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!

World War II killed millions of people and destroyed whole cities. Many nations that fought in the war, including some of the world’s wealthiest powers, saw their economies and infrastructure destroyed. The United States and Soviet Union emerged from the war as superpowers, and each had their own vision for rebuilding the world. This article examines how these different ideas collided and how people in decolonizing nations pushed back against economic control by the two superpowers. As the world rebuilt, old inequalities persisted between and within nations.

This article provides you with evidence at the global level to understand how the Cold War and decolonization both played a part in shifting global economics following World War II. By focusing on changes in production and distribution after the war, the article will help you evaluate the frame narrative you have been given. As you read, be on the lookout for the ways in which studying the Cold War and decolonization as linked processes changes the way we understand each.

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 the United States launch the Marshall Plan?
2. The article cites two arguments about the “economic miracles” in Germany and Japan. What are the two arguments?
3. Why were wealthy nations able to continue to exploit their former colonies even after they had gained independence?
4. How did some African and Asian leaders fight back against this sort of dependency?
5. What groups of Americans did not share in the new economic prosperity in the United States?

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. This article gives the examples of Mosaddeq, Nasser, Allende, and Nkrumah as leaders who resisted economic dependence. What were some ways that decolonization collided with the Cold War to shape global production and distribution after 1945?

Both the Cold War and the fall of great empires began even before the last shots of the Second World War were fired. The 1940s and 1950s saw a series of increasingly tense confrontations between Western and communist governments. These confrontations were tangled together with the struggles of colonized people to win independence. By the 1960s, both trends were in full swing. The entangled struggles of the Cold War and decolonization would continue for three decades, until most large colonies won their independence and the Soviet Union collapsed.

This lesson examines two connected struggles in the second half of the twentieth century: the Cold War and decolonization. Most of the population of the world was affected in some way or another by one or both of these struggles. Understanding their links will help you respond to the Era Problem and grapple with the implication of “trying to tell one human history as opposed to many human histories”. This article introduces you to the Cold War and decolonization while also highlighting the ways in which they were linked.

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. How, according to the authors, did the Cold War begin even before the Second World War ended?
2. What were some regional confrontations that were also Cold War battles between 1945 and 1990?
3. What were some colonies that gained independence before 1960?
4. Why was 1960 called “the year of Africa”?
5. What are two ways in which the Cold War and decolonization were entangled?
6. On what basis do some historians argue that both superpowers were building empires of their own?

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. The author argues that we see different things when we look at this era from different perspectives. Focusing on individual struggles for independence tells a very different story than does highlighting how all these individual struggles are part of a global Cold War confrontation. What are the advantages of looking at each struggle independently? What are some advantages of looking at the bigger pattern?

After World War II, world power was substantially reorganized. The United States and the Soviet Union emerged as the strongest powers and fought for dominance. But they didn’t exactly fight in the traditional sense. They divided up parts of the world and tried to spread their economic systems by intervening in other countries. And though the threat of nuclear war loomed, they didn’t actually meet on the battlefield.

You’ve already learned about World War II, nuclear weapons, and the Cold War. In this video, you’ll continue to learn about the struggle for power between the United States and Soviet Union. The Cold War is both complicated and important, and you’ll continue to build on the knowledge from this video in later articles and activities in this lesson, especially ones about the Cold War, decolonization, nationalism, and human rights. As you watch this video, keep the Era 7 Problem in mind, and think how this struggle for power affects whether we can tell one human history or if we are better off telling multiple human histories.

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. Who were the two competing powers of the Cold War, and what did they each want?
2. What was behind the “Iron Curtain”, according to Winston Churchill?
3. Why did the USA drop the first atomic bomb, and what was the consequence of this?
4. Where did the Cold War start and how was it “fought”?
5. How was the strategy of “containment” used by the US?
6. What was the nuclear arms race, and what was so dangerous about it?
7. Where and how did the Cold War get “hot”?
8. What were the three “worlds” and why don’t we use those terms now?
9. What were some problems with Soviet communism that led to its downfall?
10. How did Mikhail Gorbachev help end the Cold War?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. John Green argues that Soviet-style socialism was not a viable alternative to capitalism. Do you find the author’s argument convincing? Why or why not? Use evidence from this era to support your claim.
2. How might the evidence and narratives presented in this video help you respond to the Era 7 Problem: What are the virtues and challenges of trying to tell one human history as opposed to human histories?

