In 1750 CE, most people didn’t take part in the government of the state in which they lived. For most people, the most important communities were religion, family, or local. With increasing interconnections between societies, however, new ideas emerged about sovereignty—who has the right to govern. These ideas gave birth to many of the concepts of community we have today, such as democracy, human rights, citizenship, and the nation-state. In some places, the mix of ideas and conditions was right for revolution. But there were limits to who could participate in the new political order being created.

This video will provide you with an overview to begin evaluating how revolutions in the Atlantic world in the long nineteenth century had implications far beyond this region and after this period. It gives you your first two pieces of evidence to begin exploring these changes: a case study from Saint Louis in West Africa and data on the number of democratic states in the world. Finally, it asks questions that can help you to think about, and use, this information to evaluate the limits of political revolutions.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Before you watch the video, open and skim the transcript. Additionally, you should always read the questions below before you watch the video (a good habit to use in reading, too!). These pre-viewing strategies will help you know what to look and listen for as you watch the video. If there is time, your teacher may have you watch the video one time without stopping, and then give you time to watch again to pause and find the answers.

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. What, according to the video, is sovereignty?
2. Who, generally, could participate in government of most states around the world before about 1750?
3. How would you describe the big political changes that began in this period?
4. The French Revolution promised political participation to many. What did the inhabitants of Saint Louis, a West African port under French rule, think of this revolution, and did they get to participate?
5. What does the evidence suggest about the spread of democracy around the world since 1750?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. How are ideas about sovereignty expressed in our political and legal system today? Do these concepts have any limits? How do you experience the limits of personal and political sovereignty?

The liberal and national revolutions were among the important changes in the long nineteenth century that helped to create the modern world. People shared new ideas about individual and national political rights, including sovereignty. They used these ideas to revolt against an existing political system in which they had few rights. The result was a series of revolutions that began in the Atlantic world. In the longer term, these upheavals led to the spread of nationalism and liberal political ideas around the world.

This unit overview introduces you to Unit 4, in which you will encounter new ideas such as nationalism, liberalism and two connected ideas that you’ll see repeated through the course: individual and national sovereignty. The overview will also provide a quick introduction to the political revolutions built on these ideas, beginning in the Atlantic world. Finally, the overview covers the idea of nationalism, a concept you’ll soon see employed on a global scale in this and later units.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming for Gist section of the Three Close Reads worksheet as you complete your first close read. As a reminder, this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

For this reading, you should be looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the major claim and key supporting details, and analysis and evidence. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. In general, what were politics and government like around the world at the beginning of the long nineteenth century?
2. What important new political ideas resulted from the circulation of new ideas around the world?
3. What revolutions does this introduction suggest came first? In which part of the world were these revolutions?
4. What is nationalism, and what role does this author suggest it played in political revolutions?

Evaluating and Corroborating

For the third close read, you should think about how the article relates to the idea or question you thought about as you read.

At the end of the third close read, respond to the following questions:

1. What ideas from the political revolutions described in this overview continue to be important today?
2. Does this overview provide any sense of the limitations of these revolutions? Who do you think didn’t get to fully participate in these changes?

The world in 1750 had many types of communities with different forms of government. But for the most part, people were subjects—they were governed by others and had few political rights. The nation-state was a new kind of government in which a nation of citizens could govern themselves in a particular territory. Throughout the long nineteenth century, the period from 1750-1914, a number of nation-states were formed, and they have since come to dominate the world. But this was also an era in which many people were under the rule of empires, and remained subjects, rather than citizens.

