All of the new ideas and advances of the Long Nineteenth Century had their limits or their dark sides. We see that especially in the rise of empires, many of which were ruled by new and seemingly democratic nation-states. These industrial powers competed for new colonies overseas, and created wide networks that exploited these colonies for profit. The result was a growing inequality in global income and experiences.

How were modern empires created, administered, and contested in the Long Nineteenth Century, and how did these tensions help to create the world in which we live today? This is the question you will explore in Unit 5. This video will introduce you to that question and provide you with your first evidence to answer that question, as you learn about empires as part of a global system that also included democratization, industrialization, and reformism.

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 does this video describe “empire”? What is ironic about the fact that Britain, France, Germany, Japan, and the United States held empires in this period?
2. How does this video define imperialism? How does it define colonialism? How are they connected?
3. Were empires always increasing in size and presence across this period? Explain your answer.
4. What changes in global economic equality are shown between 1800 and 1975 ?
5. How did the French change Hanoi? How did the inhabitants respond?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. How can it be possible for a state to both be internally democratic, and have an empire at the same time?
2. Does the evidence for global income distribution across the period 1800-1975 prove that empires were responsible for growing inequality between regions? Why or why not?

Empires had existed before the Long Nineteenth Century. However, in this era, they became massive, fueled by trends you have read about including industrialization, nationalism, science, capitalism, and even reformism. These ideas combined in some countries to create ‘imperialism’—a belief in the destiny to rule an empire. The result were colonies, and colonialism. But many people didn’t want to be colonized, and they found strategies to respond—whether by actively resisting, or adapting, or just trying to survive and thrive in difficult circumstances.

How were modern empires created, administered, and contested in the long nineteenth century, and how did these tensions help to create the world in which we live today? This article will introduce you to the two, connected ‘sides’ of modern empires. On one side is the development of imperialism in industrialized societies. On the other is the operation of colonialism in areas controlled by these empires. It also describes some of the strategies of colonial subjects in this environment. This evidence will help you to answer the problem of how empires worked, and how they shaped today’s world.

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. How did reformers actually drive imperialism, in some cases?
2. How did great claims to racial superiority affect people in colonies?
3. Why did industrialization help to support imperialism?
4. What does it mean to say that people in the colonies were ‘subjects’?
5. How, according to the article, did colonial subjects respond to being treated this way?
6. What happened to these large, formal empires in the end?

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. The author of this article asks: “Was empire really just a dead end, or does a version of it persist today?”. Having read this article, how would you answer this question? Explain your answer.

The rise of industrialized empires in the Long Nineteenth Century seems to contradict the stories we have told so far through all three frames. Wasn’t political liberalism supposed to end empire and bring political equality? Wasn’t the industrial revolution supposed to promote free labor? Weren’t reformers fighting to end inequality? So, was empire an exception to the general way of things in this era, or an example of the limits and contradictions of all these revolutions?

The purpose of this video is to help you to filter what you are learning about empire through the three frames of the course. Each frame should give you a sense of the world from the perspectives of empires—as unbalanced webs of production and distribution, as unequal communities, and as places that didn’t quite fit into networks of reform. This information should help you to evaluate the frame narrative you have been given for this unit.

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. The Long Nineteenth Century gave rise to nation-states with individual sovereignty and political participation. How did empires contradict that trend?
2. The Long Nineteenth Century saw the rise of industrialization. How did empires complicate that trend?
3. The Long Nineteenth Century saw a network of reform movements arise. Did colonies benefit from this trend?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. Empires seem to contradict trends in this period, such as the extension of new political and social rights as well as industrialization. Do you think that this was a ‘feature’ of empires (in other words, they were designed to contradict these trends) or a ‘bug’ (in other words, those rights weren’t extended to people in the colonies by mistake)? Explain your answer.

