and carbolic acid.
      - Significant surgical procedures and the emergence of aseptic surgery.
  • Improvements in Public Health:
      - Explore public health issues in industrial Britain, including cholera epidemics; contributions of reformers.
      - Government involvement in public health reform; implications of the 1848 and 1875 Public Health Acts.

Part Four: Modern Medicine

  • Contemporary Treatment of Disease:
      - Expansion of the pharmaceutical industry; important contributions from penicillin, discovered by Fleming, and its subsequent developments.
      - Challenges of new diseases and antibiotic resistance; role of alternative treatments.
  • War and Technology's Impact on Surgery:
      - Evolution of techniques in plastic surgery, blood transfusions, X-rays, and transplant surgery.
      - Analysis of modern surgical methods, including lasers, radiation therapy, and keyhole surgery.
  • Modern Public Health:
      - Role of significant figures such as Booth and Rowntree; consequences of the Boer War.
      - Overview of Liberal social reforms, impacts of the two world wars on public health, and housing conditions.
      - Discussion of the Beveridge Report and the establishment and evolution of the National Health Service; current issues regarding costs, choices, and healthcare in the 21st century.

Importance of Factors Influencing Health and Medicine

  • Recognition of the following factors and their significance in the evolution of medicine:
      - War
      - Superstition and Religion
      - Chance
      - Government
      - Communication
      - Science and Technology
      - The Role of the Individual in Encouraging or Inhibiting Change.