This quick skill-building activity is intended to help you understand what is being asked of you when you’re presented with historical prompts, particularly those you’ll encounter in assessment prompts such as document-based questions (DBQs) and long essay questions (LEQs).

In this activity, you will revisit the process of how to parse a prompt. Remember, parsing a prompt is the process of analyzing a string of words—that is, trying to figure out what something is saying and asking!

Take out the Question Parsing Tool and write down the following AP® World History released exam prompt at the top of the tool: “Evaluate the extent to which the experience of the First World War changed relationships between Europeans and colonized peoples.”

Now, follow the tool directions. Be prepared to discuss your answers with the class!

At the end of the Second World War, industrial empires like France, Britain, Germany, and Japan found themselves much weaker than when the war started. Some were defeated, others were victorious. But none of them were prepared for the wave of anti-colonial activism and shifting global conditions that threatened their control over their colonies. Within three decades, most of the world’s colonies had won their freedom and become independent states.

Why did so many great empires lose their colonies after the Second World War? This article gives you a global view of this transformation that brings together all of the different regional stories you have encountered and will encounter. It focuses on two main explanations: local nationalist struggles and global conditions, including the Cold War. This material will help you to respond to the Unit Problem, which asks you to describe the relationships between these two great trends.

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. This article makes a distinction between “decolonization” and the end of empires. What is that distinction?
2. How did the Second World War contribute to the end of empires?
3. What were some post-war global transformation that helped to lead to the end of empires?
4. What was the main instrument of those seeking independence within each colony, and why was it so useful?

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. In this course, we generally use the term “decolonization” to mean the end of empire. But this author argues that decolonization should properly refer to the ending of all of the legacies of colonialism. What’s the difference? Do you agree with this author? Can you think of any “colonial legacies” that you have encountered in the world?
2. There are many different ways to talk about decolonization and anti-colonial movements. How was decolonization a result of the ways that people thought about themselves as communities and how was it a result of global networks?

World War II weakened colonial powers, while also giving colonized peoples hope that the defeat of imperialist Germany and Japan would lead to a new era of freedom from foreign rule. Anti-colonial movements sprang up across the world, from Indonesia to Africa. Through nonviolent resistance and armed revolution, new nations rose from the old colonial territories. As emerging states won independence, they faced the difficult challenge of reconciling religious and ethnic tensions within their new nations, while also navigating the conflict between socialism and capitalism in the global Cold War.

The Unit 8 Problem asks you to consider decolonization alongside the Cold War, and this video gives you your first focused overview of how anti-colonial movements across the world won independence after World War II, and then struggled with the challenges of nation-building. The video also lets you extend the production and distribution frame narrative as you consider the imbalance of trade between European nations and their colonies, and how unfair trade practices fueled resistance to colonial rule.

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. How did World War II affect the colonial empires?
2. Why was there tension within India’s independence movement? What was the source of the disagreement?
3. In what way was the Indian independence movement very different from the partition of India that followed? What do you think was the cause of this difference?
4. What are cash crops? How were Indonesian farmers exploited in order to enrich the Netherlands?
5. What kinds of challenges did African nations face after independence? How had imperialism contributed to those challenges?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. What factors made it possible for anti-colonial movements around the world to achieve independence during this period? John Green touches upon many of those factors in this video. How did some factors have more influence on certain former colonies and less on others?
2. Was violence necessary to achieve independence? Examine the role that violence played in the various parts of the world that John Green covers. Could independence have been achieved solely through nonviolent resistance?

This activity helps reveal the struggles that women in particular faced as they both experienced and attempted to throw off colonial rule in Africa in the twentieth century. Although women often faced harsher discrimination than men—the discrimination against them was based on both their gender and ethnicity—the story of their lives under colonial rule has frequently been overlooked. By comparing women’s involvement in anticolonial movements across different regions of Africa, you will see how the fight for equality is not something that is confined to the distant past but rather that it extends to today and continues to shape the lives of women around the world.

CCOT
This activity focuses on comparing women’s experiences before, during, and after European colonialism. You’ll explore continuity and change over time as you examine the impact of colonial rule in Africa and how it continues to shape women’s roles in society today.

