CBSE 11th Class History Syllabus

Course Structure

Course Syllabus

1. Introduction to World History

Section A: Early Societies

Unit 2: Introduction

Unit 3: From the Beginning of Time

• Focus: Africa, Europe till 15000 BC
  • Views on the origin of human beings
  • Early societies
  • Historians' views on present-day hunting-gathering societies

Unit 4: Early Cities

• Focus: Iraq, 3^rd millennium BC
  • Growth of towns
  • Nature of early urban societies
  • Historians' Debate on uses of writing

Section B: Empires

Unit 5: Introduction

Unit 6: An Empire across Three Continents

• Focus: Roman Empire, 27 B.C to A.D 600.
  • Political evolution
  • Economic expansion
  • Religion
  • Late Antiquity
  • Historians' views on the institution of Slavery

Unit 7: Central Islamic Lands

• Focus: 7^th to 12^th centuries
  • Polity
  • Economy
  • Culture
  • Historians' viewpoints on the nature of the crusades

Unit 8: Nomadic Empires

• Focus: The Mongol, 13^th to 14^th century
  • The nature of nomadism
  • Formation of empires
  • Conquests and relations with other states
  • Historians' views on nomadic societies and state formation

Section C: Changing Traditions

Unit 9: Introduction

Unit 10: Three Orders

• Focus: Western Europe, 13^th-16^th century
  • Feudal society and economy
  • Formation of states
  • Church and Society
  • Historians' views on decline of feudalism

Unit 11: Changing Cultural Traditions

• Focus on Europe, 14^th to 17^th century

  • New ideas, and new trends in literature and arts

  • Relationship with earlier ideas

  • The contribution of West Asia

  • Historians' viewpoints on the validity of the notion 'European Renaissance'

Unit 12: Confrontation of Cultures

• Focus on America, 15^th to 18^th century
  • European voyages of exploration
  • Search for gold; enslavement, raids, extermination
  • Indigenous people and cultures - the Arawaks, the Aztecs, the Incas
  • The history of displacements
  • Historians' viewpoints on the slave trade

Section D: Paths to Modernization

Unit 13: Introduction

Unit 14: The Industrial Revolution

• Focus on England, 18^th and 19^th century

  • Innovations and technological change

  • Patterns of growth

  • Emergence of a working class

  • Historians' viewpoints, Debate on 'Was there an Industrial Revolution?'

Unit 15: Displacing Indigenous People

• Focus on North America and Australia, 18^th-20^th century

  • European colonists in North America and Australia

  • Formation of white settler societies

  • Displacement and repression of local people

  • Historians' viewpoints on the impact of European settlement on indigenous population

Unit 16: Paths to Modernization

• Focus on East Asia, late 19^th and 20^th century
  • Militarization and economic growth in Japan
  • China and the Communist alternative
  • Historians' Debate on the meaning of modernization

Unit 17: Map Work (on Units 1-16)

To download pdf Click here.