This video describes important changes in the Long Nineteenth Century as viewed through the communities frame, which looks at how people organize themselves into groups. The communities frame provides a particular perspective on the rise of the nation-state during this period, and the advantages that allowed the nation-state to eventually cover nearly the entire world. However, viewing these events through the communities frame doesn’t offer a complete picture of people’s experiences, or global trends, in the long nineteenth century, and you can use the production and distribution and networks frames to tell a different story about this period.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key Ideas – Understanding Content

Think about the following questions as you watch this video:

1. What were some of the biggest communities in 1750?
2. What other kinds of communities were important to people’s lives around 1750?
3. According to this video, what did almost everyone share in this period, whether they lived in a big empire or a smaller community?
4. What were three new ideas about community that emerged during the long nineteenth century, according to this video? What new kind of community did these ideas help to create?
5. According to the video, why should you question that the rise of the nation-state during this period was revolutionary?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. This video focuses on the communities frame. How could you use the production and distribution and networks frame to tell a different story about this period?
2. The video ends by saying that that we live in a world of nation-states today. Why do you think the nation-state has become such a dominant form of community?

In this course, we explore the period between 1750 and 1914—what is sometimes called the “long nineteenth century”—as an era of revolutionary transformations. In this and later units, you will look at some of the political, social, cultural, economic, and technological transformations of the long nineteenth century. In this mapping activity, we’ll focus particularly on political revolutions—big changes in government. Before you start reading about these revolutions, you might want to make some predictions about the changes you will see. The tool you’ll use for making these predictions is a political map of the world in 1750—a map that shows many of the states that existed in this period and their borders.

You’ll begin this activity by predicting some factors that might lead to political revolutions. Then, you’ll use a political map to identify some states, including empires, that existed in this period. You’ll annotate a blank map with these identifications. Finally, you’ll use your annotated map to make some predictions.

Step 1

With your teacher, brainstorm some factors that might have led to political revolutions in the long nineteenth century. Why do you think there might have been revolutions in many places during this period? Your teacher may add some factors you haven’t thought about.

Step 2

In small groups, you should select one of the “political units” categories from the table and label the four places listed on the blank map. When this is complete, each group should share their answers until all 20 features are labeled on your map.

Step 3

Now make a prediction about two places where revolutions are likely to happen during the long nineteenth century that follows the period depicted on this map. Remember the factors you discussed earlier. You should annotate the blank map you labelled with those predictions.

This repeated activity should help you become familiar with a process for understanding unfamiliar words anytime you encounter them in the course.

Take out your vocab tracker and be sure to record new and unfamiliar words on it according to your teacher’s instructions.

Understanding vocabulary helps you access course content, become a better reader, and a better communicator. This word wall activity will help you begin to learn some of the key vocabulary from Unit 4.

In this activity, you’ll work with your class to create a word wall using the Unit 4 vocabulary.

Your teacher will assign a vocab card to each of you. Once you get yours, take a few minutes to look it up in the Unit 4 Vocab Guide and then examine the unit itself (click around and quickly skim the content) to see where in the unit your word might be most applicable. Then, add as many antonyms to your card for your word as possible. Your teacher will give you a limited amount of time to write antonyms. Then, the people with the most correct antonyms will put their words on the word wall first.

Your teacher may add some fun twists to this assignment, so be sure to listen closely for directions!

Each unit of the WHP course is guided by a Unit Problem. You’re learning a ton of stuff in this and every other unit, and it can be hard to keep track of what’s most important. It would be pretty easy to become obsessed with a detail that, although interesting and a great way to impress people at a party is relatively unimportant. This activity will help you stay focused! You’ll think about the Unit Problems, and then you’ll respond to them in writing. By keeping track of how your thinking changes throughout each unit, you’ll see how much you’re learning as you move through each section of the course.

Use the Unit 4 Problem Notebook Worksheet to respond to the prompts as best as you can. Be prepared to talk about your ideas with your class.

Access “Share of the Population Living in Extreme Poverty”

This activity is the first of two designed to guide you through the steps of making predictions with data. The following process will help you learn to identify the shapes of graphs and give you some practice with predictions. Evaluating these sample predictions will provide you with models for coming up with your own in the next Making a Prediction activity. The ability to evaluate data is an important skill—for history class and in life—because it enables us to use and apply the information we encounter in our world every day.

