1. HISTORICALINVESTIGATION
Year 11 Modern History
Turning points in history
Welcome to the first unit for chosen subject of In your research, you should:
Year 11 Modern History. investigation. • develop historical questions
to direct your research
This unit aims to develop your Present your findings in a • consult at least four different
understanding of the nature of written portfolio using primary primary sources of information
sources as evidence. • Clearly explain the key
historical inquiry.
features and issues
Present your findings to the • organise your writing and
We will use the “inquiry cycle” class in an oral presentation visuals into a logical sequence
as the basis for this study and to answer the question you
you will be assessed on the REQUIREMENTS: have researched,
your ability to: 1. Written component: within the word limit allocated
Approximately 1500 words • use at least one visual aid to
Plan and conduct an historical with appropriate images/ help illustrate the issues
investigation on an historical multimedia (Visual aids may include:
turning point. 2. Oral component: maps, photographs,
Approximately graphs, video clips, diagrams,
Analyse the background, 3 minutes timelines).
activity, key personalities and Evaluation of your partner (if • compile a bibliography of the
events associated with your working in a group). references you have used
1

2. Was 9/11 a turning point?
Our first step in the practice century just as the Nor did 9/11 usher in,
investigation is to establish a
series of questions that will Sarajevo assassination fortunately, a world
help to guide our research.
in July 1914 marked dominated by “hyper-
Our overarching aim is to
determine whether or not 9/11 our entrance into the terrorism.” Terrorists
was a turning point in history.
20th? inspired by Al Qaeda
Read the following articles
from the New York Times and
have continued to
answer the questions that Contrary to what some strike from Spain to
follow each article.
analysts said in the Britain and from India
An Infamy immediate aftermath of to Nigeria, just to
the terrorist attacks, mention a few of their
in History 9/11 did not signify the targets.
By DOMINIQUE MOISI entrance into a world
Published: September 7, dominated by the But placed on the
2011
“clash of civilizations” defensive by the
announced in the 1990s mobilization of the
PARIS — “What were
by Samuel Huntington. world against them — a
you doing on 9/11?” In
collaborative effort that
a few days this question With the benefit of
really made the
will dominate all hindsight, this unique difference — they have
conversations, at least human tragedy — never been able to
in the Western world. nearly 3,000 people repeat 9/11.
The emotional died in the Twin
centrality of this tragic Towers of Manhattan — The death of Osama bin
day remains appears instead as the Laden in the midst of
undeniable, but what culminating point and the Arab Spring — a
about its strategic the beginning of decline revolution that began
centrality? for Al Qaeda in its without the knowledge
sectarian warfare or involvement of
Is 9/11 an historical
against established fundamentalist
turning point, one that
Islam, as much as Islamists — declared
ushered us into the 21st
against the West. the defeat of the

3. terrorists and the dawn presidential elections inmover of a ruinous and
of a post-Islamist 2000 and a dozen ill-considered rush
world, even if Islamist terrorists indoctrinated forward (the
parties do well in by a nihilist ideology armaments race for
elections in countries accelerated and may Moscow, and foreign
like Egypt. even have modified the adventures for
course of history. Washington). And of
Of course terrorism can course America today is
never be fully defeated. The encounter between not the equivalent of
There will be more George W. Bush and what the Soviet Union
terror attacks. Al Qaeda 9/11 produced was yesterday —
may win a few more consequences that even America’s internal
battles, but it has lost the terrorists, in their contradictions have
the war. darkest dreams, could neither the depth nor
not foresee. It is the gravity of the Soviet
If 21st century unlikely that Al Gore as Union’s.
historians will continue president would have
to regard 9/11 as a used 9/11 as a pretext Yet it is legitimate to
symbolic date, as a to launch the war in ask whether the first
revealing accelerator of Iraq, a war that has decade of the 21st
history, it will be less resulted in the doubling century has not been a
for the terror attacks of the American debt. “lost” one for the
themselves than for the United States, and
American response. It would be highly whether, in American
exaggerated to say that eyes, the tree of
Historians speak of the Bin Laden became the fundamentalist
“law of unintended equivalent for the terrorism did not hide
consequences.” The United States of what the forest of the rise of
encounter between a Ronald Reagan was for Asia.
few thousand confused a declining Soviet
voters in Florida in the empire — the prime

4. The purported Dominique Moïsi is differ from the type
American victory a senior adviser at the of Islam that Al
against French Institute for Qaeda promotes?
fundamentalism has International Relations
been a Pyrrhic one not (IFRI), and the author, 5. Which four country
only because of its most recently, of “Un (other than the US)
financial, moral and Juif improbable.” have been attacked
diplomatic cost, but in by terrorists linked to
I.H.T. OP-ED Al Qaeda?
its overreaction, in the CONTRIBUTOR
waste of energy that
6. What is the “Arab
could have been used
Spring”? Who died in
far better in QUESTIONS:
the midst of this
Afghanistan than in
1. What does Masi movement?
Iraq.
mean by a “clash of
7. What, according to
America probably civilizations”? Which
this writer, was the
underreacted to the civilisations is he
“unintended
terrorist threat before referring to?
consequence” of the
9/11, and overreacted
2. How many people war in Iraq?
after the event.
died because of the
8. What is a Pyrrhic
So 9/11 is a historical 9/11 attacks?
victory?
moment, but not
3. What are the two
necessarily for the 9. What, according to
targets that Al Qaeda
reasons that seemed to the writer, has 9/11
has employed its
prevail at the time. It accelerated?
“sectarian warfare”
did not signal the
against? Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/08/
arrival of a new world,
but it has accelerated 4. How does
opinion/08iht-edmoisi08.html?_r=1
the end of the American “established Islam”
Century.