In this activity, you will compare women’s lives under colonial rule and their involvement in anticolonial movements in three regions: Nigeria, Egypt, and Algeria.

First, take out the Comparing Women’s Roles in Decolonization Efforts worksheet. Then, read the article “Decolonizing Women,” using the questions in the Comparison Tool (included in the worksheet) to guide your reading. In addition, think about the following prompt, which you’ll use to outline a comparison essay at the end of this activity:

Compare and contrast the ways in which colonialism changed the lives of women in Nigeria, Egypt, and Algeria.

After you finish reading, complete as much of Part 1 of the Comparison Tool as you can with the information from the article.

Then, your teacher will assign each student a number from one to three. All the “ones” will research Nigeria, the “twos” will focus on Egypt, and the “threes” will work on Algeria. You’ll conduct independent research on the internet to find information that more fully answers the questions in the Comparison Tool for how colonialism impacted the lives of women in your assigned region (Nigeria, Egypt, or Algeria). Be sure that you are using credible (trustworthy) websites, such as those of reputable newspapers/news outlets, museums, libraries, universities, and journals. Find at least two credible and relevant sources for your assigned country. Use the research cards included with the worksheet to organize and record your findings, and to track information for each source.

Once you have found relevant information from at least two sources, strengthen your answers for Part 1 of the Comparison Tool with your findings. Make sure you cite your outside sources in the tool. Then, you’ll get into groups of three with at least one student representing each country. Work together with your group members to identify the similarities and differences between the experiences of women in each of these cases.

Next, you’ll write two thesis statements answering these prompts:

• What was the most significant similarity between women’s decolonization experiences in these three nations?
• What was the most significant difference between women’s decolonization experiences in these three nations?

Remember that you can use the acronym ADE (amount, depth, and endurance) to help determine historical significance. Consider if these similarities and differences affected most women in these regions (amount); if women in these regions were deeply affected by these similarities and differences (depth); or if these similarities and differences were long lasting (endurance).

Finally, use your thesis statements to outline a comparison essay in response to this prompt: Compare and contrast the ways in which colonialism changed the lives of women in Nigeria, Egypt, and Algeria. Plan your outline as a five- to six- paragraph essay with an introduction, body paragraphs with evidence, and a conclusion. Your teacher will walk you through the criteria needed to construct this outline.

Be prepared to share your outlines with the class and your teacher. Finally, think about how the legacy of colonialism continues to affect women in these nations. Share your thoughts with the class to wrap up this activity.

Overlooked in early histories, the importance of the struggle for rights undertaken by women fighting colonial oppression throughout Africa is better understood today. African women suffered under European rule, and then became a force within the anti-colonial movement, playing key parts in the fight for freedom. Colonial governments imposed European gender roles on traditional societies, expecting African women to stay within the boundaries of mothers, wives, and home keepers. In African societies, however, women often held influential positions. Tensions erupted into protests during colonial rule, and set the stage for the women’s participation in winning independence.

In this lesson, you’ve come across multiple narratives about decolonization. But there’s an important gap in these narratives. This article will help you recognize and fill that gap by discussing the role that African women played in resisting colonial rule and fighting for independence. Historians today have come to a better understanding of how crucial women were to the anti-colonial movement, and these findings can help you test and extend the communities frame narrative. The article also zooms in and looks at a few different case studies, from southern Nigeria to Algeria to Egypt.

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. Why did African women infrequently appear in official records kept during colonial rule?
2. How did the roles for African women under European colonial rule differ from women’s roles in pre-colonial societies?
3. What was the role of “warrant chiefs”? How did colonial rulers create a new structure of authority in Nigerian communities? Why do you think they did this?
4. Why did European rulers force African women to stick to the boundaries of mothers, wives, and home keepers? How might the traditional roles of women in pre-colonial society have undermined colonial authority?
5. How did Egyptian women respond when the anti-colonial party led by Saad Zaghlul was forced into exile?

