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Elizabeth I - GCSE History Revision - AQA - BBC Bitesize

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GCSE History Elizabeth I learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers.

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GCSE History Germany learning resources for adults, children, parents and teachers.

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Review top, middle and entry level answers to assess what you need to do to improve your work.

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Overview of course content to check you have completed classwork/revision/home learning

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Revision activities specifically designed for the new AQA History 8145 exam, specifically Paper 2 Elizabethan England and Paper 1 Germany

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The '9-1' AQA specification for GCSE History, examined from summer 2018.

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Excellent collection of podcasts, articles and sources to support Paper 1, Conflict, 1894-1918

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During the First World War, Britain came under attack from the air, putting civilians in the firing line for the very first time. At the start of the war, Britain was ill-prepared to deal with the threat from enemy airships and aircraft. Traditionally its home defence focussed on defending the coastline rather than its airspace and with most of the Royal Flying Corps (RFC) operating overseas, few aircraft remained to defend Britain.

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World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 - 11 November 1918) - Explore objects, photographs, film and documents in IWM's collection World War 1

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Great selection of revision activities from John Mitchell

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Quick podcasts, perfect for recapping knowledge and checking on understanding. Paper 1Germany: Democracy and Dictatorship podcasts currently available.

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An award-winning digital publisher for 28+ GCSE/IGCSE subjects. We are dedicated to improving the working lives of teachers and making GCSE learning stick.

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A to B challenge yourself to answer as many different coloured questions as possible as you make it from A to B

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Summary of cause, event and consequence leading up to the outbreak of war

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Can you make the connections between the different causes of war - cut the hexagons out and see how many other hexagons they can sit next to by explaining the links between them.

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Adapt this planning sheet for alternative 16 mark questions e.g. technology was the main cause of stalemate in the First World War; US intervention was the main cause of Germany's defeat in the First World War

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Revision quilt looking at different themes in Elizabethan England

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Revision quilt looking at different themes in Elizabethan England

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Fantastic resource from Mr Mosley - can you categorise all the different events using the key at the bottom?

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Knowledge organiser for Elizabethan court and parliament

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Knowledge organiser for Elizabethan court and parliament

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Knowledge organiser: marriage and end of Elizabeth's reign

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Knowledge organiser: marriage and end of Elizabeth's reign

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Life in Nazi Germany Revision clock.pptx

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Haig - military genius or ‘butcher of the Somme’?

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Haig - military genius or ‘butcher of the Somme’?

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Dan Snow’s History Hit looks at the evidence

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The negative reputation of Field Marshal Douglas Haig, the commander of British forces on the Western Front during World War One, rests to a large degree on his performance at the Somme. Indeed, the bloodshed of the summer of 1916 has more or less been roundly laid at his door. But is the blame justified?

The plan

The offensive on the Somme was initially conceived as part of a wider strategy to wear down the German Army by attacking it on all fronts in 1916. The French took the lead in planning the offensive on the Western Front and Haig played second fiddle to commander-in-chief Joseph Joffre.

The Somme was not Haig's favoured battleground. He would have preferred to launch an attack in Flanders, where the terrain was better and the objectives of greater strategic value.

By the summer of 1916, the German attack at Verdun had left the French unable to commit forces on the scale they had envisioned. The result was an under-resourced attack in an unfavourable location of little to no strategic value.

The first day

It is well-known that, by the end of the first day of fighting on the Somme, few objectives had been secured while 19,000 British soldiers were dead. The scale of loss suffered in the first attacks can be attributed to the failure of the Allied artillery to neutralise German defences.

Like the British Army at large, the artillery was on a steep learning curve. Many of the shells fired during the week-long preparatory bombardment were duds. Of those that did explode, too many were shrapnel shells rather than high explosive, which made little impression on barbed wire and reinforced dug outs.

Haig had been convinced of the efficacy of the preparatory bombardment and believed Allied forces would face little to no resistance as they crossed No Man's Land.

The problem of scale

In 1914, Britain went to war with a small professional army. By 1916, the British Expeditionary Force in France numbered two million. This rapid expansion in scale caused major structural challenges for Haig, whose staff had no experience of commanding such large forces.

Not only were the armies bigger, but so were the fronts. The Battle of the Somme took place over a front stretching 15 miles.

Communication

Proponents of the "lions led by donkeys" argument point to the fact that senior commanders tended to be stationed a distance away from the front lines, while the humble soldier slogged it out in the trenches.

But there was good reason for this. The length of the front meant commanders needed to be a further away to get a complete picture of what was happening. However, communications technology was not yet up to the task of keeping commanders updated about the rapidly changing situation at the front. As a result, at the Somme, Haig often made decisions based on out-of-date information.

