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 Problem asks you to consider how decolonization and the Cold War together led to change in different parts of the world during the period from 1900 to the present. This video will give you your first focused overview of how anti-colonial movements across the world won independence after World War II, introducing important evidence to help you to respond to this question.

Think about the following question as you watch the video: Use evidence from this video to compare the processes by which various peoples pursued independence after 1900. You will be asked to respond to this question again at the end of the video.

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. Use evidence from this video to compare the processes by which various peoples pursued independence after 1900.
2. 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?
3. Was violence necessary to achieve independence? Examine the role that violence played in the various parts of the world that John Green covers. Based on the information you have so far, do you think independence could have been achieved solely through nonviolent resistance?

What are the features of successful independence movements, and how and why do these revolutions happen? The Quit India movement, led and inspired by Mohandas Gandhi, is a case study of how a nonviolent revolution can succeed in its goals. Gandhi imagined India as a new nation, one in which poor farmers, industrial workers, and elites were united by a common cause—independence from British oppression. Exhorting Indian elites to “Get off the backs of these peasants,” he depicted a narrative of resistance and nationalism that millions of people could rally behind, a common dream of self-determination.

This article introduces the concept that a nation, or any community larger than a village, is something that is first imagined. Most people in a nation will never know one another, and only in their minds can they come together. The imagined idea of the nation, though, is an idea that inspires and connects people. This is an important case study for understanding how decolonization, together with the Cold War, changed the world.

Think about the following question as you read the article: To what extent does this article explain various reactions to existing power structures in the period after 1900? Write this question at the top of the Three Close Reads worksheet. You will be asked to respond to this question again after the third read in the Evaluating and Corroborating section of the worksheet.

Read 1—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!

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 does historian Benedict Anderson mean when he describes the nation as an imagined community?
2. Describe Gandhi’s vision of India as a new nation. What different classes of people would need to come together to realize this vision?
3. Why did the Amritsar massacre galvanize the anti-colonial movement in India? How did Indians’ desire for dignity in the face of humiliation by colonial officials fuel the movement?
4. What is satyagraha and how was it an anti-colonial strategy for challenging and winning power?
5. What role did community play in Indian protests and boycotts of colonial goods?

Read 3—Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. To what extent does this article explain various reactions to existing power structures in the period after 1900?
2. How did Gandhi inspire Indians with his guiding philosophy, his imagined nation-state? Consider Gandhi’s vision in the context of historian Benedict Anderson’s definition of nationalism. How does the “imagined community” extend your understanding of the cultural developments and interactions theme narrative?
3. Historian Benedict Anderson describes how millions of people have willingly died for the idea of a nation, an idea constructed in their imaginations. What do you believe a nation is? What characteristics and shared beliefs and values set your nation apart and define it? What sacrifices would you be willing to make for your nation?

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 faced many challenges as they tried to free their nations from foreign meddling.

This article presents a case study of decolonization that shows both the experience of a region—the Middle East—and the ways in which the Cold War affected nationalist projects, especially in Egypt and Iran. It provides important evidence for responding to the Unit Problem, which asks you to assess the impact of the Cold War and decolonization in different parts of the world.

Think about the following question as you read the article: Using evidence from this article, explain the economic changes and continuities resulting from the process of decolonization. Write this question at the top of the Three Close Reads worksheet. You will be asked to respond to this question again after the third read in the Evaluating and Corroborating section of the worksheet.

Read 1—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!

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. 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?

Read 3—Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. Using evidence from this article, explain the economic changes and continuities resulting from the process of decolonization.
2. 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?

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 on both the SAQ and DBQ portions of the AP^® World History: Modern exam.

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 1.4.

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. This will get you a partial point on the AP^® World History: Modern exam. 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 the emergence of nation-states. It spans from World War I to 1976, as many nations fought for sovereignty and self-determination at different moments over the course of the century. While some of these sources highlight successful independence movements, others highlight moments where such sovereignty was not achieved. And some sources point to other dreams that transcend the boundaries of a single nation-state, like Pan-Arabism, Pan-Africanism, or Pan-Islamism. Throughout, we also see how nations sought to organize themselves internally and collaborate with other nations and what economic philosophies came with those arrangements.

The AP^® World History: Modern CED suggests students develop their sourcing skills in line with certain topics. For Unit 8, one of these topics is the “Newly Independent States”; therefore, we’ve compiled a number of primary source excerpts to help you develop these skills in relation to this content. This should help prepare you to be successful on the AP exam.

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

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. This evidence will help you respond to the part of the Unit Problem that focuses on how people reacted to imperialism.

