Year 7 Throwback — Ancient Rome
What city was the centre of the Roman Empire?
Rome
What was the name of the social and political system used across much of medieval Europe?
Feudalism / the feudal system
Where did most people in medieval Europe live: towns or rural villages?
Rural villages
What was the heavily fortified central building of many castles called?
The Keep
In which century did the Black Death devastate Europe?
The 14th century / 1300s
In which country did the Industrial Revolution first begin?
Britain / Great Britain
A diary written by a person living during an event is what type of source?
Primary source
What was the name given to a professional Roman foot soldier?
Legionary
Which group usually sat at the very bottom of the feudal hierarchy?
Peasants / serfs
What was the main occupation of most medieval peasants?
Farming / agricultural labour
What castle feature could be raised and lowered across the entrance like a heavy metal gate?
Portcullis
What were the painful swollen lumps associated with bubonic plague called?
Buboes
What new system of production increasingly replaced making goods by hand at home?
The factory system
A history textbook written hundreds of years after an event is usually what type of source?
Secondary source
Before Rome became an empire, what type of government did it have?
A republic
What did a lord usually give a knight or vassal in return for loyalty and military service?
Land / a fief
Name one common medieval food eaten by ordinary people.
Examples: bread, pottage, vegetables, grains.
What was the purpose of a moat (plus define it)?
To make approaching or attacking the castle more difficult.
How did expanding trade help the Black Death spread?
Ships, traders, people and infected rats/fleas moved the disease between regions.
Which fossil fuel became extremely important for powering the Industrial Revolution?
Coal
In source analysis, what does purpose mean?
Why the source was created / what its creator wanted to achieve.
What was the name of the large arena where gladiatorial contests were held in Rome?
The Colosseum
What was the manor system?
A system in which peasants worked land controlled by a lord, with the manor largely producing what its community needed.
Why were medieval towns often unhealthy places to live?
Poor sanitation, rubbish/sewage, crowded housing and contaminated water.
Which came first: a motte-and-bailey castle or a concentric castle?
Motte-and-bailey
What was the miasma theory?
The belief that disease was caused by poisonous or “bad” air.
What does urbanisation mean?
The growth of towns and cities / increasing proportion of people living in urban areas.
What is the difference between a source's message and its purpose?
Message = what it communicates; purpose = why it was created.
What was the difference between a patrician and a plebeian?
Patricians were the wealthy/elite class; plebeians were ordinary citizens.
Give two important roles of the medieval Church.
Examples: religion/worship, education, caring for poor/sick, owning land, influencing rulers/laws.
What was a guild?
An organisation of craftspeople or merchants that controlled a particular trade.
Why did stone castles replace many wooden motte-and-bailey castles?
Stone was stronger, harder to burn and more resistant to attack.
Why did medieval living conditions make diseases such as the plague easier to spread?
Crowding, poor sanitation, waste and large rat populations increased transmission.
Why was the steam engine important to industrialisation?
It provided reliable mechanical power for factories, mines and transport.
Why doesn't a biased source automatically become useless to historians?
Its bias can reveal the creator's beliefs, perspective, motives or attitudes.
Julius Caesar was assassinated in 44 BCE. Why were some Roman senators afraid of him?
They believed he was becoming too powerful / might destroy the Republic and become a king or dictator.
Why was feudalism based on mutual obligations, rather than simply everyone obeying the king?
Different levels exchanged services: land/protection was exchanged for loyalty, labour or military service.
Explain one major difference between the life of a medieval noble and a peasant.
Nobles had greater wealth, land, food and security; peasants performed agricultural labour and had fewer rights/resources.
What made a concentric castle particularly difficult to capture?
It had multiple layers/rings of defensive walls, meaning attackers had to break through several defences.
Why could treatments such as bloodletting and purging make plague victims worse rather than better?
They did not treat the infection and could weaken or dehydrate already sick people.
Explain how improvements in agriculture helped cause the Industrial Revolution.
More food supported population growth while improved farming required fewer workers, freeing labour for factories.
A medieval king commissions a picture showing himself defeating an enormous enemy army. Give one reason historians should question its reliability.
The king had a motive to exaggerate his success / the source may be propaganda.
Give two factors that contributed to the fall of the Western Roman Empire.
Examples: invasions, political instability, economic problems, military weakness, division of the empire.
A king technically owned the land, but his control depended heavily on nobles. Explain why this could make a medieval king weaker.
Powerful nobles controlled land, wealth and soldiers, so kings relied on their loyalty and could struggle to control them.
Why did the growth of medieval towns and commerce have the potential to weaken the traditional feudal system?
People could earn money through trade/crafts rather than depending entirely on land and a lord, creating greater independence and mobility.
An attacking army has surrounded a stone castle but cannot breach its walls. Name and explain two other methods it could use to capture the castle.
Examples: starvation/blockade, siege towers, battering ram, mining/sapping, trebuchets/catapults, scaling walls.
Explain how the Black Death contributed to the weakening of feudalism.
Mass deaths created labour shortages; surviving peasants could demand better wages/conditions, move for work and challenge traditional obligations to lords.
Britain had coal, growing trade, investment money, new technology and a rising population. Explain why historians would call these interconnected causes rather than one single cause.
The factors reinforced one another; resources, workers, capital, markets and technology combined to enable industrialisation.
Two primary sources give completely different accounts of the same medieval battle. Does this mean one must be useless? Explain.
No. Historians compare their perspectives, purpose, context and evidence to understand why accounts differ and what each can reveal.