Cold War and Decolonization
Driving Question: How did people and governments try to reshape the global order after the Second World War?
World War II may have ended, but global struggles over power and freedom continued. In this lesson you’ll step into a world divided by ideology and energized by revolution.
Learning Objectives:
- Use evidence to evaluate how the Cold War and decolonization are intertwined in the history of this period.
- Evaluate what changed and what stayed the same from the Second World War to the Cold War.
Vocab Terms:
Review the OER Project Teaching Sensitive Topics in Social Studies Guide as you work through sensitive subject matter with your students.
As you get ready to learn about the Cold War, consider what you think you know and what you know you don’t know.
The end of World War II left the world at a crossroads. Start exploring how independence movements and global rivalries emerged together, reshaping the balance of power across continents.
Accessibility: Make sure closed captions are always on. Closed captions are offered in English and Spanish for most videos hosted on the OER Project platform. However, if you and your students need captions in other languages, we recommend viewing the video on our YouTube page, where you can select from a variety of languages.
After the Second World War, global empires crumbled and new tensions rose. Learn how independence movements, superpower rivalries, and shifting alliances created a new and often unstable global landscape.
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Guiding Questions
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Guiding Questions
The Cold War and decolonization were massive, complex conflicts In this step, you’ll practice using the frames of communities, networks, and production and distribution to make sense of how they unfolded and connected to each other.
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Guiding Questions
You’ve reached the end of this lesson, comrade! Use the propaganda in this activity to review what you’ve learned.
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Being able to provide clear and supportive writing feedback to a classmate isn’t just helpful to them—it will also help you develop your own understanding of strong writing.