The Grade 11 History CAPS syllabus in South Africa follows the annual teaching plan with Communism in Russia, Capitalism in the USA, Ideas of race, Nationalisms and Apartheid South Africa, alongside source-based and essay writing skills. Use the term topics below with Grade 11 History past papers for exam preparation.
Weeks 1-11
Assessment: Task 1: Source-based OR essay question (Focus: Communism in Russia, Lenin OR Stalin) [50]. Task 2: Standardised test 1 (Focus: Capitalism in USA) 2 x source-based questions and 2 x essay questions [100]. Plan research project and consolidate skills needed for the research investigation (as listed in ATP).
Exam relevance: Builds core source-based and paragraph writing skills used across the year.
Overview of Grade 11 content and revision of skills: working with sources, analysing visual and written sources, paragraph writing and informal tasks to consolidate skills.
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
What is Communism (introduction), background to Karl Marx, February and October 1917 revolutions (concept/background). Civil War and war communism (in detail), Lenin seizes control (in detail), Marxism-Leninism and the NEP (in detail), death of Lenin and the power struggle (background), Stalin's interpretation of Marxism-Leninism (in detail) including collectivisation and industrialisation, effects on the Soviet people, women under Stalin and political terror (purges), and the coming of WW2 (background).
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
American dream of individual possibilities (background), capitalist boom of the 1920s (background), Wall Street Crash (1929) (in detail), election of FDR and the New Deal (in detail), analysis of the New Deal (in detail), assessment of the New Deal (background), outbreak of WW2 (background), and impact of and responses to the crisis of capitalism (in detail).
Plan research project: research topic given, understanding the key question and assessment criteria, learner research plan (date, venue, time), monitoring by the teacher, formulation of research questions (questionnaire), undertaking interviews, presentation of findings (essay form), self-reflection and recommendations.
Exam relevance: Builds core source-based and paragraph writing skills used across the year.
Overview of Grade 11 content and revision of skills: working with sources, analysing visual and written sources, paragraph writing and informal tasks to consolidate skills.
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
What is Communism (introduction), background to Karl Marx, February and October 1917 revolutions (concept/background). Civil War and war communism (in detail), Lenin seizes control (in detail), Marxism-Leninism and the NEP (in detail), death of Lenin and the power struggle (background), Stalin's interpretation of Marxism-Leninism (in detail) including collectivisation and industrialisation, effects on the Soviet people, women under Stalin and political terror (purges), and the coming of WW2 (background).
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
American dream of individual possibilities (background), capitalist boom of the 1920s (background), Wall Street Crash (1929) (in detail), election of FDR and the New Deal (in detail), analysis of the New Deal (in detail), assessment of the New Deal (background), outbreak of WW2 (background), and impact of and responses to the crisis of capitalism (in detail).
Plan research project: research topic given, understanding the key question and assessment criteria, learner research plan (date, venue, time), monitoring by the teacher, formulation of research questions (questionnaire), undertaking interviews, presentation of findings (essay form), self-reflection and recommendations.
Weeks 1-11
Assessment: Task 3: Research [50]. Task 4: Mid-year exam Section A (source-based) and Section B (essay) based on Ideas of race (Australia OR Nazi Germany) and Nationalisms (two chosen case studies) [150].
Exam relevance: Mid-year exam includes Ideas of race as a source-based and essay option.
Unpack the concept of racism to understand (not to justify) its application in Apartheid South Africa. Theories and practice: notions about hierarchies of race in the 19th century, eugenics, modern understanding of race (Human genome project), and practices of race and eugenics in the USA, Australia, Namibia and South Africa.
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
Colonisation of Australia; race theories in early 20th century Australia (debates around 'racial suicide' and 'racial decay'); White immigration policies; children from Britain sent to Australia after WW2; the stolen generation.
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
Hitler's consolidation of power from 1933; Nazi racial ideology; creation of a racial state in Germany; groups targeted by the Nazis; choices that people made.