Think about the following question as you watch the video: Using evidence from this article, compare the processes by which various peoples pursued independence after 1900. You will be asked to respond to this question again at the end of the video.

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, “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. Using evidence from this article, compare the processes by which various peoples pursued independence after 1900.
2. 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?

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. Using evidence from this article, compare the processes by which various peoples pursued independence after 1900.
2. 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!

In this final activity in the comparison progression, you’ll compare the different ways that Indigenous peoples fought for their independence. Comparing decolonization methods allows you to analyze the ways in which peoples fought for independence from colonial rule. This will help you make connections across regions and evaluate the success of each method.

Contextualization
Analyzing the context in which these movements took place can also tell us a lot about how and why different people fought for independence from colonial rule.

In this activity, you’ll review the articles and videos in this unit to compare a variety of decolonization methods. Then you’ll identify information needed to complete the Comparison Tool in order to write an essay in response to a comparison prompt.

First, your teacher will break up the class into small groups and assign one of the following countries to each group: India, Ghana, or Egypt. Your teacher will either hand out or have you download the Comparison – Decolonization Methods worksheet. Review the questions in Part 1: Identifying and Describing of the Comparison Tool, included in the worksheet, so that you know the type of information you’re searching for as you review the articles and videos in this unit. As you review the articles and videos for your assigned country, look for decolonization methods in each of the documents and become an “expert” on that nation. Note that you may also use the Internet to do some outside research, if needed.

Once your group has answered all the questions in Part 1 of the tool for your assigned country, your teacher will create new groups that will include an “expert” for each nation. Work with your new group to determine the similarities and differences between these countries and write these in the similarities and differences rows in Part 1 of the tool.

Next, you’ll work on your own to complete Part 2 of the tool, using the similarities and differences to craft two thesis statements that answer the following questions:

• What is the most significant similarity between each nation’s decolonization methods?
• What is the most significant difference between each nation’s decolonization methods?

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

Finally, choose one of your thesis statements to act as the basis for a comparison essay for the prompt Develop an argument that evaluates the extent to which decolonization methods were similar in two of the following countries: India, Ghana, and Egypt.

The essay should be five- to six-paragraphs long and you should use evidence from your research and the Comparison Tool to support your chosen thesis statement. Be sure to review the WHP LEQ Writing Rubric, as your teacher will use assess your comparison essay against the rubric’s criteria.

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.

Think about the following question as you read the article: To what extent does this article explain various reactions to existing power structures in the period after 1900? Write this question at the top of the Three Close Reads worksheet. You will be asked to respond to this question again after the third read in the Evaluating and Corroborating section of the worksheet.

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 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?

Read 3—Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. To what extent does this article explain various reactions to existing power structures in the period after 1900?
2. 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 serving as an unusual case study to use in assessing the impact of decolonization and the Cold War on one nation. It will also help you to revisit nationalism as a cultural force, and also see how global networks were powerful in bringing about change, as well.

Think about the following question as you read the article: To what extent does this article explain various reactions to existing power structures in the period after 1900? Write this question at the top of the Three Close Reads worksheet. You will be asked to respond to this question again after the third read in the Evaluating and Corroborating section of the worksheet.

Read 1—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!

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 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?

Read 3—Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. To what extent does this article explain various reactions to existing power structures in the period after 1900?
2. The end of apartheid was a group effort. What cultural changes 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 the theme of cultural developments and interactions? How do you think this relates to economic systems?
3. Is the end of apartheid more of a “Cold War” story or a “decolonization” story, or neither? Why?

In 1989, Berliners began dismantling the Berlin Wall, which had divided the city between east and west for decades. The wall’s fall marked the beginning of the end for one of history’s most powerful nations and empires. This article examines the many internal and external explanations for why the Soviet Union collapsed.

This article focuses on examining how the Cold War ended with the collapse of the Soviet Union. It also raises the question of whether this collapse was an example of decolonization, raising intriguing connections between the two trends.

Think about the following question as you read the article: Using evidence from this article, explain the causes of the end of the Cold War. Write this question at the top of the Three Close Reads worksheet. You will be asked to respond to this question again after the third read in the Evaluating and Corroborating section of the worksheet.

Read 1—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!

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. How does this author argue that the Soviet empire was different from other European empires?
2. How does the author say that the Soviet model of empire led to its collapse?
3. What was Soviet control like in Eastern Europe?
4. Who opened up Soviet society? How did they do this?