5. University, joins the marked the beginning
Was 9/11 a debate. of the end of the
Historical It was irresistible, on
American Century.
Turning the 10th anniversary of It is always tempting to
Point? 9/11, to draw large
historical conclusions
search for historical
comparisons — or in
By TED WIDMER
Published: September 16, about the demise of the this case two (“the
2011 United States, and to American Century” was
1 RECOMMEND
2 TWITTER express regrets over coined as the United
3 LINKEDIN
4 SIGN IN TO E-MAIL paths not taken. And so States was about to
5 PRINT
6 REPRINTS
a mighty wind blew enter World War II).
7 SHARE across the media But 9/11 stands alone
landscape, lamenting as an event, and we
Dominique Moïsi
“the lost decade,” as should resist the easy
argued on these pages
Dominique Moïsi called path to lump it together
on Sept. 8 (“An infamy
it in his column. with the disasters of the
in history” ) that the
past.
significance of 9/11 lies Moreover, Moïsi asked
not in what many leading questions about Few now deny that the
observers see as an the fall of empires, Iraq war was a
opening salvo in a wondering if 9/11 was a misguided effort that
“clash of civilizations,” historical disaster on achieved few of its
but rather in the fact the order of the stated aims. That
that the attacks assassination of seemed to be nearly
accelerated the end of Archduke Franz unanimous last week as
the American Century. Ferdinand in Sarajevo commentators tried to
Ted Widmer, a in 1914. Without quite focus on 9/11, but
historian who directs answering in the inevitably found their
the John Carter Brown affirmative, he still way into the series of
Library at Brown suggested that it military actions that

6. followed the East. That is not to Most of those
destruction of the minimize its exuberant claims were
World Trade Center. consequences — made on the right, by
And the end of the Vietnam was a small partisans of the Iraq
adventure in country too, and war nostalgic for World
Afghanistan cannot Sarajevo a distant War II, but highly
come soon enough. Balkan outpost. But selective in their
still, it is not the same.
memory. In the
But Sarajevo? A lot of neoconservative
terrible things have It is essential to be narrative, Winston
happened in the last 10 precise about the Churchill was usually
years, but nothing on details. Playing fast and the dominant leader of
the scale of World War loose with the past can the Allies, rather than
I. The Great War may have disastrous Franklin D. Roosevelt,
have killed as many as consequences, and it whose politics were
20 million people, was a similar inconveniently
destroyed three imprecision that progressive. Or for that
empires and brought the Iraq war matter, the other
permanently disrupted into our living rooms member of the Big
a power structure that and our lives. For much Three, Joseph Stalin,
had ruled much of the of the last decade, we whose politics went
world for centuries. heard Osama bin Laden considerably past
World War II may have likened to Hitler or “progressive.” We
killed 50 million and Stalin, when in fact didn’t hear Uncle Joe
reshaped the world all there was nothing even described very often in
over again. Most remotely fascistic or that context.
surveys indicate that totalitarian about the
100,000 have been stateless band of It has become rather
killed in Iraq, a small terrorists he was trying easy to criticize
country in the Middle to direct. President George W.

7. Bush for the mistakes is hard to see how a historians drawn
he made, especially in refusal to fight those about the US?
Paris, where America’s wars would have
failure to live up to slowed China’s growth. 2. What disaster did the
French expectations is assassination of
a much-cherished local And it remains difficult Archduke Franz
tradition, nearly as old to see how China will Ferdinand in
as the United States assume the great Sarajevo in 1914
itself. But to fall into mantle of leadership bring about?
undisciplined thinking that was thrust upon
the United States for 3. Why does Ted
about the past risks
much of the last Widmer believe that
perpetuating the same
century. Or how that 9/11 is nothing like
mistakes.
would bring much World War I?
It also surrenders to a comfort to France.
4. What has the wars in
form of pessimism that
Instead, commentators Iraq and Afghanistan
is not especially
on the left and the right “eroded”?
instructive when the
world seeks a new and need to come up with
5. What is difference
better narrative. creative solutions for
between “hard” and
guiding a world that
“soft” power?
The wars in Iraq and does not always live up
Afghanistan have to its history. 6. How much as the
eroded both hard and “War on Terror” cost
soft power for the QUESTIONS:
the US?
United States at a time
1. On the 10th
when we could use both 7. What does Widmer
anniversary of 9/11,
— along with the $1.2 believe that
what “large historical
trillion or so that we commentators need
conclusions” have
spent chasing after the to come up with?
specters of 9/11. But it