Skip to content

A NSW Government website

Welcome to the NSW Curriculum website

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

Investigating modern history – Case studies

Students study at least TWO case studies, choosing ONE from List A and ONE from List B. The case studies may incorporate methods and issues involved in investigating the modern past, as relevant.

Teachers may develop their own case studies. These may be designed to provide a context for options selected from the Year 12 course but must not overlap with or duplicate significantly any option attempted in the Year 12 Modern History or History Extension courses. Teacher-developed case studies must follow the geographical division indicated in Lists A and B.

List A: Case studies from Australia, Europe and North America

  • List A: Australia and the rise of communism
  • List A: Making change: The Day of Mourning to the National Apology to the Stolen Generations
  • List A: The changing nature of Anglo–Irish relations
  • List A: The decline and fall of the Romanov dynasty
  • List A: The transatlantic slave trade
  • List A: The American Civil War
  • List A: The rise of the American environmental movement
  • List A: Women’s movements

List B: Case studies from Asia, the Pacific, Africa, the Middle East and Latin America

  • List B: The Boxer Rebellion in China
  • List B: The British in India and Burma
  • List B: The Meiji Restoration
  • List B: Tibet in the modern world
  • List B: Contact in the Pacific
  • List B: The making of modern South Africa
  • List B: The origins of the Arab–Israeli conflict

Other possible case studies related to List A could include:

  • Pemulwuy
  • Maximilien Robespierre and the Terror
  • Queen Victoria and the Victorian Age
  • Leon Trotsky
  • The American Revolution
  • Toussaint Louverture and the Haitian Revolution

Other possible case studies related to List B could include:

  • Empress Dowager Cixi
  • Sun Yat-sen and the end of imperial China
  • India under Jawaharlal Nehru and Indira Gandhi
  • Ho Chi Minh
  • Pol Pot and the Khmer Rouge
  • The New Zealand (Māori) Wars
  • The Kingdom of Kongo
  • The Mahdi and the siege of Khartoum
  • Mustafa Kemal Atatürk
  • The dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet

Teacher-developed case studies must include the aspects of study identified in the following framework:

  • the historical context
  • the nature of the features, people, ideas, movements, events and developments selected for study
  • a relevant historical debate or issue.
List A: Women’s movements
The historical context
  • An overview of the social and political roles of women in the West in the 19th century

  • The contribution of suffragettes to the legal and political entitlements of women

  • The significance of the First and Second World Wars for women and their social and political status

The nature of women’s movements
  • The ambitions and impact of women’s movements in the 1960s and 1970s

  • The contribution of ONE individual or group to women’s movements

  • Postwar social, economic and technological developments that affected women’s lives

  • The impact of women’s movements in challenging ‘gender roles’

  • The achievements and legacies of women’s movements, including the role of women in leadership

  • A women’s movement in ONE non-Western nation or area of the world

  • Opposition to women’s movements

  • The nature of women’s demands in the 21st century

A relevant historical debate or issue
  • Differing interpretations or representations of a debate or issue related to women’s movements

Related files