While the United States and the Soviet Union had worked together to defeat the Axis Powers, without a common enemy their alliance soon fell apart. The global conflict of the Cold War came down to competing visions of world order as the two superpowers promoted communist and capitalist ideologies in a struggle for supremacy. Europe was divided between a capitalist west and communist east. Across Latin America, Asia, and Africa, the two superpowers fought each other through proxy wars. The conflict ended without a global nuclear war, and the Soviet Union collapsed with relatively little bloodshed.

You’ve learned about the fight for power we call the Cold War. This article focuses firmly on the Cold War as viewed from the United States and the Soviet Union, the two main parties in the war. It will be followed by a series of articles and videos that explore the conflict from other places and angles, including the ways in which the Cold War and decolonization 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. According to the author, what was the basic difference at the heart of the Cold War conflict?
2. What does this author identify as the three main features of the Cold War?
3. Why did Stalin want to expand Soviet influence in Eastern Europe?
4. What was the policy of containment and what conflicts does the author use as an example of this policy?

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. The Cold War was a conflict that was all about methods of production and distribution that divided communities across the world along communist and capitalist lines. How would you describe the Cold War through each course frame?

By now, you should be well versed in how to identify and categorize causes and consequences. In this activity, you’ll use your causation, contextualization, and claim testing skills to solve a historical problem. By combining these skills, you’ll begin to understand how historians, or in this case government officials, must think about causes and consequences in order to understand historical events or to solve real-world problems, some of which can be life threatening.

Imagine it is 1962. You are United States government officials working with classified information. Your task is to determine what crisis is threatening the safety of the American people. Once you break open the seal on your Top Secret envelope, examine each document carefully for clues. Work with your group to piece together this Cold War emergency situation. You may be asked to explain the crisis to the Commander in Chief, so get your facts straight!

Once everyone has finished determining the imminent threat to America’s safety, your group will act (and think) like a member of President Kennedy’s national security team, known as ExComm (Executive Committee of the National Security Council).

Your job as members of ExComm is to outline a series of consequences (both good and bad) for a number of proposed options on how to respond to this threat. This top-secret mission is of the gravest concern. The security of the entire nation (all 186.5 million Americans) is resting in your hands.

Using the Cold War Crisis Worksheet, read the proposed options on how to respond. Next, brainstorm with your ExComm team members about all of the consequences, both positive and negative, that could result from each option. You’ll list these consequences on the worksheet. Finally, as a group, come to a consensus (agreement) on which option to choose, and then write a brief for the president’s consideration.

Your brief must include the following information:

• Which option did you choose and what are the consequences of taking this action (both positive and negative consequences)?
• Two strong supporting reasons for the option you are proposing (why do the benefits, or positive consequences, outweigh the costs, or negative consequences?).
• Acknowledgment that other groups might choose another option or course of action, and for each of the options not chosen, you must provide refutation of that course of action. That is, you must provide counterclaims with evidence to back up your position and explain why the other option is not advisable.

Be prepared to share your brief along with your supporting evidence with the class. Your teacher may arrange a debate between groups or ask you to explain the consequences of this crisis.

The Cold War started just as European imperialism was being torn down all around the world. The new leaders and governments that rose to lead their newly independent nations had to fight colonial rule and contend at the same time with pressure from two superpowers. The United States and the Soviet Union were both eager to win allies to their side, and both were willing to use violence and force to stop the other from expanding. This article examines how the Cold War and decolonization collided in Asia, Latin America, and Africa.