Exam relevance: Mid-year exam includes two Nationalisms case studies (source-based and essay).
Unpack nationalism: origins of nationalism, initiation of nationalist movements (Italy and Germany), and theory of nationalism as an imagined community. Provinces choose any two case studies from the options listed in the ATP.
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
Establishment of the APO; formation of the SANNC (ANC) and call to unite African people because of the Union of SA and the Land Act; role of professionals and traditional leaders; influence of World War 2 (Atlantic Charter and AB Xuma's African Claims, returning soldiers); types of African nationalism and the split of the ANC and the PAC.
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
Reasons for the rise of Afrikaner nationalism; Afrikaans language movement and social/cultural movements; FAK, Broederbond, media and programme of economic affirmative action in the 1920s and 1930s; definition of the Volk and its relation to class and race issues in education, labour and religion; nationalism in power towards Apartheid.
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
Origins of Arab and Jewish nationalism (Zionism); Balfour Declaration; establishment of the state of Israel and the 1948 War; Palestinian and Israeli perspectives on the 1948 War; broader Arab nationalism; the question of Palestine; Arab-Israeli conflict (refugees, Six-Day War 1967, Yom Kippur war 1973, occupation of the West Bank, Intifada and suppression).
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
Early nationalism, resistance tactics and trade unionism in Ghana; influence of World War 2; mass-based movements after WW2; Kwame Nkrumah, Pan Africanism and African Socialism; the Convention People's Party and independence; Ghana's beginning as an independent nation.
Exam relevance: Mid-year exam includes Ideas of race as a source-based and essay option.
Unpack the concept of racism to understand (not to justify) its application in Apartheid South Africa. Theories and practice: notions about hierarchies of race in the 19th century, eugenics, modern understanding of race (Human genome project), and practices of race and eugenics in the USA, Australia, Namibia and South Africa.
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
Colonisation of Australia; race theories in early 20th century Australia (debates around 'racial suicide' and 'racial decay'); White immigration policies; children from Britain sent to Australia after WW2; the stolen generation.
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
Hitler's consolidation of power from 1933; Nazi racial ideology; creation of a racial state in Germany; groups targeted by the Nazis; choices that people made.
Exam relevance: Mid-year exam includes two Nationalisms case studies (source-based and essay).
Unpack nationalism: origins of nationalism, initiation of nationalist movements (Italy and Germany), and theory of nationalism as an imagined community. Provinces choose any two case studies from the options listed in the ATP.
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
Establishment of the APO; formation of the SANNC (ANC) and call to unite African people because of the Union of SA and the Land Act; role of professionals and traditional leaders; influence of World War 2 (Atlantic Charter and AB Xuma's African Claims, returning soldiers); types of African nationalism and the split of the ANC and the PAC.
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
Reasons for the rise of Afrikaner nationalism; Afrikaans language movement and social/cultural movements; FAK, Broederbond, media and programme of economic affirmative action in the 1920s and 1930s; definition of the Volk and its relation to class and race issues in education, labour and religion; nationalism in power towards Apartheid.
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
Origins of Arab and Jewish nationalism (Zionism); Balfour Declaration; establishment of the state of Israel and the 1948 War; Palestinian and Israeli perspectives on the 1948 War; broader Arab nationalism; the question of Palestine; Arab-Israeli conflict (refugees, Six-Day War 1967, Yom Kippur war 1973, occupation of the West Bank, Intifada and suppression).
Exam relevance: ATP indicates source-based and essay focus areas.
Early nationalism, resistance tactics and trade unionism in Ghana; influence of World War 2; mass-based movements after WW2; Kwame Nkrumah, Pan Africanism and African Socialism; the Convention People's Party and independence; Ghana's beginning as an independent nation.
