Historical Concepts

Historians use these key concepts to help them investigate and understand the past. Please read the
Oxford Humanities textbook Chapter 7 (p240-247) and summarise these key historical concepts:

Perspectives (p240)
o
o
o
o
o

Continuity and change (p241)

o
o
o
o
o

Cause and Effect (p242)

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o
o
o

Evidence (p243)
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o
o
o
o

Empathy (p244)
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o
o
o
o

Significance (p245)
o
o
o
o
o

Contestability (p246-247)
o
o
o
o
TEXTBOOK QUESTIONS – please answer the following:

Remember and understand

Q1. What is the difference between a primary and secondary source? Give an example of each type of
source.

Q2. Which historical concept would be most helpful to historians attempting to understand the factors that
led to certain Indigenous Australian children being taken from their families by force during the 20th
century? Explain your response.

Q3. Historians in Australia have developed two competing interpretations of the experiences of Indigenous
Australians since British settlement. What is this debate commonly referred to? Which historical concept is
this an example of?

Q4. In your own words, define the concept of perspectives. Why is it a useful tool for historians Why did
different people in Australian society have different perspectives on the arrival of Vietnamese boat people
in the 1970s?

Apply and analyse

Q5. Look again at the types of questions historians ask to decide if events, discoveries, people or sites are
historically significant. For example:
 How important was it to people who lived at that time?
 How many people were affected by it?
 To what degree were people’s lives affected by it?
 How widespread and long-lasting were its effects?
 Can its effects still be felt today?

Using the above questions as prompts, place these events in order from most to least significant, providing
a justification for each:
• The signing of the Treaty of Versailles at the end of World War I
• The release of the worldwide hit Wrecking Ball by Miley Cyrus in 2013
• The arrival of Vietnamese immigrants to Australia after the Vietnam War
• The introduction of television to Australia in 1956

Q6. Examine Source 10 (p246) and complete the following tasks.

a) When was this source taken and what are these people shown doing?

b) How might the perspectives of these people differ from the perspective of the Australian
government when it comes to the Australian Bicentennial celebrations? Explain your response.

c) Explain how the historical concept of empathy is useful when conducting a historical inquiry into
the colonisation of Australia by the British?