The British Empire: Causes of the 1857 Indian Rebellion

PowerPoint (with 4 slides) and two Word Documents that examine the causes of the 1857 Rebellion. Factors that are considered within the lesson are cultural causes such as rumours of cartridges greased with animal fat, economic causes such as low pay for sepoys and political causes such as the Doctrine of Lapse.

Activities include

• Starter activity to match key terms used in the lessons with the correct definitions.
• Source analysis activity (6 sources) to determine the causes of the rebellion, judge whether the issues were short or long term causes and consider who was most motivated by the cause; princes, sepoys or civilians.
• Evidence based discussion activity on whether the cartridge issue was the most important cause of the rebellion.
• Debate on why historians give different names to the events of 1857; mutiny, rebellion or the First War of Indian Independence.
• Conclusion on which view of the events of 1857, given the causes, is most convincing.

Designed for teaching an academically able Key Stage 3 class covering aspects of the British Empire.
Lesson Length: 1hr depending on pace.

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