History / Year 8 / Historical Knowledge and Understanding / Overview of the ancient to modern world

Curriculum content descriptions

key features of the medieval world (feudalism, trade routes, voyages of discovery, contact and conflict) (ACOKFH009)

Elaborations
  • identifying the major civilisations of the period (Byzantine, Celtic, Anglo-Saxon, Viking, Ottoman, Khmer, Mongols, Yuan and Ming dynasties, Aztec, Inca); where and when they existed; and their extent (for example, the Vikings through Europe, the Mongols across Eurasia, and the Spanish in the Americas)
  • locating the major trading routes (including the Mediterranean; the Silk Road; the sea route between China, India and the east coast of Africa; and the Columbian Exchange) on a map and identifying the nature of the trade/contact (for example, along the Silk Road – slaves, spices, silk, glassware, spread of knowledge and diseases)
  • describing beliefs about the world and the voyages of discovery (European and Asian), the nature of the voyages and the redrawing of the map of the world
  • explaining the significance of land ownership in the practice of feudalism and the nature of feudalism in Europe (for example, knights) and Japan (for example, samurai)
General capabilities
  • Intercultural understanding Intercultural understanding
ScOT terms

Conflict (Human relations),  Classical antiquity,  Feudalism,  Exploration,  First contact,  Distribution (Marketing)

Video

Systems of Exchange and Trade

This short (4 minute) video offers an overview of the history of world trade, focusing on the beginnings during the time of agrarian civilisations. The four great civilisations of the Romans, the Kushans, the Parthians and the Han Chinese were the key players, with their development of roads, ports and coin systems. The ...

Video

Impact of European settlement on Aboriginal Tasmanians video

Aboriginal Tasmanians had inhabited Tasmania for over 40,000 years before the arrival of European settlers. What do you think life was like for Aboriginal Tasmanians before then? Why might have they embarked on a war, called the 'Black War', once settlers began arriving in Tasmania, despite existing relatively peacefully ...

Online

Australia's Trade through Time

Using an interactive timeline created by the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade, this Teacher guide provides 12 series of learning experiences that engage students in the analysis and interpretation of data about Australian trade from 1900 to the present day. Students study videos, tables, images and texts in order ...

Audio

Radio National: Peter Lalor's Bakery Hill speech

What events led to the attack on the Eureka Stockade (Eureka rebellion) on the Ballarat goldfield in 1854? This audio clip examines the famous Bakery Hill speech by activist Peter Lalor. Listen to Dr Anne Beggs-Sunter discuss the effect that the speech had on the assembled miners. Find out why this is considered a key event ...

Online

Indigenous Stories about War and Invasion

This is a website about Indigenous experiences of invasion and war during the British invasion, World War I and World War II. The resource is presented in three sections: Introductory information; Story Objects; and Story Education Resources. There are eight story objects that tell the stories of individuals, events and ...

Interactive

Fish market

Buy and sell fish in trading markets in a range of Australian and New Zealand cities. Compare market prices, supply and demand. Get to know other traders to find the best deals and discover new markets. Find a rare fish. Maximise your profit and reputation as a smart trader. This learning object is the last in a series ...

Interactive

Resistance

This resource is a virtual tour of the Resistance exhibition at The National Museum of Australia showing different responses by Aboriginal people to British colonisation. See videos and enlarged views of objects and texts in the exhibition.

Interactive

The Curators Table

This is a web-based and iPad compatible resource aligned with Years 6 and 9 Australian Curriculum (AC): History; it encourages students to think and act like historians. Primary and secondary sources - such as posters, video and personal letters – as well as a chronology have been brought together to support learning about ...

Interactive

Syllabus Bites: Ancient India

This resource is a webpage with information, study guide and resources on the depth study, The Asian world: India, to support the Australian Curriculum in History.

Interactive

Sites2See: Gallipoli

This resource features the ABC resource 'Gallipoli: The First Day' which uses diaries, photos and interview clips, 3D graphics and videos to bring a new perspective to the first hours of the campaign. Includes additional activities and resources for study.

Text

Looking after the land

This is a resource about the environmental, climatic, natural disaster and pest challenges faced during settlement in Australia. It includes details about land management techniques; extreme and unique weather conditions, including floods and droughts; bushfires; animal and plant pests; and water management. Text, images, ...

Interactive

Syllabus Bites: The First Emperor

This resource is about the role of Qin Shi Huang in Ancient Chinese history. The resource first examines how the state of Qin emerged from the Warring State period as the dominant force before considering the achievements of Qin Shi Huang, such as the measures he took in unifying China. His tyrannical behaviour is then ...

Interactive

Syllabus bites – Ancient China

This resource outlines the geography, social structure and daily life of Ancient China. Includes links to interactive web resources and quizzes.

Text

Life on the land

This is a resource about life on the land in Australia in the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries. It includes details about land grants allocation, the establishment of Australia's first farms, the condition of the land, the processes used to farm the land, and case studies about the early farming families in Australia. The ...

Video

The historical legacy of John Glover

English artist John Glover emigrated to Van Diemen's Land in 1831. He settled on a generous land grant called "Patterdale", near Deddington in northern Tasmania. Many of Glover’s artworks provide historical records of the people, plants and animals who lived in the area, as well as the changes wrought by European settlement.

Online

The First Fleet - dataset collections

The dataset provides information about 780 of the convicts transported to Australia on the First Fleet ships 'Alexander', 'Charlotte', 'Lady Penrhyn', 'Friendship', 'Prince of Wales' and 'Scarborough' in 1788. The dataset includes information on items such as the convict's name, occupation, crime, date of trial and term ...

Image

Enrolling in the Land Army, c1944

This is a posed black-and-white photograph, measuring 24.7 cm x 19 cm and taken around 1944 in Drouin, Victoria by Jim Fitzpatrick. It shows a formally dressed young woman seated in front of a desk labelled 'War Agricultural Committee'. A man, seated behind the desk, is handing her a book entitled 'Food front'. The furniture ...

Image

Sled dogs at the South Pole, 1911

This is a 1911 black-and-white sepia-toned photograph, taken by Roald Amundsen (1872-1928) at the South Pole, of a dog team hitched to a loaded sled on the snow. A figure dressed in Arctic-style cold weather gear stands beside the sled and a Norwegian flag is stuck in the snow. Apart from three other dogs tethered behind ...

Audio

Alexandra Shackleton discusses Ernest Shackleton, 2005

This is an edited sound recording of the Hon Alexandra Shackleton, grand-daughter of the Antarctic explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton. She recounts aspects of his leadership of a 1907-09 expedition to Antarctica, relating how, for the sake of the survival of his team, he abandoned his bid to be the first to reach the geographic ...

Image

Concert room at Ballarat, 1855

This is a watercolour, measuring 22.8 cm x 31.9 cm, by Samuel Thomas Gill (1818-80), a famous colonial artist. It shows Charles Thatcher (1831-78), a comic singer well known on the gold fields, performing popular songs on stage at the Charlie Napier Hotel in Ballarat with a female accompanist. The painting has the artist's ...