Read 3—Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. Using evidence from this article, explain the causes of the end of the Cold War.
2. This article mentions that people debate whether the Soviet Union had an informal empire. How was Soviet control of Eastern Europe different from the informal colonialism of the United States in the Caribbean? How was it similar?

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 on both the SAQ and DBQ portions of the AP^® World History: Modern exam.

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 1.4.

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. This will get you a partial point on the AP^® World History: Modern exam. 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 both the context of twentieth-century power structures and the ways that people reacted to them. You will hear from both Martin Luther King, Jr. and Osama Bin Laden, from Nelson Mandela and the CIA. As you think about the guiding question below, these documents may help you get a clearer idea of the social and political context during this transformative time.

The AP^® World History: Modern CED suggests students develop their sourcing skills in line with certain topics. For Unit 8, one of these topics is the “Global Resistance to Established Power Structures After 1900”; therefore, we’ve compiled a number of primary source excerpts to help you develop these skills in relation to this content. This should help prepare you to be successful on the AP exam.

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

Make sure you have the Unit 8 Themes Notebook worksheet that you partially filled out earlier in the unit.

This is a continuation of the Themes Notebook activity that you started earlier in this unit. As part of WHP AP, you are asked to revisit the AP themes in order to maintain a connection to the core themes of the course. Because this is the second time you’re working with the themes questions, you’re asked to explain how your understanding of the unit’s themes has changed since you began 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 Unit 8. Be prepared to talk about your ideas with your class.

This activity will provide additional evidence to help you respond to the Unit Problem: How did the intertwined trends of the Cold War and decolonization impact societies around the world, c. 1900 to the present? 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 6 LEQ essay or another essay that was graded using the WHP LEQ 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 LEQ 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 work together to really solidify an argument.

In this activity, you’re going to analyze and edit a classmate’s essay based on the WHP LEQ 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 the feedback you receive will make you a stronger writer. Don’t think of feedback as criticism! Even professional athletes have coaches to help them improve—it’s hard to get better at anything without feedback.

Start by taking out the graded Unit 6 LEQ (or another LEQ of your teacher’s choosing), the Writing—Peer Editing worksheet, the WHP LEQ 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 classmate’s work.

First, address claim/thesis. Identify the thesis or major claim in the essay and add it to the worksheet. Then, rewrite the claim to improve it.

The second step is to look for contextualization. Find where your classmate incorporated historical contextualization into the essay and evaluate whether the context relates the topic of the prompt to broader historical events, developments, or processes that occur before, during, or continue after the time frame of the question. Then, write the original contextualization section (or an abbreviated version) on the worksheet, and provide suggestions for improvement.

Third, look at the evidence used in the essay. Make sure the essay cites sufficient and appropriate examples of evidence to support its claim, and supports an argument relevant to the prompt. Then, find one area where use of evidence could have been better, and write the original and revised statements on the worksheet.

Fourth, examine the essay for historical reasoning. Make sure the essay successfully uses the correct historical reasoning (such as causation, comparison, or CCOT) to frame or structure and develop an argument that is relevant to the prompt. Then, improve upon one area in the essay where historical reasoning could be strengthened and add your suggestion for improvement to the worksheet.

Finally, examine your classmate’s essay for complexity. Find one area they can improve upon in terms of the ways in which complexity can be demonstrated according to the rubric, and write the original and improved sections on the worksheet.

Note: If you feel that the essay is perfect in an area of the rubric, 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 classmate and share feedback with each other. Be sure you have some positive feedback to give along with your suggestions for improvement!

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

This is the final LEQ of the course. It will help you prepare for AP^® World History: Modern exam. Additionally, it will give you an opportunity to see how much your historical writing has grown from the beginning of the course until now.

Day 1

It’s the last LEQ of the course! The prompt is: Develop an argument that evaluates the extent to which decolonization and the Cold War were interconnected factors in two of the following countries: Cuba, South Africa, and China. Your teacher may give you time for some research, or just ask you to respond.

If you are given time for research, you can use materials from the course and conduct further research online for additional evidence. Then, use the evidence you gathered to help you form a thesis statement that directly responds to the question. As always, wrap up by figuring out how to appropriately contextualize your response.

Day 2

This second day is your writing day. Feel free to use your notes from any prewriting work you completed as you craft your essay response. Make sure you have a copy of the WHP LEQ Writing Rubric available to remind you of what’s important to include in your essay. And don’t forget to contextualize! Your teacher will give you a time limit for completing your five- to six-paragraph essay responding to the LEQ.

Note: Please save your essay, it will be used again in Unit 9 for a self-editing activity.