This lesson focuses on the Cold War and decolonization—two major things that happened after World War II. In this article, you’ll see what the Cold War looked like from outside of the Soviet Union and the United States, and the ways in which that coincided with decolonization. This will help you think about the communities frame narrative and give you evidence to contest, extend, or support it. This article switches scales between the regional and the global, which will help you respond to the Era 7 Problem: What are the virtues and challenges of trying to tell one human history as opposed to (many) human histories?

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 was there so much bloodshed in South Asia in the late 1940s, and how did the British government try to contain the violence?
2. How did the partition of South Asia influence the way the Cold War unfolded in that region?
3. How did the United States try to contain communism in Latin America? Where did they fail?
4. Why was the United States so interested in preventing communism in the former Belgian Congo?

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. This article points out that the United States had to frequently intervene during the Cold War to stop socialist reformers in many places. Why do you think that communist and socialist ideas were so appealing to so many people in the newly independent nations of Asia, Africa, and Latin America?
2. What do you think was the Soviet interest in helping anti-colonial movements in many parts of the world? Why did they decide it was worth intervening so often?

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. Insisting that Indian elites “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 explores decolonization on the scale of a single (if very large and very significant) region: India. This will give you regional-level evidence to evaluate the communities frame narrative and to compare across regions. As a case study, it will prepare you to tackle the Era 7 Problem: What are the virtues and challenges of trying to tell one human history as opposed to (many) human histories?

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 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. How did the Amritsar massacre affect the anti-colonial movement in India?
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?

Evaluating and Corroborating

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

1. 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 the communities frame narrative?
2. Historian Benedict Anderson describes how millions of people have willingly died for the idea of a nation. An idea, he argues, that is 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?

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 5.1.

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.

After World War II, European empires began to crumble. What happened to their colonies? John Green explores how new nations emerged—often with great difficulty—in the aftermath of the end of empire. As it turns out, Cold War politics, weird borders, and ethnic and religious tensions don’t make for easy or peaceful transitions, and in most places, communities struggled to reorganize themselves and to build modern independent nation-states.

In this lesson, you’ve already had a chance to learn about the end of the empire and its aftermath. In previous lessons—including in the previous era—you learned about the emergence of new independent nations. In this video, those things will come together. You’ll look at some case studies of nations emerging in the middle of decolonization and the Cold War. You’ll also learn about how this played out in different regions, which is evidence you can use to make comparisons and tackle the Era 7 Problem: What are the virtues and challenges of trying to tell one human history as opposed to human histories?

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 has the late twentieth century not been an era of vast, formal empires?
2. What were some experiences that many decolonizing states had in common?
3. What was the difference between Gandhi’s and Jinnah’s understandings of what a postcolonial India should look like?
4. What were some of the problems that resulted from the partition after Indian independence?
5. How did Japanese rule over Indonesia differ from Dutch rule?
6. Who did the French fight in Vietnam and what happened after they were defeated?
7. How was Egypt’s situation different from other colonized territories from 1922 through the 1950s?
8. How were the borders between new nation-states decided in this period? What problems did this situation cause?
9. What were some challenges African states faced during decolonization?

Evaluating and Corroborating

1. How can evidence from this video help you evaluate the communities frame narrative?
2. Can we tell a single history about decolonization or nationalism? Why or why not? Using evidence from this video, make a claim in response to the Era 7 Problem: What are the virtues and challenges of trying to tell one human history as opposed to multiple human histories?

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 Era 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?

By researching and investigating different events during the Cold War, you will be able to more fully understand why this conflict was so far-reaching. In addition, you will evaluate how the events of the Cold War led to other conflicts, divisions, and interference in the affairs of other nations. Many of these effects can still be seen in the world today, as certain regions continue to recover from outside influences in their governments.

In this activity, you will look at a timeline that includes major events from the Cold War. In pairs or small groups, you’ll research events from the timeline to decide who was “winning” the Cold War at that time—the US or the USSR. Then you will post your group’s choice to the large class timeline and explain your reasoning.

Get into pairs or small groups and take out the Who Is “Winning” the Cold War? Timeline. Your group is going to be responsible for researching a variety of events on the timeline. Based on what you learn, your group will decide who was “winning” the Cold War at that time. In addition to deciding who was “winning” or pulling ahead at that time, you have to come up with a short rationale explaining your choice (short enough to fit on a sticky note).