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. Historian Rachael Hill makes the claim that “women suffered more under colonial rule than men.” What evidence does the author provide for this statement? Review what you already know about gender expectations and the changing role of women through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries in considering Hill’s thesis.
2. How has the writing of history evolved since what the author describes as the “early histories of the time” that “ignored women’s struggles for independence”? Can you think of reasons why the author believes that “today, history scholars understand that women played important roles.” What has changed in how historians do their work?

Kwame Nkrumah was born in the British Gold Coast Colony, a subject of the British Empire. He led that colony to independence as the modern nation-state of Ghana. After independence, he sought to support independence and anti-colonial movements elsewhere in Africa, and even played a global political role in such Cold War conflicts as the Vietnam War. He was removed from power in 1966 and died in exile.

How did the man who led a successful movement for independence in Ghana become involved in diplomacy during the Cold War? Kwame Nkrumah’s biography provides evidence to help you to evaluate the connections between decolonization and the Cold War.

Read 1: Observe

As you read this graphic biography for the first time, review the Read 1: Observe section of your Three Close Reads for Graphic Bios Tool. Be sure to record one question in the thought bubble on the top-right. You don’t need to write anything else down. However, if you’d like to record your observations, feel free to do so on scrap paper.

Read 2: Understand

On the tool, summarize the main idea of the comic and provide two pieces of evidence that helped you understand the creator’s main idea. You can do this only in writing or you can get creative with some art. Some of the evidence you find may come in the form of text (words). But other evidence will come in the form of art (images). You should read the text looking for unfamiliar vocabulary words, the main idea, and key supporting details. You should also spend some time looking at the images and the way in which the page is designed. By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. Where was Nkrumah born and where was he educated?
2. Why was his education in Pennsylvania important, according to the author?
3. In 1957, Nkrumah became the first President of Ghana. Given the quote in this biography, why did he believe that he had to support independence movements elsewhere, and how did he do it?
4. How, according to the authors, did his international efforts play a role in his overthrow in 1966?
5. How does the artist use art and design to portray Nkrumah’s role in international anti-colonialism?

Read 3: Connect

In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in this unit of the course. On the bottom of the tool, record what you learned about this person’s life and how it relates to what you’re learning.

1. How does this biography of Kwame Nkrumah support, extend, or challenge what you have learned about the Cold War and decolonization?

To Be Continued…

On the second page of the tool, your teacher might ask you to extend the graphic biography to a second page. This is where you can draw and write what you think might come next. Here, you can become a co-creator of this graphic biography!

We often think of resistance to colonialism in terms of armies and battles… and truthfully, there was some of that, especially when a colony was conquered and when big rebellions emerged. But resistance also took many other forms. Ultimately, boycotts, strikes, marches, and diplomacy did a lot of the work that ended formal empires. In this video, we look at some episodes of resistance from Ghana—the British Gold Coast Colony—under the leadership of Yaa Asantewaa and later Kwame Nkrumah.

This video introduces evidence at the scale of a single colony—the Gold Coast (today Ghana)—for understanding the resistance to colonialism. It is evidence that can be combined with other articles and videos that discuss military, philosophical, and other responses to colonialism.

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 did Ghanaian historian A. Adu Boahen mean when he said that, “Independence was not given on a silver platter but won by blood”?
2. Who was Yaa Asantewaa, and what did she do that made her famous?
3. What was the Golden Stool of Asante? Why did the British want it? Did they get it in the end?
4. Why, according to Tony Yeboah, was a lot of anti-colonial resistance actually aimed at chiefs and kings?
5. What kind of resistance did the UGCC (United Gold Coast Convention) organize after the Second World War?
6. Why did Ghanaian veterans, who had fought for Britain during the war, march in 1947, and what happened to them?
7. What was Kwame Nkrumah’s strategy of positive action? Why was he such an effective leader, according to Tony Yeboah?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. This video focuses on some big acts of resistance. Do you think these acts represent most common forms of resistance? If not, what is missing? If so, what evidence supports your argument?
2. What are the most important causes of resistance you can find in this video if you view it through the communities frame? What other important causes become clear if you view it through the production and distribution frame?

