You are often required to explain and evaluate significance in history - what does this mean?
Explain
Give reasons why something occurred or what made it historically significant Think - how can you account for why something happened?
Think - what were an individual’s motives for their actions / beliefs.
Organise your explanation by using categories. e.g if asked to explain the outbreak of a war was it for political, economic, strategic, defensive reasons etc?
Example: Explain why the Truman Doctrine was significant. It was politically significant as is marked a massive change in US foreign policy. Before WW2 the US had been isolationist, the Truman Doctrine changed this. The US were now committed to a global policy of containing communism. It was a long term policy that lasted until the 1990s when the Cold War finally ended. It was militarily significant as it lead to costly proxy wars and confrontations in Korea, Cuba and Vietnam.
