CSEC Caribbean History Syllabus and Study Guide (2011 Revision)

Rationale and Nature of Caribbean History

The Caribbean History syllabus is founded on a specific view of history as a discipline composed of three primary aspects: content, organising principles, and methods of enquiry. The substantive content covers the human activities in the islands ranging from the Bahamas to Trinidad, as well as the mainland territories of Belize and the Guianas, spanning the era of the first indigenous Americans to the year $1985$.

While the syllabus imposes a thematic arrangement, it does not promote a single interpretation. Instead, it allows for a variety of organising principles while maintaining a distinctly Caribbean perspective. This perspective emphasizes a respect for human life and a cultural heritage that values harmony and diversity. A thematic approach is utilized to facilitate the practice of historical skills, although chronology is preserved through the study of a required "Core" set of topics.

The methods of study align with the professional procedures of historians: raising questions, formulating hypotheses, gathering data, interpreting information, and drawing conclusions. These procedures are intended to equip students for fields such as Law, International Relations, Archival Science, and Mass Communications. Furthermore, the syllabus aligns with the UNESCO Pillars of Learning to foster critical thinking and the development of Caribbean identities.

Aims of the Syllabus

The syllabus aims to achieve the following ten objectives:

1. Develop knowledge and understanding of the Caribbean peoples' experiences.
2. Develop appreciation for the creative contributions of individuals and groups within the region.
3. Sensitise students to the unique concerns and circumstances that shaped their specific territories.
4. Produce students with faith in their own capabilities.
5. Facilitate a willingness to consider new ideas and perspectives.
6. Encourage tolerance for the viewpoints and ways of life of others.
7. Stimulate sensitivity to Caribbean social, economic, and political issues and achievements.
8. Encourage students to explore personal and societal attitudes in relation to historical experience.
9. Encourage the expression of personal views on regional and national matters.
10. Stimulate a desire for independent reading of historical material as a leisure activity.

Skills and Abilities to be Developed

Skills are categorized into two major areas: Knowledge and Comprehension (KC) and Use of Knowledge, Enquiry, and Communication (UK & EC).

Knowledge and Comprehension (KC)

• Ability to recall basic factual information.
• Ability to explain basic ideas and concepts.
• Understanding different historical perspectives and explaining their differences.
• Understanding the impact of physical geography on human activity.
• Interpreting historical data (e.g., deducing cause and effect, making comparisons).

Use of Knowledge, Enquiry and Communication (UK & EC)

Under the sub-heading of Use of Knowledge, students must analyze events, evaluate impacts, weigh evidence, detect bias, identify inconsistencies/value judgments, assess information relevance, and draw reasoned conclusions.

Under Enquiry and Communication, students must demonstrate the ability to:

• Read primary and secondary sources.
• Read maps, diagrams, charts, and graphs.
• Interview resource persons.
• Classify data and use reference books.
• Investigate historical sites.
• Present data via essays, statistics, oral presentations, or audio-visual media.

Organisation of the Syllabus

The syllabus is structured into a "Core" and nine "Themes" arranged across three sections (A, B, and C). Students must study the entire Core and choose one Theme from each section.

The Core Topics

1. The Indigenous Peoples of the Americas.
2. The Europeans.
3. The Economic Revolution and the coming of enslaved Africans.
4. Slave Resistance.
5. Emancipation and Apprenticeship.
6. The coming of the Chinese, Europeans (Madeirans, Germans, French), Indians, and Africans.
7. The Establishment of the Peasantry, $1838$ to $1900$.
8. The United States’ influence in the Caribbean.
9. Popular Protests in the $1930s$.
10. Movements towards Independence and Regional Integration up to $1985$.

Detailed Themes by Section

• Section A: (1) The Indigenous Peoples and the Europeans; (2) Caribbean Economy and Slavery; (3) Resistance and Revolt.
• Section B: (4) Metropolitan Movements towards Emancipation; (5) Adjustments to Emancipation ($1838-1876$); (6) Caribbean Economy ($1875-1985$).
• Section C: (7) The United States in the Caribbean ($1776-1985$); (8) Caribbean Political Development up to $1985$; (9) Caribbean Society ($1900-1985$).