The Ottoman Empire collapsed in the first decades of the twentieth century. Many communities in the Middle East hoped that this meant independence, but British and French imperialism soon squashed these hopes for many. The region got another chance at throwing off imperialism later in the century, during decolonization. Yet, the Cold War conflict between the United States and Soviet Union invited new foreign interference in many nations in the Middle East. Nationalist leaders in countries like Egypt and Iran faced many challenges as they tried to free their nations from foreign meddling.

By using the Middle East as a case study, this article will help you respond to the Unit 8 question, “what can we learn by studying the Cold War and decolonization together?” The article pays particular attention to how the Cold War affected nationalist projects in Egypt and Iran. As nationalist leaders struggled to retake control of their nation’s resources, the superpowers worked against each other to gain allies in the region. By highlighting the nationalization of resources and political organization in the Middle East, this article provides you with important evidence for evaluating the communities and production and distribution frame narratives.

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. Where does the term “Middle East” come from? What countries does the region include?
2. What was the Sykes-Picot Agreement?
3. Why was the Suez Canal important?
4. What did Gamal Nasser do to provoke invasion by the British, French, and Israelis? How was the invasion stopped?
5. What policy did Mohammad Mossadegh implement in Iran? Why did he take these actions and what was the result?

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. Nasser and Mossadegh both nationalized important resources in their countries. They both challenged British economic imperialism. But their efforts had two very different outcomes. What do you think explains these two different outcomes?

By the time the Second World War ended, China had been a victim of European informal empire for a century and of Japanese imperialism for half a century. Two forces had emerged to fight for an independent China: nationalists and communists. After the Japanese were defeated, these two forces fought each other, and the communists under Mao Zedong emerged victorious almost everywhere. The new government’s policies modernized China rapidly, but at enormous cost.

This article is a regional history of China during the twentieth century. Much of this history involves a fight against imperialism that also brought China into the Cold War as a communist power. This history provides evidence from China that will help you to respond to the Unit Problem, which asks you to consider how decolonization and the Cold War were entangled.

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. Most of China was never formally colonized. So why has twentieth-century China seen itself as so engaged in a struggle against imperialism and colonialism?
2. How did relations between the nationalist Guomindang (GMD) and the Communist Party of China (CPC) change between 1921 and 1949?
3. What were the main policies of the communists under Chairman Mao, once they came to power?
4. What was the goal of the Great Leap Forward, and did it succeed, according to the author?
5. What was the goal of the Cultural Revolution, and did it succeed, according to the author?
6. China is a communist power. Was it a Soviet ally during the Cold War?

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. The author argues that, despite never formally being colonized, much of China’s recent history has been guided by an anti-imperial mindset. Do you believe she has proven her argument in this article? Why or why not?
2. In the recent past, China has taken over Tibet and is trying to change Muslim citizens to be more “culturally” similar to the majority of the country. The government is also trying to enforce its rule in Hong Kong, which until recently was a British colony and most of whose population opposes many of the policies of the Chinese government. Does this evidence suggest that China is an imperial power, today?

In the first half of the twentieth century, the great power of China lay wounded. Its peasants were impoverished, its armies humiliated, and its lands increasingly captured by enemies. After World War II, however, one of the greatest revolutions of world history brought the Communist Party to power in China. The result would be both hardship and glory, but certainly it laid the groundwork for a resurgent China. In this video, we look at the Chinese Communist Revolution as a transformational event in both Chinese history and the global history of revolutions, with the help of Dr. Prasenjit Duara.

This lesson is all about the connections between the Cold War and decolonization, and China’s story is both unique and very significant in connecting these two global trends. However, it is also an important event in the long history of revolutions around the world, as we will see. So this story will help you both to respond to the Unit Problem, and also to connect it to earlier periods in human history.

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. According to Francesca, what is the difference between liberal and social revolutions?
2. What were the two parties that, during the 1920s and 1930s, sought to lead China, and what were their goals?
3. According to Dr. Prasenjit Duara, what were the internal and external inspirations for the Chinese Communist Revolution?
4. According to Dr. Duara, how did the Chinese Communist Party’s response to the Japanese occupation help them to win the revolution?
5. According to Dr. Duara, can we call the Chinese Communist Revolution part of an anticolonial struggle? Why or why not?
6. What were the successes and failures of the revolution, according to Dr. Duara?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. Consider the Chinese Communist Revolution alongside the earlier revolutions you’ve encountered. Which would you label social revolutions? Which were liberal political revolutions? Which were both?
2. How does the Chinese Communist Revolution show the ways in which the Cold War and decolonization were intertwined?

