GCSE History – GCSEGuide

Medicine Through Time – Prehistoric & Ancient

Prehistoric Medicine

Believed illness was caused by evil spirits — treated with trephining (drilling skull holes)
Relied on natural remedies — herbs, plants
Healers: medicine men/shamans
Limited knowledge passed orally; no written records

Ancient Egyptian Medicine

Channel theory: like the Nile, channels in the body carry blood — blockages cause illness
Combined supernatural (prayers, amulets) with natural treatments (herbal remedies)
Physicians began studying the body through embalming

Ancient Greek Medicine

Hippocrates (~460 BC): first to suggest illness had natural causes; rejected supernatural
Clinical observation: recording symptoms to identify patterns
Four humours theory: blood, phlegm, yellow bile, black bile must be in balance
Asclepions: healing temples combining rest, diet, exercise, and prayer

Medicine Through Time – Medieval (500–1500)

Church dominated medicine — illness seen as God's punishment; prayer and pilgrimage used
Galen's ideas (from Rome) kept alive by the Church: four humours still dominant
Treatments: bloodletting, purging, herbal remedies, prayer
Black Death (1348): caused by miasma (bad air), according to contemporaries; actually bubonic plague spread by fleas
Universities began teaching medicine from ancient texts — no dissection allowed
Islamic doctors (e.g. Ibn Sina) made advances but had limited impact in medieval England

Exam Tip:

When explaining why change was slow in the Middle Ages, focus on three factors: the Church, Galen's authority, and lack of technology.

Medicine Through Time – Renaissance (1500–1700)

Vesalius (1543): proved Galen wrong through dissection of human bodies; published detailed anatomy drawings
William Harvey (1628): proved blood circulates continuously, pumped by the heart — disproved Galen's liver theory
Printing press allowed new ideas to spread rapidly — a key factor for change
Despite improved understanding of anatomy, treatments remained largely unchanged
Great Plague (1665): same incorrect theories (miasma); no effective treatment

Medicine Through Time – Industrial & Modern

Jenner (1796): developed smallpox vaccine using cowpox — first vaccine
Pasteur (1861): Germ Theory — diseases caused by micro-organisms
Koch (1880s): identified specific bacteria causing specific diseases (e.g. cholera, TB)
Nightingale: improved hygiene in Crimean War hospitals; reduced death rates significantly
Anaesthesia: ether (1846), chloroform — enabled longer, more complex surgery
Antiseptics: Lister (1867) used carbolic acid — reduced post-surgery infection deaths
Fleming (1928): discovered penicillin; Florey and Chain developed it into a drug by 1940s
NHS (1948): free healthcare for all; a turning point in access to treatment
Modern: DNA discovery (1953), genetic medicine, keyhole surgery, radiotherapy

The most important factor in modern medicine is often argued to be government action (e.g. Public Health Act 1875, NHS) because it enabled changes to reach everyone.

Germany – The Weimar Republic (1919–1929)

Germany lost WWI (1918) — Kaiser abdicated; new democratic Weimar Republic formed
Treaty of Versailles (1919): Germany blamed (War Guilt Clause), pay reparations £6.6bn, lost 10% land and all colonies, army limited to 100,000
Germans called Weimar politicians "the November Criminals" for signing the treaty
1923 crises: French occupied the Ruhr → workers on strike → government printed money → hyperinflation (bread cost billions of marks)
Golden Years (1924–29): Stresemann stabilised currency (Rentenmark), Dawes Plan reduced reparations, joined League of Nations, arts flourished
Wall Street Crash (1929) ended the prosperity — depression, mass unemployment

