France Terminale History-Geography, Geopolitics and Political Science

Chapters: 6

1. New spaces of conquest

Conquest and rivalry: space and oceans · Diplomacy and cooperation · Conclusion: China in space and at sea

Space Exploration – Space exploration means sending rockets, satellites, probes and people beyond Earth's air. Rockets rise by pushing gas down (action–reaction). At about 7.9 km/s sideways a craft keeps falling around Earth in orbit; at 11.2 km/s it escapes. Since 1957 space has been a place of rivalry and cooperation, and it gives us weather forecasts, navigation, communication and new science.
Geopolitics: How Place Shapes Power – Geopolitics studies how geography (location, size, resources, sea routes) shapes the power of states and their rivalries and alliances. Power is the ability to make others do what you want. Hard power uses force or money (army, economy); soft power attracts (culture, language, universities, technology). Powers rise and decline, as the Ottoman Empire did and as Russia tried to rebuild after 1991. States compete for resources, territory and routes such as straits and new Silk Roads, but also cooperate through treaties, alliances, exclusive economic zones, the International Space Station and the protection of the high seas.

The political dimension of war · Building peace · Conclusion: Middle East conflicts and peace attempts

Conflicts in Today's World: Causes, Costs and the Search for Peace – Since the end of the Cold War in 1989–91, the world has moved from two superpowers to many power centres. Conflicts now include wars between states, civil wars, terrorism and hybrid or cyber attacks. Their causes mix resources, identity, territory, weak states and outside powers. Civilians pay the highest price, so the world uses diplomacy, UN peacekeeping and international courts to limit war and punish the worst crimes.
Building Peace: From Westphalia to the United Nations – Peace has been built in three main ways. A treaty (Westphalia, 1648) ends a war and sets rules between states. Collective security means all members promise to act together against an aggressor (League of Nations, then the UN in 1945). Under Kofi Annan (1997 to 2006) the UN worked on prevention, peacekeeping, protection of civilians and rebuilding after war.

History and memory of conflicts · History, memory and justice · Conclusion: history and memory of the genocide of Jews and Roma

History and Memory: How We Remember the Past – Memory is how people and groups remember the past; history is the careful study of the past using evidence. After an event, witnesses keep living memory for a few generations. Sources such as documents, photos, objects and interviews survive longer. Societies turn memory into memorials, museums, street names and remembrance days. Different groups may remember the same event differently, so historians compare sources to test memory, correct myths and give a fair account. Remembering past wrongs can support justice and reconciliation.
The Holocaust – The Holocaust (in Hebrew, the Shoah) was the planned, state-organised persecution and murder of about six million European Jews by Nazi Germany and its allies and helpers between 1933 and 1945. It grew out of old antisemitism and Nazi racist ideology. It went step by step: exclusion and laws (1933–38), ghettos and mass shootings (1939–41), and death camps (1942–45). Roma and Sinti, disabled people, Polish and Soviet civilians, Soviet prisoners of war and others were also persecuted and murdered. Jews resisted in many ways, and some people risked their lives as rescuers, while many others looked away. After the war came trials, the 1948 Genocide Convention and remembrance, so that such a crime is never repeated.

Social and political uses of heritage · Preserving and promoting heritage · Conclusion: France and heritage policy

Cultural Heritage – Cultural heritage is everything a community receives from the past, values today and wants to pass on: buildings and monuments, objects in museums, languages, music, dance, festivals, crafts, food and knowledge. Tangible heritage can be touched (immovable like temples and bridges, movable like coins and manuscripts); intangible heritage is lived and practised; natural heritage covers special landscapes and wildlife. Heritage gives identity, teaches history, brings income through tourism and links people across cultures. It is threatened by weathering, pollution, crowds, careless development, neglect and conflict, and is protected by conservation, laws, museums, heritage lists, education and local communities.

Exploit, preserve, protect · Climate change in history and geopolitics · Conclusion: the USA and the environment

Environmental Policy: How Societies Protect Nature – Environmental policy is the set of laws, taxes, rules and agreements a society uses to protect air, water, land, climate and living things. It is needed because pollution is an external cost: the polluter does not pay for the harm done to others, and shared resources (air, rivers, oceans) get overused. Main tools: regulation (limits, standards, bans, environmental impact assessment), market tools (pollution taxes, cap and trade permits, subsidies for clean options), protected areas, and information (labels, reporting). Key principles: polluter pays, prevention, precaution and sustainable development. People have rights to a healthy environment and duties to protect it. Policy works at local, national and global levels, because pollution crosses every boundary. Societies balance three choices: exploit, preserve or protect (use wisely).
Climate Change and the Greenhouse Effect – Climate is the average weather of a place over about 30 years. Greenhouse gases like carbon dioxide and methane trap some of the heat the Earth gives off. Humans have added a lot more of these gases by burning fossil fuels and cutting forests, so the Earth is warming. This causes melting ice, rising seas and more extreme weather. We can cut emissions (mitigation) and prepare for changes (adaptation).

Producing and spreading knowledge · Knowledge as a political stake · Conclusion: cyberspace, conflict and cooperation

Knowledge Society: Making, Sharing and Guarding Knowledge – In a knowledge society, wealth and power depend on what people know and can do, not only on land or machines. Knowledge is made in scientific communities that share and check results, and it spreads through schools, books, journals and growing literacy. States also try to control it: some guard secrets, some spy, and others send students abroad or share technology. The flow of knowledge shapes who gets ahead.
Cybersecurity: Threats and How We Stop Them – Cybersecurity protects computers, networks and data. It aims for confidentiality, integrity and availability (the CIA triad). Common threats are malware, phishing and social engineering, brute-force password attacks and denial of service. Defences include strong authentication, encryption, firewalls, anti-malware software, updates, access control and backups.