Empires are nothing new—they’ve been around in one form or another for thousands of years. Yet, in the long nineteenth century, new forms and methods of empire emerged. In this unit, you’ll explore the ideas behind the ideology of imperialism and the practices of colonialism (and learn how to tell the difference between the two terms!). From 1750 to 1914, the nature of empire transformed as the most powerful empires in the world industrialized. In this mapping exercise you will identify some of the most powerful states practicing this “new imperialism” and make some predictions about how things will change by the end of the long nineteenth century.

You’ll begin this activity by identifying several empires in the world of 1871 CE. You will locate these communities on a blank map and then make some guesses and predictions about how they will change by the end of the long nineteenth century.

Step 1

Remember, this activity is intended to introduce you to geography in this unit. You aren’t expected to have all the answers.

With your teacher, brainstorm some of the ways that the Industrial Revolution changed empires in the long nineteenth century. What empires benefited the most? Which communities suffered the most? What advantages did the new industrial empires have over their adversaries?

Step 2

In small groups, select three empires from this list on the worksheet. You should then label and shade (in different colors) the territory of each of the three empires on the 1871 Blank Map.

Step 3

Examine the 1871 Blank Map that you just labelled. Select two of the three empires you identified and make a prediction, on your 1871 Blank Map, about how those empires will change between 1871 and 1914.

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 and become a better reader, a better writer, and a better communicator. This word wall activity will help you begin to learn some of the key vocabulary from the unit.

In this activity, you’ll work with your class to create a word wall using the Unit 5 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 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. Be careful if you decide to use the “related words” section from the vocab guide – it doesn’t distinguish between synonyms and antonyms. Your teacher will give you a limited amount of time to write antonyms. Then, the people with the most correct antonyms at the end of the time 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 5 Problem Notebook Worksheet to respond to the prompts as best as you can. Be prepared to talk about your ideas with your class.

Open these three charts in your internet browser:

• Chart 1 – Global Income Distribution in 1800, 1975, and 2010: https://ourworldindata.org/global-economic-inequality#global-divergence-followed-by-convergence
• Charts 2 and 3 – The Global Income Distribution in 2003 and 2013: https://ourworldindata.org/global-economic-inequality#global-income-inequality-is-very-high-and-will-stay-very-high-for-a-long-time

Though incomes have improved for many people around the world in the last century, inequality between nations and people remains a feature of our world. Economists and historians often talk about the transition from a “two-hump” to a “one-hump” world. As more and more people escape extreme poverty, inequality might be declining. However, the ways in which we present data on inequality can drastically change the way we perceive it. Is inequality really falling? How should we measure inequality?

People create charts, and they make decisions about how to display data. Slight changes in variables, range, or presentation can entirely change the meaning of a chart, even when two charts are created by the same person using the exact same data. This is an important part of data literacy, and if you learn to notice these choices, you will be one step closer to understanding how to evaluate the arguments contained in charts. The charts in this exploration will help you identify at least one way that data can be skewed to change meaning.

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 does Chart 1 provide evidence for the argument that inequality is decreasing?
2. According to Chart 1, which region of the globe has seen the least improvement in income? Which has seen the most improvement?
3. What are some historical explanations for the shift from a two-hump (1975) to a one-hump (2015) world?
4. What argument is Chart 2 making? How did the creator of the chart want you to feel about inequality?
5. Chart 2 and 3 show the exact same data, but Chart 3 is represented differently. The effect is a drastic difference between the two charts. Why do they look so different, and how did the creator of Chart 3 want you to feel about inequality?
6. Charts 2 and 3 provide an example of how a chart can be skewed to change the way you understand it. Does Chart 1 do something similar? If so, what? What is the effect?

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. All three of these charts use the international poverty line of $1.90/day (just under $700/year) as their measurement of people living in extreme poverty. Do you think this is an appropriate measurement for poverty? Does it help us understand inequality? Why or why not?
2. Using these charts, make one prediction about how income inequality will change in your lifetime. What evidence from the charts supports your prediction? What evidence challenges it?