Gr 12 History

This course is designed to give you a deep contextual understanding of 20th century history – but also to provide insights into different historical approaches to understanding the past. The deeper you go down this rabbit hole on any particular, the more you will delve into and look at ‘events’ through different perspectives….

Recollected syllabus modules to restate concisely and clearly

Here are the six themes that make up the Grade 12 History curriculum:

Theme 1 — The Cold War Origins and development of the Cold War after WWII. Yalta/Potsdam, Truman Doctrine, Marshall Plan, Berlin Blockade, then an extended case study (China or Vietnam). Roughly 13 event nodes, as we mapped earlier.

Theme 2 — Independent Africa How African nations achieved independence in the 1960s-70s. Congo and Tanzania as core case studies, plus the broader decolonisation story and Cold War proxy dimensions (Angola).

Theme 3 — Civil Society Protests (1950s-1970s) Primarily US-focused: the Civil Rights Movement, Black Power, plus women’s movements, anti-war and counter-culture movements. (Gay Liberation is in the content but flagged as not examinable by the IEB.)

Theme 4 — Civil Resistance in South Africa (1970s-1980s) Black Consciousness, Soweto 1976, the UDF, internal and external resistance to apartheid, Botha’s reforms. Picks up the SA story from where Grade 11 ends.

Theme 5 — The Coming of Democracy in South Africa The end of the Cold War (Gorbachev, USSR collapse) linked to the unbanning of the ANC, CODESA negotiations, and the 1994 election. The global and local stories converge here.

Theme 6 — Coming to Terms with the Past The Truth and Reconciliation Commission — justice versus reconciliation, memory, and how a society confronts its history.