Your teacher will assign each sticky note color to a country (for example, blue for the US and pink for the USSR). Once you’ve chosen the “winning” country for each event, write your rationale for that event on that country’s sticky note, and then place it on the larger class timeline. After everyone has posted their sticky notes on the timeline, it should become clear who the winner of the Cold War was—unless there is a tie!

Before getting started, discuss what it might mean to “win” the Cold War. Ultimately, it’s up to you and how you defend your choices, but you should keep in mind the three key features of the war as defined by “The Cold War: An Overview”: “1) the threat of nuclear war, 2) competition over the allegiance (loyalty) of newly independent nations, and 3) the military and economic support of each other’s enemies around the world.”

Once your events are assigned, get started. When everyone is done posting, see if there is a clear winner. Be prepared to give some examples of who you chose and why, and whether it was easy or difficult to decide on a “winner.” Also, consider and discuss with your class whether there is actually ever a “winner” when it comes to war.

Many people think the conflict in Palestine and Israel goes back millennia, but that’s not the case. This complicated conflict has a specific historical origin. It started during this era, when competing nationalisms, broken British promises, and massive migrations collided into a struggle for land, sovereignty, and rights.

Note: This video was created in 2015. It represents one of many possible narratives about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Specifically, it is a narrative that advances the argument that the conflict is not intractable. John Green argues that through exploring multiple perspectives of the past, we may be able to see how it can be resolved. He also argues that because the conflict is mainly one about competing nationalisms, it is more useful to understand its modern history than to search for “who was first” or “who is to blame.” People may have different perspectives on these matters, and you may encounter competing narratives out in the world. Additionally, events after 2015 may shift the meaning of some of the accounts advanced in this video. Nevertheless, this narrative can help you understand how accounts of the past may orient us to the present and help us prepare for the future.

In this lesson, you have learned about decolonization movements that took place in the context of the Cold War. In this video, you will look at the specific case study of Palestine and Israel, which were competing nationalisms that emerged at the end of the Ottoman Empire and during the British Mandatory period. This will provide regional-level evidence you can use to respond to the Era Problem.

Preview—Skimming for Gist

As a reminder, open and skim the transcript, and read the questions before you watch the video.

Key ideas

1. Some people talk about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict as something that started thousands of years ago. What time period does John Green choose to focus on in this video? Why do you think he decided not to focus on a millennia-old religious conflict?
2. Early in the video, John Green chooses to talk about an Arab-Christian man named Wasif Jawhariyyeh. What claim does this evidence support? Why do you think John Green chose to mention this man?
3. At the end of the First World War, the British occupied a territory in the Middle East, which they called “Palestine.” To whom did they promise it? Why was that a problem?
4. Why did both Jews and Arabs want a nation-state in Palestine? What was the 1947 United Nations plan, and why did it fail?
5. In looking back at the history of the conflict, John Green gives both a brief Palestinian perspective, and an Israeli perspective. Why do you think he does this, and is it an effective moment in the video?

Evaluate

1. This video was created in 2015. How might it be different if it were created today?
2. In most narratives about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, two elements are present: a story about who was in this region first (Jews or Arab Palestinians), and a statement about who is to blame for the conflict. John Green includes neither. What does that tell you about his perspective? What do you think of these choices?

You have been examining how recent history continues to impact the current state of the world. It’s likely that you’ve also begun to develop some opinions about certain issues as you become a national and global thinker. This activity asks you to use your knowledge of social studies to express a position on the issue of displaced peoples. By doing so, you will improve your ability to use evidence to support beliefs on important and current issues.

Your teacher will assign you to one of two position groups. One group will argue from a nationalist perspective while the other argues from an internationalist perspective. As a reminder, those with a more nationalist perspective tend to believe in the country before its people, and those with an internationalist perspective often consider people before country.

Consider the following fictional scenario, which is set in the not-so-distant future.