3x5 note cards or cut up paper

This sourcing collection, along with the Quick-Sourcing Tool, gives you an opportunity to practice a quicker kind of sourcing than you do in the sourcing practice progression. The tool and the process for using it—specifically designed for unpacking document collections—will help you be successful when responding to DBQs.

Note: If you are unfamiliar with the Quick-Sourcing Tool or the process for using it, we recommend reviewing the Quick-Sourcing Introduction activity in Lesson 2.1.

The Quick-Sourcing Tool can be used any time you encounter a set of sources and are trying to respond to a prompt or question, as opposed to the deeper analysis you do when using the HAPPY tool that is part of the sourcing progression.

First, take out or download the sourcing collection and review the guiding question that appears on the first page. Then, take out or download the Quick-Sourcing Tool and review the directions. For Part 1, you’ll write a quick summary of each source in terms of how it relates to the guiding question (we recommend using one note card or scrap of paper for each source).

For Part 2, which uses the first four letters of the acronym from the HAPPY tool, you only have to respond to one of these four questions. You should always include the historical significance or “why” (the “Y” in “HAPPY”) for any of the four questions you choose to respond to.

In Part 3, you’ll gather the evidence you found in each document and add it to your note cards so you can include it in a response later. Once each document is analyzed, look at your note cards and try to categorize the cards. There might be a group of documents that support the claim you want to make in your response, and another group that will help you consider counterclaims, for example.

To wrap up, try to respond to the guiding question.

This collection explores socialist and communist efforts, movements, and responses across the globe. Some sources focus on communist revolutions, policies, and propaganda, while others show how workers’ demands were met in non-communist societies. In the margins, we see a broad variety of socialist beliefs and practice, implemented in many different communities. In some cases, it succeeds, while in others it falters, due to mismanagement, state suppression, or external pressure. We also glimpse the connections between these movements, as well as where lines begin to get drawn.

The primary source excerpts in this collection will help you assess the causes and consequences of the spread of communist and socialist states and policies around the world. This will also help you understand relations between communist, socialist, and capitalist states in our modern world. In addition, you’ll work on your sourcing skills using the Quick-Sourcing Tool.

We recommend using the accompanying Quick Sourcing activity (above) to help you analyze these sources.

Make sure you have the UP Notebook worksheets that you partially filled out earlier in the unit.

This is a continuation of the UP Notebook activity that you started in this unit. As part of WHP, you are asked to revisit the Unit Problems in order to maintain a connection to the core themes of the course. Because this is the second time you’re working with this unit’s problems, you are asked to explain how your understanding of the unit’s core concepts has changed over the unit. Make sure you use evidence from this unit and sound reasoning in your answers.

Fill out the second table on your partially completed worksheet from earlier in the unit. Be prepared to talk about your ideas with your class.

Histories of the US Civil Rights struggle and decolonization are often told separately, but these two struggles were entangled. After the Second World War, African American soldiers returned home and questioned why they had fought against fascism only to return to repression in America. During the 1950s and 1960s, civil rights leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. took inspiration from leaders in the decolonizing world. Anti-colonial leaders around the world and American civil rights leaders believed that their struggles were linked. As the Cold War heated up, the American government began to see racism in America as a liability for their foreign relations.

In this unit, we examine the Cold War and decolonization as two interconnected conflicts. This article adds the civil rights movement in the United States into this mix. As this article argues, the civil rights movement was linked to both the Cold War and decolonization. As you read, consider how adding this new element into the relationship between the Cold War and decolonization changes your understanding of each.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming 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. What was the Double-V campaign?
2. How did Hitler view racism in America?
3. What example does the author use as evidence for the influence of anti-colonial leaders on the civil rights movement?
4. How did the connections between civil rights and decolonization create a foreign policy problem for the US government?

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. How does the information in this article about the civil rights movement support or challenge the narratives in this unit about connections between the Cold War and decolonization?

