Achievement Standard:
- Year 9: Students analyse the causes and effects of events and developments and make judgements about their importance.
- Year 10: Students analyse the causes and effects of events and developments and explain their relative importance.
But what does that mean?
- Cause: a thing that gives rise to an action, phenomenon, or condition “The cause of the accident is not clear”
- Effect: a change which is the result or consequence of an action “The accident had the effect of Government changing the speed limit in this area”
- Cause and effect: explain why things happened the way they did
- Judgement: the ability to make considered decisions or come to sensible conclusions
So, cause and effect help us, as historians, explain why things happened the way they did and what influence those events had on the world.
You might be saying to yourself … “but Adam, I am not an Historian, History is boring”. If you tell informative stories about things that happen to yourself or your friends/family then you are an historian. If you’ve ever watched a movie or a show on Medieval Warfare and thought “cool” then you are an historian.
Judgement (and also “explaining their relative importance”) is about how we as narrators of history can make considered decisions about the history and tell meaningful and useful stories to inform and educate others.
But what does that mean? Let’s talk war: World War I.
What were the causes of WWI?
- Cause: a thing that gives rise to an action, phenomenon, or condition “The cause of the accident is not clear.”
- Effect: a change which is the result or consequence of an action “The accident had the effect of Government changing the speed limit in this area.”
- Cause and effect: explain why things happened the way they did
- Judgement: the ability to make considered decisions or come to sensible conclusions
So, cause and effect help us, as historians, explain why things happened the way they did and what influence those events had on the world.
You might be saying to yourself … “but Adam, I am not a Historian, History is boring”. If you tell informative stories about things that happen to yourself or your friends/family, then you are a historian. If you’ve ever watched a movie or a show on Medieval Warfare and thought “cool” then you are a historian.
Judgement (and also “explaining their relative importance”) is about how we as narrators of history can make considered decisions about the history and tell meaningful and useful stories to inform and educate others.
But what does that mean? Let’s talk war: World War I.
What were the causes of WWI?
- Competition among Industrialised European countries to build empires
- Alliance formed between European countries
- The assassination of Archduke Ferdinand
- German U-Boats sank the passenger ship the Lusitania
- European countries helped their alliances
How did WWI affect future events?
- The treaty of Versailles was signed
- Germany was punished by having to give up land to countries they had invaded.
- Germany had to officially accept total responsibility for beginning the war
- Germany was ordered to pay millions of dollars in damages to other countries (or the equivalent of 670 billion dollars in 2020)
- extensive military restrictions
- giving up land to countries Germany invaded.
- More than a million soldiers were killed
- The German Economy was dangerously week for more than a decade
- Led to Adolf Hitler being elected
Discussion: Could the effects of WWI have directly lead to WWII? Why? Why not?
Growing understanding: Think of a recent historical event (including recent events that have been well documented in the news) and list causes and events. Some examples might be:
- Recently, the NSW Police force has been in the centre of a national debate with their practice of strip searches on young people, specifically young people who are going to music festivals. What may be the causes that enabled this kind of policy and what effects may policies like this have on young people?
- A historical event that relates to your passion project.
Muliyan 