Grade 9

Grade 9: Senior Phase History Term 1
Topic: Suggested contact time:
World War II (1919 - 1945) One term/ 15 hours
This content must be integrated with the historical aims and skills and the associated concepts listed in Section 2
Focus: Why the Weimar Republic failed as a democracy, the rise of Nazi Germany, the outbreak of World War II in Europe
and in the Pacific and people’s experiences.
Content and concepts
• The rise of Nazi Germany 5 hours
- - End of World War I; Weimar Republic; Treaty of Versailles 1919 and brief summary of German punishments
- - Hitler and the Nazis 1920s
- - The Great Depression of 1929 and effects on Germany
- - Failure of democracy in the Weimar Republic
- - Reasons for public support for Nazi Party and the 1932 and 1933 elections
- - Enabling Act 1933 and dictatorship (including concentration camps for opponents)
- - Nuremberg Laws and loss of basic rights of Jewish people 1935
- - Persecution of political opponents; Jehovah’s Witnesses; Roma (gypsies); homosexuals; Slavs; black people; disabled
people
- - Nazi Germany as an example of a fascist state (compared with democracy)
• World War II: Europe 5 hours
- - Nazi’s aggressive, expansionist foreign policy for lebensraum (very briefly)
- - Outbreak of World War II: Axis vs. Allies
- - Extermination camps and genocide, the Holocaust, and the ‘Final Solution’
- - Examples of resistance to Nazism in Germany
o Sophie Scholl and the White Rose Movement
o Dietrich Bonhoeffer and the Confessing Church
o Warsaw Ghetto Uprising
- - End of World War II in Europe
• World War II in the Pacific
2 hours
- - America in the War vs. Japan: Pearl Harbour
o Japanese Americans forcibly moved into internment camps in USA
o Japanese expansion and atrocities in China
o Japanese prisoner-of-war camps for Allied soldiers
• Revision, assessment (formal and informal) and feedback should take place on an ongoing basis 3 hours


Grade 9: Senior Phase History Term 2
Topic: Suggested contact time:
The Nuclear Age and the Cold War One term/15 hours
This content must be integrated with the historical aims and skills and the associated concepts listed in Section 2
Focus: The change in the balance of power after World War II and rivalry between the new superpowers during the Cold
War.
Content and concepts
• Increasing tension between the Allies after the end of World War II in Europe
2 hours
- - USSR (communism) vs. USA and West (capitalism)
• End of World War II in the Pacific : Atomic bombs and the beginning of the Nuclear Age
2 hours
- - When, where, why and how did World War II come to an end?
- - Why did the USA drop the bombs?
- - Was it justified?
• Definition of the superpowers and the meaning of ‘Cold War’ 1 hour
• Areas of conflict and competition between the Superpowers in the Cold War 6 hours
- - Arms race
- - Space race
- - Division of Germany 1946 and the building of the Berlin Wall 1961
• The end of the Cold War 1989 1 hour
- - The fall of the Berlin Wall 1989
- - The fall of the Soviet Union (very briefly) 1991
• Revision, assessment (formal and informal) and feedback should take place on an ongoing basis 3 hours


Grade 9: Senior Phase History Term 3
Topic: Suggested contact time:
Turning points in modern South African history since
1948 One term/15 hours
This content must be integrated with the historical aims and skills and the associated concepts listed in Section 2
Focus: Some of the key turning points in South African history, including the coming of apartheid in 1948 and non-violent
resistance to apartheid in the 1950s.
Content/concepts/skills
• The Universal Declaration of Human Rights after World War II 1 hour
• Definition of racism 2 hours
- - Human evolution and our common ancestry*
- - Apartheid and the myth of ‘race’
• 1948 National Party and Apartheid 4 hours
- - Racial segregation before Apartheid
- - Main apartheid laws in broad outline
o Case study: Group Areas Act: Sophiatown forced removal
o Case study: Bantustans: Forced removal: People of Mogopa to Bophuthatswana
• 1950s: Repression and non-violent resistance to apartheid
4 hours
- - SACP banned
- - ANC programme of action
o Brief biography: Albert Luthuli, his role in the ANC and resistance to apartheid
- - The Defiance Campaign (including the influence of Mahatma Gandhi)
- - Freedom Charter and Treason Trial
- - Women’s March
o Brief biographies: Helen Joseph and Lillian Ngoyi and their roles in resistance to apartheid
Oral history and research project: Suggested topic: How apartheid affected people’s lives and how people responded:
Research any apartheid law, and interview a person who was affected by that law and determine how he or she responded.
• Allow class time for instructions and monitoring progress of project
2 hours
Note:
*
People often ask how understanding human evolution helps us. The issue of ‘race’ still vexes South African society
today. Scientists say that ‘race’ is a cultural or social construct and not a biological one. Apartheid ideology, for example,
selected superficial criteria of physical appearance to create categories of people and used these to classify people into
‘population groups’. The study of human evolution shows us that we share a common ancestry - we are all Africans in the
sense that we all descended from ancestors who lived in Africa as recently as 100 000 years ago.
• Revision, assessment (formal and informal) and feedback should be done on an ongoing basis
2 hours


Grade 9: Senior Phase History Term 4
Topic: Suggested contact time:
Turning points in South African history 1960, 1976 and
1990 One term/15 hours
This content must be integrated with the historical aims and skills and the associated concepts listed in Section 2
Focus: In order to study this complex period, three key turning points have been selected. This is to allow for learners to
appreciate the significance of these events in more depth.
• 1960: Sharpeville massacre and Langa march
5 hours
- - Formation of PAC 1959
- - Causes, leaders, events, short-term and longer-term consequences
• 1976: Soweto uprising 5 hours
- - Causes, leaders, events of 16 June, spiraling events that followed throughout the country, longer-term consequences for
resistance and repression
• 1990: Release of Nelson Mandela and the unbanning of liberation movements
2 hours
- - Events leading to 1994 election (in broad outline)
o Internal resistance and repression 1980s
o External pressure on the apartheid regime 1980s
o End of Cold War 1990
o Unbanning of political movements 1990
o Release of Mandela and other political prisoners 1990
o Negotiations and violence 1990 – 1994
o Democratic election 1994
Note: The coming of democracy after many years of struggle is repeated in detail in Grade 12. Textbooks should cover the
events listed above so that learners who do not select History in Grades 10-12 can read in more detail about South Africa’s
recent history. Learners should also be encouraged to read the abridged version of Nelson Mandela’s autobiography, The
Long Walk to Freedom.
• Revision, assessment (formal and informal) and feedback should take place on an ongoing basis 3 hours
Learners should read and write for part of every lesson.
Evidence of learner’s work, including assessments, should be kept in the learner’s notebook.