South Africa had been a British colony during the nineteenth and early twentieth century. After World War II, its system of racial discrimination intensified as a settler population held on to power and further institutionalized racism. Within South Africa, opponents of this system struggled to overthrow it, despite brutal repression. They reached out and recruited international support. They finally succeeded in overthrowing the racist system and ushering in multi-racial democracy in the early 1990s.

The struggle against apartheid in South Africa is one of the longest of the decolonization struggles, and also became wrapped up in the Cold War. This article will help you to explore the route the struggle took, and how it connected local and global forces. This will provide evidence for responding to the Unit Problem, by demonstrating how decolonization and the Cold War were intertwined. It will also help you to revisit nationalism as a force within the community frame, but also see how global networks were powerful in bringing about change, as well.

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. What was apartheid?
2. What were some apartheid laws and policies?
3. In what ways does the author argue that apartheid was like Jim Crow in the US South?
4. What did the Freedom Charter call for?
5. How did the struggle against apartheid get caught up in the Cold War?
6. What happened in 1976, in Soweto, that was so important?
7. What kinds of international response did protests like these create?

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. The end of apartheid was a group effort. What changes in “community” within South Africa helped end apartheid. What actions of global “networks” helped end the racist system? Why is it useful to view this important change through both frames?
2. This article highlights the communities and networks that resisted apartheid. Can you explain any ways that global and local production and distribution were helpful in ending the system?

This activity will provide additional evidence to help you respond to the Unit Problem: What can we learn when we study the Cold War and decolonization together? You will reflect on what you’ve learned during this unit by exploring the geography of the Cold War and decolonization. You will evaluate political maps of 1945 and 1975 to evaluate change and continuity over time and review your predictions from the Part 1 activity. Finally, you’ll investigate a map highlighting connections between the Cold War and decolonization as you evaluate how our understanding changes when we study these events together.

This activity begins with an identification opening in which you’ll identify 10 formerly colonized nations that had won independence by 1975 and identify the empire from which they won their independence. Next, you’ll compare political maps for the years 1945 and 1975, evaluating how the Cold War and decolonization reshaped political communities. Finally, you will reflect on your guesses and predictions from the Part 1 activity and write a response to a prompt about how our understanding of these two conflicts changes when we study them together.

Step 1

Identify the new nations associated with the numbers on the black-and-white map of the world in 1975 and record your answers on the worksheet. Be sure to indicate both the name of the nation and the empire that formerly controlled it.

Step 2

In small groups, examine the 1945 and 1975 Political Maps. Compare these two maps and provide three significant changes or continuities between these two dates.

Step 3

Now, look at the Decolonization and the Cold War Thematic Map. Your teacher might ask you how close your predictions were in the Part 1 activity. As a group, discuss something you’ve learned in this unit that could be added as an annotation on this map, such as a conflict, intervention, or other event that connects the Cold War with decolonization.

Finally, in small groups, prepare a short paragraph or bullet list in response to the prompt below:

The Cold War was a global conflict between the United States and the Soviet Union. Their allies, their client states, and unaligned nations in every part of the world were drawn into the conflict in different ways. At the same time, decolonization swept the world, dozens of new nations emerged from colonialism in Latin America, Africa, Asia, and the Pacific. Using the maps you encountered in this unit as evidence, explain how these two conflicts were connected. Provide at least two specific historical examples of events that involved both the Cold War and decolonization.

You should have your graded Unit 7 DBQ or another essay that was graded using the WHP Writing Rubric

Download the Sentence Starters worksheet (optional)

At this point in the course, you’ve probably reviewed and revised student essays based on different rows of the WHP Writing Rubric. In this activity, you’re going to do this again, but this time with one of your classmate’s essays—and using the entire rubric. While it’s helpful to break down the different elements of writing to understand them better, it’s also important to take the rubric as a whole and consider how all of the elements put together is what really solidifies an argument.

In this activity, you’re going to analyze and edit a classmate’s essay based on the WHP Writing Rubric. Before you start this process, keep in mind that writing is like most skills—whether playing an instrument or a sport—you can always get better. The feedback you provide for your peer’s essay will only help their writing improve, and alternatively, the feedback you receive will make you a stronger writer. Do not think of feedback as criticism! Even professional athletes have coaches to help them improve—it’s hard to get better at anything without someone providing you feedback.