Where Haig is undoubtedly guilty, is in his decision to continue the offensive into November 1916. By October, poor weather and continuous artillery bombardment had created a hellish environment for both the Allies and the Germans. Yet Haig prolonged this hell for no real strategic or tactical purpose.

Was it worth it?

Over the course of the battle, about one million men were killed, wounded or captured. Haig maintained that the battle achieved the goal of eroding the German Army and its will to fight. But attrition swallowed up Allied manpower and material just as quickly as it did the Germans'.

The scale of the Allied offensive on the Somme had nevertheless come as a shock to the Germans. It was clear that victory on the Western Front was nowhere in sight and planners feared that German industry would not be able to keep up with demand.

In 1917, the Germans carried out a planned retreat to the Hindenburg Line, a line of fortifications that could be defended with fewer men. It may have looked like a victory for the Allies but the reality was quite different, as subsequent operations against the line in 1917 would show.

Haig has been nicknamed "The Butcher of the Somme". But the idea that he wilfully and knowingly sent tens of thousands of Allied soldiers to their deaths is overly simplistic and fails to acknowledge the severe challenges facing a commander in charge of an inexperienced mass army, on a scale unlike anything seen before.

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Was Douglas Haig Really "The Butcher of the Somme"?

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The negative reputation of Field Marshal Douglas Haig, the commander of British forces on the Western Front during World War One, rests to a large...

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Revision clock: Elizabethan England - exploration, theatres

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Revision clock: Elizabethan England - exploration, theatres

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Go to:

AQA: NEW: History (9-1): Paper 1: Understanding the modern world

- scroll down for podcasts on Germany, Democracy and Dictatorship

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Go to:

AQA: NEW: History (9-1): Paper 2: Shaping the nation - scroll down for podcasts on Elizabethan England.

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Paper 2 Elizabethan England, c. 1568-1603

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Paper 2 Elizabethan England, c. 1568-1603

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Revision clock: Elizabethan England - religion, court, rebellions

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Revision clock: Elizabethan England - religion, court, rebellions

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Paper 1: Germany, democracy & dictatorship June 2019 paper

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Paper 1: Germany, democracy & dictatorship June 2019 paper

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Germany: Democracy & Dictatorship June 2019

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Germany: Democracy & Dictatorship June 2019

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Paper 2: Elizabethan England insert 2019

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Paper 2: Elizabethan England insert 2019

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At the end of the 8th century there was no such thing as 'Britain'- in fact England did not exist as a unified kingdom for another century and a half. The story of how an island at the edge of the northern Atlantic grew to control most of the world's trade and rule a quarter of the world's population began with the of the different kingdoms of England in the 10th century in response to the threat of raids and invasions.

King Alfred the Great defeated the Vikings by creating unity amongst the Anglo- against their common enemy but he also accepted the establishment of a separate Viking kingdom that covered large areas of England, which became a magnet for from across Scandinavia. The Viking kingdom, known as the , was gradually absorbed into England but its people retained strong cultural connections to Scandinavia. This made it easy for the eventual conquest of England in 1016 by the Danish King Cnut who made England the centre of a North Sea Empire that included Scandinavia and Ireland.

The disintegration of Cnut's North Sea Empire in 1035 created the political instability that made England the target of another foreign invasion force, this time from Normandy in Northern France. The Norman Conquest of 1066 shifted England's political outlook south, towards Continental Europe. The of large numbers of Normans after the Conquest introduced the French language and French culture to England. This connection to France had a strong influence on England's development between 1066 and 1453.

Throughout this period, the kings of England also held land in France; at one point during the reign of King Henry II in the late 12th century, England was part of a vast that stretched from the Scottish border to the Pyrenees Mountains. People and goods moved freely between England and the rest of Europe and this increased the wealth and prestige of the English Crown. The loss of these French territories in the 13th and 14th centuries was a setback for English imperial ambitions. That change also saw English replacing French as the official language of government.

A growing sense of English national identity encouraged King Edward III to invade France in 1346 to restore the French territories of the old Angevin Empire. This attempt to conquer French territory for England was the start of the which ended in defeat for England. However the famous victories England enjoyed during the war would go down in history. The battles at Crecy, Poitiers and Agincourt helped to form a distinctive and unique national identity.

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Wars and invasions - the Vikings, Normans and French - Britain, migration and empire overview, c790 - present day - GCSE History Revision - AQA - BBC Bitesize

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Learn about and revise Migration, empires and people c790 - present day with this BBC Bitesize GCSE History (AQA) study guide.

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Paper 1: Germany democracy & dictatorship

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Paper 1: Germany democracy & dictatorship

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Paper 1: Germany democracy & dictatorship

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Paper 1: Germany democracy & dictatorship