Module

This resource is aligned to the Australian Curriculum: History for Year 8 students. It adopts an inquiry learning approach that develops students’ skills in investigating the Medieval Europe and the early modern world sub-strand. 

Topic

Throughout human history, societies have grown, matured, and then collapsed, making way for new innovations, people and philosophies to begin the cycle again, building on what came before. The history of Medieval Europe is no different: it has its roots in the collapse of the western Roman Empire in 456 CE.

Topic

Following the collapse of the western Roman Empire, Europe entered a period of cultural, political and economic change. The stabilising force of the Roman Empire gave way and new states and rulers stepped in to fill gaps.

Topic

For most of human history beyond living memory, the main way we know what life was like during the Medieval period is from documentary evidence that remains available to us.

Topic

As time progressed, the number of people who could read did begin to increase, as some countries began to increase the emphasis on educating their people to basic levels.

Topic

Since ancient times, most documents were written by hand. If multiple copies were needed, it would mean making multiple handwritten copies; even with a team of scribes, this was time consuming. It also meant that information could be difficult to read, depending how good a scribe’s handwriting was.

Over 530 pamphlets collected by Meyer (Max) Zwalf on socialism and related subjects published in Europe from 1875 to 1950.

About 600 books and 66 serials, mainly relating to entomology and the natural sciences. Includes works on British entomology as well as Europe, North and South America. About one-third were published in the 18th and 19th centuries.

Explore handwritten diaries that can now be read online.

Around 10,800 items from the period 1829-1922 ranging from a single page to hundreds of pages and documenting British reactions to particular events, problems and crises, as well as Britain's relations generally with particular countries and regions.

Family papers and about 1600 books of the De Salis family from 1850-1920. Covering a broad range of subjects, including classics, religion, history, politics, literature, science, art, and children's books, reflecting the families intellectual interests.

About 140 oral history interviews, the majority for his Maltese-Australian and Polish-Australian folklore and social history projects. Personal papers of York plus papers of the historian Michael Cigler. Also a large quantity of Maltese newspapers, student newspapers, radical pamphlets and ephemera.