FortyFive › Revision notes › IB History › IB History: Thematic study: Innovation and transformation (from 750 CE)

IB History: Thematic study: Innovation and transformation (from 750 CE)

Causes and impacts of innovation. 2 subtopics, 8 key terms.

Learn this topic properly. Interactive diagrams, worked examples, check questions and exam-style practice with mark schemes. Open “Thematic study: Innovation and transformation (from 750 CE)” in FortyFive →

In this topic: 4.1 · 4.2

4.1Innovation and its causes

Innovation: A new idea, technique or technology put into use.
Diffusion: The spread of innovation from place to place.
Industrial Revolution: The shift to machine production, beginning in Britain from about 1760.
House of Wisdom: A centre of learning and translation in Abbasid Baghdad (9th century).

The thematic study Innovation and transformation runs from 750 CE.

The full notes, worked example and check questions for this subtopic are in the app.

Exam tip: Always pair an innovation with a transformation it caused: “invention → change in society”.

Urbanisation: Growth of towns and cities.
Social change: Changes in class, gender, family and work.
Unintended consequence: An effect no one planned.
Reformation: 16th-century religious split helped by printing (Luther, 1517).

Printing: spread of ideas, the Reformation (Luther's theses, 1517), the Scientific Revolution.

The full notes, worked example and check questions for this subtopic are in the app.

Exam tip: Use the concept of significance: judge an innovation by how many it affected, how deeply and for how long.