AKA: “Cause and Effect” Cause and Consequence AKA: “Cause and Effect”

As you study historical events, you will discover that things do not simply ‘happen’ without reason. Historical events are caused by things that occurred before them. Also, historical events create changes that have consequences long after the event is over. In history, people, as individuals and as groups, play a part in promoting, shaping, and resisting change. People have motivations and reasons for taking action (or for sitting it out), but causes go beyond these.

EVENT UNDER EXAMINATION CAUSES EVENT UNDER EXAMINATION CONSEQUENCES

What are causes? Causes are: multiple and layered involving both long-term ideologies, institutions, and conditions short-term motivations, actions and events Causes that are offered for any particular event (and the priority of various causes) may differ, based on the scale of the history and the approaches of the historian

Example questions for assessing cause What were the actions, beliefs, and circumstances that led to these consequences? Why did the event under examination occur? What earlier events were central to the occurrence of the event under examination?

Short Term and Long Term Causes Short-Term Causes: Causes that occurred only a few hours, days or weeks before the event Long-Term Causes: Causes that existed for years, decades or centuries before the event SS10 stopped here

Consequences Every historical event has a flow-on (ripple) effect upon things that occur after it.  Things that occurred because of the event under investigation are called ‘Consequences’. Such consequences can include impacts upon people, societies, beliefs or any other facet of history. The more you study history, the more you realise that consequences also become causes for other events.

EVENT CONSEQUENCES CAUSES

Short Term and Long Term Consequences Short Term Consequences: Consequences that occurred only a few hours, days or weeks after the event Long Term Consequences: Consequences that occurred years, decades or centuries after the event

Example questions for assessing Consequences What later events were the direct result of the event under examination? What changed in society as a result of the past event?