The year is 2050. The country of Nepal has just experienced its largest earthquake in history, causing massive destruction including fires and landslides. Much of the habitable parts of the country are now uninhabitable, displacing close to 25 million people. These people have lost everything: their homes, most of their possessions, and their livelihoods. While the Nepalese government would like nothing more than to help its people, it does not have the infrastructure or funds to combat this ecological and human disaster. Most neighboring countries cannot do much to help Nepal. The neighboring countries of Tibet and Bhutan have also suffered staggering loss from the earthquake. Bangladesh has been facing massive flooding and displacement from climate change and rising sea levels for years. So, how do we help these people?

Your job is to plan a response for how to help these displaced people. Each group is responsible for researching its position and preparing an argument to support its point of view. For this particular debate, you should use the United Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights as part of your research. Keep in mind that this might be a sensitive topic for you or for your classmates. Please make sure that you are thoughtful about the delicate nature of this debate and how this might impact other people in the class.

Questions you should consider in preparing your arguments:

• What is the difference between refugees, migrants, internally displaced people, asylum seekers, returnees, and stateless peoples?
• Historically, what are some of the reasons people have been displaced and how did people respond to the displacement? What were the shorter- and longer-term outcomes for both the displaced peoples and those who sought to help (or ignore) them?
• Should other people be obligated to help displaced peoples if they have been excluded from their own country’s universe of obligation? Does it make a difference if you are thinking about this from a nationalist or internationalist perspective?
• Does the reason for displacement make a difference in terms of what the response should be?

You should work to develop evidence-based claims using relevant data, and you should also create counterclaims as well. If your teacher has you research a piece of the debate in a small group, when your group is done, you should come together to craft your whole team’s initial argument. Also, be sure to nominate one student from each group to represent that particular topic in the debate.

Use the Debate Prep part of the Debate – Human Rights and Asylum Worksheet to help you prepare for how much time you have for each section of the debate. Also, check out the Debate Rubric as you prepare, since this will help you meet all debate criteria. After the debate is finished, you will conduct a self-assessment by filling out the debate rubric based on your own participation and performance. Your teacher will ultimately decide who argued their side more effectively!

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 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. These studies show important differences in how African women undermined colonial rule. Understanding these regional (and gender) differences and how they relate to larger narratives will be key as you grapple with the Era 7 Problem: What are the virtues and challenges of trying to tell one human history as opposed to human histories?

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 pre-colonial roles of women in African 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?

This activity will provide additional evidence to help you respond to the Era Problem: What are the virtues and challenges of trying to tell one human history as opposed to human histories? In this activity, you will look back on what you’ve learned so far in this era by exploring the geography of the First and Second World Wars. You will examine two thematic maps showing the alliances and casualties in each war. Using these maps, you will evaluate change and continuity over time as well as making some arguments about the causes of the Second World War.

This activity begins with an identification opening in which you will identify 10 countries that participated in World War II. Next, you’ll compare two thematic maps showing alliances and casualties in both World War I and World War II, evaluating what political changes and continuities might have been important between the two wars. Finally, you will reflect on their guesses and predictions from the Part 1 activity and write a response to a prompt about the causes of these global conflicts.

Step 1

Individually, identify the countries associated with the numbers on the black-and-white map of the world in 1914 CE and record your answers on the worksheet. You should indicate the name of the country, the alliance it was a part of in World War I, and the alliance it was a part of in World War II.

Step 2

In small groups, examine the thematic maps of the two world wars. you should compare these two maps and provide four examples of change or continuity between the two wars. You might focus on casualties, alliances, or territory lost and gained by the various empires.

Step 3

Now, return to the two thematic maps of the world wars. Review your predictions from the Part 1 mapping activity. Which guesses did you get correct?

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

The long nineteenth century set into motion massive transformations, some of which would help create the conditions leading to World War I. The peace that followed the First World War helped lay the groundwork for the second. Using the maps you encountered in this era as evidence, pick one transformation from the long nineteenth century and one outcome of World War I that helped create this 30-year period of global conflict.