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Colonialism

Driving Question: What motivated colonialism, and what were the goals of colonial powers?

What really drives one country to control another? During the nineteenth century, colonial powers expanded with promises of trade and progress, but their goals often mixed ambition, economic manipulation, and political control.

Learning Objectives

  1. Analyze the causes and consequences of colonialism in different societies around the world.
  2. Use the historical thinking practice of claim testing to identify, assess, and use authority when evaluating and making claims.
  3. Use the historical thinking practice of contextualization to analyze the conditions that led to the Opium Wars.

Vocab Terms:

  • administrator
  • colonialism
  • ideology
  • imperialism
  • plantation
  • profit
  • subject
STEP 1

Opener: Colonialism

STEP 2

Conquest and Control

Imperial powers ruled their colonies through violence and coercion. Discover how that played out across the globe and use evidence to test claims about the realities of colonial rule.

STEP 3

The Opium Wars

The Opium Wars reflected the goals of imperial powers and the resistance they faced. These materials will help you place the conflict in context and examine how economics and empire were deeply connected.

Extension Materials
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Sharpen your sourcing skills and explore these opportunities to practice writing and responding to DBQs.
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Perspectives on Power

Add depth to your understanding of imperialism by seeing how it was viewed differently across time and place. In the process, you'll explore how historical sources reflect bias, perspective, and lived experience.