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NSW Curriculum
NSW Education Standards Authority

11–12Modern History 11–12 Syllabus

Record of changes
Implementation from 2027
Expand for detailed implementation advice

Content

Year 11

The shaping of the modern world

Students investigate forces and ideas that shaped the modern world through a study of key events and developments and the meaning of modernity. The historical concepts and skills content is to be integrated as appropriate.

Students study at least ONE of the following options:

  • The Age of Enlightenment
  • The French Revolution
  • The Age of Imperialism
  • The Industrial Age
  • The First World War
  • The Age of Decolonisation
The Age of Enlightenment
The historical context
  • Forces contributing to the Age of Enlightenment

  • The nature and impact of the Early Enlightenment 1685–1730, including the Scientific Revolution

The nature of the Age of Enlightenment
  • Key Enlightenment ideas, including humanism, rationalism and secularism

  • The development of differing approaches to the key Enlightenment ideas in a range of social and political contexts

  • The nature and impact of the Enlightenment 1730–1815, including revolutions and proto-feminism

  • The emergence of new movements and secret societies, including the Freemasons and the Illuminati

The significance of the Age of Enlightenment
  • The influence of the Enlightenment on other intellectual movements, including liberalism, classicism and modernism

  • The broader significance of the Enlightenment beyond Europe

  • Criticisms of the Enlightenment

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