History

Cambridge IGCSE History offers students the opportunity to study world history in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. It encourages learners to raise questions and to develop and deploy historical skills, knowledge and understanding in order to provide historical explanations. Learners explore history from a diversity of perspectives, including social, economic, cultural and political.  

A key benefit of the course is that it is international recognised and also gives students examination preparation skills they will be able to use in either their HSC or IB Diploma. 

Students undertaking IGSCE History at Newington will examine the following topics: 

• The Nineteenth Century: the development of modern nation states, 1848–1914;  
• The Second World War in Europe and the Asia–Pacific, 1939–c.1945 

The Nineteenth Century topic examines six questions relating to the development of nation states in the 1800s, including: 

• Were the revolutions of 1848 important?  
• How was Italy unified?  
• How was Germany unified? 
• Why was there a civil war in the United States and what were its results?
• Why, and with what effects, did nations gain and expand their overseas empires in the nineteenth century?  
• What caused the First World War? 

The Second World War topic is an extensive investigation into the Second World War in both Europe and the Pacific, examining its causes, impact on participants including civilians and reasons for Allied victory across all theatres.