This video and unit focus on revolutions from 1750 to 1900 including the political and industrial revolutions that swept across the world in the long nineteenth century. These revolutions transformed human life, leading to dramatic changes across all the AP^® themes. New types of constitutional governments were formed and new economic systems like socialism and communism grew in popularity. As economies changed, new social classes emerged. And as new technologies allowed more people to travel, cultural practices were exchanged across borders. The use of fossil fuels to power new technologies also impacted the environment in negative ways.

This video gives you an overview of the content and themes you’ll explore in Unit 5. The evidence presented in the video will help you assess continuity and change over time as political revolutions and industrialization spread across the world. You’ll also evaluate this era by the Russo-Japanese War and the Meiji Restoration using the themes of governance, economic systems, technology and innovation, and cultural developments and interactions.

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. Why was the Japanese victory over the Russians shocking?
2. What was the most significant change in governance from the sixteenth century to the early nineteenth century?
3. Where did industrialization begin and how did it change society?
4. Why is it important to study these revolutions through social hierarchies?
5. How did national sovereignty and nationalism reshape governance?
6. How do the themes of technology and innovation, economic systems, humans and the environment, and governance relate to industrialization?
7. How did the Meiji Restoration transform Japan?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. There were a lot of changes that occurred in this unit, in particular changes that relate to the governance theme. But what were some things that stayed the same? What were two continuities in governance in this era?

The period from 1750 to 1900 is often called an “age of revolutions.” There’s a lot of evidence to support this label, as massive upheavals in the political, social, and economic order all developed in this period. Liberal political revolutions changed the course of political power, beginning with the American, French, Haitian, and Latin American revolutions. The Industrial Revolution, on the other hand, revolutionized human systems of production and distribution with new fuels and labor-saving machines. Industrialization affected all aspects of life and reshaped global economic systems. In many places, social movements arose to address the uneven effects of industrialization.

This article provides an introduction to Unit 5, which covers some pretty dramatic changes in cultural interactions, economic systems, and governance. By introducing the dual revolutions of political upheavals and industrialization, this article prepares you to identify the causes and effects of the various revolutions you will encounter in the rest of this unit. Industrialization touched every aspect of society. This article provides you with a birds-eye view of industrialization that will help you understand its connections with political developments and how it produced transformations in economics and social hierarchy.

Read 1 – 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!

Read 2 – 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 evidence does the author provide to support the claim that 1750 to 1900 was an age of revolution?
2. What new ideas helped create the political revolutions at the start of this period?
3. What innovation started off the Industrial Revolution? Why was this change so revolutionary?
4. According to the article, what are the effects of capitalism?

Read 3 – Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. Which of the revolutions described in this introduction seems the most “revolutionary”? Why?
2. In Unit 4 you encountered the Columbian Exchange. Did the Columbian Exchange lead to the Industrial Revolution? Why or why not?

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 any time 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. 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!

The World History Project AP (WHP AP) curriculum asks you to visit and revisit the AP themes throughout the course. The aim of the Themes Notebook is to keep you connected to the core themes of each unit. In Part 1 of the Themes Notebook, which you’ll complete early in each unit, you will evaluate each of the statements on the worksheet based on what you currently know. In Part 2, which comes later in each unit, the statements appear as questions. You will respond to these questions as you revise and refine your initial understanding of the unit’s themes. In both parts of this activity, you should focus on concepts rather than formal writing. The primary purpose of the Themes Notebook is to help you assess how your thinking is progressing, where you’re gaining mastery, and where you might need additional instruction.

Although it might seem that you haven’t learned enough yet to respond to the prompts, that’s OK! This activity is meant to help you think about what you might already know about the ideas and concepts of the unit. You’ll revisit the prompts at the end of the unit (although this time they’ll appear as questions), and you’ll get to see how much you’ve learned! This activity will also give you a preview of what’s to come, as you’re learning which themes you should pay attention to as you learn new content.

Note: Since you’ll be revisiting this worksheet at the end of the unit, be sure you hold onto it! If your teacher offers to collect your class’s worksheets, that’s probably your best bet.

Use the Themes Notebook worksheet to respond to the Part 1 prompts as best as you can. Be prepared to talk about these ideas with your class.

Open these five charts in your internet browser:

• Chart 1 – Child Labor in Italy: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/incidence-of-child-labour-in-italy
• Chart 2 – Incidence of Child Labor in the UK: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/incidence-of-child-labour-in-the-uk?time=1851..1911
• Chart 3 – Incidence of Child Labor in the United States: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/incidence-of-child-labour-in-the-united-states-1890-1930?time=1890..1930
• Chart 4 – Global Incidence of Child Labor, 2000 to 2012: https://ourworldindata.org/uploads/2016/02/ourworldindata_child-labor-global-post-2000.png
• Chart 5 – Share of Children in Employment, 1994–2016: https://ourworldindata.org/grapher/incidence-of-child-labour?tab=map

Children have historically been an important part of the workforce all around the world. During the Industrial Revolution, reform movements sprung up to regulate child labor. In the twentieth century, many countries took steps to drastically decrease the number of working children. However, today, there are still about 265 million children working. The charts in this exploration examine the entangled histories of industrialization and child labor, our less-than-perfect present, and geographical differences in child labor.

Demographers and data researchers work hard to collect good data. It’s tough work—not as tough as children working in a coal mine, but still. Despite their efforts, we rarely have complete data for anything. This is particularly obvious in the case of child labor data. You’ll need to learn to see gaps in data—sometimes what’s missing can tell you just as much as what’s there. The charts in this data exploration will help you evaluate changes in child labor over time, but they will also help you evaluate how useful incomplete data can be for understanding historical and future trends.

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, 2, and 3 similar? How are they different?
2. Chart 1 shows a spike, when child labor in Italy started rising again instead of falling. Why do you think this spike occurred? Why don’t we see a similar spike in the UK or US?
3. Charts 1 and 3 show really dramatic decreases in child labor. Why does Chart 2 not show this sort of dramatic decline?
4. What does Chart 4 measure? Why do you think the percentages are so much higher than at the ends of Charts 1, 2, and 3?
5. Is there anything missing from Chart 5?
6. Why do you think Chart 5 lists “no data” for wealthy countries in Europe, North America, and elsewhere?
7. There’s a lot of data missing from the “global” information in Charts 4 and 5. What impact does this have on our understanding of child labor?

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. Why does this chart matter? What do these charts about child labor tell us about human communities since the Industrial Revolution? What do they tell us about the way humans produce things?
2. Using these charts, make one prediction about how child labor will change in your lifetime. What evidence from the charts supports your prediction? What evidence challenges it?