Format of the Examinations

The examination consists of three papers at the General Proficiency level:

1. Paper 01 (Multiple Choice): Consists of $60$ items based on the Core. Five items are set on each of the $10$ topics, plus $10$ items on general trends. Worth $35\%$ of total marks. Time: $1$ hour $15$ minutes.
2. Paper 02 (Short-answer and Essay): Consists of $18$ questions ($2$ per theme). Candidates answer three questions (one from each section). Sections vary yearly between short-answer and extended essay formats. Worth $44\%$ of total marks. Time: $2$ hours.
3. Paper 03/1 (SBA): A research project (minimum $1000$ words) marked by the school. Worth $21\%$ of total marks.
4. Paper 03/2 (Alternative to SBA): A written examination based on source documents from the Core for private candidates. Worth $21\%$.

Mark Allocation by Profile Dimension

• Knowledge and Comprehension (KC): Raw Marks = $90$ ($53\%$).
• Use of Knowledge, Enquiry, and Communication (UK&EC): Raw Marks = $80$ ($47\%$).
• Total Raw Marks: $170$.

Detailed Core Content Guide

A. Indigenous Peoples

• Migration through North, Central, and South America to the Caribbean.
• Locations: Taino (Arawak), Kalinago (Carib), and Maya.
• Organisation: Social, religious, political, and economic structures.

B. The Europeans

• Factors for exploration up to the end of the $17th$ century: wind systems, currents, technology, trade, religion, and rivalry.
• Spanish colonisation effects.
• Rivalry up to $1763$: piracy, privateering, buccaneering, and warfare.

C. Economic Revolution and African Enslavement

• Overview of $15th$ century West African societies.
• Transition from tobacco to sugar and logwood to mahogany.
• Procurement, transportation, and sale of Africans; Plantation Society organisation.

D. Slave Resistance

• Control measures and resistance forms (male and female).
• Maroons: Origins and achievements.
• Revolts: Haiti ($1791-1804$), Berbice ($1763$), Barbados ($1816$), Demerara ($1823$), Jamaica ($1831$).

E. Emancipation and Apprenticeship

• Abolition of the Trans-Atlantic trade.
• Amelioration proposals and factors leading to full abolition.
• Main provisions of the Emancipation Act; problems of the Apprenticeship system.

F. 19th Century Migration

• Push/pull factors for Liberated Africans, Madeirans, Germans, French, Indians, and Chinese.
• Living/working conditions and socio-economic effects.

G. The Peasantry (1838–1900)

• Factors facilitating/hindering the development of the Caribbean peasant population.
• Free village movement and the Indo-Caribbean peasantry in Trinidad and Guyana.

H. United States Influence

• Factors (economic, political, ideological) up to $1962$.
• Interventions: Cuba/Puerto Rico ($1898$), Panama ($1904$), Haiti ($1915$), Dominican Republic ($1916$), Grenada ($1983$).
• Reaction to the Cuban Revolution ($1959-1962$).

I. Popular Protests in the 1930s

• Factors creating the protests.
• Leaders (male and female).
• Consequences: Moyne Commission, trade unions, and political parties.

J. Independence and Integration

• Unification attempts up to $1962$.
• Constitutional steps in British territories.
• Arrangements in French/Dutch Antilles and Puerto Rico.

Specific Theme Content (Thematic Sections)

Theme 1: The Indigenous Peoples and the Europeans

• Migration patterns to $1492$.
• Taino, Kalinago, and Maya: Social interaction, political leadership, and economic self-sufficiency.
• Art forms: Architecture, music, painting, pottery, sculpture.
• Beliefs: Polytheism, animism, ancestral worship; Science: math, agriculture, astronomy.
• Columbus's motifs: "Gold, God, Glory."
• Impacts: Demographic changes, colonisation, diseases, and provision of crafts/labor.

Theme 2: Caribbean Economy and Slavery

• Reasons for crop changes (tobacco to sugar; logwood to mahogany).
• Justification for African enslavement.
• Plantation organisation: Physical layout, factory/manufacturing processes (fermentation, distillation, bottling for rum).
• Cultural forms: Religion, language, dress, music, food, medicine.

