In this activity, you’ll look at the 10 most populous cities in the world over time to consider worldwide historical patterns. Demography is a useful analytical tool in history that is often overlooked. Looking at population patterns can help us take a global perspective on human history rather than just looking at particular regions and the history of those areas.

You’ve been using different kinds of data to draw conclusions about the past, and you’ve also seen models of how to use data to understand history in a lot of the articles you have read. In this activity, you’re going to learn how to use population patterns to help you ask questions and generate hypotheses about what was going on in the world based on different population patterns at different times.

By using large-scale population change data, we can focus on people instead of nations, civilizations, and other institutions that are typically the focus of historical change. Normally, we look at how those things affect populations. With this activity, we draw conclusions about those other things while using population to help us decide what to ask about.

For example, in the fourteenth century, there was a large drop in Asian and European populations and a rise in American populations. Why was that happening? If we weren’t looking at demographic data, we might not have asked that particular question.

Make sure you have the Comparing Most Populous Cities by Century, 1500 to Present Worksheet. You’re going to examine the population data and draw some conclusions or ask some questions about the past.

Once you’re done with the worksheet, think about the following questions:

• What causes population to increase?
• What causes changes in birth and death rates?
• What might explain fluctuations in specific regions?
• How might people’s lives have changed as a result of dramatic increases in population from 1500 to the present?

Since 1945, over 50 nations have declared independence and established their own governments. This can be attributed to nationalism, or the idea that you are part of something bigger than yourself that relates to being loyal to a new set of national ideals and practices. These shared ideals can help lead to revolutions of independence. India provides a great example of how this happens and how imagination, sovereignty, and community all led to these independence movements.

In this article, Ravi explains that since the end of World War II, 50 new nations have developed around the globe. Understanding why and how these nations have emerged is vital to understanding today’s world politically and economically. It also shows the importance of human rights around the world and how people have managed to gain them.

Skimming for Gist

In the past 100 years, millions of people have revolted against their governments and formed new, independent nations. Over 50 new nations have formed since 1945. This article will explain why these revolutions happened. It will discuss nationalism and it will use India as an example of these types of independence movements.

Understanding Content

By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions:

1. What does Benedict Anderson mean when he says that nationalism is imagined?
2. What does Anderson mean when he says the nation is imagined as sovereign?
3. How does Anderson define community in his writing?
4. What was the turning point that started India’s move toward independence from the British?
5. What does Nehru say that Gandhi did to help India become independent?
6. What was the Quit India movement?
7. How do the concepts of nationalism, according to Benedict Anderson, apply to India?

Thinking Conceptually

Discuss the following question with your class: In the article, Ravi outlines the strategies for nonviolent revolution as put forth by Gandhi. If a country were to use these same strategies in today’s world, do you think they would succeed? Why or why not?

Our ancestors often accepted their station in life; however, we do not. This lack of acceptance is a fairly new phenomenon in human history. In the past few hundred years, people have begun to value their rights as people and have fought to win those rights. These documents are examples of the outcomes of many of these fights.

You’ll read a number of declaration of rights documents that different nations produced as part of their move to become independent and free. These documents all include references to a source of government or power, individual rights, accountability of leaders or government, and information about the structure of governments. Understanding the similarities and differences between the types of rights people sought around the world helps us understand the rights that many nations have today.

Skimming for Gist

Each of these rights documents outlines the freedoms that different countries thought they should have at different points in history. These documents are from around the globe and show the rights that different countries value the most.

Understanding Content

By the end of the second close read, you should be able to answer the following questions about each of the documents:

1. When was this document put forth?
2. Where did this occur?
3. What is the document declaring freedom from?
4. What does the nation want? In other words, what are they asking for or proposing?

Thinking Conceptually

While these human rights documents are similar in many ways, each has nuances particular to itself. If you could choose which document governed your country’s laws, which rights document would you choose and why?

