AC9HH8K09 Year 8 Humanities and Social Sciences

AC9HH8K09 – Year 8 Humanities and Social Sciences: Empires and expansions

Strand

Knowledge and understanding

Substrand

Empires and expansions

This Content Descriptor from Year 8 Humanities and Social Sciences provides the specific knowledge and skills students should learn. Use it to plan lessons, create learning sequences, and design assessments that align with the Australian Curriculum v9.

Content Descriptor

the experiences and perspectives of rulers and of subject peoples, and how the interaction between power and/or authority relates to the empire and/or expansion

Elaborations

• describing the reign of Kublai Khan as the first Mongol emperor of China (the Yuan Dynasty), including the processes of government using administrators from different backgrounds and the growth of Chinese culture during this time
• explaining the role of the Mongols in forging connections between Europe and Asia through conquest, settlement and trade, for example the meeting of Marco Polo and the development of trade
• outlining the millet system that regarded non-Muslim people as subjects but as not being subject to Muslim law
• explaining the tolerance of the Ottomans towards Christians and Jews
• explaining the attacks on monasteries such as Lindisfarne (793 CE) and Iona (795 CE) and reviewing the written accounts of monks that contributed to the Vikings’ reputation for pillaging and violence
• explaining the survival of a heroic Iron Age society in early Medieval Ireland, as described in the vernacular epics, and its transformation by the spread of Christianity, the influence of the Vikings and the Anglo-Norman conquest
• investigating the remains of Viking settlements such as Dublin (Ireland) and Jorvik (York)

Show 2 more elaborations

• describing encounters between Hernán Cortés and the Aztecs, as well as the siege of Tenochtitlan
• investigating the impact of conquest on the Indigenous populations of the Americas (for example, the introduction of new diseases, horses and gunpowder, and the loss of natural resources) and the wider world (for example, the introduction of crops such as maize, beans, potatoes, tobacco and chocolate from the Americas to Europe and increased wealth in Europe)

Achievement Standard This Supports

This Content Descriptor contributes to the following Achievement Standard:

Year 8 ASHAHISY8

Year 8 Humanities and Social Sciences Achievement Standard

By the end of Year 8, students describe the historical significance of the periods between the ancient and modern past. They explain the causes and effects of events, developments, turning points or challenges in Medieval, Renaissance or pre-modern Europe, or in the societies connected to the empires or expansions, or the societies of the Asia-Pacific world during these periods. They describe the social, religious, cultural, economic, environmental and/or political aspects related to the changes and continuities in a society or a historical period. Students describe the role of significant individuals, groups and institutions connected to the societies of these periods and their influences on historical events. Students develop questions about the past to inform historical inquiry. They locate and identify a range of primary and secondary sources as evidence in historical inquiry. They describe the origin, content and context of sources and explain the purpose of primary and secondary sources. Students compare sources to explain the accuracy, usefulness and reliability of sources as evidence. They sequence events and developments to explain causes and effects, and patterns of continuity and change across societies and time periods. They describe perspectives, attitudes and values of the past, and suggest reasons for different points of view. They explain historical interpretations about significant events and people. Students use historical knowledge, concepts, terms and references to evidence from sources to create descriptions, explanations and historical arguments.