Weeks 1-11
Assessment: Task 5 (SBA only): Source-based OR essay on segregation in SA in the 1920s and 1930s and the NP victory of 1948 [50]. Task 6: Standardised test (on Apartheid South Africa) 2 x source-based and 2 x essays [100].
Recovery of 2022 Grade 10 content: The South African war (1899-1902) and Union of SA (1910) to lay a foundation for Apartheid South Africa in the 1920s and 1930s.
Exam relevance: ATP indicates both source-based and essay focus areas.
Global pervasiveness of racism and segregation in the 1920s and 1930s; segregation after formation of the Union of SA; how segregation laid the foundation of Apartheid; challenges experienced by Indians; Coloured resistance; Black resistance; National Party victory (1948). Legalising Apartheid: what was Apartheid; how did Apartheid differ from segregation; why did the NP adopt Apartheid; creation of the Apartheid state; laws against multiracial labour; banning of the CPSA.
Recovery of 2022 Grade 10 content: The South African war (1899-1902) and Union of SA (1910) to lay a foundation for Apartheid South Africa in the 1920s and 1930s.
Exam relevance: ATP indicates both source-based and essay focus areas.
Global pervasiveness of racism and segregation in the 1920s and 1930s; segregation after formation of the Union of SA; how segregation laid the foundation of Apartheid; challenges experienced by Indians; Coloured resistance; Black resistance; National Party victory (1948). Legalising Apartheid: what was Apartheid; how did Apartheid differ from segregation; why did the NP adopt Apartheid; creation of the Apartheid state; laws against multiracial labour; banning of the CPSA.
Weeks 1-10
Assessment: Final exam: Two papers (Paper 1 and Paper 2), 300 marks total. Each paper: 3 hours, 150 marks. Answer three questions per paper (source-based and essays) as per ATP.
Exam relevance: Final exam includes Apartheid South Africa questions.
Programme of action, mass mobilisation, alliances, the Apartheid state's response to resistance (repression), Sharpeville massacre and its impact, Rivonia Trial and its consequences. ATP notes there is no formal task on this sub-topic; use more informal tasks in preparation for the final exam.
Paper 1 revision: Communism in Russia (revolutions, Lenin and Stalin), Capitalism in the USA (Great depression, New Deal), Ideas of race (Australia or Nazi Germany). Paper 2 revision: Nationalisms (African, Afrikaner Nationalism, Middle East, Ghana) and Apartheid South Africa (legalising Apartheid; overcoming resistance to Apartheid).
Paper 1 Section A source-based: Communism in Russia (Lenin or Stalin), Capitalism in the USA (Great depression or New Deal), Ideas of race (Australia, Nazi Germany). Paper 1 Section B essays: corresponding essay options. Paper 2 Section A source-based: first case study, second case study, Apartheid South Africa (legalising Apartheid or overcoming resistance). Paper 2 Section B essays: corresponding essay options.
Exam relevance: Final exam includes Apartheid South Africa questions.
Programme of action, mass mobilisation, alliances, the Apartheid state's response to resistance (repression), Sharpeville massacre and its impact, Rivonia Trial and its consequences. ATP notes there is no formal task on this sub-topic; use more informal tasks in preparation for the final exam.
Paper 1 revision: Communism in Russia (revolutions, Lenin and Stalin), Capitalism in the USA (Great depression, New Deal), Ideas of race (Australia or Nazi Germany). Paper 2 revision: Nationalisms (African, Afrikaner Nationalism, Middle East, Ghana) and Apartheid South Africa (legalising Apartheid; overcoming resistance to Apartheid).
Paper 1 Section A source-based: Communism in Russia (Lenin or Stalin), Capitalism in the USA (Great depression or New Deal), Ideas of race (Australia, Nazi Germany). Paper 1 Section B essays: corresponding essay options. Paper 2 Section A source-based: first case study, second case study, Apartheid South Africa (legalising Apartheid or overcoming resistance). Paper 2 Section B essays: corresponding essay options.
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