Year 8
Key Words
Abdicate: run away or resign from a formal
position (eg a monarchy)
Abolition: banning/put an end to something
Activists: people acting to bring about change (eg
political or social)
Alliances: an agreement between two or more
countries to support each other
Allies: people/countries on the same side, for
example in war
Anti-Semitism: prejudice against Jews
Apartheid: a strict system of segregation seen in
South Africa in the twentieth century
Appeasement: trying to keep another nation
happy by doing what it asks Area bombing:
bombing whole towns and cities to make sure
that everything is destroyed
Armistice: a truce where both sides agree to stop
fighting for a time, ceasefire
Arms race: a race between countries to build up
the biggest army with the best weapons
Artillery: large heavy guns, the a Royal Artillery is
the section of the army that uses them
Assassinate: to kill a public figure (eg politician or
monarch)
Boycott: refuse to use or buy
British Commonwealth: a group of independent,
free countries with close links to Britain
Capitalist: people who believe in an economic
system in which the production and distribution
of goods depend on private money and profit
making
Censored: controlled or banned
Civil rights: some of the most important human
rights
Civilians: people who are not part of the armed
forces
Colony/ colonies: a country ruled by another
country
Communism: a theory that everyone in society
should be equal and everything should be shared
(links to Communist)
Communist: a person or political party that seeks
a society in which all property is publicly owned
and each person is paid and works according to
his or her needs and ability
Concentration camps: prison camps for specific
groups of people where inmates are often
treated with great brutality
Conscientious objectors: men who refused to
fight in war or join the army because they
believed that war was always wrong
Conscription: a law that forces all men (and
sometimes women) to join the armed forces if
and when they are needed
History Department
Court martial: military court
Democracy: a system of government where the
whole population has the right to vote for their
government in regular elections
Depression: a long period of financial and
industrial decline
Desertion: running away or abandoning
something, for example the army
Dictatorship: a form of government where a
country is entirely controlled by one person
Dressing station: a place for giving emergency
treatment to the wounded
Duckboards: wooden boards placed on the
ground of trenches to stop people from sinking in
the mud
Dugout: a roofed shelter built into the wall of a
trench
Dysentery: a disease of the intestines
Empire: a group of countries, or colonies, that is
under the authority of the country which
conquered them
Entrepreneur: someone who makes money from
establishing a business
Eugenics: the scientific study of how to improve
races
Evacuate: to move people out of a dangerous
place
Export: transporting and selling goods that are
made in Britain abroad
Factor(s): reasons or causes of something
Fascist: a person or political party with extreme
right-wing views (often including racism,
nationalism, and complete obedience to
authority)
Final Solution: The Nazi policy to exterminate all
the Jews in Europe
Fire step: a raised platform on which soldiers
stood to look over and fire over the top of the
trenches
Front line: the land nearest the enemy, where
the fighting takes place
Führer: 'Supreme Leader' in German, Hitler’s
name for himself
Genocide: deliberate extermination of people,
based on their race, religion or political beliefs
Gestapo: Hitler’s secret police force
Ghetto: an enclosed part of a city or separate
area in which people live, sometimes by force
Hereditary: passed on from parent to children
Holocaust: a name given for the Nazis attempt to
wipe out the Jewish race
Human rights: the basic rights and freedoms to
which all humans should be entitled
Year 8
Key Words
Import: when goods are brought into Britain from
abroad
Indoctrinated: brainwashed into thinking a
certain way
Infer: to suggest
Integration: the mixing or uniting of different
racial groups
Justify: to put forward arguments, to defend
Long term cause: a reason or cause of something
that has built up over several years
Luftwaffe: the German Air Force
Martyr: someone who is killed for, or is willing to
die for, a cause in which they strongly believe
Middle Passage: the journey made by
slaves/slave ships across the Atlantic Ocean from
Africa to the West Indies
Migration: moving from one country to another
Munitions: weapons and ammunition
Neutral: a country is neutral if it does not side
with countries involved in a conflict
Overseer: a person in charge of a group of
workers
Pact: a formal agreement between
countries/nations, a treaty
Pals Battalion/ regiment: a regiment made up of
soldiers from the same town or area
Pardon: forgiveness for a crime
Passive resistance: To resist authority in a
peaceful, non-violent way
Persecution: the regular mistreatment of one
group of people by another group
Plantations: estates in the West Indies where
sugar cane was grown, or tobacco and cotton in
estates in the United States
Propaganda: Information, usually false or
misleading, given out to spread a certain point of
view
Quaker: a type of Christian with a strong belief in
peace
Rationing: limiting the amount of food, fuel and/
or goods that could be bought
Rearmament: building up armed forces and
increasing stocks of weapons
Reforms: changes made with the intention to
improve something
Regiment: a unit of the army usually commanded
by a colonel and divided into several smaller
companies
Reliability: the trustworthiness of something- is it
balanced or is it one-sided?
Reparations: compensation paid for war damage
by a defeated country
History Department
Republic: a country in which supreme power is
held by elected representatives of the people,
not by a monarch
Sabotage: deliberate damage of equipment,
resources or plans/operations in order to hinder
progress
Scapegoat: a person or group of people who are
blamed for something in the place of the real
culprits
Secular: of the world, not religious
Segregation: separation of different racial groups
Shells: large bullets that are fired over long
distances, usually from artillery guns
Short term cause: a reason or cause of something
that has recently appeared/happened
Significance: importance
Slave: someone owned by another person
Soviet: belonging to the USSR (Union of Soviet
Socialist Republics, Russia and her territories) also
known as the Soviet Union
SS: schutzstaffel, the Nazi secret police force
Stalemate: a situation where no progress can be
made
Stereotype: to characterise someone or
something to be a certain way, often without
truth or evidence
Sterilised: made unable to have children
Sump: a basic drain beneath the duckboard of
trenches intended to carry water away
Superpowers: the most powerful
states/countries in the world
Swastika: an ancient symbol that was altered and
used by the Nazis
Terrorism: committing acts of violence in an
attempt to force people to agree to demands
Terrorist: a person who carries out acts of
terrorism
Total war: war that affected the whole country,
not just the soldiers fighting but the people back
at home
Treaty: a contract/agreement between two or
more countries
Triple Alliance: the alliance made up of Germany,
Austria-Hungary, and Italy at the beginning of
World War One
Triple Entente: the alliance made up of Britain,
France and Russia at the beginning of World War
One
United Nations: an international peace keeping
organisation
Usefulness: how helpful is it to your argument?
Whigs: a political party in the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries who supported reform