CBSE Syllabus for Class 11 History

Section A: Early Societies

2. Introduction

3. From the Beginning of Time

Focus: Africa, Europe till 15000 BC

• (a) Views on the origin of human beings.
• (b) Early societies.
• (c) Historians’ views on present-day hunting-gathering societies.

4. Early Cities

Focus: Iraq, 3rd millennium BC

• (a) Growth of towns.
• (b) Nature of early urban societies.
• (c) Historians’ Debate on uses of writing.

Section B: Empires

5. Introduction

6. An Empire across Three Continents

Focus: Roman Empire, 27 B.C to A.D 600.

• (a) Political evolution
• (b) Economic expansion
• (c) Religion
• (d) Late Antiquity.
• (e) Historians’ views on the institution of Slavery.

7. Central Islamic Lands

Focus: 7th to 12th centuries

• (a) Polity
• (b) Economy
• (c) Culture.
• (d) Historians’ viewpoints on the nature of the crusades.

8. Nomadic Empires

Focus: the Mongol, 13th to 14th century

• (a) The nature of nomadism.
• (b) Formation of empires.
• (c) Conquests and relations with other states.
• (d) Historians’ views on nomadic societies and state formation.

Section C: Changing Traditions

9. Introduction

10. Three Orders

Focus: Western Europe, 13th-16th century

• (a) Feudal society and economy.
• (b) Formation of states.
• (c) Church and Society.
• (d) Historians’ views on decline of feudalism.

11. Changing Cultural Traditions

Focus on Europe, 14th to 17th century.

• (a) New ideas, and new trends in literature and arts.
• (b) Relationship with earlier ideas
• (c) The contribution of West Asia.
• (d) Historians’ viewpoints on the validity of the notion ‘European Renaissance’.

12. Confrontation of Cultures

Focus on America, 15th to 18th century.

• (a) European voyages of exploration.
• (b) Search for gold; enslavement, raids, extermination.
• (c) Indigenous people and cultures – the Arawaks, the Aztecs, the Incas.
• (d) The history of displacements.
• (e) Historians’ viewpoints on the slave trade.

Section D: Paths to Modernization

13. Introduction

14. The Industrial Revolution

Focus on England, 18th and 19th century.

• (a) Innovations and technological change
• (b) Patterns of growth.
• (c) Emergence of a working class.
• (d) Historians’ viewpoints, Debate on ‘Was there an Industrial Revolution?’

15. Displacing Indigenous People

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

• (a) European colonists in North America and Australia.
• (b) Formation of white settler societies.
• (c) Displacement and repression of local people.
• (d) Historians’ viewpoints on the impact of European settlement on indigenous population.

16. Paths to Modernization

Focus on East Asia, late 19th and 20th century.

• (a) Militarization and economic growth in Japan.
• (b) China and the Communist alternative.
• (c) Historians’ Debate on the meaning of modernization

17. Map Work on Units 1-16

• Familiarize the learner with ways of reconstructing human evolution. Discuss whether the experience of present-day hunting-gathering people can be used to understand early societies.

• Familiarize the learner with the nature of early urban centres.
• Discuss whether writing is significant as a marker of civilization.

• Familiarize the learner with the history of a major world empire.
• Discuss whether slavery was a significant element in the economy.

• Familiarize the (earner with the rise of Islamic empires in the Afro-Asian territories and its implications for economy and society.
• Understand what the crusades meant in these regions and how they were experienced.

• Familiarize the learner with the varieties of nomadic society and their institutions.
• Discuss whether state formation is possible in nomadic societies.
• Familiarize the (earner with the nature of the economy and society of this period and the changes within them.
• Show how the debate on the decline of feudalism helps in understanding processes of transition.
• Explore the intellectual trends in the period.
• Familiarize students with the paintings and buildings of the period
• Introduce the debate around the idea of ‘Renaissance’.
• Discuss changes in the European economy that led to the voyages.
• Discuss the implications of the conquests for the indigenous people.
• Explore the debate on the nature of the slave trade and see what this debate tells us about the meaning of these “discoveries”.

• Understand the nature of growth in the period and its limits.
• Initiate students to the debate on the idea of industrial revolution.
• Sensitize students to the processes of displacements that accompanied the development of America and Australia.
• Understand the implications of such processes for the displaced populations.
• Make students aware that transformation in the modern world takes many different forms.
• Show how notions like ‘modernization’ need to be critically assessed.