Theme 3: Resistance and Revolt

• Slave control: Legal, psychological, ideological, and physical.
• Maroon societies in Jamaica, Suriname, and Guyana.
• Haitian Revolution: Causes, course ($1791-1804$), and impact on the regional spread of revolution.

Theme 4: Metropolitan Movements toward Emancipation

• Impact of $19th$ century revolts on the emancipation timeline.
• Arguments: Economic, humanitarian, and religious.
• Comparison of British, French, and Spanish movements.
• Clauses of the $1833$ Emancipation Act (Compensation, Apprenticeship, Freedom).

Theme 5: Adjustments to Emancipation (1838–1876)

• Sugar industry problems: Labor, capital, and free trade.
• Emergence of Free Villages; role of the Colonial Office.
• Crown Colony Government adoption due to Old Representative Government failure.

Theme 6: Caribbean Economy (1875–1985)

• Sugarcane crisis: Technology backwardness, competition from beet producers.
• Crisis resolution: Imperial policy, science, and technology.
• Diversification: Growth of Cuban sugar industry; extractive and service industries; industrialisation effects (urbanisation and impact on women).

Theme 7: The USA in the Caribbean (1776–1985)

• US Interests: Defence, expansionism, trade routes, and ideology.
• Castro Revolution ($1959$): Policies (nationalism, communism), US responses (embargo, military intervention), and the Cold War impact.

Theme 8: Caribbean Political Development

• Failure of early unification (Leeward Islands $1674, 1871$; Windward Islands $1874-1876$).
• Movements toward the British West Indies Federation ($1945-1958$) and its collapse in $1962$.
• Alternatives to independence: Plebiscite/Commonwealth (Puerto Rico), Tripartite Kingdom (Netherlands Antilles), Departments (French islands).

Theme 9: Caribbean Society (1900–1985)

• Conditions: Housing, unemployment, cost of living.
• Improvement agents: UNIA, trade unions, women's organisations.
• Religion: Established/Evangelical Christian churches, Hindu, Muslim, African-Christian syncretic religions (Orisha, Shango, Kumina, Spiritual Baptists), and Rastafarianism.

School-Based Assessment (SBA) Guidelines

• Requirement: A single research project on the Core, Themes, or Local History.
• Length: $1000$ words (excluding bibliography and appendices).
• Topic: Must be in question form, testable, and bound by a specific timeframe.
• Examples: "In what ways did Taino culture differ from that of the Mayan in the pre-Columbian period?"
• Schedule: Submission of title, description, collection completion, first draft, and final completion.
• Mark Scheme (Total: 35):   - Area of Research: $2$ marks.   - Rationale: $3$ marks.   - Collection of Data: $8$ marks.   - Analysis and Interpretation: $10$ marks ($6$ for analysis, $4$ for conclusions).   - Presentation and Documentation: $12$ marks ($6$ for language, $6$ for conventions).

Alternative to School-Based Assessment (Paper 03/2)

This paper consists of five compulsory questions based on source documents. Specific topics are assigned to the Core for examinations from $2011$ to $2017$:

• 2011: Emancipation and Apprenticeship.
• 2012–2013: The coming of the Chinese, Europeans, Indians, and Africans.
• 2014–2015: The Establishment of the Peasantry, $1838$ to $1900$.
• 2016–2017: The United States’ influence in the Caribbean.

Glossary of Instructional Terms

• Describe: Provide factual information/illustrate in words (Level 1/2).
• Identify: Name or point out specific features (Level 1).
• Outline: Give main features or general ideas (Level 1).
• Account for: Explain by relating circumstances/giving reasons (Level 3/4).
• Explain: Make plain, give causes, or show logical relationships (Level 3/4).
• Examine: Identify and evaluate key elements/arguments (Level 3/4).
• Analyze: Break down info into components to understand structure (Level 4).
• Discuss: Present reasoned arguments for and against (Level 5/6).
• Compare: Present similarities and differences (Level 6).
• Assess: Identify strengths and weaknesses (Level 6).