In this three-step activity, you will begin by examining a simple line graph and completing a matching activity. Next, you will evaluate several example predictions about the future of poverty and identify the different components of a prediction.

Step 1

There are two main practices that can help you make predictions using charts. First, you can examine the scale and shape of the chart itself to make predictions about how the shape will change if you extend the scale. Second, you need historical information about the chart’s topic. This information— gained from research besides the chart—will help you predict how the trends on the chart might change or stay the same.

Begin by looking over the Making a Prediction Part 1 worksheet. Look at the “How Funny YouTube Videos Are” chart. Based on the chart, as well as your own experience, predict what the line would look like if the timeline were extended to 8:00 a.m. Draw the extended graph. Be prepared to explain why your prediction is correct.

Step 2

Your teacher will place you into small groups to work on Step 2 of the Making a Prediction Part 1 worksheet. With your group, match the graph shapes with the given descriptions. (Note: Some descriptions match more than one chart.) Be prepared to share your responses with the class.

Step 3

Remain in your group to complete Step 3 of the Making a Prediction Part 1 worksheet, which shows a line graph as well as several predictions based on it.

With your group, evaluate the given predictions about the future of poverty. Identify and cross out any predictions you think are very unlikely to occur. Discuss and vote on which of the remaining predictions you think is most likely to take place. Next, work with your group to complete the three discussion questions and your explanations.

Open the following non-interactive charts in your internet browser:

• Chart 1 – Great Power War: https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2013/08/ourworldindata_percentage-of-years-in-which-the-great-powers-fought-one-another-1500%E2%80%932000.png
• Chart 2 – Global Deaths in Conflict: https://slides.ourworldindata.org/war-and-violence/#/6
• Chart 3 – Population Control, Marauder Style: https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2013/08/The-100-Worst-Atrocities-over-the-last-Millennia-New-York-Times-Data-from-Matthew-White0.png

The past was not peaceful. Human history is filled with violent conflict. But some people think that the world has gotten more violent in the recent past. The world wars of the twentieth century loom large in our memory today. But wars aren’t new, and some even argue that war has been getting less common and less deadly. The three charts in this article offer three different takes on this debate.

Data can be used in many ways, and not all charts tell the same story, even when they cover the same topic. In this third data exploration, we introduce three charts about war and conflict throughout human history. All three charts might cover this topic, but each of them tells a different story, and you might draw different conclusions from each. Which do you agree with? Which do you trust the most? How do you tell the difference? This data exploration will help you learn to compare and perhaps combine data from diverse charts to draw your own conclusions.

Your teacher will let you know if there is an overall question to hold in your mind as complete your three reads of the article.

Preview – What Do We Have?

Fill out the Read 1: Preview section of the Three Close Reads for Data worksheet as you complete your first close read. Remember—this should be a quick process!

Key Ideas – What Do We Know?

For this read, your goal is to understand the “story” the chart is telling by identifying its arguments and evaluating its presentation of data. You will decide what claim or claims this chart is making and what evidence is being used to support those claims. Do you think the data is reliable? Is the chart misleading in any way? By the end of this read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. How are Charts 1 and 2 different? How are they similar?
2. What does Chart 1 tell us about war in the last 500 years? Do you think measuring war between the great powers is a good way to understand war in general?
3. What does Chart 2 tell us about how the deadliness of conflict changed during the twentieth century?
4. According to Chart 3, what was the deadliest event in human history?
5. Charts 1 and 2 suggest that the frequency and deadliness of conflict might be declining, especially during the twentieth century. Why does Chart 3 show so many more conflicts in recent centuries than earlier in history?

Making Connections – What Does This Tell Us?

The third read is really about why the chart is important, what it can tell us about the past, and how it can help us think about the future. At the end of this read, respond to the following questions:

1. These four charts use similar data to tell slightly different stories. Which do you trust the most to tell us something important about deadly conflict? Why?
2. Using these three charts, make one prediction about the future of warfare and deadly conflict in your lifetime. What evidence from the charts supports your prediction? What evidence challenges it?