Topic

Officially, Cook had been instructed by the British Admiralty to observe the transit of Venus, at Otaheiti (now Tahiti) for the benefit of the Royal Society.

Topic

Before sailing from England, Cook had been handed a series of secret instructions by the Admiralty.

Module

This resource is aligned with the Australian Curriculum: Modern History for Senior Secondary students, with specific reference to content descriptions for Unit 1: Understanding the Modern World, and specifically those that fall under the topic elective ‘The Enlightenment (1750–1789)’.

Topic

During the Enlightenment, social and scientific thinking began to change. Enlightenment thinkers pushed for social change through the separation of church and state and the establishment of constitutional government. 

Topic

The British colonisation of the Americas began in 1606 with the chartering of the Colony of Virginia.

Topic

For centuries, explorers had been funded by their governments and by private investors to set out into unknown parts of the world. Many of these adventures were driven by the potential for profit and resources.

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.