Start by taking out the graded Unit 7 DBQ (or another essay of your teacher’s choosing), the WHP Writing Rubric, and the Sentence Starters Worksheet. Swap essays with the classmate your teacher has paired you with. Once you’ve done an initial review of your classmate’s essay, follow the directions on the worksheet. The sentence starters are available to you as a resource in case you need help thinking of ways to edit your peer’s work.

First, address claim and focus. Identify the major claim in the essay and add it to the worksheet. Then, rewrite that claim to improve it. Next, pick one area of focus that you think needs improvement and write the original and an edited version of that on the worksheet.

The second step is revising the essay based on your classmate’s use of analysis and evidence. Find one analysis statement you can improve upon (it could even be adding a new sentence if your peer forgot to analyze the evidence that was provided), and write the original and rewritten statements on the worksheet.

Third, look at the organization of the essay and find one area that could have been better organized. You might need to add a transition sentence or even rearrange some text. Write your suggestions for improvement on the worksheet.

Fourth, look at your classmate’s use of language and style and improve upon one area of the essay. Even if there aren’t any obvious errors, our writing can almost always benefit from more precise language or domain-specific vocabulary to make our arguments even stronger.

Finally, consider how well your classmate applied WHP concepts in their essay. Find one area that they can improve upon in terms of that rubric criteria.

Note: If you feel that the essay was perfect in any of the rubric areas, write a statement using specific rubric criteria to point out features of the writing that make it exemplary in that area.

Once you’re done, you’ll meet with your teammate and share feedback with each other. Be sure you have some positive feedback to give along with your suggestions for improvement!

DBQ Prompt: Develop an argument that evaluates the extent to which decolonization and the Cold War were interconnected factors in the experiences of two of the following countries: India, South Africa, and China from c. 1945 to 1991 CE.

Have the Comparison, CCOT, and Causation tools available (find all resources on the Student Resources page)

This DBQ is another opportunity for you to show how your historical thinking skills and reasoning practices are developing. This will help you become better at making and supporting historical claims and will also help you on standardized tests that ask you to analyze documents in response to a specific prompt.

Contextualization, sourcing, reading, writing
All DBQs require you to contextualize, source documents, and of course as part of this, read and write.

Day 1
It’s time for another DBQ. The prompt is: Develop an argument that evaluates the extent to which the Cold War impacted decolonization after 1945 CE. Start out by using the Question Parsing Tool to help you figure out what this question is really asking so you can write an appropriate response.

Then, take out the DBQ and skim the documents quickly. Pick the thinking tool you want to use to help you analyze the documents (comparison, causation, or CCOT). Then, read each document a bit more closely and write down or underline the information you think you might use in your essay, along with any additional sourcing you have time for. Write your ideas in your chosen tool as you work through the documents.

Next, create a major claim or thesis statement that responds to the prompt. The notes you have taken should help you form a defensible thesis statement.

Finally, it’s time to contextualize. As you likely know, all historical essays require this. If needed, you can use the Contextualization Tool to help you decide what to include.

Day 2
This second day is your writing day. Feel free to use your tools and notes from any prewriting work you completed as you craft your essay response. Make sure you have a copy of the WHP Writing Rubric available to remind you of what is important to include in your essay. And don’t forget to contextualize: Think of the entire time period, not just the time immediately preceding the historical event or process you are writing about. Your teacher will give you a time limit for completing your five- to six-paragraph essay responding to the DBQ.

In order to improve your writing skills, it is important to read examples—both good and bad—written by other people. Reviewing writing samples will help you develop and practice your own skills in order to better understand what makes for a strong essay.

Your teacher will provide sample essays for this unit’s DBQ prompt and provide instructions for how you will use them to refine your writing skills. Whether you’re working with a high-level example or improving on a not-so-great essay, we recommend having the WHP Writing Rubric on hand to help better understand how you can improve your own writing. As you work to identify and improve upon aspects of a sample essay, you’ll also be developing your own historical writing skills!