Wang Zhenyi was born and grew up in eighteenth-century China, during the rule of the Qing Dynasty. In this time and place, women were not encouraged to study or be scholars. She never received any formal education. Instead, she taught herself, and learned from family members. In her publications, she worked hard to make math simpler for common people. She used basic household items to demonstrate the how of solar and lunar eclipses worked. She was also a poet, and wrote many poems focused on themes of injustice and inequality in Chinese society. While she died very young, she is still remembered as one of China’s great scholars.

Wang Zhenyi lived at the beginning of the modern revolution—as new science and technologies were emerging around the world. Yet, because of her gender, Qing society excluded her from formal education. Nonetheless, she overcame many obstacles before her and worked to make math and science more accessible to commoners. Her poetry advocated for better treatment of women and the poor. Her short life is evidence that there are many different ways to contribute to collective learning.

Preview – Skimming for Gist

Fill out the Skimming section of the Three Close Reads – Graphic Histories 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. 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. Why didn’t Wang Zhenyi go to school? How did she learn instead?
2. What ideas are conveyed in the first line of poetry at the top of the page?
3. How did Wang Zhenyi contribute to the field of mathematics?
4. What experiment did Wang Zhenyi conduct, and what theory did it overturn?
5. How does the page's design, text, and illustrations contribute to your understanding of Eunice’s story?

Evaluating and Corroborating

In this read, you should use the graphic biography as evidence to support, extend, or challenge claims made in the course.

1. How does Wang Zhenyi’s story add to what you’ve learned about collective learning so far in this course?

In this activity, you will compare rights documents from around the world. Comparing the movements that produced these documents can show you what makes people similar around the world, especially with regard to their human rights. This can also show us where people differ, and how different cultures may place value on certain things that other nations do not. This helps us understand the cultural and political climates of other countries today.

In more recent history, humans have begun to fight for their rights as people. This was not generally the case for our ancestors. Today, people often don’t simply accept their stations in life, rather, they fight for what they feel they deserve. There are different kinds of rights. Some are legal, some are social, and some are economic. Can you think of the types of things that might fall under each of these categories? An example of a legal right in the United States is that if anyone is charged with a crime, they have the right to a speedy and public trial. An example of a social right is the right to education or the right not to be discriminated upon based on race, religion, or gender. An example of an economic right is the right to have housing or an adequate standard of living.

In small groups or individually, your teacher will ask you to complete the chart on the Comparing Rights Documents Worksheet using the rights documents provided. After you’re done, think about the following: The types of rights people have declared have changed over time. Are people focused on the same things? Does it seem like these documents are building upon one another or are they unique to each country? Are there any rights that you think are missing from any of the countries? If so, why?

Be sure to save your worksheet—it will be very helpful for the next activity.

In this activity, you’ll use the declaration of rights documents from the last activity and some research to create a timeline that shows when different nations became independent. Mapping these independence movements on a timeline can help you see historical trends related to human rights, which provides a lot of perspective on how countries have developed socially over time, and also why some countries seem more progressive than others.

Independence movements have existed throughout the world and reach far back into history. While we know that the trend to become independent clearly picked up in the latter half of the twentieth century, declarations of rights have been happening throughout human history. In this activity, you’ll place these occurrences on a timeline so you can see trends related to these movements.

You’re going to take the declaration of rights documents that you compared in the last activity in this lesson and place the date of their occurrence on a timeline. You must:

1. Label the date of the movement.
2. Name the country declaring its rights.
3. Add a few bullet points about the main ideas put forth in each rights document.

After you’ve added those items to a timeline, do some research and add three additional independence movements. Try to find three that all occurred on the same continent. For example, you might look at Africa and what happened when those African nations declared independence from the British and other colonizers. Then, you will write a few sentences about the trends that you see when looking at this timeline.

Be prepared to share your ideas on trends with the class. Based on what you see on your and other people’s timelines, can you draw some conclusions about how the idea of human dignity has changed over time? Do we respect rights more than we used to? If so, how? If not, why not?