Germany – Rise of Hitler & the Nazis

Hitler joined DAP (later NSDAP) in 1919; became leader and gave powerful speeches
Munich Putsch (1923): failed coup attempt; Hitler jailed; wrote Mein Kampf in prison — actually increased his notoriety
Nazis had little support in the late 1920s (12 seats in Reichstag 1928)
Depression from 1929: unemployment hit 6 million by 1932 → Nazi support soared
Nazi appeal: strong leadership, nationalist message, scapegoating Jews, promise of jobs
January 1933: Hindenburg appointed Hitler as Chancellor
Reichstag Fire (1933): blamed on Communists → Emergency Decree suspended civil liberties
Enabling Act (1933): gave Hitler power to make laws without Reichstag for 4 years
Night of the Long Knives (1934): Hitler eliminated SA rivals; army swore personal oath to him
Hindenburg died (1934): Hitler merged Chancellor and President roles → Führer

Germany – Nazi Germany 1933–45

Control & Propaganda

Goebbels controlled all media — radio, newspapers, films, art promoted Nazi ideology
Gestapo (secret police) and SS enforced terror; informants encouraged
Concentration camps for political opponents, then Jews, then mass extermination

The Holocaust

Nuremberg Laws (1935): Jews stripped of citizenship and right to marry Germans
Kristallnacht (1938): Night of Broken Glass — Jewish businesses attacked
Wannsee Conference (1942): "Final Solution" — systematic murder of all Jews in Europe
Over 6 million Jews murdered in extermination camps (Auschwitz, Treblinka, etc.)

Women & Youth

Women encouraged to stay home: Kinder, Küche, Kirche (children, kitchen, church)
Hitler Youth and League of German Girls — indoctrination from childhood

Cold War – Origins (1945–1949)

USA (capitalist democracy) vs USSR (communist dictatorship) — ideological conflict
Yalta Conference (1945): Stalin, Roosevelt, Churchill agreed to divide Germany; free elections in Eastern Europe (Stalin broke this)
Potsdam Conference (1945): Truman (new US President), Attlee, Stalin — disagreements about reparations and Eastern Europe
Iron Curtain speech by Churchill (1946) — described Soviet domination of Eastern Europe
Truman Doctrine (1947): USA would support any country threatened by communism
Marshall Plan (1947): $13 billion US aid for European recovery — USSR refused and formed Cominform to resist US influence
Berlin Blockade (1948–49): USSR blocked roads into West Berlin; USA airlifted supplies for 11 months — USSR backed down; showed West's resolve
NATO formed 1949 (Western alliance); Warsaw Pact 1955 (Soviet alliance)

Cold War – Key Crises

Korean War (1950–53)

Communist North Korea invaded South Korea → UN (led by USA) intervened
China joined on North Korea's side; stalemate along 38th parallel; border unchanged

Cuban Missile Crisis (1962)

USSR placed nuclear missiles in Cuba (90 miles from USA) → 13-day standoff
Kennedy imposed naval blockade; Khrushchev agreed to remove missiles if USA pledged not to invade Cuba and secretly removed missiles from Turkey
Result: hotline established between Washington and Moscow

Hungarian Uprising (1956)

Hungarians revolted against Soviet control — new leader Nagy wanted to leave Warsaw Pact
USSR sent tanks; crushed the uprising; ~20,000 Hungarians killed
West did nothing — showed limits of Truman Doctrine

Prague Spring (1968)

Dubček introduced reforms in Czechoslovakia — "socialism with a human face"
USSR invaded with Warsaw Pact troops; reforms reversed
Brezhnev Doctrine: USSR would intervene in any socialist country threatened by capitalism

Cold War – End (1980s–1991)

Soviet economy struggling; arms race and Afghan War (1979–89) draining resources
Gorbachev (from 1985): Glasnost (openness) and Perestroika (restructuring) — allowed more freedom
Berlin Wall fell November 1989 — symbol of Cold War's end
Eastern European states gained independence; Soviet republics broke away
USSR officially dissolved December 1991

Exam Skills – Source Analysis

Use HCAP to analyse a source:

Historical context: what do you already know about this period?
Content: what does the source actually say/show?
Authorship: who created it? What is their purpose or bias?
Provenance: when and where was it created? Is it primary or secondary?